Depth of Extinction

So I have several hours into this game and have found all the subs, almost all the experimental weapons and am about to embark on the last story chapter (at least I think it is the last). I really like games like XCom and the Jagged Alliance series (plus all mods and unofficials...) so I may be slightly biased. I would actually give this 3,5 starts which I round up to a 4. 3 would feel too low :) The good so far * The different character classes are different enough to offer some different game styles * Simplistic UI and commands make it easy to learn and enough mechanics to allow some level of tactical planning * Good sounds and music * Different setting and various types of enemies (although it takes a while to progress beyond the raiders) * The simple gameplay makes you play just a one scenario more and sucks you in although you know the loot is shit and the map is again a variant of the same map you've seen 100 times before. The Bad: * Gets really repetitive: No matter if you are rescuing a civilian, finding gear (which usually is quite shit tbh), finding fuel or infiltrating a cultist base they all feel the same. You end up killing all enemies and looting the place and you rinse and repeat this over and over again. * Sometimes the AI acts really strangely but luckily quite often it fares pretty well * I felt that the game was actually harder in the beginning than the later sections * Repetitive. Did I mention it? Been grinding those maps and side missions which are all the same so I forgot about the main plot. Was it something about a riled up AI building Androids to kill humankind (Waterworld + Terminator)?

I LOVE the general feel of this game: trapped in the crushing depths of a post apocalyptic ocean fighting mutant raiders and killer robots. The tactics here are actually way more forgiving than Halfway where you had to basically be standing in front of an enemy to have any hope of hitting them even with a gun. You don't need to mess with buying ammo or fixing gear thankfully either. You have a mini game of managing your sub with fuel and fixes which is decently engaging, making each location feel like more than just another randomized room to explore. The menus took a bit of tooling around with but worked out fine after some practice. The graphics are charming and atmospheric. The music is synth Heaven. I had to get the soundtrack. There is ONE major issue with this game...the writing is terrible. Right off the bat after a solemn text crawl describing devastation and gloom the characters start glibly cracking wise about situations that really should be more dangerous. One of the default names is 'Pickle'. Characters make text quips after being shot that suggest they're more annoyed than injured. It really brings down the mood of isolation and dystopia the rest of the game builds. It doesn't even fit with the little voice acting there is which mostly consists of enemies grunting or your characters cooly acknowledging orders. Some people don't mind a game with a sense of humor, but the humor here is pretty (to use an inappropriate expression for this game) dry. If I'm going to get immersed into a game enough to ignore the sometimes repetitive levels and situations I'dve preferred for the game to tell a more interesting story in a more dedicated way. As stands at least it's a nice breezy turn based tactical game with some lite managing elements.

Good: - Story-lite tactics style game with interesting level and gear progression. - Action Point based combat which gives weight to opportunity costs for each action you take. - Very powerful build combinations if you tinker with the weapons and classes. (WILDCAT, I'm looking at you) - Enjoyable overworld exploration that offer bonuses depending on chance. You can increase the chances of rewarding exploration with certain classes in your squad. - Weapons and Armor have unique trade-offs that give you an edge in certain situations. This enhances the gamestyle you choose to play with. - Permadeath, however you can choose "Restart Mission" to reset a fight and start over. Bad: - Repetitive, very much doing the same thing on the same few tile sets. - Enemy AI is fairly simple, some rounds they will murder 1 or 2 of your squad and other rounds they will move back and forth and take no action. - By end game the game is played almost entirely with Overwatch;attack if an enemy moves on your turn. It becomes more profitable in the action economy to not take an attack and work off of actions that trigger other actions. My thoughts: I find this game to be quite wonderful. The challenge at the start of the game roped me in and slowly becoming more powerful kept me going. The leveling process and finding new gear helped me kick ass and really feel like I was owning the battles. The story was light-weight and the game had a choose your own mission style of exploration. I am not a fan of very long unskippable cutscenes in games and this game was great for that. The class system was interesting, however, I nearly had the same build on all of my characters due to some classes just being underwhelming. Free reload was NECESSARY on all characters. If you don't go for as many free actions as possible your turn would be wasted. I wish that less free actions granted on certain conditions exist and the player gets more AP to make their own decisions.

The game basically takes the best parts of the old and new Xcom and Jagged Alliance games, then dumbs it down. Although it sounds like a critique, it’s not! Want the kind of square-tile-moving tactical game where it’s best to set up Overwatch traps and let the enemy walk into it? Then buy Depth of Extinction!

arcadey style xcom tactics action, fast paced, great music, cool concept. But after a few hours it gets kind of old, samey-feeling. There's just not enough variation, or strong sense of progression. it's good, just not great.