Time to Beat the Campaign and Two Local
Multiplayer Battles: 10 Hours
I first heard of Tooth and Tail
from Total Biscuit's “WTF
is...” series, and while I didn't initially
search it out, I purchased Tooth and Tail during the 2018
Winter Steam Sale.
Developed and published in 2017 by
Pocketwatch
Games, who also produced Monaco, Tooth and
Tail is a simple RTS game where woodland creatures reenact their
own version of the Soviet Revolution armed with early 20th
century weaponry. Four factions vie for power; the Longcoats, the
Commonfolk, the KSR, and the Civilized. Their problem is food; there
is never enough. Long ago the Civilized devised a solution and
convinced the others to follow it. A random lottery determines who
is food and who is free. But for some reason, the Civilized never
seem to suffer the fate of food.
For eight missions, the player controls
a critical figure of a faction, before switching to the next team.
The player controlled leader is always a mouse (or rat, I couldn't
tell which), though the true leader of each faction is always a
dangerous animal, like a Moose, Owl, or Cat. The player controls the
Longcoats faction first. As capitalists they believe a lottery is
unjust. Instead of random chance determining one's fate, the
Longcoats think those who don't contribute to society should support
it with their flesh. The leader, Bellafide, was shocked when the
lottery took his son, because believes the owners of wealth should be
able to buy their way out of the lottery. He leads his followers
with the battle cry, “To Freedom, To Wealth!”
On the ninth mission (through the
sixteenth) the player controls the Common people, under the one armed
Hopper. Willing to rule by the mob, she believes the powerful should
serve themselves on a platter for the poor. Voting should determine
who lives and who dies, and you know who the rabble will bring to the
feast!
Eight levels later, the player's
perspective switches to the KSR. Led by the Quartermaster these
animals remain loyal to the Czarina and the state. They seek order,
and maintain it with an iron fist. Tactically they resemble a
militarized secret police, like the KGB.
At the end of the game, the player
seeks victory for the Civilized. Their leader, Archimedes explained
their ideal, “We are not evil, we are civilized!” The upper
echelon of the Civilized doesn't believe in progress, peace, or
stability, but the survival of themselves. To control the other
factions, the naive and the gullible, the Civilized transformed the
lottery system from a simple process into a complicated religious
ritual. In the guise of a church they speak about fate and duty, as
determined by the Civilized leader, a moose named Sage Marro.
The plot of Tooth and Tail is
surprisingly deep for a little game. The mice and rats run society,
with the assistance of a variety of other animals: foxes, squirrels,
lizards, snakes, toads, pigeons, moles, ferrets, falcons, skunks,
boars, and owls. The odd animal out are the pigs. In the past, all
the animals decided to only eat meat, except the pigs. The other
animals forced the pigs to farm their own food, and then to feed the
others with their flesh.
That's it for the spoilers. Instead
let's look at how the game functions.
Tooth and Tail features
thirty-two missions, and does an excellent job designing thirty-two
unique experiences. Each level begins with an objective, and
never never repeats. With this many levels some feature
quirky requirements. Each level also includes a bonus heroic
objective. These exist purely for fun, as they don't impact the game
at all. At first Tooth and Tail was easy enough that I
completed the heroic objectives, but about halfway through the KSR
missions the difficult increased rapidly and I ignored the bonus
objectives for the rest of the game.
The variety of objectives isn't the
only tool the developer used to make the levels distinctive. Though
there are fifteen units and five stationary defenses, the player can
only access four or five predetermined units per level. Tooth and
Tail never lets the player use the exact same unit combination
twice.
This composition of different
objectives, bonus objectives, and units makes every level feel
unique. But Tooth and Tail uses one more technique to
differentiate one level from another. It includes three three
different kinds of missions.
The most common mission requires
farming. Scattered across each map are a collection of decrepit
Gristmills. The player captures abandoned Gristmills by paying with
the universal currency, meat. A restored Gristmill expands the
player's influence. Inside the influence radius the player can build
warrens, which produce units, and stationary defenses. The player
also needs to construct farms. Each Gristmill supports eight farms,
arraigned in a square around its base. A farm costs 60 food and once
purchased, a pig builds it. Each farm produces one food a second.
Unfortunately they eventually run out (though sometimes it seemed as
if the CPU enemy was using farms which should have been exhausted).
