Natural Doctrine Review

Natural Doctrine is a game that appeared out of nowhere on the PlayStation network. It is a game that is of a strange origin and may surprise with its strange take on gameplay. It reminds me of playing Hogs of War on the PlayStation One with its take on strategy, turn based, gameplay.

It puts you in control of a small squad of characters and you must use strategy, skill and luck to defeat your enemies. The characters are all very fantasy based. Goblins, warriors and golems amongst other creatures are in the game. The story is fairly shallow yet quite interesting too for this type of game.

The game also brings card play into its online mode and the cards you use will appear on screen as controllable NPCs. The online mode works well and lag free, considering it looks like a budget title. That’s right the visuals are extremely basic, they look like they could have been rendered easily on a PlayStation 2. This may be off putting for some yet I found it quite nostalgic. Natural Doctrine reminded me of the good old days when gameplay was key to the overall experience.

Stages play out by listening to well voiced characters that tell a snippet of a story, your objective is to then to clear the stage of enemies and reach a chest. Movement is then restricted to an almost checkers like grid in where your characters can only move between squares. Movement within these squares is freeform and some characters vary on the amount of squares they may move through in a single move.

This works really well and certainly adds a unique style of gameplay. The fun is in planning where you will move and in what turn. You could move your characters into the square adjacent to the enemy or you could end your turn keeping your characters where they are. The choice is up to you, but each move must be thought about in order to overcome your opponent.

The attacks look cool and although it plays out scripted, it is still satisfying you see your choice of character slashing the enemy with his sword.

Link turns may also be used strategically in order to get the most attacks per turn. If you align characters correctly, you can maximize the damage dealt. If you use a character’s skill to your advantage as well, you can buff your team up to make them almost undefeatable if you get enough turns before your opponent reaches you.

Natural Doctrine offers the best experience available on PlayStation 4 when it comes to a strategy RPG. It’s a solid title with a clear ambition to be a good game. Sadly, it isn’t great though due to poor visuals and a generic story that could have had more depth. It looks good on Vita, bad on PlayStation 4 yet remains strong in all other areas. It also allows you to have save games travel with you, so that you can continue from where you left off on the go if you wish.

I had a fun time with Natural Doctrine, online was flawless and I found it helped me take my first step into a genre that I had almost certainly ignored up until now!