Future Tactics: The Uprising review

Future Tactics is a strange beast. As a colourful, turn-based, plot-driven, British strategy game with arcade leanings, it has certainly cornered a niche. Emerging from the now defunct developer Zed Two, this is certainly not a game that’s easy to market, but it does make a change from the steady string of sequels the industry seems to be dumping on us of late.

If the mere mention of the words ‘turn’ and ‘based’ has you running for the hills, fear ye not. Future Tactics plays more like the Worms series than a board game. With its simple mechanics, arcade sensibilities and landscape pulverising firepower, this is a game that seeks to blow the cobwebs away from a notoriously stuffy genre.

Running, jumping and blowing things up

Future Tactics uses controls that even the greenest strategy novice should be able to pick up intuitively. Movement is handled from a third person perspective with characters running and jumping around the landscape just as if it were a 3D platformer. Meanwhile, shooting employs a novel aiming system that rewards both good reactions and patience; although it’s not best suited to the imprecision of a PC keyboard. It’s a simple system, perhaps a little too simple, but what it lacks in depth it makes up in accessibility

What makes Future Tactics more interesting is that little of the games environment is permanent. Each shot fired damages the area around whatever it hits, tearing huge chunks out of the landscape. As a result concentrated firepower can be used to great tactical effect. Cover can be both created and destroyed, alternative routes can be crafted and the ground can be literally taken from under your enemies’ feet. All this makes for a more dynamic and exciting battlefield - the scared landscape you leave behind being very different from the pristine valley there was before.

Scenic Shootin’

As should be clear from the screenshots, Future Tactics’ graphics are colourful, clear and cartoony, fitting in perfectly with the more accessible approach taken to the genre. Some strong character design and amusing animations add to the general level of visual polish. Watching a monster cower as you poise your aim over him is entertaining and oddly endearing.

Level design is equally distinctive, the idiosyncratic narrative taking you on a linear trawl through nineteen missions that take place in a variety of distinct locations, from woodlands to artic canyons to an alien citadel. Each also offers their own unique objectives, ranging from basic shootouts to strategic puzzles, which prevents the turn-based formula from becoming stale.

Design misfire

Unfortunately Future Tactics’s learning curve leaves a lot to be desired. Once you get past an unforgiving and frustrating opening third, the rest of the game is far too easy - resulting in an unsatisfying and uneven experience. Some unexpected and unnecessary plot twists also make a mockery of the role-playing style character levelling system.

The brevity of the single player game should have been offset by the multiplayer side of the game. However, whilst the two player mode is diverting it limits characters to two per side, sadly curbing the potential multiplayer mayhem.

Future Tactics also suffers from some poor AI that feels erratic and unfinished. Your enemies seem to have the geographical awareness of your average lemming, often preferring to plummet to their doom rather than walk along a narrow ledge. Completing a level often comes through exploiting this poor AI rather than sound tactical thought. Strategic planning is also complicated by cumbersome camera control, which makes it difficult to gauge if your characters are hidden from enemy view - an important element of the game as if an enemy can see you, not only will they shoot you, but they will also inform anyone around them of your location.

Flawed Fun

Although it’s slightly stifled by some strategic superficiality and design flaws, Future Tactics is still an enjoyable novelty that’s well worth picking up for a budget price if you fancy something different. It doesn’t offer enough complexity to compete with some of the PC’s better turn based titles, but those looking for simple strategy fun should aim their purchasing reticule in Future Tactics’ direction.