Game Review: Ultimate Tactics

(Two game-related posts in a row? What was I thinking?)

Ultimate Tactics is, despite its name, a turn-based RPG style game. Its sole unique feature relative to such is an aspect of combat: Movement.

Most turn-based RPGs have static character placement that is vaguely arranged; their placement may affect (and be affected by) combat, but you often can't directly affect it. Ultimate Tactics lets you move your characters on a grid.

It makes gameplay a touch more time consuming than for many such games (though let's face it, the ridiculously long spell animations in many commercial RPGs will offset that with interest), and also has a probably unintentional side effect, that being that mages are frikkin' nuts. Observe the following.

The mage's raw power is offset by the fact that he can only cast a limited number of spells per battle; however, it isn't his power but his range that makes the mage spectacularly strong. In the following screenshot...

...the mage has retreated to total safety, out of reach of any possible counterattack, thanks to his ability to perform an action (such as an attack) followed by a move.

Melee fighters can do the same retreating tactic, but since they are within reach when they start it, it's not nearly as effective. (The Super Robot Wars games, which I've mentioned a few times, have a similar combat system, but you can't attack->move because attacks end your robots' turns.) Making mages even more crazy is the fact that your mage learns a spell called "poison" which does damage each time the enemy takes a turn. While this is offset by the fact that you gain experience based on each individual attack and kill you score (meaning you get less if you use poison), the fact that you could poison strong enemies and then run away is very potent.

While gameplay sounds, from this description, like all mages all the time, only one of your early characters is a spellcaster. The other is a swordsman, and for him, other tactics will come into play. The primary ones are flanking and elevation.

Flanking increases damage done to guys when they're being attacked from behind. You're given the option of rearranging which way each of your guys is facing at the end of each of their turns, allowing you to try to protect them against being flanked. (Ironically, in the screenshot above the flanking damage bonus is nonexistent, though this is the fault of the enemy being attacked, a damage absorbing foe that does little damage.)

Damage done in melee combat also changes depending on relative elevation in favor of the high ground; more particularly, those that hold the high ground seem to score more critical hits while also taking less damage.

Ultimate Tactics is fun, but slow and time-consuming. At this point, I haven't gotten past the first city, and it'll probably be a while before there's any sign of a story (if there ever is one). I'd suggest that, if you prefer games that run longer than many of the flash games I talk about, you'd probably like this one at least some; if you just want a half-hour burst of gaming fun between doing other things, it may not be for you. (I haven't even mentioned the lock-picking minigame, which is also time consuming.)

-Signing off.