Partial Control

Partial Control is a low poly/minimalist semi-turn based strategy game with a welcome level of depth and a novel, viable concept. The game plays autonomously, but you get occasional pauses where you can issue instructions to your character... who will follow those instructions then go on autopilot and (hopefully) succeed in whatever it's trying to do. The idea is that you're a cyborg on a ship full of cyborgs and you've all been hacked and are trying to kill each other. The game also features upgrade systems where you can improve your weapons, all together it's a good concept but the technical implementation is woefully poor. The game features lazy minimalist/untextured low-polygon "retro" assets and visuals, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the early 1990s. The lack of textures is a method that lazy devs often use to disguise their lack of talent/interest in doing the graphics properly and trying to disguise it under the name of "art", or "We made it look bad on purpose", which really isn't something gamers should have to put up with. It's unclear why the developers weren't willing to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets and high resolution textures for the game. It looks bad as a result of their decisions, and that's just another reason to avoid it. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. Partial Control has the overly optimistic price of $13 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. This is also competing with over 9,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. It costs more than SuperHot when that's on sale, for example... that kind of crazy pricing for a game with such a low quality technical implementation just won't cut it. I don't think the pricing is malicious or intentionally too high, I think it's just some very misguided overestimation. It's certainly contributed to the cold community reception for the game... SteamDB shows a very low 24 peak player count that only happened once... gamers just weren't interested in this. [b][quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/quote][/b]Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying this game.

awesome concept, cool theme, I'm loving it!

It's not always a dance on roses clearing out rooms of murderous cyborgs when you have a crippled brain function yourself. That's part of the concept that Partial Control brings to the table. This game requires you to plan your next move, using the tools and weapons in order to kill other cyborgs and survive. The combat field generated is small but it's the environment that decides how the slaughter is carried out, making the simplistic gameplay fresh every time. It's normally not easy to win it at once but the quick setup makes Partial Control forgiving enough to encourage you to come back and think out a different tactic. Even the campaign mode helps to introduce the gameplay mechanics and lets in on its story with a dash of philosophy. Despite the addictive and refreshing gameplay, the content and scale of Partial Control does not justify the steep price of 21€. Try the demo, it brings a majority of the content to show its value, and wait for good sale! Update: Looks like its retail price has been reduced nearly 11€, which I find it to be fair for the experience it provides and that the devs gains more followers for future success.

not sure on the replayability, but enjoyed the initial play.

Far more clever than I originally expected, the puzzles revolve around setting an action and seeing the result of that action being executed. You regain control only when the current action is no longer valid, requiring some actions that you know you won't complete. Regaining control when the action is invalid can allow clever positioning. Additionally, a small number of points can be used to modify the situation, creating far more interesting situations than the simple system would seem to create.

A unique tactical puzzle game. Many funny moments when unpredicted behaviors happen. Highly recommended.

