We’re huge fans of the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game and its universe so when I was asked if I wanted to give Sentinels of Freedom a shot on Steam I jumped at the chance. I was rewarded with a deep strategy game that gave me another chance to control some of my favorite Sentinels characters as well as create my own hero persona.
The first step in the game after a quick tutorial mission is to create your own hero. This was my favorite part of the game by far. The creation system gives you a wide range of fun cosmetic options to choose from; all of which fit into the same aesthetic as the rest of the world. The system really shines when you get to choose your character’s powers. There are more than ten different power themes to choose from from gadgets and support to power and blaster. Each of them allows you to effect the battlefield differently. My personal favorite theme Minions. I felt like it gave me a lot of awesome options in battles and almost let me take additional turns compared to my opponents.
The narrative in Sentinels isn’t going to set anyone’s world on fire, but it was a fun paint-by-numbers super hero story that let me play along with some of my favorite characters from the card game. One of the highlights was the way all of the story was delivered. Each scene was revealed using animation within comic book frames. When you combine that with the bright colors and dark outlines for the character models, this really felt like a comic book leaping off the page.
My only real complaint with the game is based on difficulty. I found that there were occasional difficulty spikes (especially in the opening missions) that were disheartening for someone who didn’t know the ins and outs of the game yet. This obviously wasn’t a deal breaker. I still enjoyed myself. But, I would have liked a more even experience out of the gate.
Can a kid play this game?
Sentinels of Freedom is a turned based strategy game. There are a LOT of tactical decisions that need to be made on each turn. You aren’t timed, so there is plenty of time to think each step through, but it can be hard to see everything coming unless you have the patience to really look at it. (This is something I find a lot of kids lack.)
There is a lot of time spent reading menus and ability descriptions so this definitely requires pretty strong reading skills. Heck, I even missed a key component to an ability and was wondering what I did wrong until after a few times using the it.
Should a kid play this game?
The ESRb has rated Sentinels of Freedom E 10+ and lists Fantasy Violence as the only content descriptor. The ESRB website doesn’t have a summary listed.
I didn’t see anything during my time with the game that leads me to believe the ESRB has it wrong here. From a content perspective this is a comic-book style superhero story. The villains do villainous things and the heroes battle them. This will be ok for kids who are familiar with comic book tropes and Marvel movies.
Conclusion
I loved Sentinels of Freedom and I feel comfortable recommending it to anyone that enjoys strategy games. There is plenty of depth and challenge for even the most battle hardened tactics veterans here and the super hero theme helps to make it approachable for newer players as well. (And when you’re done with the video game… go give the card game a shot too. Its divine!)
Sentinels of Freedom is available on Steam right now, but will be coming to other platforms in the near future.
FCC Disclosure: A code was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.