My newest tactical RPG obsession is a grimdark tale of sparking revolution and kicking dudes off moving vehicles

Published: July 24, 2026

Prelude Dark Pain opens with blacksmith Soren and his son Tizon facing a desperate last stand against the oppressive regime spreading across its land of Statera. His wife has been taken captive, accused of witchcraft. His youngest daughter has been sent fleeing through the forest, alone and afraid. There's trauma and hurt here - but the moment Prelude Dark Pain enshrines itself in my heart isn't with its relentless dark fantasy setup. Instead, it's during the getaway, as old friends crash the party and we flee atop a giant armored caravan, bashing any pursuers clean off the rooftop and down into the dust below. Now you're speaking my language.

Over the years, I've been a big sucker for grid-based strategy games. Into the Breach, with its tight, puzzle-like encounters. Tactical Breach Wizards, with its gleeful penchant for booting hostiles through windows. Most recently, the ludicrous possibility space offered by the myriad combinations of Mewgenics. Having dug deep into the opening act of Prelude Dark Pain, it's ticking all those boxes, wrapped up in a beautiful dark fantasy art style and a revolutionary narrative that sets you up to overthrow the tyrannical Order of the Ashen Crusade.

I had already dipped into the Prelude Dark Pain demo, so the opening hours were familiar to me, yet two big things stood out. The first is that Quickfire Games has clearly been working on polish: the interface both looks good and delivers the important information up-front, and the awkward clunkiness I previously encountered in some interactions is gone. The other is that, even going back through the same story beats I'd already seen, every encounter played out slightly differently, reinforcing the developer's promise of each battle feeling unique.

The campaign takes our band of adventurers across a classic-style overworld map, bumping into NPCs, stopping by towns, and darting between patrolling enemies. Getting too close to one - or walking into a set piece encounter - brings you to the battle screen, which is where Prelude Dark Pain shines brightest. Its particular brand of turn-based RPG combat integrates directional attacks and flanking, repositioning effects, height advantage bonuses, and more. Everything's built around 'battle points,' which each character can spend on as many skills as they can afford per turn, alongside movement and one standard attack. You can also spend a point to 'defend,' protecting you more completely.

While Soren is the centerpiece of our story, his kit is relatively straightforward and rogue-like: use skills to inflict bleed upon his enemies, then deliver attacks buffed up by a passive boost against bleeding targets. Tizon brings in some basic team healing and deployable turrets, but I choose instead to invest heavily into his damage-dealing capabilities, and he quickly becomes my hardest hitter. Beefcake Tammais is my tank, taunting opponents to protect the group and growing stronger as he takes hits, and the owl-masked Maya unleashes devastating knockbacks and blinds foes with the help of her bird companion.

The full early access release includes a total of nine heroes that join your group, and while I don't want to spoil them all up front, they get into even more interesting tactical options. Gala places down explosive barrels that she's immune to, while Sade drops a giant golden cross onto the battlefield that lets her lock down a large area. I didn't get to unlock everything, but you'll eventually have a total of four active skills, two passives, and additional 'virtues' across the skill tree, and as I noted with Tizon, you can choose to push characters in several different directions, delivering pretty immediately notable results.

The game's stat system lets you level six overarching attributes that each scatter their benefits across multiple parts of your kit. There's some overlap here, meaning there are different options for how you spec into damage dealing, for example. There's also gear crafting and upgrading, although in its early form this is pretty basic - grab some random materials as you fight and explore, and then turn these into a wide range of clothes and accessories that benefit a couple of your stats. It's a nice cherry on top, but I'm hoping this system expands as Quickfire continues to build on what's already here.

Narratively, the world is well-established, but it's tough to make too much of a judgment call here because we're still in the opening act. I'll give Quickfire props for how efficiently it establishes relationships and prior history between characters, often delivering a crystal clear picture of how two people feel about each other with only two or three sharp lines back and forth.

The conflict itself is familiar, but the strife is tearing into the very fabric of reality - causing nightmarish invading demons to wade into the realm, and as things quickly start to escalate, you'll have to rethink your priorities. There's even the promise of some real, meaningful choice; on occasion, a battle will ask you to decide if a fallen foe should live or die, and Quickfire teases that later narrative beats - and even some of its recruitable heroes - might potentially be missed based on the path you take. That's agonizing, but also the exact kind of compelling that makes the adventure yours.

Prelude Dark Pain launches in early access on Monday July 27, 2026. You can wishlist it now if you want a reminder when it arrives, or want to start following its journey. This first act is a great proof of concept, and while the developer says to expect at least a year for the remaining acts and heroes to be integrated, it's one I'll certainly be following closely.

Quickfire Games has come a long way since smashing its original Kickstarter goal for Prelude Dark Pain in just 12 hours, back in 2025. What's here will probably keep you busy for a dozen hours - perhaps longer if you particularly take to just battling for fun - so use that to decide whether you want to jump in on day one. The studio also adds that it plans to "gradually raise the price" as new updates roll out, however, so keep that in mind too. If you're on the hunt for some grimdark tactics, look no further.