まだキャンペーンの序盤ですが、日本語のレビューがないので書いておきます。 ゲームの内容はXCOMシリーズとかにちょっと似た感じの非リアルタイムの戦略ゲームです。 「Partial Control」というタイトルの意味ですが、「次のイベント」が起こるまで自キャラが自動で動く、ということを指しています。例えば、近くに銃が落ちている場合に「銃を拾え」という指示を出すと、銃を拾うところまで自動で動き、銃を拾ったら時間が止まり、また次の指令が出せるようになります。もちろんその間に敵も動いていますから、銃を拾っている最中に撃たれるとなすすべもなく死にます。指示については「単なる移動」の指示はできず、武器を拾ったり敵を攻撃したりといった、何かしらの「具体的な行動」だけを指示できます（その結果として移動が発生します）。 また「次の行動」の指示以外で自キャラができることとして、物体をサイコキネシスで動かす、武器の装填状況などを変える、敵キャラをマヒさせるなど多彩なコマンドがあり、これらは俗にいうAPを消費してその場で即座に実行可能です。 これらのコマンド・指示を駆使して、イベント単位でしか指示できないという制約の中で、室内の全敵キャラを倒して生き残るとレベルクリアとなります。アクション性はなく、RTSではなくターン制に近い（敵も味方も同時に動くのでターン制とは違いますが）戦略ゲームだと言えます。 ちょっと遊んだ印象では、ターン制戦略ゲームの入門としてとても良くできているゲームだと思います。 部屋を順番に進んでいくのですが、新しい部屋に入るたびに装備はリセットされるので資源がジリ貧になることもなく、またどの部屋も概ね数回の指示・コマンドでクリアできますから、死んでやり直しになっても徒労感はありません。「移動」という指示ができないため、とれる指示の選択の幅がいい具合に絞られており、敵にやられた際に何をどうすれば状況が変えられるかわからない、といった事態にもなりにくいと思います。敵の行動パターンは単純かつロジカルで、「次に自キャラが操作可能になるまで」の間にどのように行動するかを、かなり正確に予想できます。ゲームの手触りとしては「詰将棋」のようでもあり、ローグライクダンジョンの「モンスターハウス」が戦略ゲームになったようでもあります。 キャンペーンモードだけでも80レベル以上あってまだまだ先が長いですが、それ以外にもローグライクなランダムルームで無限に遊べたり、自分でレベルデザインできたりとエンドコンテンツもしっかり用意されており、長く楽しめそうです。 ビジュアル的にも洗練されていますし、シンプルで奥の深い戦略シミュレーションに仕上がっていると思います。

This is a game that really surprised me! Didn't look like an inviting game to me, but boy I was wrong! Partial Control is a strategy game that somehow reminds me of the board game Robo Rally. You are a robot and your goal is to defeat the other robots and become the last survivor. So how is game play? Here is where this game really stands out. At the beginning of each level you can take your time and decide what your next move will be. You can either set the course for one of all different equipment or you can affect one or more things on the course (the stun one or more of the other robots, move platforms, add/remove bullets to weapons, set alarms on weapons and many many more things). To do this you use your (limited) energy. When selecting your move you can also see what the other robots are up to. Which weapon/equipment will they run for? Who will they target and try to kill? So because you always can see some information about what they are going to do, you can plan your move and make your strategy. After you decided what to do you click play and you see all the robots doing their actions until either you picked up the new piece of equipment, killed your target or something else happened that let you decide you next move. The genius thing about this game is that every level can be beaten in many different ways and after you learn what all the different equipment and other things you can affect works you can really have plenty of fun seeing how your evil master plan of killing the others play out. Summarized: Game play is you take your time to choose your action. Then every robot going according to their action. You choose new action (maybe running for a gun). Every robot do their actions simultaneously and then it continues like this. It's a little bit like "programming" your robot. Very fun puzzle/strategy game! Can definitely recommend it! Game modes is: Campaign (around 80 levels), Sandbox mode (create your own levels) and a rogue like mode (which is plenty of fun!) Don't let the graphics scare you from playing this strategic puzzle master piece!

I'm only 11 levels in at the time of writing this, but I'm enjoying it. The difficulty seems to be ramping up ok, for as far as I can tell this early into the game. It is fun and suitable to pick up casually, if you have a bit of time to kill. The semi-turn-based nature is interesting enough and on each decision-making-turn time is paused, so you can take as little or as much time thinking through your solution as you want. I would place this in a similar category as "Not the Robots!". Not because of the gameplay, but because it's easy to pick up with short levels and fast progression. So if you enjoy "Not the Robots!", you will probably enjoy this as well. As far as pricing goes; I got the game as part of a Humble Bundle. Not sure if that qualifies as getting it for free, but I certainly didn't pay the full retail price. I am also not sure I would have. Even though the full game can easily provide 30+ hours of gameplay.

Its enjoyable, another fun puzzle game. It has a Re-imagined layout compared to others. its always nice to stumble upon a game you didn't know you owned that turned out to be pretty decent Price for the game seems a little steep to me, but i believe the developer made an amazing game