Beginning this week Awkward Mixture
was going to start running down the list of games I've played this
year: Dominia, Ultimate General: Civil War/Gettysburg,
and Banner Saga 2, along with a look at the professional scene
of Defense of the Ancients 2.
But yesterday an unusual event
occurred: I received a request to review a game. And not just any
game, but an updated version of the much reviled Star
Tactics, now called Star
Tactics Redux.
In the interest of disclosure, the
creator, Alexey
Uslavtsev, kindly posted a comment on both my
Steam account and my blog. Below is a screen shot of the request:
The first error of the original, the story was nearly non-existent, and appallingly awful. That's still true, but as I said last year, it's a fault one can overlook if Redux succeeds in other aspects of execution.
The second error: there were
ostentatiously four gameplay sections, when there were only one or
two depending on a reviewer's generosity (Campaign Regular, Campaign
Dogfight, Skirmish Regular, and Skirmish Dogfight). The redone Redux
contains three sections: Campaign, Skirmish, and Expeditions. The
Campaign has been vastly improved, by allocating a credit amount, and
allowing the player to purchase whichever ships they have unlocked
for each battle. If one set of ships doesn't work, the player can
try another combination to achieve victory. Though this is called a
campaign, the ships and credits do not carry over from level to
level, but are refreshed for each scenario. The length of the
campaign is still 30 levels, but it appears entirely redone, and much
better for it, with a more diverse selection of situations. I played
the entire campaign again (but didn't replay levels to earn three
stars), and it required about four hours.
Finally, there's Expeditions. This is
the most complex gamemode of Star Tactics Redux, and
includes 50 stages of battle. Like Campaign and Skirmish, the player
begins with access to only a few ships, with the improved varieties
only available as the player earns experience. Once unlocked, ships
can then be purchased by the player. Purchased ships are stored in
the Hanger, and can be used in the battles. If they are killed, the
player will need to purchase more. Expeditions is more like a
campaign than Campaign, because ships carry over from one battle to
the next, and losing an expensive ship is injurious. At each of the
fifty stages, the player is able to choose a battle of the
appropriate
difficulty:
blue (quite easy),
yellow (medium), and red (tough). When a player wins a battle they
earn experience, credits, and move onto the next stage with a
slightly stronger enemy. Each time the player can pick their level
of difficulty. At each stage there is also a battle choice called
Grind, and labeled in green (g is for grinding and greenery), and can
be played repeatedly without advancing the Stage. In Grind, players
don't earn experience to unlock new ship models, but do earn credits
to purchase more of the ships they've already unlocked.
In the
largest battles of Expedition, the player can field fifteen of their
ships, but will only be able to control the first six. Any ship
beyond the sixth is controlled by the AI as an ally. Though one may
find it disappointing they are allowed to control only a few of the
ships, these are the largest battles available in Redux.
But while
Expeditions is fun, there's a disappointing flaw. Expedition is DLC,
for the admittedly low price of $5. Money is a complicated thing to
judge when playing a game, and most of the time I avoid talking about
it. I only buy $60 games when they are on sale for $15 or less, $40
games are generally $10 before I consider them, and $15 games are 5$
or less. For some readers, spending $5 on a DLC is perfectly fine,
but I wouldn't do purchase it for that price.
So,
the base game has two sections for $15, and a third section for $5
more. On the other hand, Star Tactics Redux
is free on Google
Play, though I have
not played it and can not judge how it compares to the PC version.
Back
to the fixing of flaws. My third problem with Star Tactics
was it included only ten ten ships, and they didn't feel
different. The display only informed the player of a few features:
Hit points, Abilities, Crew size, and four stats: weapons, armor,
speed, and maneuverability. The information about these stats was
limited to a grade from one to five stars. Each ship also included a
description listing the names and numbers of the weapons, but no
further information.
The worse error of the original was the
compounded problem of overpowered missiles and an idiot AI. Ships
capable of launching missiles or torpedos were allowed to do so every
two turns, and the computer couldn't dodge them. It's no joke to say
I achieved a 100% hit rate in the original with missiles. To
aggravate error, the computer couldn't aim their own torpedos, and it
also didn't know how to face its ships to achieve the best result.
