Hmm, I missed this. I'm here because the Pocket Tactics heads-up and stayed (and bought) due to Tuzzo's comments about difficulty and fickle iOS gamers. Sound right up my alley, I LIKE difficulty.
Just the first impressions so far ... Not great initially .. Why are my graphics settings set to Low on an iPad Pro? The text looks badly aligned on some buttons, fonts inconsistent, Help in the options screen missing descriptive text, why does it have an "exit/close" button?, why when you switch to another app out does it always come back with the options screen? But wait, this isn't a AAA developer, chill out, what is the gameplay, the meat, like? Go into first space battle ... get stomped, hate the controls, realise I haven't enabled weapons, noob confirmed. So I start my first serious run and some of the mechanics for obtaining upgrades for ship and crew aren't obvious but once I realise I can equip them all gets better. I can hire extra help at points along the run, a repair ship, drones, all can be upgraded I'm finding the ground combat (XCOM-Lite) better than the space but switching between the two is fun in the same game. I can see why it isn't for everyone. If you want a quick blast then it's not for you. But if you want to progress down a path where every step is a balance between risk and reward it's fun. It feels a bit like Out There crossed with some light combat action. Choose your own adventure sort of stuff. This is just my first few hours, no idea about whether there are any persistent perks when you die (I suspect not) but I'm warming to it. Overall it's a thumbs up, I'll get my money's worth out of this no problem.
I think you can turn the graphics up in the options. But yeah, it took me a minute to get really acquainted with the game, but I got really interested in the setting and collecting ships got a little more interesting after the update.
Yes, I notice the graphics were set low as I cruised through the options. You're right, it opens up a bit once you start equipping the ships/people with stuff and researching the perks. Having played a bit more I'm still not keen on the space combat and the ground combat is a bit too dumbed down for longevity. I guess I've been spoiled by XCom and the like. It's not a bad game by any means just not outstanding.
learned about this game from some comment in the RPG Reload article. is the game good enough that you'll see through the end? because there's a comment above that the gameplay is dumbdown versions of FTL/xcom. asking since I've had many games that I eventually got bored midway.
I just bought this game today and I'm really digging into it. Sure ground combat is a bit dumbed down when compared to XCOM, but lately I tend to play games which don't require excessive thinking, and this one is ideal: not too complex, but not simple as tap tap tap either. This turn based ground combat reminds me part XCOM part Breach&Clear, where if I'm not wrong you have to plan your moves according to what you think the enemy is going to do, since it's turn based, but IA and player soldiers perform their moves at the same time. I don't know if I'll make the right decisions or not, but I'm surely enjoying the run. I was wondering how to heal my crew when suddenly I saw a space station and thought "they must be cured there for sure", and I was right
Great value for the price, needs polish. Still supported? Posting my first impressions, since I just picked this up yesterday. Firstly, does anyone know if the dev is still active? App hasnt been updated in a year, hoping it hasnt been abandoned. First the good!: Graphics are nice, a little rough but decent for an indie 2$ game. Squad combat is fun, I love the simultaneous move mechanic! Really feels good when you predict everything correctly and rout your opponent. Looking forward to delving deeper into the mechanics. Ive already played and failed two 40 minute runs, so I know there are HOURS of gameplay to be had. Really great value for the sticker price! The bad/needs work: Kind of a bad translation, and not in the cute/endearing way. Desperately needs a native speaker to go over the text and clean up. Dev, if youre listening, Ill help you with that if you want! In ground combat, some of the mechanics are a little fuzzy. Enemy HP is shown as a bar only, so I dont know how much HP each enemy has relative to my weapon or each other. In a game that, at its core, requires deep tactical decision making and advanced commitment to actions (when you use suppression, you fire the allotted number of bullets regardless if you will hit the enemy or not, its not a trigger on sight mechanic like xcom), its essential that I know how much damage a particular shot is going to do. Does this enemy take 2 pistol shots to kill or 10? Who knows till you try, I guess. The cover system is...weird. It seems like Id want to camp out next to a wall and lean around to fire (as in xcom), but that doesnt seem to be the case. If Im behind a wall on the corner, my character will just shoot the wall, stopping the shot, so cover is actually of limited use; mostly Im running through the open with suppression from a squad mate. Its not a deal breaker, but the cover system needs to be explained better. There does seem to be an exploit with this, although Ill have to verify, it seems like I can clip the sniper rifle through some walls, and as long as the end of the barrel is clear, the shot will be successful. I assume that is not intended, but Ill have to test more. The squad combat could REALLY use some accuracy indicators. Would be nice to know my hit% when selecting different enemies, as with many other games like this. The main takeaway from the ground combat portion of the game is that there is some good strategy to be had, but for such a difficult and strategically focused game, more info to help make decisions would be nice. I havent done a ton of space combat yet, but it seems messy. I really dislike having to keep switching my guns on and off. There should be a toggle for (on, and reactivate when enough charge is available). I find myself spending more time tapping between ships and toggling/moving frantically than I am making strategic decisions and planning things out. Slow down time helps, but still could be better. Also, small ships seem not balanced properly. Most of the small ships Ive found so far are a little faster than my main cruiser, but they confusingly have slower turn speeds. When I think of small craft, I think of speed and maneuverability, and they kinda act like slow capital ships even though theyre small and have low HP. Maybe this changes as I advance. My last gripe has to do with the upgrade/heal economy. This is not really a bug, but imho, is poor design. I dislike games that bundle their upgrade and item purchase currency with their healing mechanic. I understand that having to choose between healing your hull and upgrading a character skill adds strategic depth. I also understand that creating a scenario where its possible to spend so much money on healing that you cant upgrade leads to death spiral gameplay, where you get increasingly worse off because you cant level enough to keep up with enemies, which in turn makes you spend more on healing, which in turn makes you weaker as you advance, and on and on... Basically, its realy easy to screw yourself over in this game. If you start a run, and after the first battle you get your ass handed to you but barely survive, you pretty much have to start over, or youll be stuck in an endless loop of always being behind the curve due to spending all your cash on repairs. The idea that my squad cant heal on the ship between battles and has to only heal at stations is ridiculous. So we have invented warp travel, but nobody keeps a friggin Medkit on the ship? I can forgive hull needing to be healed at stations/repair yards, but with the amount of combat you do, and how expensive healing is, its really kinda bogus that your characters dont heal between battles, since I have to pay for status removal anyway. Im going to keep playing and enjoying this game for a while, maybe Ill check back in and update this review after I play a bit more.
Removed from US AppStore. Another decent strategy title gone like tears in rain. (I’m setting up a new phone and finding which of my old purchases are gone.)
I just checked and thankfully I still have it installed (though who knows if it will hit a game breaking bug now it has been removed). I have found in the past that setting up a new iOS device is destined to have much sadness when it comes to reinstalling old purchased games.
