Tactical Troops: Anthracite Shift

[h1]The Premise[/h1] [h3]This review contains no spoilers.[/h3] [b]Tactical Troops: Anthracite Shift[/b] (TT:AS) is a top-down, turn-based tactical shooter set in the far future, when mankind has already spread throughout the galaxy, with a vast network of colonies, outposts and stations. A squad of elite soldiers, the Tactical Troops, is deployed on planet Anthracite for an initially routine mission - that will go off the rails very soon however, and plunge them in a grim battle against overwhelming odds. [h1]Quick Sum-Up[/h1] [table] [tr] [th]🟩 [b]The Pros[/b][/th] [th]🟥 [b]The Cons[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] 1. Strategic gameplay that rewards planning and careful moves. 2. Immense variety of weapons, equipment, gadgets. 3. Good enemy and boss diversity across the story. 4. Extensive campaign, where most stages feel unique. [/td] [td] 1. Inconsistent enemy AI quality. 2. Several gear balance problems. 3. Disappointing final boss fight. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]🟨 [b]Bugs & Other Issues[/b][/th] [th]🔧 [b]PC Specs[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] - When retrying a mission, cutscenes can't be skipped. [/td] [td] - Ryzen 3900X - RTX 2080Ti - 32GB RAM - NvME SSD - 1440p Display [/td] [/tr] [/table] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2494666607 [h1]In-Depth Analysis[/h1] [h3]Pros[/h3] [b]1.[/b] TT:AS is first and foremost, a game about slow-paced moves, positioning and planning behind every step each team member takes. Despite its "top-down shooter-like" controls and camera, it's anything but that. The gameplay foundations are engineered to harshly punish those who recklessly throw their men into the fray, without paying attention to the surroundings or situation at hand. One bad move is all it takes to lose a teammate or even the entire squad. [b]2.[/b] SMGs, heavy machineguns, personal shields, mines, more drugs than a pharmacy - and that's only some! If players can think of it, Tactical Troops probably have it. Gained from optional "loot caches" in each mission, additional equipment greatly increases the team's tactical flexibility to different objectives. Combined with each squad member's unique abilities such as Support's medkits or Recon's thermal imaging, the system opens up to endless loadout possibilities. [b]3.[/b] From ruthless bandits to lethal, heavily armored war robots and vicious local fauna, there's no shortage of diverse foes on Anthracite. Most of them have different tactics, equipment, strengths and weaknesses to exploit, often requiring specific equipment or out-of-the-box approaches to combat. (most) Bosses are the crown jewels, with solid challenge and demanding tactical requirements to be overcome. [b]4.[/b] A great variety of situations is distributed along the 41 campaign missions. From hostage rescue to time-sensitive bomb defusal, cleaning hostiles from an area or crossing the wastelands full of lethal animals, the story really has it all. Many missions also have multiple factions fighting each other, and ways to exploit their relationship for the team's advantage. [h3]Cons[/h3] [b]1.[/b] Sometimes enemies (humanoid and robots in particular) will pull off feats that can leave anyone gobsmacked for their accuracy or cleverness. Truly impressive! However in other instances, foes will conclude unexplained moves, not use the opportunities presented at them, become easy targets or just not do their job at all. [b]2.[/b] Despite the enormous equipment variety, only relatively few weapons will result worth using once acquired. For instance, there is no reason in using any of the many grenades unlocked across the campaign, as the basic one will always be the best. The same goes for many other gear pieces: in truth, only few new ones will be serious upgrades over the "basic" selection. [b]3.[/b] The final boss is a huge bullet sponge that not only spams additional enemies endlessly, but also removes any tactical approach such as flanking, maneuvering and so on, by transforming the whole level into a "positioning puzzle". This grueling endeavor, can very well last hundreds of turns, slowly chipping away at the foe's health in a boring, repetitive cycle of run-and-gun. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2493624983 [h1]Gameplay Breakdown[/h1] [b]Preparation[/b] Is performed in a menu that displays each team member's weapons and secondary equipment. Any soldier can have up to two guns and three gear pieces which comprise consumables, devices and body armors. Only one suit per person though, for balance reasons. Some heavier equipment like armor or large weapons (such as heavy machineguns) will severely hinder a soldier's movement capacity, resulting in them spending more Action Points (AP) to move, compared to a lighter unit. Once unlocked, new gear is available permanently, free to equip to any unit member as one sees fit. [b]Exploration[/b] Is performed on foot, with each unit having 360° vision, thus immediately spotting enemies that have no obstacles hiding them (or cloaking...) - the same goes for enemies, although some of them cannot see past a certain range, while player units always can... a strange design decision. Exploring each level carefully is a must, not only to locate potentially hidden threats or opportunities to exploit, but also find the precious loot caches that will unlock new weapons and gear. Other than that, there isn't much else to look for while going around. Soldiers can be moved one at a time, using a baseline of 100 AP (can be extended with consumables) to both shoot and move. [b]Combat[/b] Is the gameplay core, and plays out in a turn-based fashion, where each side of the battle has its turn. Players will move all their soldiers in a phase, then the enemy turn will come, and they will move their units at that time, one by one. Even if combat is turn based, enemies will often fire back outside their turn thanks to the Overwatch mechanic, fundamental to counter movements and guard corners from which foes could attack. Depending on the weapon selected, firing it may cost a greater or lower number of AP, same goes for reloading and the eventual "Burst" mode some automatic guns have, that allows firing a huge amount of bullets for low cost (and low accuracy!). Each team member also has special skills with limited charges, like throwable medkits or a shoulder charge that can break destructibles instantly. In case a unit dies, it will be resurrected the next mission, as long as at least one team member accomplishes the objective. It can be said each mission is "standalone" in this aspect, as how it goes bears no consequences on the next one, as long as the jobs is done. Ammunition for guns is unlimited, everything else though is not, with most consumables having only one, or at best two charges. Using resources wisely and when most needed is recommended, as there will be no "refills" during a mission. Various damage types like Plasma, Fire, Kinetic and more will be available in the weapon roster, and each is best suited to counter specific enemy types. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2495647472 [h1]The Judgment: Very Good[/h1] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1989090445]Complete Ratings List here[/url] [i]It took me around 16 hours to complete the TT:AS campaign on Hard difficulty, after that for those interested there is PvP multiplayer. Replay value low, considering the linear nature of the main story. For the price of 12,50€ and very good quality, the amount of content is more than fair, so I can definitely suggest buying for full price.[/i] [quote]Follow our Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27077521]Turn Based Tactics (TBT)[/url] to see more great reviews.[/quote] [quote]Want to see even more reviews of the same quality? Check out [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39323490]Tamaster's Review Archive[/url].[/quote]

