Crashlands
My playtime: 73.8h (based on steam, 100% achievement)
Grindy Achievement(s): Yes (~3 achievements).
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (~29 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): Yes (~2 achievements).
Intro
Crashlands is a game where you have to gather resources, kill enemies, and craft items to defeat bosses.
Pros:
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4 difficulties
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3 game modes
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Unique bosses
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You can finish quests in any order that you want
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A lot of craftable items, including the ones used for decoration purposes
– Real player with 73.8 hrs in game
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It’s one of those games that make you wish that Steam had a more complex grading system rather than the binary one. Crashlands is a game that reminds many (including myself) of Don’t Starve. In my opinion it is to Don’t Starve, what American remakes are to European original films. It’s goofier and more flashy, but in the process loses the idea of what makes the original so genius.
Gameplay
Crashlands drops you into an alien world, where you need to craft and help the locals to retrieve the packages lost during the crash landing. You have to scavenge and hunt mobs for materials that allow you to craft better gear and challenge harder mobs. It’s actually fun for the first few hours, until you notice, this is it, that’s basically the whole game. Just grind to craft another workstation, another weapon, another armour. It might have been okay as one of the possible activities, but it gets really old when it’s the only activity available. And you have to do it a lot. There are 35 levels of equipment and they increment in twos. This means, the same gameplay loop has to be repeated around 17 times, that’s at least 10 times too many. It’s also possible to ‘domesticate’ pets, until you notice, that it’s basically another part of the crafting system as the domesticated pets create materials which you’ll need to create your weapons and armours with. It doesn’t really help that the design of most of the gear is rather uninspiring. You can have the same sword/axe/helmet/etc. every 2 levels. I mean, it looks different, but the only actual difference is that it deals a bit more damage than the same item of the lower tier and a bit less damage than the item of the next tier. Only the gadgets and devices are a small breath of fresh air, at least some of them offer interesting, new mechanics.
– Real player with 38.7 hrs in game
Strain Tactics
tl;dr - if you can endure the clunkiness of the UI, frustrating game mechanics, poor tutorial and lack of instructions/familiarisation in the early stages of the game, you will enjoy the squad-based controllable tactical experience that is unique in its own fun way. One of few games I played where a poor initial impression ended with a “definitely recommend” review.
Coming from games like Door Kickers and Running with Rifles, I was interested to see Strain Tactics recommended within the game genre. My initial impressions were….disappointing. After the first 2-3 tutorial levels, you were just dropped straight into the battlefield with little to no understanding of what to do next other than “kill no less than 42 strains per mission to avoid base invasions, keep killing until you prove worthy then join the final assault”. This becomes a pattern as the game mechanics are often explained a few short texts; reading the hints at the outpost/talking to the helibase crew provided very little extra knowledge. For example, the demonstration of your starter troop’s morale and traits system did not showcase what its benefits/drawbacks are (granted Combat Engineer’s 50% damage reduction trait isn’t visible). I only understood it when I had the first-hand experience of seeing my Decon blow two squadmates to pieces with a panicked shotgun discharge, or seeing Inka’s Xenophobia execute my medic who was only scratched with a minor infection who CLEARLY had decon pills (we’ll get back to Inka later). The game is littered with consumables, weapons, items, or troop unlocks which does not make the distinction of which one to use, keep, or sell off. Stats such as max weapon range vs detection range vs optimal attack range had me confused for hours. You pretty much have to learn by experience and if it doesn’t fit your playstyle, well too bad keep playing until you unlock the next thing and hope that one works out. Not only that, despite the game telling you troopers will only fire at the optimal range to reduce friendly fire, you will have the ominous experience of “Did your piss-poor just friendly-fire your squadmate again??!”. Couple the brain-dead AIs with poor pathfinding and a UI designed for mobile games, the game just creates an unrewarding learning experience that showed its fun potential…but missed its mark and in no way comes close to the two games I mentioned above.
– Real player with 67.2 hrs in game
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Strain Tactics is RTS strategy, set in a post-apocalyptic world where bodybags are pokeballs and human trafficking is an acceptable business practice.
I’ve played a bit and will probably play some more. I recommend this to anyone who likes squad based strategy games. Included below are a bunch of pros and cons that I’ve come up with in about two hours of play. The game is fun, but is held back by UI problems (which makes it seem like it was for a touch screen primarily). The only time I found the UI actually intuitive was the Heli weapon fire screen, where the UI and big buttons were actually not that bad.
– Real player with 62.0 hrs in game