City of the Shroud.

City of the Shroud tactics game experiment starts on August 9

Abyssal Arts announced today that the first chapter of City of the Shroud, a tactics game that tries to buck the genre’s usual tropes — will launch for PC on August 9.

City of the Shroud combines real-time tactics gameplay with fighting game inputs. While most tactical games take influence from classic fantasy tropes, City of Shroud has Middle Eastern influences. The story mode is a single player experience, but the game will have an online player-vs.-player mode.

City of the Shroud is a crowdfunded game. It raised $16,239 on Kickstarter in 2016.

The game will release in four chapters, although you pay for all of them ($20) upfront. So this is not following the episodic model you see in titles like Telltale‘s games, where you pay separately for each episode. A definitive edition of City of the Shroud that includes all four chapters will launch for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2019.

Mike Minotti

Mike Minotti has been with GamesBeat since 2012, starting as an intern. Based near Youngstown, Ohio, he now manages GamesBeat's editorial team. He's also a prolific podcaster, appearing on multiple shows covering the gaming industry.