I decided to give the Archrebel Tactics demo another go since no ironman nor demo length or difficulty should stop me! And I’m glad I did because my second go at the demo showed me even greater potential when it comes to the tactical aspect. I especially liked the indoor base fighting, particularly the moment when I blasted the behemoth alien with a well-aimed explosive rocket down a dimly lit corridor.
Playing correctly
In my first go, I made the fatal mistake of going north, instead of going eastward and rescuing Bravo squad. The additional soldiers from Bravo squad sure changed things for the better. This time around, I even got used to the free-roaming system that still uses action points for actions, like reloading, opening doors, and such. One complaint I had for this system is that it’s only related to score, which I found questionable because of the slowdown it sets for the pacing of the game.
However, in a tweet, the developer assured me that it rests on more than just that. It’s to give the AI a fighting chance and make sure you use your equipment like the scout drones, instead of relying on something like “initiate” to determine the turn-based order. He also went out to explain that he didn’t like the initiate system for his game, since it limits the turn order for your squad by making heavy units unable to act fast enough. The idea is that he wanted you to be able to move your squad freely during your turn, instead of having an initiate stat, or weight to play any part in this. All fair, as it’s clear heavy thoughts went into the design of this aspect of the game. He could have gotten around it by making the initiative group-based, instead of on an individual level, but all that is under the bridge now.
Another part of Archrebel Tactics I liked is the story scripting, having the men talk and comment on events that happen during play. It’s not dynamic, in the sense that all these moments are scripted. But it adds a lot of personality to your units by not making them come off as sterile and faceless like you are inside some kind of combat simulator. It’s a nice touch that I hope remains for the full game, especially if the maps will be hand-made, instead of following the X-com approach by making the battle maps randomized.
Potential
At the risk of repeating myself, Archrebel Tactics shows great potential already. It’s still early days, but I sincerely hope everything goes well for the dev so he can finish this project because I really want to play the full game! Oh, and on the demo mission itself, I did complete it this time. However, I got a relatively bad score because I didn’t manage to drag the supply crates to the evac ship. Who knew those things were that important? They must contain some truly important secrets. Regardless, I couldn’t carry them, since the droid lifter got smashed to pieces by the behemoth I mentioned earlier. Rest in pieces, quite literally. If you haven’t, download the game from here, and give it a go!
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 