Ultimate Space Commando

This game is excellent. It's not entirely perfect, but even then what few mistakes it makes are primarily in the UI, the writing and the walls of text in the tutorial, they all manage to feed that nostalgic, retro feel. Everything else fits in perfectly. Creatio 39 has managed to create an old fashioned turn based tactical game, keeping all the things we used to love while not being a slave to it. The game has learned from the mistakes of previous generations, built upon them, and it tells. The balance of the game feels solid. It can be a little jarring to newcomers to see that even the easiest enemies can take several rounds and plenty of ammo to kill, but it serves to create a surprisingly frantic and intense experience -- even when you can take all the time in the world. The enemies are always crashing down on you, your ammo is always in limited supply, and the battlefield is in constant motion. The battlefield, on that note, is a fantastic part of the game. It's incredibly dynamic. When the enemies can't reach you, they'll chew through crates, barrels doors and walls to get to you. Holding them off requires not only plenty of situational awareness. You'll need to watch the walls, look for cracks, identify which ones are the closest to collapsing. But more than that, both you and the enemy can partake in a bit of area denial tactics. Some of the monsters when killed will leave behind patches of radiation. Stepping into those will give you a long lasting damage-over-time effect that'll tick your health down every turn. On the flip side, you've got kerosene on your side. Not only can you push and pull barrels around, you can actually drain them into your inventory, then splash them onto the ground. You can coat hallways and rooms in this flammable liquid - and it'll do exactly what you think. However, keeping them in the barrels lets you shoot and set off a single point, dealing extra damage. That, however, means pushing and pulling it into position. Crates of ammo can be another terrific tool. You can use them to get a full clip of ammo into your currently held weapon, or as improvised explosives. These can be extremely powerful against groups of enemies, it's just the question of how badly you want the ammo it holds. With all these different elements going on, it's no surprise that when fire gets mixed in, things get frantic. Suddenly your soldiers have to dance between walls of flame, puddles of radiation and the enemies themselves, all the while having to worry about setting off any remaining explosives and crumbling walls. The game is hard, but it never feels like you've been cheated when something goes wrong. The balance is fair. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do it gives you a very rewarding experience. This is a game that rewards you for being able to adapt to different situations, for being able to recover control when things go wrong and for knowing when to give up and fall back. For any fan of turn based tactics, I recommend this game heartily.

