A simple man, lacking in knowledge, but quick of wit. He is flung into the future, where everything is different. Now, he has to make a name for himself, carve his own path in life. He decides to play a game, the biggest one in the world. A strategy game, focused on tactics, used to select the top managers of the largest international corporation. Now, he has to prove his mettle and earn a place for himself in the future...
Watch as he enters the competition, chooses his class, creates an army, and shows everyone in this new, future world the spirit of a player from the 2010s. Will he be the champion in the end?
My Opinion: 243 pages, $3.00, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy of the novel for review, I purchased a copy when it became available.
This is a translation of a popular Russian LitRPG novel, that incorporates real time strategy (RTS) elements, competitive play, as well as more traditional RPG elements like levels, classes, HP, and Mana. According to the translator, the story is also considered rather humorous in Russia. Some of that may be lost in translation but there are definitely some good humorous moments.
The story revolves around a massive full immersion competitive RTS game where success means getting a good paying job in this future society. Even doing moderately well means doubling your current salary. Of course the front runners are the rich and power aristocrats who have trained their whole lives for tournaments like this. Unfortunately, they’ve never met someone like our main character (MC), who is willing to try the most unconventional of tactics to get an edge. The story cycles around the MC and his unusual and often lucky strategies. Then tells the same events from his defeated opponents POV, who often attribute their defeat to the MCs genius and not just him taking advantage of lucky situations. The story cycles through this, with each battle getting progressively bigger and more epic. Eventually becoming something requiring multiple alliances, legions of powerful troops, and complex tactics from both sides. Even though the story does cycle through the same setups, it’s not ever boring. There are always new powers, new minions, upgrades, new tactics, new allies or enemies, and of course the fights increase in their epicness.
Game mechanic wise, this does a good job of bringing RTS mechanics to life without the tedious resource gathering. The MC initially has to choose his class option and starting strategy and since he chooses an unconventional path, new options open up to him that give him an edge. He gets unique units that he can upgrade, his stat choices affect his place in battle, eventually there are even kingdom building elements to the game. There are still the expected RPG elements too: Levels, HP, Mana, Armor, Damage notifications, Classes, special skills and abilities, etc. Though at higher levels the MCs personal level growth is not the main focuses of the story since he has an entire army to manage and use in battle.
The action is a little light in the beginning as the story gets setup, but quickly becomes pretty epic. The switching POVs are initially a little confusing but once you recognize them, it’s a neat way to show things in the battle that the MC didn’t personally see. Plus I think it’s a running gag that his enemies think he’s a genius.
Overall, this is a really good story with some very nice large scale action that just draws you in and makes you stay up late to see how it plays out.
Score: 7.7 out of 10