GOG pushed this one in my face enough that I figured I'd give it a whirl. I was looking for something different and picked it up on sale.
The regular retail is $15. This indie title wants to be FTL crossed with XCOM. If it had come out before XCOM, it would have set a gold standard for turn-based tactics ... which XCOM would have quickly surpassed. Unfortunately, this title comes out in a field full of great turn-based tactical games and dares to be mediocre while hoping against hope that the FTL elements will keep people coming back.
The "Story" is that humanity is on the brink of extinction, and the last surviving humans have to find some sort of technology to stay alive. The only cut-scene I saw included Mechs and an Android, but all I've faced in 9 hours of play is an assortment of Scavengers and Raiders that all look alike.
What it does right:
- Very small footprint - 100MB download.
- Follow system to let you designate a lead soldier the others follow.
- Following soldiers do a good job of positioning and collecting loot.
- Difficulty ramps up as you move on in areas.
- It's got some "Rogue-Lite" in there as the items you collect stay with you play to play.
- Every area and map is randomly generated.
- Cover system with standing objects being destructible.
- Multiple classes, unlocks, and item variety. Each has a good place, though Heavies are pretty OP as they can nuke cover and hit AoE.
- The game is extremely repetitive. The combination of pixel graphics and a very limited palette means every randomly generated mission looks pretty much like every other mission. All of the floors even include "out" visuals so they can be used to link any room on any side, even when they don't use it. After a few hours of play, I just didn't want to anymore.
- Difficulty ramps up pretty hard. I'm a veteran of XCOM and other turn-based games, and the "Classic" difficulty setting is like playing XCOM on Ironman Commander, only without the polish of XCOM, and the fun of having to restart from the beginning anytime a mission goes sideways. When I "graduated" from Map 1 to Map 2, everything either did twice as much damage or came in twice the numbers. I never got out of Map 2 on Classic. "Casual" seems to halve the growth rate, so you get Map 1 and Map 2 being easy, then Map 3 kicks you in the teeth. The big difference is that on Casual you can restart a mission, which generates it randomly again, and you can try it over. This means you have infinite attempts at playing randomly generated maps with the same loot and enemy count.
GOG has it rated at 3.5 out of 5, and I'd give it 3/5 - or maybe 4 out of 8 tentacles. Technically, it checks the boxes. As a consumer, I have a lot of other (better) choices. I hate kicking indie titles like that, but it is what it is.
Maybe there's something I'm missing, as when I check reviews on YouTube, it seems generally favorable - like the one below:
