Topic: Future Tactics Impressions

[couchmonkey]

I'll follow the PGC review ratings since that's where I be posting!

The earth has been overrun by aliens and it's up to a rag-tag band of humans to destroy the alien menace and bring human civilization back to the planet.  Not an original plotline, but such is the story behind Future Tactics: The Uprising.  The game has had a tough time in the gaming media and I'm still not sure why.  It's definitely rough around the edges but it's also a fun and very original game.  It kept me occupied like no other game has this year, in spite of it's shortcomings.  Let me tell you why.

The graphics are a mixed bag.  On one hand, I thought the art direction was excellent.  I love the cartoony, exagerrated comic book character designs and the levels are mostly cleverly designed, often with beautiful colour schemes and backgrounds.  But art is a personal taste, and technically speaking, there's no denying that the game is weak.  Most of the models are really low on polygons and texture work is average or maybe a bit below overall.  The game has a nifty real-time damage engine which allows gunfire to smash buildings and leave giant craters in the ground, but otherwise special effects are practically non-existant.  I think the game looks good in spite of its technical shortcomings, but those shortcomings are definitely there.

The soundtrack to Future Tactics is actually pretty amazing but with only 11 songs it's stretched pretty thin.  Some of the songs are overplayed and there's no music at all during story sequences.  The voice acting is also surprisingly good considering it was probably all done by amateurs.  There's a nice variety of quotes from the heroes and enemies during fights, but sometimes the dialogue between characters during the plot sequences is poorly paced.

It's when you bring the graphics, sound and story together as a whole that the game's rough edges really start to stand out.  The story is pretty average sci-fi with a few decent twists and turns, but packaged with mediocre graphics and sound it really drags the whole thing down.  I spent too little time enjoying the story and too much time thinking about how the game was eerily silent when the heroes were running away from a pack of aliens, or how the character Scallion is always lugging his gun over his shoulder, even when he's having a polite, casual conversation with friends.  The story is still reasonably interesting, but it's not enough on it's own.  Future Tactics has to rely on - gasp! - gameplay to be entertaining.

Luckily, it manages fairly well.  Controls are a mix of real-time and turn-based designs.  On a character's turn, he or she can move, shoot at enemies, and then choose to rest, heal, or shield.  Movement is similar to a 3D platformer and was handled quite well.  Sometimes it's hard to scale a cliff or get to the roof of a building, but I never got "stuck" in the game, so it's not bad.  The camera controls could also use work, but they were satisfactory.  When shooting you enter one of two targeting mini-games.  One of the targeting mini-games involves entering a first-person view and then getting a moving crosshair under control so that it's centered on an enemy...it can be frustrating and even nauseating, but I got used to it.  Overall, I think they could have made the first-person targeting game a bit easier, but both targeting games serve their purpose: they make attacking fun and challenging even though the enemies aren't moving.

The gameplay does have some weaknesses.  The two-player game seems almost useless.  With proper timing, you can kill your opponents with a single punch, so basically whichever player gets the first turn will always win.  The game also seems to choose most of the options for you, and since the game doesn't fit any traditional molds, you may have a hard time finding someone who is willing to play against you.  There are a lot of unlockable features that might make the two-player game more fun but I don't think many players will have the patience to unlock everything just to make the two-player game good: more to the point, it should be good without unlocking anything at all.

So we've scrapped the two-player game but there's still plenty to salvage in the one-player game.  The gameplay is all about positioning your characters...usually you want to find a spot where you can shoot enemies but still find cover from enemy fire.  Shielding and healing add to the mix significantly.  You can heal a character, but his defense will be lower, so you need lots of cover.  Shielding raises your defense, but it can only be done once every three turns.  When there's little cover, you may need to put one shielded character out in the open, then trade him off with a character who hasn't used her shield power yet.  There's a lot going on here and except for hiccups in the enemy AI, I found the game to be fun and engaging all the way through.

Speaking of the enemy AI, it's the single player game's biggest weakness.  Enemies are slow to take their turns and can be very stupid. For example, I once managed to knock several snipers to the back of a ledge.  Instead of moving back to the edge to look for me, they just stayed there, wondering where I was and hoping another enemy would spot me for them.  There are a few other little glitches in the game, but nothing that ever forced me to hit the reset button.  Overall, these problems can be annoying (and sometimes pretty funny) but they don't ruin the one-player experience by any means.