If the player ever runs out of active farms they starve regardless of
their food reserves. After a minute of starving the player loses the
level, the search for new food sources is always a priority. Using
their resources the player must expand to other Gristmills and defeat
the enemy, or defend for a period of time.
The second type of level requires
aggressive movement. The player has a collection of soldiers and
must keep moving. There is no base, no warrens, no Gristmill, and no
farming, just combat. Inside barbed wire fences the KSR has trapped
allied soldiers, and they are freed by defeating the enemy and taking
the position. Victory requires destroying the enemy's base.
The final type is the most variable.
Let's call it the camping missions. Instead of gristmills and farms,
the player feeds off of campfires. Each fire contains a spit of
meat, which cooks slowly, providing food and an influence radius.
The player can capture additional campfires, and sometimes there are
allied forces sitting around which join the fight. Most of these
missions are defensive in nature (survive for a period of time), but
there are one or two which requires destroying the enemy base.
Some levels combine features of all of
the above in different ways. In one the level the player controls
campfires and can only build stationary defenses to protect their
ally's Gristmills. If the player does a good job the ally will be
able to attack and destroy the enemy's Gristmills. Unfortunately the
player can not communicate with their computer controlled ally by
indicating attacks or defenses.
The tool to victory is the leader. The
player always controls a mouse, who changes depending on the faction.
Regardless, each mouse functions exactly the same, with only a
change in appearance. The player moves the leader with the AWSD
keys, not the mouse. The player can only build where the leader is
standing. With the Q and E key the player cycles through the
options, and presses the Space bar to begin construction. Aside from
building Gristmills, campfires, farms, warrens, and defenses, there
are only two orders the leader can communicate to his soldiers.
Advance or retreat. The left mouse issues commands to only the
currently selected unit type, while the right mouse button orders the
entire army. A single click of either button tells the appropriate
group to advance and fight. Holding either button instructs the
units to retreat.
Because the leader can only order units
to move to his or her position, they often step into danger. After
setting the position the leader can retreat behind his army's lines,
but the leader unit has a lot of health, and can absorb the initial
salvo from the enemy. This strategy allows the player's units to
engage unharmed. Eventually the enemy will begin shooting at the
soldiers, but absorbing as much damage as a possible with the leader
is a useful technique. Don't worry too much about the leader dying.
The leader reappears at the base after a minute. During this time
the player can't communicate with their units, or construct new
building, but when the hero returns they regain control.
One critical difference between Tooth
and Tail and other RTS games is the length of play. The missions
in story mode only require five to fifteen minutes to complete. Any
longer and you're doing something wrong. This means that making
mistakes, or even losing, isn't punishing. It's a chance to learn
and apply the new knowledge. On the first try players can risk
building a larger economy. If the enemy attacks before the player is
ready, they'll adapt on their second attempt. Tooth and Tail
allows the player to ask themselves the question, “How many farms
can I get away with before I need to build units?” One or two
adjustments will solve the problem.
Sometimes a level is too difficult.
Somewhere in the KSR and Civilized missions I found a level that
required too many attempts. Even trial and error isn't enough,
because after ten trials, I knew I would never beat it. Fear not;
the developer included a cheat console in the options. For this one
level I used it to create an unlimited supply of food. It was the
only time I needed it, and I never used it again. So, don't let a
tough level ruin the experience. Watch this
video to enable cheats if you need it.
Tooth and Tail also supports a
robust multiplayer. Players can compete with the computer or other
players. The developer patched the game just sixteen days ago
(9/22/2019) to balance the current meta. I played two offline games
against the computer and it was fun, but nothing ground breaking. I
don't plan on playing against other players, but this feature might
appeal to some readers.
In conclusion, Tooth and Tail is
a simple RTS that offers challengers for new and veteran players.
The story includes colorful characters with conflicting motives. The
thirty-two missions offer a wide variety of play, with different
objectives and multiple combinations of units. The visual effects
are effective and communicate information quickly so the player can
react swiftly. Despite its simplicity the terrain and unit types
allow a variety of tactics, especially against the computer. Defeat,
while common, loses some of its sting because missions can be beaten
in five to fifteen minutes, and difficult missions are reserved for
the second half of the game.
Even though Tooth and Tail has some minor issues, it is worth a nibble.
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