Game: Steam Tactics
Genre: Strategy, RPG
System: Nintendo Switch (also on PC, PS4 and Xbox One)
Developer|Publisher: Sometimes You
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US Everyone
Price: UK £8.99 | EU € 9,99 | AUD $15.00 | USD $9.99|CAD $ n.a.
Release Date: August 5th 2020
Review code provided with many thanks to Sometimes You
Get Tactical
It was Fire Emblem: Awakening on 3DS that really got me into the strategy RPG genre. A wonderful gift from my girlfriend (later upgraded to wife) which turned me into a long time fan of the series as well as the genre as a whole.
I guess these type of games feel like modern chess. You can take your time, plan your moves. Certainly makes a change from mashing buttons and requiring quick reflexes. I can see the strategy RPG genre being very helpful for me when I’m an old man on a bench in Iceland managing a Ram farm somewhere in the far future. But that’s enough of my retirement plans. Today we have Steam Tactics a game title where your lead character is a dog called Benedictus Maximus. Call me sold. What you want more? Fine. Here is the review.
A Merry Band of Heroes
Steam Tactics takes Steampunk inspired airships and animals wearing fine vintage outfits. Throws them all in a mixer and that’s basically the design and premise of this game. You begin the game with the aptly named Benedictus Maximus a corgi and William Torgnan the toad. The later has a moustache and that has made my brain hurt as I’ve spent several minutes now trying to work out how a toad is able to grow facial hair. Anyway, as you progress through the game you collect more characters for your band of merry heroes. The personalities of these characters are one of the highlights of my experience with this title. Between battles the characters will banter with one another. Maximus is overly confident and optimistic which clashes well with Torgnans’ serious and methodical approach. These chats are also kept quite brief and before you know it you’re jumping into another mission.
Make Your Move
Each level is set on a single screen with a tile based grid. The objective per level is simple: take out all the enemy ships. How you go about doing that though is up to you. Each player takes it in turns to move and make an attack from their ship if possible. The gun placed on your airship will cover a certain range so positioning is essential to get the edge over the enemy. It’s fun, quick, to the point gameplay ideal for the gamer with little time on their hands.
Surprising Depth
The game begins by keeping things casual. Allowing the player room to experiment without fear of being destroyed too quickly. But don’t get too comfortable as the difficulty soon ramps up and you’ll find paying attention to the small tactical details is essential. You can add up to three guns per ship. But adding too many will reduce the ships mobility. You can level up practically everything. Your pilot, the guns and the ships. There’s a surprising amount of depth on offer. So much so I found myself a little confused at times.
The Niggles
Whilst the game does generally do a good job in guiding you through the basics at the start, I struggled to understand things like ship weaknesses to certain weapons and building a suitable fleet to take on each level. Before you start a level you’re only told the rewards you receive and not what ships your up against. This lead to many occasions where I would enter a level ill prepared and had to modify my ship builds through trial and error. I also found later on that the difficulty really spiked, so my only way through was to replay older levels and level up further so I was in a better position. This grinding broke up the flow of things and felt more frustrating than enjoyable.
A Hidden Gem
Steam Tactics nicely fits into the hidden gem category with some rough edges. Brilliant design with memorable characters and surprising depth to the gameplay. Frustrating difficulty spikes and repetitive grinding to level up broke the experience for me.
However, if your a fan of the genre and looking for a pick up and play experience this is an easy one to recommend. Also if I get a dog I’m totally naming it Benedictus Maximus.
Final Verdict: I like it
