Shadow Watch

This game is the "lite" cousin to Jagged Alliance - less penalizing, less gritty, more arcade and stylized. You play series of missions in three different places around the world, each time utilizing 1-6 of your team members. They each collect experience points and level up, gaining cool skills that further differentiate them. The fragile and easily distracted sniper (deadly and laconic - "Target cleared" means one less bad guy, every time) plays completely different from the guy who just bashes in the doors and unloads his shotgun at close range, laughing at the enemies firing back ("Barely even nicked, no big deal!"). Still, a successful mission more often than not requires a deal of stealth and mapping out the enemies' hideout - that's when your scanner guy comes in handy, while also providing some utility skills. And the two members of your team equipped with silencers can clear a room before anyone raises the alarm. Once again, use stealth for as long as possible - then start tossing grenades, shooting shotguns and basically try to funnel the panicked enemies through a choke point where you can deal with them on your terms. If you just rush in without a plan, one or two shots can spell doom to your squad. That much is common with the more serious tactical shooters (e.g. JA). Overall, I had good fun with this game, had to replay a couple of missions multiple times to get it right, but most of all I loved the increase of power as my team learned new skills: getting Maya from situational to 100% deadly, Raphael turning into a room-clearer with the door-breaching charges and more potent grenades, ... You can really start to like these guys, with their differentiated voice acting and even their own behavior when they panic (once I had a berzerk Bear clear a full room of enemies by himself, without firing his shotgun, just jumping from one to another and beating them to pulp). There is always more than one solution to a mission. Save game before talking to people.

The good old days of squad based tbs games...Jagged Alliance 2, Fallout Tactics, X-COM, and this game Shadow Watch were my favorites back in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Pros: Nice cartoon-style artwork. Good variety of mission types: assault, defend, kidnap, rescue, raid, steal, raze, and surveillance. Unique team members each with specialized skills that can be upgraded. Randomized missions and 3 difficulty levels give great replayability even though single campaign length is short. Cons: Short campaign length, each playthrough is around 20 hours. Limited roster size, only 6 members. Team member death = failed mission.

First I'll mention the graphics. I gotta say that artwork like this in games just doesn't age. At all. After all these years it still looks fantastic. The character art and the scenery is stunning, with a style focusing heavily on thick black shadows. These stylish isometric maps do lead so some readability problems however; it is sometimes hard to tell where you can move, or where you can see. This, combined with the game's difficult line-of-sight system make it hard to tell whether you are safe or not. But the game's biggest flaw is the controls. The game uses tank controls - you must turn your character and then inch them forward one or two squares per move, and they get three moves per turn in most situations. This makes basic movement tedious, and leads to me making mistakes as I navigate my characters around the map. Controls aside, the game's combat system is pretty good, albeit a little basic. Basic moving and attacking with interesting character skills thrown in. Speaking of the characters, they're just great. I'd watch a cartoon show about them, no question. Their art and voice acting very well done. The characters themselves don't add much to the plot, but they are fun to play with, and sometimes give you moments of emergent storytelling ("Bear," a hulking shotgun toting bruiser, might go berzerk and clear the map for you, for example.) The skills they gain as they level up are totally game-changing. They have unique art for different situations, great animation, and tons of well done voice lines. I'd watch a tv show about them any day, really. As for the plot, well, I hope you like reading. This is Tom Clancy stuff, delivered in walls upon walls of text. Its worth reading, but with the skill shown in the art and animation, a little more would be nice. Soundtrack is top notch, though. If you can stomach rough parts, Shadow Watch can be a great time. If QOL features and streamlined controls are a must, leave this one in the shadows.

Turn based tactical game with great replayability. Often forgotten by youtubers, retro reviewers and game historians, it can be considered a hidden or forgotten gem.

This game is generally okay. The interface is a little clunky and the graphics make an attempt at an interesting aesthetic but end up being kind of simplistic and hard to see. If you're really into tactical squad turn-based games (like I am) this isn't a bad purchase. However, there are much better games out there in this genre.