Ironclad Tactics

Ruined itself with an obnoxiously unnecessary timer instead of just playhing turn based like it should have been. Why do some devs get so hooked on bad ideas to ruin otherwise good ones? The videos and screen shots sure implied it was gonna be a good tbs... then they slapped a timer on that serves absolutely no gameplay function other than to minimize the strategic thinking.

[quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote] [h1]Overall Rating - Painfully Bad ★☆☆☆☆[/h1] [h1]First Impressions[/h1] I've almost certainly had Ironclad Tactics (IT) in my library ever since I created my Steam account. Based on how long I left it unplayed, I must really like the cover art, or something. Anyways, with my general desire to tidy up things I've not used for a long time, it was only fitting to break this game in, and find out what the heck it is. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] At its core, IT is a deck-building game, but the way it functions is unusual. Instead of having distinct phases where you are in full control of advancing the turn, the game rotates through the turn order on its own. So the game will somewhat play by itself, as you summon units onto the board, and provide them with power-ups. Unless you have them stand in place, your units advance rightwards, and the goal is to get enough Victory Points (VP). Common methods include holding a strategic position or having the right kind of unit reach the far right. Additionally, your other most important resource is Action Points (AP), which are needed to play your cards. The number increases throughout the turn, and from my perspective, accumulates slowly. That's why you need a mix of low and high cost cards to play, so you can adapt to any situation accordingly. Cards you don't use soon enough will get pushed off the edge. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3359487268 [h1]Controls[/h1] Because this game revolves around playing cards, the controls make use of a mouse. During the tutorial, I got a bit confused on how to make the automaton maneuver. However, all you have to do is play a unit card, and when there's enough AP, drag a card onto an applicable unit. For instance, human scouts can't carry larger weapons, but they can make use of lighter gear that the robots can't equip. All of this is done by dragging cards onto the corresponding unit. [h1]Story[/h1] The setting for IT is during the American Civil War, but in a timeline where steam punk reigned supreme. You're introduced to three main characters, two of whom seem to be friendly rivals, while the other acts as their boss. I wasn't really positive what their relationship was meant to feel like, as I'd expect the younger men to be more antagonistic towards each other, but they more or less fall into line behind Zebulon. Part of me wonders if this was the first thing worked on, as it seems central to the game. However, I didn't find it worth paying attention to. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3359487575 [h1]Visuals[/h1] One area that really harms this game's presentation is how the plot is conveyed. There's nothing wrong with utilizing a comic book style, but it's not handled well here. Instead of displaying an entire page at a time, you have to manually click in order to advance each section. Clicking so many times repeatedly gets tedious, and doesn't feel worthwhile for the return you get. The art style could be much stronger as well, with it coming across fairly lackluster. If they really wanted this to work, doing a voice-over might have fleshed out the characters, and made the story more of a hook. [h1]Sound Design[/h1] From what I can tell, the songs seem to be setting or stage specific. I wasn't sure if every level gets its own song, or if it was related to a general location. For example, any stage centered around a warehouse or workshop might play the same song, whereas swamp levels might share their own tune. Considering the prominent theme of IT is a war, the music was fitting, as the songs either leaned into the cadence of a military march, or had a dour tone to it. Making use of snare drums, and what I'd call a sorrowful sounding woodwind instrument, did a good job setting the right tone. Similarly, the sound effects didn't seem out of place, with firearms and explosions packing some punch behind them. They even have noises for when units advance forward, as boots clod onto the ground. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3359487823 [h1]Pros[/h1] 🌟 I don't think you'll ever run out of cards to play, as your deck will constantly loop on itself until the battle is won by either side. Seemingly there's no turn limit either, unless it's quite high, such as 100 turns. 🌟 If you meet certain conditions when beating the battle, you'll unlock more cards. Some cards can be upgraded, after meeting the goal listed on them. They can be quite useful, so it's well worth the effort. 🌟 The changing focus of battles gave a different main objective to consider when fighting in Story Mode. You can't just spam one tactic and expect to always win that way. [h1]Cons[/h1] ❌ The story isn't developed well. It doesn't have a good foundation, needing more exposition to establish the setting and current situation overall. Then I'd be more interested in the main characters' association to the Civil War. ❌ Since most card games revolve around thinking strategically, players are allowed the freedom to think before having to act, especially when they're in single-player modes. Not with this game though. ❌ Even without using units with steep AP costs, it never seems like you have enough to make any plays. You're always fighting uphill against this limit. [h1]Tips[/h1] 🔍 If any machine walks into the path of a human unit, the human will immediately die. For reasons like this, sometimes letting an enemy get near the left side is the best time to deploy your unit. In other situations, you want to place your units early, shielding a human behind a chassis, so it can hold a useful position. 🔍 Make sure to edit your deck as you get new cards. Features about them may prove important for the next fight. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] Even though I didn't like this title very much, I can't deny feeling satisfaction in giving this game my attention for a while, and scratching it off my backlog. It's a strategic card game that tried something different, and had some ideas I liked. Being able to unlock and upgrades cards if you're willing to meet optional objectives is a better way to increase your deck options than using real-world money to pay for greater power. Unfortunately, even with solid tunes, IT's presentation was hampered by its art, and how it went about presenting the story. With a greater degree of finesse, I could see some people liking the tactics and mechanics, as you use both humans and bipedal machines to fight battles. Since it faltered in crucial areas though, I wouldn't recommend picking up this game. [table] [tr] [th]PC Specs[/th] [th]Performance[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ryzen 2700 RTX 2070 16GB RAM ADATA SSD 1920x1080 [/td] [td]The game ran without incident on default settings. 💖 - IT is healthy [/td] [/tr] [/table]

