Posted on: March 9, 2020
lankester
Verified ownerGames: 78 Reviews: 9
Limited scope, poor design decisions
Ok game, but fairly simplistic compared to similar titles. Don't expect anything more than 'X-COM light' tactical mode, with very barebones team management while off missions. The game runs smoothly and for all its simplicity and small scope is well polished. Sound design and soundtrack are definitely its highlights - awesome job! The game has some awful mechanics, the worst among them is the cognition points system. Basically, in each mission you have to collect cognition points out of a limited pool for each turn - without them, you can't fight. You can only collect one per attempt (unless you pick a high tier talent in a specific tree or have a special gear item), it's on a 2-3 turn cooldown and attacks cost around 2-4 CPs. There are a few small weapons that don't use the CPs, but they're very weak (basically your sidearm). Terrible feature that forms the core of the combat system. The combat is quite limited compared to other games - no grenades, timed attacks, hacking or anything similar. Nothing outside the tactical missions (i.e. forget any base building, crafting, rudimentary economy or enemy craft interception or anything like that). And an automatic -50 dkp (one star) for the devs' decision to completely disable your UI during enemy turn. Seriously, you can't even open the game menu - you have to wait until it's your turn again. Who is the genius developer who thinks it's a great idea to take control away from the player? Anyway: interesting concept, good atmosphere, excellent sound design / limited scope, limited gameplay, irritating game mechanics, braindead UI decisions.
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