Jake and Elwood are tired today, but they just wanted to say "Rawhide" to Tactical Troops. It's good ol' fun, fairly unique gridless turn-based combat makes for some interesting positioning choices. It's not too deep at all, very straightforward, and the first boss was a pushover. He completely stopped moving and attacking me after two rounds, and I was able to defeat him without taking any more damage. Probably a bug. I told the developers but no patch for it yet. Hopefully the other bosses will be more of a challenge. Also - once I lost all control of the game. The game continued playing and I could select my dudes, but I could not give any orders, move them, or fire my weapons. I had to alt-F4 and restart. This only happened once so far. The game has way too many guns to find as loot (many are unnecessary and offer little difference from other guns) and not enough other type of gadgets to collect and equip. But, it's very enjoyable and satisfying when you figure out each mission. I think it's worth the price, and I'm glad I bought it.

There are some major balance issues in regard to game play difficulty. Even on the easiest playmode setting, some missions have required 7+ attempts to clear the stage. The A.I. is unforgiving and will gang-up on your weakest character. I deleted a play-though because I thought I had accidentally selected a much harder gameplay mode, and I'm no rookie to turn-based strategy games. The developers should look at their tuning. Fratricide is a major game design problem. If a weapon muzzle is anywhere near an allies character, your shooter will put rounds into that ally even if the weapon is not pointed at that character. This boils down to a poorly designed collision/proximity engine. This game needs a thick coat of polish before I would recommend to anyone.

