USC: Counterforce

This game is real good, but, why do I have 2 dozen stash size when I must micro 1 thousand items? I will change after some QOL patch.

There is a lot to like about this game, but there are 2 fundamental problems. 1) You fight aliens, gather resources and upgrade your gear but then what? Nothing- you just do that again over and over. 2) Resources are scarce. No matter how well you do on missions, you are likely going to be able to refill your ammo and not much more. Unless you use the weakest weapons and gear in the game, but even then the rewards are just enough to keep your team going and maybe upgrade a piece of gear every so often. As such, this is a rat race. Kill ♥♥♥♥. Recover. Kill ♥♥♥♥. Seems like they could have done a lot more with this.

This game is something I really want to be able to defend because it has interesting concepts and execution, but it's UI and design provides the user with a very poor experience. The tutorial is linear-locked and provides fairly little - It seems more like a little story exposure than a user introduction, especially since it only scratches the surface and under vastly different conditions than the game will actually provide - When a tutorial takes 30 min and provides around half a dozen enemies, the expectation for a not drastical increment in difficulty for ones first mission. Starting the campaign up, you start with a bunch of soldiers with semi-random skills that make little sense (Which you can reset but once and you'll want to create proper dedicated roles rather than the halfcooked jack'off'alls) <.< Few weapons are ammo effective so you also start out with a massive ammo defecit - But the game also refrains from warning you that if you spend any currency, you will not be able to afford dropping a base early on which you propably want to do.... Speaking of currency, even if you have items in stock, do not obey the tutorial and use right-click to quick-equip weapons / equip since that always results in a buy, ignoring even the greatest pile of unused gear you have in stock in favor of wasting req points. The game is also very silent about such things like mission timers, my very first defeat I finally found the computer I was to get a HDD from only to be defeated for a complete loss next turn as apparently I only had 25 turns to finish the mission. The encylopedia presents a very different, presumably earlier release UI, or perhaps a different game mode - It's tutorial segments are split pretty haphazrdly, some only a page and other segments a small essay worth of reading. I was hoping the mixed reviews would be because people tend to be unforgiving but the game presents a very poor user experience due to unclear information output, a harsh UI and a massive amount of manual input that should be automatic in a modern title, even with retro design. Overwatch as it is commonly known, defense mode in this game, for example can be a hassle simply because it has been coded as an individual character state rather than all units being able to 'reactive fire' whatever AP they have left after end turn. Pretty much every action on the map has an invidual button and hotkey spread out across the interface when an action wheel would had performed much better. The turn timer being hidden away is one of the biggest crimes since not only do people detest working on the clock but it's tucked away and unseen rather than a center-screened "Turn 1 of 25" like even 90's games did it... There's a lot of story and potentially interesting systems to this game but since, after 8 hours, I have yet to finish a single mission - I join the many quitters since wrestling the complex lock on this book can hardly prove worth it. I will hope the game might get a redesign, with a pretty hefty redesign of the UI elements I'm quite certain the gameplay loop could become very enjoyable.

Русский текст: Игра может и прикольная, как любителю серии игр XCOM мне зашла, но без русского языка запомнить так много информации я не могу... Прошу, разработчики, добавьте русский язык. Мне кажется, всем людям, которым удобнее играть с русским языком, скажут вам спасибо. Так ещё и игра более высокий спрос получит. Лично мне без русского некомфортно. ------------------------------------------ English text: Russian Russian may be fun, as a fan of the XCOM series of games, I've come across it, but I can't remember so much information without Russian... Please, developers, add Russian. I think all the people who are more comfortable playing with the Russian language will thank you. So the game will also receive a higher demand. Personally, I'm uncomfortable without Russian.

Think I would be more drawn into the game if I got to recruit and setup my team. When you start with so many team members the game simply becomes a Spread Sheet, and then it simply is not that interesting.

I keep coming back to USC but it still needs a serous balance pass, please make all non-story missions only 2 stage levels at most, or even better the Data Recovery missions could easily be only 1 stage, having to fight through 3 stages/levels for every mission is exhausting, i don't want to play the equivalent of an XCOM Alien Base Assault for every mission i attempt :) this would also help balance the ammo economy, which even on normal difficulty is either, go bankrupt burning through expensive aoe ammo, or die using cheap ammo. Lastly have the difficulty rating of a mission be the "maximum" number of enemies you can face, so that RNG can decide whether you're fighting through a full house this mission or things are eerily empty/give the player a break, having to fight the same swarm size of enemies every stage of every mission just adds to the burn out and exhaustion, even better, why not have enemies spawn into the level in waves, that way you could even get rid of the mission timers., so the "timer" is a soft limit not a hard limit. Right now, because of the consistently overwhelming number of enemies AND consistent 3 stages per missions, i just get burnt out, please add more variety in mission length and enemy numbers. Other wise, love it :)

