PC Critic Reviews

Slavic mythology, card minigames, and hexagonal turn-based strategic gameplay are just the beginnings to what Thea: The Awakening has to offer. With such a high replay value, it’ll keep you entertained and busy for much more than you would expect.

It is complex, sure, and perhaps that will be off-putting for as many as it will be endearing for, but there’s an original game here - one that ought to appeal to fans of both spectrum of genres.

Turn-based game with elements of Slavic mythology, in which a number of sophisticated features create a complex and addictive experience. Sometimes luck plays too great role and user interface would deserve quite a few improvements. But otherwise Thea: The Awakening is an original, exciting and great game.

A tactical and pretty intelligent roguelike, way different than most games of this kind, and full of bright ideas. Truly a surprising game that fans of challenging (but fair) products will definitely appreciate.

Thea: The Awakening offers an entertaining combination of crafting and card games, but suffers from poor storytelling. [March 2016]

Civilization-like games have long since established that settler can turn into a flourishing town even if you place him in the middle of tundra. Thea adds a healthy dose of survival gameplay to the established formula by making you worry about things that are usually glanced over – like having enough wood for building your settlement in addition to basic workforce. [Issue#205, p.52]

Thea has a very specific, Slavic atmosphere and combines several genres which in the end makes for a really unique strategy game. It's not for everybody and the gameplay is uneven but I hope the developers will explore this area. After some technical and gameplay tweaks Thea could be something big.

With so many interlocking systems, Thea: The Awakening is a bit of a Frankenstein of a game, but kudos to MuHa for bolting together everything so seamlessly and for trying something new, though it might be time for developers to put card game subsystems on ice for a few years.

Ultimately, Thea's genre blend is a success, but basic, bare bones presentation and repetitious combat hold it back. [Jan 2016, p.80]

Thea: The Awakening makes for something of a grim, low-power 4X strategy game that works extremely well with its particularities. Proper planning can only take a God so far as adaptability and luck plays a major role with random events that could very well lay waste to everything. While that's not necessarily always good fun, what it does do remarkably well in building the tense atmosphere that is quite unique for the genre.