Tactical Troops: Anthracite Shift is a sci-fi tactics game where the player controls a squad of four marines in turn based combat. Each marine has action points to move, shoot, use items, or activate overwatch. Enemies include Human bandits, robots and alien wildlife. On each mission you can find crates hidden inside buildings or caves containing new weapons or items, allowing you to customise each marine’s loadout between missions. There are lots of different weapons, although unfortunately I didn’t like most of them. In particular, every sniper rifle and shotgun has a clip size of 1 and it costs almost an entire turn’s action points to reload, meaning you can only fire those weapons every other turn. So I mostly just stuck to the assault rifle, which can consistently hit enemies on the other side of the screen anyway, and the plasma rifle, whose projectiles can hit multiple enemies in a line. The other items your marines can use include armours of various sizes which increase health but reduce movement range, an energy shield to block hits from in front, a cloaking device if you want to try using stealth, adrenaline to restore action points, a medkit, and proximity mines. There are a few different grenades, but I didn’t like using them mostly because the method of aiming, where you have to click and drag in the opposite direction to set the power of the throw, feels much less precise than it should be. Most enemies have ranged attacks, and the AI is pretty good even on medium difficulty, especially using overwatch and shooting your marines through teleporters (bullets continue travelling after being teleported), so its important to end turns behind solid objects like walls, rocks and plants. Fortunately you can win a mission with only one marine still alive and everybody else will respawn for the next mission. Sometimes different enemy groups will attack each other, so you can use the distraction to either flank them or just run for the extraction point. The story is okay, but there’s no voice acting, and cutscenes are limited to still pictures. It took me just over 10 hours to complete the campaign and I didn’t have any bugs or crashes. Overall Tactical Troops: Anthracite Shift is an average quality game. If you’re interested in the gameplay I’d recommend picking it up on sale.

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [i]Tactical Troops: Anthracite Shift[/i] is an old-school tactical turn-based strategy game where you lead a group of soldiers from one level to the next facing various enemies on the planet Anthracite. The singleplayer campaign has a story, and is of reasonable length (approximately 15-20 hours) and there is also online multiplayer available as well. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The game starts off with a good tutorial where you will learn everything you need to know to get playing. With 3 difficulty levels, the game is accessible and you can also keep replaying levels if you need to do so. Often you might find that redoing levels is ideal for getting the items from those levels. You can then take them to subsequent levels once you find them. The game is very strategic, and the tactical component features free movements around a gridless map. Often you might find that waiting in areas of good coverage might be better than jumping out at first opportunity. Seeing what your enemies will do can help shape your plan for the rest of that level. The battles are turn-based with limited number of action points. These can be used however you wish, move, attack, or attack multiple times, etc. The objectives are always clear, so you will not be wondering what to do from level to level. Plus the levels are not too long, so replaying can be fun as well to try other strategies. [h1]Graphics[/h1] It has a top-down old-school look. It looks fine for trying to maintain that old-school look and feel though it's not particularly noteworthy. [h1]Music & Sounds[/h1] The music fits the game, but after a while it might be too much of the same. [h1]Controls[/h1] This game can be fully played with a mouse (and a keyboard). [h1]Pricing[/h1] In my opinion is €12.49 a fair price. The game offers enough gameplay to justify its price [h1]Gameplay Video[/h1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsSEpOinlqk [h1]Verdict[/h1] It is a very good game and not too easy of one. I have been playing mostly on easy and normal. The levels are not too long and so it can be fun to replay them to find better strategies and to also get the items from those levels. I ended up redoing a bunch of levels for those purposes. Overall I like the game in what I have seen so far, and plan to come back to it to complete it some day. Verdict: 7.5/10 [quote]I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.[/quote]

all weapon feels the same, smg, assult rile, shotgun. all is so balance that u dont need to change weapon at all. nothing can beat the very first assult rile.

I commend the attempt to update the tacticool planning similar to the "ancient" original RS6 titles, but god forbid you manage to do something a turn sooner than the dev thought you ought to or could; in this overscripted, undertested little adventure, your reward will (on a number of occasions) be an indefinite enemy turn.

Kinda just boring. It's often not so much tactical as learning where the enemies are going to come from. Sometimes you repeat SP missions multiple times as you learn what you need to do and in what order. Usually there's no time pressure either. Position troops, engage a mob group one at a time.

Well crafted single player campaign. Finished a run-through on normal difficulty in 16hrs - I imagine getting the same again on hard. Not even attempted MP yet as the SP campaign is good. Difficulty scales nicely throughout the 40+ missions. A good & polished effort.

I played a couple of missions, it does not seem very tactically flexible - just walk and shoot with occasional overwatch. No depth at all.