I gave this game a reall chance, but i t was in the end not whorth. It is not only bad UI, but: bad game play - after 28h i still have problem with throwing items on ground, not going in to defense mod, not knowing if my solider will shoot in defense mod. There are two tipes of curency for some reason oh and crafting. storage is very limited. We do not get any info abaout what we get when we deconstruct item, or what we get from missions. bad optymalization - game work so slow I turn off every thing and still it work badly. if map have water on ground it will be even worse. bad balance - every one is spung every one have a lots of ap and enemys can cross half map to bite you and there is nothng you can do it abaout except load turn and with knowledge from where they will come put your soliders to defense. Scaner could help with it but it range is limited and enemys can walk miles just to bite you. Standart ammono is just bad, do not use it. bio tranqiualizer is the best and napalm. boring missions - I played 28 h and i was able to finish like 6 missions, one defend and one extrarminate aliens. For 28 h I was rushing, after spending first 4h on first mission with just one squad(I didn't know that i can have more), i made it alaive. All missions it just kill all, some times with bring item. all mission have 3 faze(except extermiation and defend base). Faze one - in time kill all enter lift Faze two - open door from lift and discover that half of enemies is next to door, have like 8 to 9 turns where you will just genocide aliens, oh and your most usless or hurt solders will be up front, have fun Faze tree- the same as faze two but you have less time. Did I mention that every alien will know where you are and will go out his way to bite you. I could give it thumbs up if developers was still working on it but, development is close and this game will never be better. No idea in this game redeame all failure. TLDR: this game is worst then my grammar

Did you hire vim developers to create an interface for your game? What is even that "Toggle item pickup" feature? How could any sane person even think of that instead of just clicking on the loot box / using default action key? Left / Right mouse button interactions are completely messed up. Your game interface designer seriously needs to visit a psychologist. It should be: left click to select, right click to move / open menu (when used on items), like everywhere else - its a standard. No one ever will struggle to remember your weird "shift+right click" combinations, no. one. ever. even you don't remember them. Also what is that in-game music? Was that made by the same vim developers in 1970? Have you ever heard about AI generated music? It is free and creates tracks that sound 999 billion times better than the 3 repeating notes that some genius somehow managed to create and added as a "music" to the game. The good things though, is that the game: - Uses WASD to move the camera by default - Has the option to set animation speed to zero. (which any turn based game must have) I don't know if I want to recommend this game or not, lets start from not and update later.

💬 A title for tactics fans – not a one-sitting game After 84 hours of gameplay – sometimes in quick 30-minute bursts, sometimes in longer sessions between daily duties – I can confidently say this game met my expectations. I was looking for something that didn't demand deep immersion in story, but still offered engaging, thoughtful gameplay – and that’s exactly what I got. So far, I've tried two of the game's modes: single missions and operations. I'm looking forward to check out the rest of the content as well – "defend the base" and the campaign. ➕ Pros: Excellent tactical depth – more layered than the most of modern tactical games. Every turn demands careful decisions: who holds the line, who provides cover, who falls back to regroup. Dynamic turns – your units can do a lot in a single turn, but every choice matters. Misjudging a situation can quickly lead to a red-screen ending. Flexible difficulty settings – from chill to challenging, where every action point counts. Easy to get into – even though there are plenty of stats and numbers, you don’t need to master them all to enjoy the game. AI can surprise you – it’s not always predictable. Sometimes it pulls back units, but usualy it punishes overextension mercilessly. ➖ Cons: Retro visuals – charming but poorly optimized. Lowering the settings barely changes how it looks, but improves performance significantly. Atmosphere is initially intriguing, but gets overshadowed by the tactical gameplay – which isn’t a bad thing, just a shift in focus. 🎯 Summary: This is a strong choice for fans of turn-based strategy who enjoy tactical challenges. There's no room for reckless rushing – you need to play defensively, cautiously, most of the time carving your way through relentless mass of enemies. Demanding but fair, this game is great for both quick sessions and extended play. If you love tactical thinking – this is a must-play.

My thumbs up represents me liking the game more than me recommending that you buy it. USC: Counterforce has the tag of difficult, but as others have said there should be a tag for tedious. The devs really wanted you to have full control, and in some ways it works, but what sucks is when you have have to equip 12 plus soldiers, without the help of presets or anything. The prep time to get into a mission is almost as long as some of the missions are., It even crashes on my AMD powered handheld as well. Aside from that the game likes to crash at the end of missions or less frequently at the conclusion of the round on occasion, I really have not had too many other problems, I enjoy the settings, mission types and the intensity, to a point the tedious parts work for me as I am used to tedious tasks in life. I understand why a lot of people would be turned off by this game, I think I appreciate the effort even if it can be frustrating at time.