You know, there are games I played where it's like "oh this was fun, but I'm kind of done", and then others being "I wish there was more of this", this falls in the "there's no way this gets better, oh wait it actually does" category. It's just too good to ignore this point.
A tactics game that involves wizards with modern military gear interspliced with magic abilities, and breach & clear tactical gameplay. Something lore savvy as well that only though runs out of steam so soon, has set a great foundation for that, and gameplay itself with an engaging loop for experimentation. It's easily distinguishable from other tactics game before it.
My only gripe is that it doesn't really get going till the later half of the game, where more characters are introduced. I mean, it's not as long as I'd want it to be, so maybe give the good stuff much early on. I digress, another great title I'll indelibly remember in times to come.
What do you do in an operation, where at one point you'll face a situation leading to a zero-sum outcome? I guess you grief, deal with your aging, not seeking purpose in the world for being a wizard marine op, and then find out the person you lost is now working for the bad guys.
Huh, well there's that and some P.I. lady who is pretty nosey on people's business and has a bad way of keeping favors with her contacts. Nobody likes her, it seems, maybe the lack of bedside manners. Anyway, both the old man and this lady are now partnering up to find out why his partner is in cahoots with criminals, while becoming fugitives due to some weird misunderstanding.
No wait, it does get better. These guys are like the best buddy cop type in a tactics title about wizards, guns, modern politics, drugs, and whatever fits the make-believe scenario to make the premise work. Taking it too seriously will just ruin the fun, and I'm saying this, because you'll start to actually like the conversations. Almost as if Shane Black wrote them, thankfully not the story. That's right, I'm still pissed about the Predators movie, SHANE!
The thing I like about games that are unique as this is how they're going balls to the walls with ideas, and making most stick. The dialogues are clever and witty, characters do have interesting backstories, and even the story itself brings intrigue. But what is all that to a tactics game?
The writing is also used to articulately delineate about our hero's abilities, how wizard powers work, and all. Many interesting concepts going into it too, and why it factors in the fun aspect of the gameplay. The longer game is played, the more of them becomes available to use, being unique to the character's specific identity, and how they deploy them in combat.
There's no real-time gameplay, yet it has parts that feel like XCOM. Like enemies coming out of the doors, they could move just about anywhere. But yeah, everything else is controllable in terms of favorable to properly dispatch enemies and clearing out level stages, several per mission.
Zan has a foresee ability to see the cause and effect of what'll happen after the turn goes to enemy. Each action deployed is carefully planned ahead, but if it comes out fumbled, I can rewind it back to zero moves state. But this is only applicable on turn, so after the next one, what follows before is permanently set. Certain action and abilities consume action points and mana.
Also, that traffic warlock who stopped Kellen? Yeah, there was a bossfight with him, avoiding his spectral car attacks, while using Kellen's kinetic only abilities to just nudge him next to the window before shooting him out of it. Yeah, that's sort of a thing you can also do, you'll love windows. It's not easy, either, as the direction they get pushed to is also relative to how I position my guys.
But if there's a one grievance I have, it's to do with the game's pacing. Also, those side objectives that force me to pull perfect tactical plays have totally wasted my time. Newer abilities took a bit longer to come around, right before a third party member was added. That's when things got really fun.
Right, so that explains the basic stuff, there's obviously more. Through the immersed dialogues, you go through uncovering the giant conspiracy revolving Mana smuggling. Highly potentially lethal and powerful stuff that, if not used well, can also sort of kill the user. Worse are unstable results.
I know stuff is very make-believe, but these guys pull off Shadowrun level of convincing lore writing. It's also too bad this game doesn't seem that long, and really isn't on the level of triple-A games to pull off breadth of content. Probably saving stuff up for a sequel, I hope to god there's a sequel. It's also very linear, maybe I get to choose my missions in the later game, but no, it's super linear.
After every mission, you earn perks, upgrading your available abilities, trust me, you get good options here. Stuff worth very much experimenting on, even. Missions will get tougher as more kinds of enemies pop-up, because there are missions taking me to different parts of the world map. Automatic turrets that can be disabled or programmed against opposition, enemies with tank shields, rifle men killing you if you cross the watch path, etc.
And you know I like my tactics game when they really start to bring the cool stuff. Remember windows? Yeah, Kellen does, she remembered that she has a broom, and can also jump across other windows and even ambush enemies. Hell, useful for clearing the area faster.
I did say this is a breach & clear game, you have to shut doors before enemy reinforcement comes. Finishing it in fewer turns is a dopamine filling rewarding, unfortunately not much when it comes to the actual game. Which is a miss if you think about it. Nonetheless, got me to put so much of my time into experimenting as many times as I wanted to, especially thanks to the rewind feature.
It's a really fun game, clearly made by guys who know their thing, plus they're smart enough to do a lot more around it. If it got a bigger budget, this would be the talk of the town superfast.
Plus the price it is selling, worth it. Why it isn't a Gamepass title? I don't really know. Microsoft has been dropping the ball for a while now. Small grid skirmishes with plenty to do. No worries, this game will let you have 4 characters to play per mission. I managed to only get around to 3 so far. Especially Dessa, oh you'll love her, she can revive, poison enemies, and open dimensional portals.
