Noara: the Conspiracy is a turn-based tactics game with a real-time twist

From the early X-COM games to indie hit Into the Breach and blockbuster RPGs like Divinity: Original Sin 2, turn-based tactics games have a rich history on PC. There's always just been one fundamental problem with their mechanics: you need to wait your turn.

Yes, while planning and executing your battle stratagems is a thrill, wouldn't it be great if instead of watching yourself get pounded on your opponent's turn, you could actively defend yourself against them?

That's the premise of competitive 2-v-2 tactics game Noara: The Conspiracy. On offensive turns, you have 75 seconds in which to move your colourful crew of units around the map, attack your enemy, and ultimately destroy their base. But here's the twist: when defending, you can disrupt your enemy's turn-based moves in real-time. 

For instance, if your enemy is moving to attack your monstrous Kapal unit, you can burrow into the ground the moment it's about to be hit to evade the blow (then lay in wait to ambush your foes). Sina, a food-fanatical creature riding a whale, accrues indigestion throughout a fight, and can 'Barf' (yep, throw up) half-digested fish in self-defence to stun enemies and sabotage their turn.

Things get pretty wild out there. The eclectic heroes, base attack-and-defence and high-intensity pace build on the foundations of MOBAs, albeit with a turn-based twist (hence the devs coining it the first ever MOCA - Multiplayer Online Chess Arena). 

Now, no offence to the sages who invented chess - we probably wouldn't have videogames without them - but the ancient game doesn't quite do justice to the many layers at play here. Beyond the combat itself, you equip your heroes with special inventory items, collect cards to bolster their abilities, upgrade your base's defences, and build silos around the map to generate Khinas - the in-game currency used to buy units and upgrades. 

Whether you're attacking or defending, the clock is always ticking, and allies and enemies are moving around the map. So even as you're devising strategies to outsmart your enemy, you need to stay alert to what's happening in real-time around you.

The heroes in the game are an eclectic bunch; there's the granny-like Mogsy, who uses needles to slow her enemies down, Mana the anthropomorphic octopus who hurls ink at his foes, and the storm-caller Sawangi, to name a few. Each hero belongs to a 'caste' - a kind of class system whereby the more heroes you have from one caste, the more powerful they become through synergies.

This isn't just some random assortment of eccentric characters either. Each hero has their own place within the deep lore of the game, which is based on a book that studio founder Jéremy Filali spent 15 years writing. Your journey with Noara doesn't have to be confined to the battlefield, but can expand to the vast world conceived by Filali and Atypique Studio.

So that more players may experience the tactical depths of Noara, the game has gone free to play, welcoming a new wave of players who will make it easier than ever to pair up and hit the battlefield. Noara has just received its 2.0 'New Era' update, making the game more fine-tuned than ever, and with endless tactical possibilities and 30 characters to experiment with, it's the perfect time to experience this unique hybrid of a game.

Noara: The Conspiracy is available now—for free—on Steam Early Access.