I can't recommend this game. It's more "visual novel" than game play, what little game play there is is quite boring and tedious. It also has technical issues that it really shouldn't... including locking up and skipping, freezing, etc.

A card game that isn't fun to play as every battle is weighted heavily in favour of the AI in the following way: - All the bonus tiles are closest to the AI, meaning they'll be able to play more cards and do more damage in the early/medium game. - The AI can play any card they want, while the player has a choice of 5 cards and if they don't contain an Ironclad the player is doomed. - The bonus objectives always involve playing in a way that disadvantages the player even further and without the bonus cards from completing these objects it becomes impossible to proceed. In terms of the narrative it makes no sense. You start with 2 brothers meeting a professor, then the Civil War starts, then one of the brothers has to fight robot owning bandits because the Civil War no longer matters, then he joins with the natives Americans who somehow have built their own robots but are still losing to the bandits, then fights the bandit's leader that isn't siding with either side in the Civil War. Why even set it during the Civil War if the main villain isn't siding with either side and is instead building up his own army using bandits to commit minor crimes? The ending is even worse as [spoiler]the villain is trying to take over the USA because he doesn't like that the south has slavery and after he's defeated the south ends slavery in exchange for being able to use these robots to replace slaves. So he could have achieved all his objectives legally by simply giving the south his robots in exchange for them abolishing slavery, making the entire plot redundant. [/spoiler] During this time you work with a smuggler and a woman investigating mail fraud, neither of which have any narrative importance. Thus the plot feels like two different games that have been combined resulting in a disjointed story.

Ironclad Tactics é um daqueles games que passei anos querendo jogar, mas quando finalmente tive a oportunidade, vi que não era tudo isso. Pra começar por um motivo mais pessoal, achei a premissa da história do jogo interessante, mas ela é toda contada por meio de slides entre os levels e pior ainda: na metade do jogo incluem histórai secundárias que não têm nada ahver com a trama principal, mas continua sendo obrigatório ver tudo. Fosse só isso ok, poderia recomendar o jogo pra que está atrás de um deck builder, mas esse ó principal motivo pra eu não recomendar o jogo: a gameplay é chata e frustante, têm um tempo limite pra jogar um carta (se mão o inimigo te alcança) e elas são sempre 5 aleatórias do seu deck, enquanto o inimigo parece sempre ter a carta certinha da bater de frente com suas jogadas, tudo isso acaba transformado o jogo numa enorme repetição e torcida pra dar sorte nas cartas da sua mão. Se você for MUITO fã de deckbuilds talvez goste do jogo, mas pro pessoal mais casual acredito que não vale a pena arriscar. -------------------------------- Ironclad Tactics is one of those games that I wanted to play for years, but when I finally got the chance, I realized that it wasn't all that. To start with, for a more personal reason, I found the premise of the game's story interesting, but it's all told through slides between levels and even worse: halfway through the game they include side stories that have nothing to do with the main plot, but it's still mandatory to watch everything. If that were all, okay, I could recommend the game to anyone looking for a deck builder, but this is the main reason why I don't recommend it: the gameplay is boring and frustrating, there's a time limit to play a card (if the enemy catches you) and there are always 5 random cards from your deck, while the enemy always seems to have the right card to counter your plays, all of this ends up turning the game into a huge repetition and hoping for luck with the cards in your hand. If you're a BIG fan of deckbuilds, you might like the game, but for more casual people, I don't think it's worth the risk.

overall alright. the price is a bit to high but in offer for -50% alright.

[h3] 回合制放置卡牌遊戲 [/h3] 有劇情，不能跳過，要一個一個看。 前期會有教學關，整體操作還挺容易上手的。 回合是隨時間自動跳到下一回合，如果手速太慢可能會來不及忙完一回合想做的事。

Boring gameplay and can't skip long ass PNG cutscene.

I got bored during the very slow tedious tutorial...

If I'm telling the truth, I only installed it to get 100% on the achievements.