[b]Short Version:[/b] Ultimate Space Commando is a turn-based tactical rpg/strategy game that is completely old school in both good and bad ways: unique, intricate game mechanisms with lots of meat, but also extremely slow-moving and unforgiving gameplay. If you find yourself enjoying it, I believe you could easily get dozens (or hundreds) of hours out of this game. Conversely, it could easily take you dozens (or hundreds) of hours to try and get your enjoyment out of this game, which modern gamers may not have the patience for. Likely you will either love it or hate it - this is a niche game to the extreme. Ultimate Space Commando is a massive game stuffed to the brim with a large campaign and tons of content in the other game modes along with richly complex gameplay mechanisms supporting them. The developer clearly has put much love and effort into this project, which shows both in the game as well as their online presence - they appear to be extraordinarily active and helpful in the forums as well as the enormous (and necessary) online guide for the game. In the game, you take your squad of Ultimate Space Commandos into the depths of a harrowing alien world, inhabited by countless hostile aliens that bear a striking resemblance to... well, 'Alien'. The dark, foreboding atmosphere lit only by your active scanners and field of vision sets a perfect stage for your wary approach into the unknown, where monsters may suddenly swarm you or even start chewing through the walls to get to your tasty team. The gameplay itself is rather enjoyable, with every action needing to be carefully planned out to best make use of your extremely limited action points, ammo, randomly obtained gear, and the uniquely developed skill-sets of your party. Alas, with all these wonderful things going for it, I still cannot recommend the game in its current state. As much as I want to like Ultimate Space Commando... the game feels like an Early Access version to me, rather than a fully finished product. This is mainly due to the incredibly slow pacing of the game and the presence of at least one gamebreaking bug. Turn-based strategy games are usually slow by design, as you must plan out every single movement to efficiently win battles. However, with 4 separate characters, each with many actions per turn - and dozens of enemies on screen with the same - battles in Ultimate Space Commando can last for aaaages. The painful inventory management slows down the action even more, as four distinct 9-slot inventories must be carefully arranged and rearranged with all the scraps and items you find. As for the bugs... let me set the stage. Imagine that you are a member of an undergeared and overwhelmed elite fighting squad, who has found a brief respite from the action by jamming into a tiny elevator car only big enough for the 4 of you. [i] The tension builds as the transport creeps down to what may very well be your doom. As the doors finally open, acid-drooling alien monstrosities swarm you from all directions, and you bust out the big guns, fighting through the endless swarm for hours. You slowly go through your extra inventory, throwing grenades and popping medkits, and the end seems to be in sight. BUT THEN, aliens break through the wall near your poor, weaksauce technician, swarming him unexpectedly. A messy death follows shortly after. As you prepare to enter the afterlife... lo and behold you instead find yourself BACK in the elevator, jammed into a tiny car only big enough for the 4 of you. The tension builds as the transport creeps down to what may very well be your doom. As the doors finally... wait, what? The doors won't open???? EVER???? You mean.... we're stuck in this elevator for eternity, with no other save points to go back to???? Nooooooooooooooooooooo! [/i] Yup. That happened. In a very long game that relies on a single auto-save to keep the feeling that your past actions matter (*see edit*), gamebreaking bugs like this can be pretty frustrating. I also experienced a couple of game crashes on loading levels (although my save files were still fine in those instances). From the forums, it appears things like crashes and unending levels have happened to others as well, though not frequently and the developer seems very quick to patch them out. --[b](EDIT:[/b] *The developer pointed out that players can enable an option that allows an extra backup save. I would highly recommend this, even with the in-game restriction of having your campaign labeled as a 'training drill'.) The campaign's narration could also use that final bit of polish that takes it to the level of a $20 game. The story of the game seems rather well done, but... the actual words used to convey the story? Not so much. While reading sentences that sometimes lack punctuation or need to be rearranged to make sense does have its own special retro charm, putting the game script into the hands of an editor would probably be a good idea. This mild lack of editing just adds to the feel that the game hasn't quite made it to the final release (though to be fair, this can easily be overlooked in favor of the incredibly deep gameplay). In the end... I still see huge potential in this game, and strategy fans may find endless hours of entertainment in USC's immense, immersive world - especially with the outstanding community events the developer has hosted. If this were an Early Access title I would definitely give it a thumbs up...however, I just can't bring myself to fully recommend it as a finished product. I wholeheartedly hope that Ultimate Space Commando will do well and keep getting patched to smooth out the experience, but right now you may need to be a very patient gamer to get the most out of this so-close-to-amazing game. [quote]Received a free copy for testing/reviewing purposes. [/quote]

This is a tactical squad game in the mould of classics like Rebelstar (if you're old enough to remember that), Laser Squad and XCOM or, more recently, Halfway. It doesn't perhaps expand on them a great deal. You do the usual of equipping your squad with a range of weaponry and other equipment, finding upgrades, crafting materials and protoypes to get better weaponry, whilst gunning down aliens en masse on te tactical map. A game doesn't really need to expand on something like Laser Squad to be good fun. And this is mostly true of USC. Killing aliens seems to be a case of expending huge amounts of ammo; clicking lots of times for low-cost shots that knock of relatively small amounts of health. This gives the game a certain attractive aesthetic I quite like of marines pouring vast quantities of lead at hordes of aliens. On the other hand, it also takes quite a lot of time and makes it seem like a bit of a grind. Aliens explode into blood splats (often toxic radioactive blood that is dangerous to step into), and the playing area rapidly fills up. Preparation is a big part of USC: you have to make sure you go into a level with the right weapons, equipment and enough ammo, otherwise you'll be in trouble. However, USC is rather a mess. The UI is undoubtedly clumsy. Sure, you'll learn to navigate it at least reasonably smoothly, but it should be better. Everything is graphically cluttered: the interface, the levels which are totally full of stuff and frequent narrow corridors (reminiscent of Space Hulk). I find the procedurally drawn levels have annoying bugs: corridors without access except by destroying walls; once my marines arrived into a level and the start room opened straight into half a dozen crates blocking the passageway that I had to destroy before I could go anywhere. I'm not sure how well worked many levels are: some listed the resistance as "low" and yet my squad of four ended up permanently swarmed by aliens (aliens can spawn: no matter how many I killed, there seemed to still be another 40 left) until I ran out of ammo and/or medkits. Unless the mission is some sort of hold out as long as possible (and it wasn't), this is more tedious than it is fun. In the end, I think USC is a significantly flawed and slightly frustrating game that falls well short of what it could have been, and in some ways less fun than its stylistic ancestors. Nevertheless, if you like this sort of Laser Squad type of game, you'll find something to enjoy, and it has some promise that I hope the developers build on. It is with these caveats and the modest price tag I just about recommend it; I would be far less forgiving were it more expensive.

