It appears another contender is emerging from the primordial soup of turn-based tactical games, and frankly, I'm a bit knackered just reading about it. The developers of "Burned Horizons" put out information that is less like a game description and more like a harrowing account of a modern-day military expedition. Set in the heady, low-poly days of the early 2000s, this is a game where, according to them, nothing resets. So, if your squad leader, a chap named "Bazza" from down the pub, loses a leg to a landmine, it's not simply a reload of an old save. Oh no. That's a permanent souvenir, a little something to remember the holiday by. And the game seems to be banking on this sort of grim permanence to set it apart.

The developers wax lyrical about "SCARS" and "Flashpoints", a rather dramatic naming convention for what are essentially the psychological and physical baggage your soldiers accumulate. It's not enough that they might get shot; now they must carry the emotional weight of it all. Apparently, a single, traumatic event – like watching your entire squad get turned into a fine red mist – can instantly leave a mark. Or, it might be a slow burn, a gradual erosion of their sanity as they stack up minor incidents. These little psychological trinkets can then, rather alarmingly, "combine, twisting into new effects." One can only imagine the sort of delightful chaos this will unleash. Perhaps a soldier who's seen too much might decide that all enemies are now, in fact, brightly coloured unicorns and simply refuse to engage.

This whole setup sounds faintly reminiscent of a certain 90s classic that involved hiring mercenaries of questionable moral fibre to liberate a fictional country from a rather unpleasant despot. The ghosts of "Jagged Alliance" and its spiritual successors seem to hover over "Burned Horizons", particularly in the concept of managing multiple teams. But where "Jagged Alliance" had you gallivanting across a small island, "Burned Horizons" is promising to plonk you down in a "Regional Deployment Command" (RDC) – a rather grand name for a whopping great theatre of war that spans roughly a million square kilometres. We're not talking about a couple of villages and a mine here; this is the entire neighbourhood, and then some.

The first of these RDCs, RDC-TRIDENT (2002), is set in Ukraine. A rather topical, if grim, choice. The theatre is said to encompass not just the entire country but also spill over into neighbouring Belarus, Russia, and even the Black Sea. So, when your squad of battle-hardened veterans from Essex takes a wrong turn and ends up in Poland, you'll know exactly why. These are "living battlefields," where a single botched mission can have cascading effects, shifting front lines and causing general pandemonium. It's a grand, logistical nightmare, a bit like trying to organise a stag do in Krakow with everyone using different apps to communicate.

The combat itself, meanwhile, seems to be a familiar affair, though with a few wrinkles. It's a turn-based system with action points, suppression, and overwatch, which is all par for the course. But here's the kicker: your operators" stress and those SCARS can influence their performance. So, a soldier with a bad case of the nerves might have a shaky trigger finger, while another might be as cool as a cucumber and more accurate for it. This adds an extra layer of psychological drama to the proceedings, forcing you to not only consider the tactical situation but also whether your team is about to have a collective breakdown.

The visuals, which allow you to switch between top-down, isometric, and third-person perspectives, suggest a degree of freedom and cinematic flair that will likely appeal to those who've grown tired of the static camera angles of their forefathers. It’s a good touch, allowing you to get up close and personal with the ensuing chaos, whether it's the satisfying pop of a suppressed rifle or the less satisfying sight of your best sniper getting a nasty case of lead poisoning.

So, in summary, "Burned Horizons" seems to be taking the core tenets of classic tactical games and injecting them with a potent dose of psychological realism and geographic scale. It's a game that promises to make you care, not just about your mission's success, but about the long-term well-being of your digital squaddies. It’s not just about winning the battle; it's about surviving the war, with all the scars that entails.

And what a jolly good time it promises to be. Scheduled for a Q4 2026 release on Steam for Windows PCs, it seems we have a good long wait to get our hands on this potential masterpiece. Time enough to clear your social calendar and get your affairs in order. Because if this game lives up to its promises, you won't be seeing daylight for an exceptionally long time. And your chaps, well, they might just come back with a few more than just a souvenir keyring.