Three Kingdoms : Alias PC (v0.5.3 Early Access)

A world where officers hide their names and abilities. Can you spot Zhuge Liang?  Convinced he was Guan Yu, you made him governor. …It was Lü Bu. A Three Kingdoms strategy sim where you deduce your officers Personnel, warfare, governance, diplomacy, espionage, duels… Everything you expect from a turn-based Three Kingdoms strategy game. One thing is different — officers use “aliases”. You don’t know your officers’ real names. Stats and loyalty only reveal themselves through investigation. You paid three visits to recruit a genius — it was Xiahou Mao.

The governor you posted on the front line? Meng Da, of all people. Pang Tong might be managing farms in the rear. Do you have the eye to see real talent? A mix between the old SNES romance games and a low-graphics Total War. Has some cool features, but the randomness of the starting area is a downside at Three Kingdoms : Alias. Being able to select a starting province like in the old SNES games would be much better. As it is, the random start often just encourages re-rolling until a preferred province appears. Custom characters would also be a great addition.

It’s something the Total War games never fully implemented despite how often it has been requested. The tutorial is excellent, with constant pop-up reminders explaining what should be done. Three Kingdoms : Alias places great importance on knowing who your subordinates are, with several layers of interviews required to uncover not only their stats but also their true identities. This system works well, but it goes so far as to tie the game’s difficulty to how easy or difficult it is to identify the people working under you.

Subterfuge was certainly an important part of the era, but it feels more heavily emphasized here than in other Three Kingdoms games. There are a few areas that could be improved: The character recruitment system could be fleshed out with deeper interactions and negotiations. Character visuals could be made more dynamic, and stats adjusted to better reflect each character’s historical role. Three Kingdoms : Alias is already on the right track, and continued development could one day see it surpass RTK. An 8/10 rating is well deserved thanks to its clear, easy-to-understand instructions and Vietnamese language support—something very few games offer.