An interesting game with some intense combat and roguelike dead system. You command 4 customizable squads of four marines with the usual skills: weapon skills / first aid / reaction / health / stamina(AP) and dying is dying. There is also equipment upgrading via new weapons / prototype weapons and modding. + There is research through which you probably proceed through the game .. not far enough to be sure yet. Definitely worth a try!

This is what I would call a very good turn-based tactical sci-fi squad combat CRPG. There's a fair amount to absorb at first, and when I first saw the battle maps it took a while to absorb, but it soon became natural and made sense. The combat similarly seemed very chaotic at first (especially when I jumped right into a one-off single mission with hordes of weird aliens - I tried to hide in my elevator but they started eating through the walls and electrocuting me and who knows what. But then I started the campaign and tutorial scenario and it was nice and slow and full of skippable explanations and things made sense from there out. Now there is still often all sorts of chaos, but it makes sense and I get what's going on even when monsters are eating through nearby walls and chain reactions of fuel and ammunition are ripping through a base and setting monsters on fire who go running away while other types come creeping in, etc... It has most of the things I want in such a game, including many that are fairly hard to find all in one game: * A campaign where you can manage your squad, trying to keep them alive through many battles, see them improve through experience and adjust their equipment and so on. * Enough challenge and risk and permadeath, and no expectation to savescum/replay when things go wrong. * More or less fully destructable environment, where missed shots and violence damage everything - walls and doors and objects, accidental "friendly" fire, etc. * Tactics that mostly make sense and arise naturally from simulating the situation in ways that mostly make sense, with overwatch, use of cover and doors, a variety of weapon effects and skills, etc. * Interesting, meaningful, and logical choices both at the tactical level and between missions. * Freedom to try various approaches, as far as weapons and tactics, but also taking time to rest and repair at the risk the aliens will come after your base, etc. * In the campaign, you manage 16 men but only use one or two squads per mission, so you can choose who to send on attacks, who to leave behind resting or doing repairs, and whether to try to get experience for the greener people or not. * Nice relative absence of contrived scenarios and hoops to jump through, compared to some games. More of a chaotic simulation feel, which I like, though also with a fun/gamey/dark-humorous flavor. * Details of ammo/equipment management, but not too much. One great thing I didn't expect is the Defend The Base mode, which lets you set up a base and try to defend it against increasingly stronger waves of aliens, with damage details (including spilled fuel and acid and so on) being carried over, and limited resources to repair or re-arrange things, and an option to retreat rather than hold once the position seems untennable. Nice! Also, the game is still in development and the developer is listening and adding some things that players have asked for, which is awesome, and in my very long experience with games, is what makes for the best games. For example, one thing that was jarring to me was the firing arcs of some weapons, which were limited during one's own turn to firing along straight or diagonal grid lines, which the developer had an interesting intention for doing, but which seemed unnatural to me (in contrast to the way most of the rest of the game works in ways I would expect, in nice detail, in fact). Turns out in response to player comments, they are working for an option to not do that, for players who don't want it, which may be in the next patch. Sweet! I have a few gripes but nothing major. The odd firing arcs of some weapons was probably my biggest nitpick. The looting and inventory manipulation can be a bit fiddly but it hasn't bothered me too much yet, and I quite appreciate all the detail and choices. I could even wish it were more fiddly, as I find the recycler and manufacturing of new items during the campaign is very generous and I'd be interested to have to make do more with what I find. (Though without the recycler/manufacturer the lack of storage slots would become an issue.) Mainly I'd just like more of the same. I expect I will eventually have had enough for a while and wish for another campaign, but for now I'm happily hooked. Anyway, I quite recommend Ultimate Space Commando!