The game isn't going to keep anyone playing for a really long time, but it should last quite a while.  I'd say there are about 15-20 hours of play time, and it's a decent challenge.  The game's challenge level is a bit unbalanced because in the beginning the player loses as soon as any of the party members die; later on the player only loses if all party members die, so Zedtwo should have made the enemies in the later levels a bit tougher.  After beating the game there's a second mode where the player and enemies take alternating turns (as opposed to all player characters taking their turn and then all enemy characters) but honestly, it doesn't change the game enough to motivate a second play.

It's really a shame Future Tactics didn't have more time and money on it's side, because there's a really good and unique game concept at it's core.  With some extra attention to presentation and enemy AI the game could easily be one of the best on the market.  As it is, I think a lot of people have dismissed it because of low production values.  I still think the game is very much worth it's budget price, and I fully recommend it to people who are strategy or RPG fans that value originality even at the cost of a little polish.

GRAPHICS: 7.5   SOUND: 8.5  CONTROL: 8.0   GAMEPLAY: 8.0  LASTABILITY: 7.0

FINAL: 7.5


(Edit: This post was formerly impressions, now it is a full review.)    

[Flames_of_chaos]

Plok was uber awesome on the SNES but this doesnt really impress me but its good to know that the company that made Plok and wetrix is still alive and kicking.

[couchmonkey]

Hey, did you play it?  If so, what did you think?

I have to admit, I'm up to about the tenth mission and some of the game's weak points are sinking in more.  You notice more holes in enemy AI as you go along and the story starts out fairly intriguing (not great or anything, but at least acceptable) and then starts plodding along halfway through.

Still, I think it's a very good budget title.

[couchmonkey]

My original impressions, I'm about to post a full review, and I figure it should take the place of my original post:

I've grabbed this game and I need to tell everyone how groovy it is. I've played through three and a half levels so far. I hope to write a full review when I play through the game, but given my gaming schedule these days, that may never happen. Still, I need to write something, because I think this game has received unfairly harsh reviews from the gaming media.

I picked up Future Tactics for the following reasons:

1. It's made by ZedTwo, which was founded by the Pickford Bros. I love many of the games they've worked on, especially Wetrix and Plok.
2. It looked original.
3. It was cheap. ($30 Canadian, should be $20 U.S.)
4. I believe Warthog, ZedTwo's parent company, shut the studio down after the game was finished, so it's their last game (boo hoo!).

So far, the game has turned out to be worth every penny and then some. You can tell why it's been marked as a "budget" title, the production values aren't that high: songs don't loop properly and the graphics are stylish but technically mediocre. Having said that, the gameplay is unique and fun and the game seems to offer good value.

I think the game has been labelled as a real time strategy RPG or some such. Whatever. The point is, it does have quite a bit in common with RPGs and strategy titles, but you have more direct control over your characters. Gameplay is comprised of a player turn and a computer turn. On your turn, you get to use all of your units (really, each unit is just one character, but that's what the game calls them) in any order you want. Each unit gets a certain number of chances to move, shoot at enemies, or engage in hand-to-hand combat depending on the situation. If you've been spotted by enemies, you can't move as far, so positioning your character wisely is a major key to victory. At the end of your turn you can either shield, heal, or rest. Shielding and healing come with penalties so you have to be smart about when you choose them. The computer then gets to have a turn in which it does similar things with it's units.

It's simple, but effective. Movement and aiming are both done in real time and it's definitely more action-oriented than games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Ogre Battle. When you move your character he can run, jump and you can position him behind objects to protect him. You can also damage the terrain in the game to create new shooting and hiding opportunities. Aiming is a little weird, the crosshair automatically moves around the screen and you have to try and get it under control, it's kind of a test of your skills with the analog stick. It probably should have been a bit easier, but at the same time I respect that they're trying to put some more dexterity and action into the genre.

The game has 19 missions, four of which I've played. So far I'd say most of them can be beaten in 30 minutes or so if you play perfectly, but chances are you will have to play each mission a couple of times to beat it. I expect the game to last about 20 hours for an average player. It also has a two-player competitive mode, but I don't think most players will get much out of it since the game takes a while to learn so willing opponents may be hard to find. Still, the single player game seems to offer a good amount of game time, especially for a budget-priced game.

Overall I'm really happy with this game. A bit more polish would have been nice, but the game is good where it counts: in gameplay. I'm obviously a little biased since I'm a Zedtwo fan, but even so I'm really happy with this game. It's the most original game I've played in over a year, and it's put together very well. Highly recommended to players interested in a unique RPG-like real time strategy game.