RPG · March 24, 2017

Battle Brothers (2017)

trophy101 achievementsextension9 DLClocal_offer-70% current discountgroup1M–10M ownerstrending_up1.1k peak concurrentrecommend23.3k recommendations
Battle Brothers is a turn based tactical RPG which has you leading a mercenary company in a gritty, low-power, medieval fantasy world. You decide where to go, whom to hire or to fight, what contracts to take and how to train and equip your men in a procedurally generated open world campaign. Do you have what it takes to lead them through bloody battles and to victory? The game consists of a strategic worldmap and a tactical combat layer. On the worldmap you can freely travel in order to take contracts that earn you good coin, find places worth looting, enemies worth pursuing or towns to resupply and hire men at. This is also where you manage, level up and equip your Battle Brothers. Once you engage a hostile party the game will switch to a tactical map where the actual fighting takes place as detailed turn based combat. Manage a medieval mercenary company in a procedurally generated open world. Fight complex turn-based tactical battles with historical equipment and brutal injuries. Permadeath. All characters that die in combat will stay dead – unless they return as the undead. All characters come with their own background stories and traits. Want a stuttering ratcatcher, a greedy witch hunter or a drunkard disowned noble? Character development without a restrictive class-system. Each character gains experience through combat, can level up and acquire powerful perks. Equipment that matters. Different weapons grant unique skills – split shields with axes, stun enemies with maces, form a spearwall with spears or crush armor with a warhammer. Diverse enemy roster. All enemies have unique equipment, skills and AI behavior. A dynamic event system with atmospheric encounters and tough decisions outside of combat. Three late game crises – a war between noble houses, a greenskin invasion and an undead scourge – add a looming threat. Two full hours of orchestral soundtrack. 70 Steam Achievements and Steam Trading Cards. Overhype Studios is an independent game developer studio from Hamburg, Germany. We are devoted to making great games that we want to play ourselves. With Battle Brothers we strive to reflect the creativity, complexity and originality from the old days when game developers were passionate gamers, not corporate businessmen. While doing this we took a lot of inspiration from some of the best games out there: The original X-Com, Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat and Jagged Alliance.

Position in RPG

MetricThis titleGenre position
Review volume24.3k Steam reviewsTop 15% in RPG
Positive rating88% positiveGenre average: 83% — this title sits in top 44%
Metacritic80/100Genre average 78 — top 53% of RPG titles
Concurrent peak1.1k playersTop 10% in RPG by live player count
Engagement hours101 h averageTop 4% for session depth among RPG

Community Tag Signals

Tag weights reflect how many Steam users voted each descriptor — larger pills = stronger consensus.

  • Strategy · 710
  • RPG · 693
  • Medieval · 682
  • Open World · 678
  • Turn-Based Tactics · 671
  • Turn-Based Strategy · 668
  • Character Customization · 647
  • War · 647
  • Sandbox · 647
  • Tactical · 635
  • Simulation · 629
  • Action · 614
  • Tactical RPG · 612
  • Turn-Based Combat · 605
  • Replay Value · 603

Peer RPG titles

Comparable titles in the same genre and review-volume band — ranked by Steam positive percentage.

RPG releases from 2017

14 RPG titles launched in 2017 — top 6 by review volume.

Reception Metrics

Steam community

88%Very Positive · 24.3k reviews

21.4k positive · 2.9k negative

Metacritic

80/100 critic aggregate

Open Metacritic page

Metacritic user score

7.9/10

Curator recommendations

23.3k

Peak concurrent players

1.1k

Press Quotes

“Now we can add Battle Brothers to the list of Good Mercenary Games.” Rock, Paper, Shotgun “Combat in Battle Brothers is what you get when Game of Thrones has a one-night stand with X-COM: turn-based, hexagonal, and everything looks noble until someone sews a dog’s head onto a corpse.” PC Gamer

Engagement Profile

All-time avg

101h

extensive (100+ hours)

Median

35h

Typical completion time

2-week avg

25h

Current engagement

Achievements

101

Steam unlocks available

Features & Capabilities

Community

  • Steam Achievements
  • Steam Trading Cards
  • Steam Cloud
  • Remote Play on Tablet

Other

  • Single-player
  • Family Sharing

Release & Availability

Release dateMar 24, 2017
DeveloperOverhype Studios
PublisherHooded Horse, Overhype Studios
Base price$8.99 -70%
DLC / Add-ons9 released
PlatformsWindows
Estimated owners1M–10M
External linksOfficial site · Metacritic page · Support · [email protected]

Editions & Packages

  • Buy Battle Brothers