[b]Templar Battleforce[/b]や[b]Halfway[/b]によく似たSFテーマのRPG要素のある小隊ベースのターン制タクティカルストラテジー。 キャンペーンにランダム要素 (Roguelikeではない) があり、リニアな進行&デザインが固定されたマップの上記2作と比べ新鮮さやリプレイ性の面で大きく勝る。 さらに防衛ミッションのモードや条件を設定してランダムシードからマップを生成して遊ぶシングルミッションモードもあり、オンラインマルチも対応という事で様々な形態でのプレイが可能。 特筆すべきはプレイヤーは4人の兵から成る小隊を予備枠を含め4チーム保持し、各ミッションで複数の小隊を用いて多角的に攻略できる事。(現在キャンペーンのみ) 兵はプリメイド (リネーム及びポートレ変更可) ながらも小隊毎の特性付けや兵の育成方針、そして運用はプレイヤー次第で、バラエティに富んだ展開が望める。 また、マップ上の壁などのオブジェクトの破壊が可能で、同系の近作でもこうした初代X-Comの環境システムと同等の実装を実現した作品が殆ど無く、地形効果の変化＝戦況変化によるライブ性の高さも見逃せないポイント。 重厚なプレイを好むプレイヤー、もしくはPT制、タクティカル、ターン制という条件にピンとくるプレイヤーならば間違い無く買いの一作。 追記： ①Workshopには対応していないが、Modフレンドリーな造りで兵のポートレイトや小隊のエンブレムをゲーム内の機能で自作のものに簡単に差し換えられる。 ポートレイトは115ｘ200、エンブレムは192ｘ192 (画像部分を180ドット角程度に収めておくと表示枠からはみ出さない) のサイズでどちらもTGAフォーマットで作り、それぞれ適当な名前を付けてゲームフォルダのdata_user/以下、custom_portraitsとcustom_logosに置き、ベースメニューの"View Roster"で変更したい兵士のポートレイトかエンブレムをクリックしてファイル名を入力して"OK"をクリックすれば適応される。また、チームや兵士の名もロースター内の表示部分をクリックすれば変更できる。 ②個人制作のゲームだが、作者は意欲的にユーザーの声を聞き更新を続けている。これといったバグも無く、多段階の難易度設定やオンライン対応は勿論、オプションで解像度やUIサイズの変更やウインドウ化、ホットキーのアサインなど痒い所に手が届く設定が可能で、上記のMod要素への対応ぶりも含め現代のゲームとして見て実にソツが無く好印象。

