Overall most helpful review

Posted on: June 27, 2015

googoogjoob

Games: 617 Reviews: 24

Pretty solid, but flawed

Ironclad Tactics has a pretty cool concept and mechanics (trading card game crossed with turn-based tactics). It has really slick art, solid music, graphic novel-style cutscenes, giant steampunk robots, and a weirdly forgettable plot. I personally really like it, but it has a few issues that frustrate me, and which will probably put some people off of it altogether. First, turns play out in real time, meaning you have a finite amount of time per turn to play cards, and you may well end up not playing a card in time to save a unit or prevent the enemy from scoring a point. You also gain Action Points (used to play cards) in real time, gradually, over the course of a turn. I suppose this was meant to add tension to the game, but it feels unnecessary. Second, for moving so fast on that scale, the game plays surprisingly slowly: you gain AP relatively slowly on most levels, and will frequently end up going a turn or two without being able to play any cards. Single battles regularly last upwards of 50 turns. Third- and it may well be some people won't find this a problem- the AI often gets a faster rate of AP gain than the player, which feels kinda cheap as a way to make up for the AI not being as smart as a human player. All that said, I still really do like this game (enough to give it 4 stars, anyway). It just feels a little disappointing in that it's so close to being great, but falls short. A side note- the game has multiplayer in the Steam version, but the MP is stripped out of the GOG version entirely. AFAIK the Steam version uses Steamworks to facilitate MP, so that's not terribly surprising; but it's galling in that a) there are some cards you can only ever earn or play in MP mode, and b) the game has moments of loading in places you'd expect in an MP game, but which are irritating in an SP game- opening the map, looking at or editing decks, etc. So, if you wanna play this MP- don't get this version.

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Posted on: July 2, 2015

mqstout

Verified owner

Games: 3381 Reviews: 42

Not turn-based

The game itself is pretty good, but it'd be better if it were actually turn-based; it's not.

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Posted on: July 2, 2015

rvinagre

Verified owner

Games: 244 Reviews: 7

Too linear and limited replayability

Ironclad has beautiful visual design and a very interesting story which mostly holds together well. It is however very linear: - You have one set of missions which you need to run, one after the other one. They all consist on having your units move from the left side of the screen to the right one whilst trying to stop the enemy which is going the other way around. The missions are always the same and run in a specific order that goes along with the story. - Before a mission you choose a set of cards (which must contain 20 cards, though multiple of the same are possible) and then during the mission they come out randomly, with up to 5 available at any moment. You can used any available cards, as long as you have enough Action Points for that card. Action Points drip in slowly with time, with some things (such as capturing a specific square with a soldier) accelerating this a bit. That's basically it. Better cards come from completing missions, using a unit card more than X times (which gives you a card with an upgraded version) and completing mission specific challenges. Once you've progressed enough you have quite a number of cards and many of them are a must. This leads to the problem of being on a mission and failing because of things like the random card chooser going through 10 cycles without bring out a required card to solve a specific situation since there is so much variance in a deck (to solve the many situations that might occur). Another problem is not having used the right unit cards enough times before a certain mission so that you lack upgraded units to match the enemy's better units. You can go back and rerun old missions to try and unlock more cards, by which point the game just feels artificially grindy. The game feels a lot like constantly forcing things on you purely to keep on going, without enough rewards for effort. Maybe worth it when on promotion for the beautiful artwork, but not as replayable & entertaining as other GOG games.

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Posted on: November 12, 2016

Jephrey

Verified owner

Games: 110 Reviews: 12

Falls short but is playable

There is a great game idea buried somewhere inside Ironclad Tactics. Your units move from left to right across the field and engage the enemy units marching the other way. Score victory points by marching your automatons off the enemy's side of the map. The pace is fairly fast. There are no turns, contrary to the game description. It is pretty sad when a company cannot correctly identify its games' basic mechanics. Play is in real-time with cyclical events such as card processing, moving, and shooting, all at regular intervals. The action aspect of the game is fine, though you will need to learn through trial and error - not much is explained. The inclusion of comic-style storyboxes is a great idea, but the prose and organization is poor. The story characters are passive. Things simply happen to them. Our heroes mostly complain and have no motives or ideas of their own. The artistry is good, but the overall presentation lacks both caring and skill. I found myself clicking with annoyance past the story boxes without reading them. The game also misfires on the 'flavor text' of the cards. It is not only vapid but sometimes very flawed. An example is the carbine weapon, described as "perfect for short range". What they actually mean is "only usable at short range". The limited range is not a niche or specialization; it is merely a limitation. The game's text is frequently misleading in this fashion. Ironclad could very easily have been a superb game, worthy of Zachtronics' reputation, had it been executed with diligence and artistic vision. Instead it seems to say, "We're not sure what turn-based play is. Stories are dumb but necessary. Describing things is hard, don't you think?" That said, there is a genuinely challenging action card game here. My criticisms apply to the game's context and presentation, not to the core action.

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Posted on: November 14, 2016

Akalabeth

Verified owner

Games: 649 Reviews: 92

Not my favourite

Wish I could give the game a better score but despite finishing it, I never really found the gameplay that engaging. The deck-building restrictions I find are too limiting, with the player doled out only a few cards per mission and strict limits on how much variety you can field. There is an effort to vary up the missions and opponents, but ultimately most of them boil down to the same conclusion. I also couldn't find the story interesting. The comics look nice, but none of the characters grabbed me and I feel some of them, particularly the post office woman, have the same sort of expression almost throughout. I think the game could benefit much from more rewards and deck building options. But as it stands, the game expects you to replay mission to unlock additional cards in specific circumstances. Not something I'm interested in doing.

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