Shadowrun and Battletech studio Harebrained Schemes have "parted ways" with Paradox Interactive - or what's left of the company have, at least. Paradox have announced that they're cutting Harebrained loose to pursue publishing opportunities elsewhere following dismal sales of the studio's latest release, swaggering 1930s-set Indiana XCOMalike The Lamplighters League. Paradox will keep ownership of The Lamplighters League and other games developed by Harebrained, though the Crusader Kings publisher have no plans for a project or sequel in the same genre.
The Lamplighters League Review
28.09.2023 - 13:31 / ign.com
Set in a pulp adventure 1932 where secret societies seek to use magic to reshape the world, The Lamplighters League combines a strategic campaign layer with real-time stealth and tactical combat to deliver a twist on the tactics genre that's fun, but doesn't do anything too radically new. It took a bit to grow on me, with a really slow start to get through, but once it gets up to speed this sometimes absurd, always entertaining pulp story is a blast that plays through to a memorable finale.
The Lamplighters League will immediately hit home with people who love the kind of pulp adventure exemplified by The Mummy or Indiana Jones. The three enemy houses of the Banished Court, all of whom want to remake the world in their own image, perfectly encapsulate the villain archetypes you'd want from the setting: House Nicastro is your classic cult of squid-worshippers devoted to bringing back their dead god, House Strum is a noble lineage of tyrannical conquerors pillaging ancient Egyptian magic to be immortal and control fiery mummies, and House Marteau is headed by an upstart American industrialist – complete with period-perfect pencil mustache – whose wonderful new contribution to capitalism is enslaving your ghost when you die working the assembly line. Now that's disruption!
Up against this trio of baddies is a crew of mercenaries and ne'er-do-wells hired by the literal last member of the ancient Lamplighters League – occult good guys who got wiped out in conflicts in and around World War 1. In short: The heroes are dead, so now it's up to the morally gray and the washed-up scum to save the day. The tone, the characters, and the villains all really nail the appeal of the genre, as does composer Jon Everist's characteristically superb soundtrack. It's the kind of world where sometimes, to save reality, you’ve just gotta punch a ghost to death.
The one exception is that the art style just didn't entirely stick for me. The overstated, too-clean, almost plastic smoothness of the main characters really just stands out even amid the somewhat more grounded and dirty environments they move around in. They look a bit too much like living action figures to gel with the dramatic action and gritty conflict they're mixed up in – to the point where at first I really struggled to even enjoy the voice acting, which despite a few rough spots does have highlights from even the characters I initially disliked. I'll also call attention to Darin de Paul as the voice of Lamplighter leader Locke (you might know him as Star Wars: The Old Republic's Valkorion or Overwatch's Reinhardt), who as usual puts in a memorable performance of which I have zero criticism.
Your campaign is made up of single missions. Those are stuff you execute
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