Hartacon Tactics

It's labeled as "coop" but there is only 2v2 competitive mode with no bots present in any multiplayer setting. Sketchy misinformation like that is not cool.

It really needs keyboard and mouse input. Also weird flickering if not in fullscreen. Needs windowed fullscreen option as well. However, that aside, the game does look nice and is quite fun. it really needs work but its worth getting.

Hartacon Tactics is a console (360) ported 2D retro pixel isometric turn based strategy game with RPG like elements. I say that it's 2D retro pixel but I'm not sure, it might just be that the game resolution is really, really low so everything looks jaggy anyway. Thing is, it looks like it's 2D retro pixel and that's a huge problem, because it's deficiency on behalf of the developer. More on that in the defects section of the review. Gameplay here is really awkward and needlessly complex. Console gamers can't handle complexity (hell, they get angry, confused and afraid if they can't see their character on the TV set, that's why they prefer third person games over FPS), so why this was ever even released on consoles is a mystery. There's a fantasy setting and a high school tier storyline that gamers will typically ignore. But really, it's the bad graphics and convoluted, un-fun gameplay that killed this one. Despite not being in Steam Early Access (where this arguably belongs), the game is missing features and is apparently incomplete. It lacks polish and really just needs to be abandoned and started over... it's just too clunky and obtuse to be saved as-is. This is a good reason for gamers to avoid this. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. This ties into the really bad graphics... I'm still unsure if this was meant to look retro/look bad on purpose, or it just looks bad due to the locked low resolution, which in turn is still a decision on behalf of the developer. At the end of the day, it looks bad as a result of deliberate developer decisions, that's a defect and a reason not to buy the game. PC gamers will be insulted by the presence of console peasant children's toy controller prompts, despite this being on PC. Developers should try to be aware which platform they're developing for. Because this is designed for consoles, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the inferior console gaming appliances that the game was designed for. These are unfortunate compromises and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was a second thought for the console-centric developers. The game is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for consoles forces upon a game. Once more, console peasants have made gaming worse for everyone. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. Hartacon Tactics didn't appeal much to the people who own the game, either. The achievements show us a very clear picture that the game didn't capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for bothering to play this long enough to win a fight, trivial to get, but less than 30 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. The poor quality of this game is also reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 6 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. Hartacon Tactics is cheap at $2 USD, but not worth it. The defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, make it impossible to recommend. [quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says: [quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote] The developer would like you, the customers, to know that he is THE MAIN CHARACTER. If you have taste in video games, and therefore don't like his console ported garbage, you're wrong, because God has spoken. Can you believe this guy? Let's unpack this disfunctional assault on a review that speaks truths the developer cannot mentally cope with. "Some keyboard warrior"... a glib insult... What is the point of this personal attack? So the developer can, in an incredible act of cognitive dissonance, dismiss the truth. Peak player count on PC: 6 players, remember this fact the developer ignores while attacking the reviewer. The developer lied, claiming I didn't play the game. How then did I manage to determine the many facts relating to the defects in this game, which I relate to prospective customers? [b]I played the game, it's garbage.[/b] The developer falsely claims I didn't play the game to attack me in the hopes this will somehow dispel the sad truth about the abject failure of this game. The developer falsely claims this is the "first in the genre" on Xbox 360 reviews. That's an utter lie. That title is held by Civilization Revolution for the Xbox 360. This crapheap doesn't even exist on Metacritic, it was never popular enough to garner a metascore, which only requires 4 professional reviews... that don't exist! Why has the developer told yet another lie? The developer then announces you can play the game with a keyboard, amazing! Where in my review did I say you can't? But, he left in the insulting console peasant prompts because the developer only cares about console peasants... a serious problem that I highlighted in my review. The developer perhaps doesn't comprehend that PC gamers aren't console peasants. Edit: Looking further into this, it was originally made with RPG Maker... it's an RPG Maker construction kit/asset flip. No wonder gamers rejected this. [quote]Online Stalking and Harrassment[/quote] The developer has started stalking me, delivering personal attacks and is attempting to publicly cyberbully and intimidate me by pointing to demonstrable false hitpiece videos and articles. Why? Because I wrote an honest and frank assessment about an objectively bad and failed product. It's an objective failure rejected by gamers, for the reasons I supplied in my accurate review. The falsehoods in the articles this stalker is pointing to have NO BEARING ON THE POOR QUALITY OF THIS REJECTED GAME. Certainly, the hitpieces the stalker/developer is pointing to in response to some of my reviews are false and misleading, but cyberbullies don't care about facts, they just want to intimidate and attack those for providing the truths the developer can't emotionally accept, like a child throwing a tantrum when caught doing something wrong. This behavior from the developer is utterly unacceptable, and is a chilling attempt to intimidate and stifle reviewers. Now, you can look at the objective facts of my review, and then have a look at how this reviewer is attacking and intimidating reviewers, and suddenly the overwhelming rejection of this RPG Maker shovelware makes a lot more sense. I will not be intimidated or silenced by stalkers and bullies.