In the original, all enemy ships and missiles moved directly toward
the closest player controlled ship.
I'm not going to claim that I found the
revised Star Tactics Redux challenging, because I didn't. But
the developer made serious improvements to the two problems mentioned
above. Ships capable of launching torpedos now have a limited
capacity: one to five. They can be fired in consecutive turns now.
The enemy no longer moves in the shortest line towards you, and as a
result its difficult to hit fighter style ships with missiles, though
larger capital ships (realistically) might as well have a target on
them. The enemy has improved its ability to aim their own torpedos.
And to reduce the effectiveness of missiles on both side, one of the
new abilities is an EMP blast which destroys nearby missiles.
Overall, Redux has been dramatically improved, with missiles
no longer overpowered for the player, or a joke for the computer. The
most egregious mistake, enemy ships with weapons on the side failing
to turn them towards you, has been corrected as well. And while the
enemy will still send a few ships to chase a scout ship, they aren't
as easily diverted. There remains one single issue with missiles:
aside from the EMP blast, they are unkillable, and don't explode
after a limited time. AS a result, it's hard to not have them hit an
enemy eventually.
There are two additions I want to
discuss before I offer my final conclusion: one good, and one
deficient. The good addition: fog of war. While the original game
displayed the entire space, Redux limits vision to an area
around each ship, with missiles having their own, nearly negligible
sight. To offset this, some ships have abilities which temporarily
increase vision, and because of its significance, most missions the
player will want one ship with either the radar or a scout. While
adding depth, fog of war introduces a minor hindrance near the end of
battles. If the player and the enemy are left with only one or two
ships, and they are slow, they might lose sight of each other. In
this case, it's best for the player to order his ships group up, and
sit in place. The computer, it seems, is not effected by the fog of
war, and will come to you, even if they are outgunned.
But while fog of war improved vision,
the designer made a corresponding mistake, by reducing it with
explosions. Redux has slightly improved graphics, and it
seems they wanted to show off cool explosions. The only problem is
that anything bigger than a fighter seems to vaporize in an explosion
the size of a supernova, blocking out the entire screen in a blinding
white light. It's a problem because the player can lose track of
what happened while everything was moving (like where missiles are,
what abilities were used, or what killed his ship) and it's as
aesthetically appealing as looking straight into the sun.
In conclusion: Star Tactics Redux
is a serious effort to improve on the original game. Most of the
major flaws have been dealt with, like the AI, overpowered missiles,
game modes, and ships. But though the Steam Store page describes it
as “a hardcore turn-based strategy and tactics
game full of spacefleet battles” with “30+ hours of gameplay,
infinite randomized battles,” and a “huge campaign with different
ways of completion.” I would say it's a fast casual game, which
probably has about twelve hours max for the base game if one is
determined to earn all the three star scores. Sure the DLC will
increase, and maybe double, the time, but it's not included in the
fifteen dollar price. If one is willing to play skirmish and the DLC
more than once, the game could eat up a lot of time.
For what it is, it's certainly an
enjoyable little game. And now comes the toughest part. For the
first time, I've been asked to review a product. I'm not sure how
that's impacted what I've written, or what I'm ultimately going to
recommend. I've tried to honestly considered whether I'm being
kinder than I would be. After all, I've given harsh reviews over the
last two years to Sins of A Solar Empire, Brigador, New 'n' Tasty,
Oxenfree, The Vanish of Ethan Carter, Dungeon of the Endless, and
XCOM® 2 (lol). Some of these are acclaimed games. Some people may
find this as splitting hairs, which pleases no one, but I would
recommend Star Tactics Redux, but only for those looking for a
simple, fast, casual style game. Perhaps that's why it's a mobile game as well.
In summary:
Story: Still terrible, but relatively
insignificant
Campaign: Better with choice and level
design
Skirmish: Slight improvement
New Mode: Expeditions, good but $5 DLC
Ships: Twice as many, and significantly
differentiated
Missiles: Redone, limited, no longer
overpowered
AI: Smarter, doesn't charge right in,
can use missiles better, can dodge missiles better, uses correct
facing for firing
Cool new addition: Fog of War
Bad new addition: Vision blocking
explosions
And that's the final verdict.
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