Steamified » Indie Spotlight » Ultimate Space Commando: Turn-based Tactics in Space Ultimate Space Commando: Turn-based Tactics in Space BY STEAMIFIED APRIL 12, 2016 INDIE SPOTLIGHT Indie Spotlight: Ultimate Space Commando Indie Spotlight: Ultimate Space Commando Developer Creatio 49 Publisher Angry Cat Ltd. Release Date 13 May, 2015 Genre Indie, RPG, Strategy, Turn-based Tactics Official Website Twitter Facebook Steam STEAMIFIED IN A NUTSHELL Ultimate Space Commando marks the Steam debut of Creatio 49. It’s a turn-based tactics game that has been set in the era of early interstellar colonization. You’re looking at a small indie team’s attempt to enter the same genre as the XCOM franchise among others. Somewhat surprisingly their take on the genre is more polished and enjoyable than I thought that it was going to be. Similar to other games within the genre, players have the opportunity to customize four-troop squads with weapons, ammunition and tools. While the core of the gameplay is turn-based there is a well implemented RPG-style management system. There is a lengthy campaign mode which I have yet to complete but I can tell you that it is immersive and is soundly designed. The basis of the campaign is controlling the fate of the crew of the U.S.C. ship Wraith which is a recon vessel stranded on an isolated mining planet. It’s your a typical first contact scenario that, of course, poses the greatest risk to the survival of humanity. There are over thirty missions – of varying length – within the campaign – so to suggest that there are many hours worth of content within the campaign alone would be considered an understatement. A fantastic touch by the developers was making the combat environment fully interactive. What this feature actually does is enable a superior level of strategy than would otherwise be possible. The interactive environments work hand in hand with the deep combat mechanics and squad management tools. Incorporated into the combat system are four statistics that are all of significant importance – health, morale, action points and armor as well as nine attributes that have essentially been stripped from an RPG game. The amount of weapon types (18) and gadgets (30+) help make the game one of the deepest strategy games that I’ve ever played. It all works exceedingly well and although it may lack the polish of an XCOM it is well and truly worth your time if you are in any way enamored with the genre. If you’re not then the earlier levels will serve as a great learning tool for the game. Of course, there are further game modes beyond the campaign including defend the base and an almost limitless single mission structure where the size of the map, difficulty, player handicaps, the objectives and more are all able to be customized. My personal favorite game mode, even ranking it ahead of the great campaign, is the defend the base mode. In this mode you have to build your base while incorporating resource management and survive wave after wave of alien attacks. There are trading cards to be harvested and multiplayer availability. Unfortunately the developers are yet to incorporate Steam achievements into their game but their definitely is the potential of them being added. In regards to the multiplayer game there was a season one competitive mode. Season two is being planned but the developers are hoping to get a larger player base so that they can make that even more challenging and engaging than the exciting first season. I’m certain that Lt. Commander Bozdo will be back to defend his crown. Ultimate Space Commander is one of the deepest games that we’ve covered to date. I’m certain that I’ve only just scratched the surface of what is available to players and as such Steamified wholeheartedly recommends it. For more reviews and our popular giveaways please visit [url=http://www.steamified.com]Steamified.com[/url].

Ultimate Space Commando Ultimate Space commando is a great game in its own right, but nagging flaws keep it from achieving the truly brilliant mark. It is a game designed for pure strategy fans like myself taking ideas from games like XCOM. Ultimate Space Commando gives you a squad to play around with just like XCOM. Your squad members have landed in a hostile territory which seems to be crawling around with aliens of all sorts. The story in USC is pretty generic considering the theme and there are few meaningful choices in the midst of the campaign. The campaign itself is pretty lengthy and is a blast to play through. It is told through written dialogues instead of cutscenes which is understandable. Various ways to handle a situation come as a shining star in the gameplay. There are various choices and tactics based on your squad, weapons etc. It also has a permadeath system for your squad members if you notch the difficulty up a bit. You manage 16 members throughout the campaign from which you can select whom to take on the mission and who will stay back and look after your base. There is even a surprisingly fun Defend your base where you set up a base and try to defend it from the increasingly difficult hoard of aliens. Another thing USC gets right is the environmental backdrop set up for your battles. It sets the mood right for the one more turn fights and also gives a sense of dread for your squad. Deep customization and depth in characters are all present in USC The gameplay of USC is very fun but what lets it down is the amount of bugs present throughout the game. Frequent crashes and screen freezes also are very common. The amount of bugs present makes it feel like a beta test or an unchecked game of some kind. That’s a real same though as the original game present beneath all those bugs is really great. I am surprised at how a game as good as USC is still not known to the majority of the people even an year after its release. This is what we call a hidden gem in steam libraries. This review is part of the Steamified Community Review program. For similar reviews and fantastic giveaways please visit http://www.steamified.com/.

Aliens 2 vibe. "The Walls, there coming out a the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ walls, argh.." Also the legions of folks who enjoyed the old Jagged Alliance and Xcom games would find much to like in this game

Demanding and full of tactical options! The top down view is clean and allows to make informed decisions, while the AP system provides actual freedom compared to the "move-shoot" standard of many other games. Don't expect to save the world though. The game is tough and unforgiving, x-com of old type of punishment, but it does it well. I had fun getting eaten by aliens, burnt by friendlies or even blown up by what used to be my cover ^^ I also enjoyed Unit progression and skills, when i was able to keep my crew alive :)