Shock Tactics (PC) Review

It's almost embarrassing how badly Shock Tactics wants to be XCOM. From the aesthetic to the gameplay to the premise, there isn't much in the way of originality for the developers, Point Blank Games, to stand out.

Their attempt at a story ends up feeling thrown together at the last minute, with poorly mixed and poorly directed voice acting souring an already shallow plot. The writing itself is passable, but it reads like the writer was bored and had no real intention of fleshing out ideas or characters past the bare minimum.

With a less than stellar story sitting in the background, the gameplay needs to do the heavy lifting and offer something gripping and engaging in the way of turn-based strategy. Sadly and strangely, but perhaps not surprisingly, Shock Tactics offers very little in the way of actual tactics.

Combat is pretty much lifted from XCOM without much innovation. Player turns consist of moving the party around the map, resource management, and shooting enemies from across the map. Enemy turns usually find enemies ignoring common sense and leaving the safety of cover to be moving targets.

If the AI actually worked properly, maps would most likely be fairly difficult since there tends to be little in the way of cover on the ally side and an abundance of cover on the enemy's. Unfortunately, enemies are rather suicidal and rush out of cover instead of luring the party into enemy territory.

Reinforcements happen often enough that it would have prompted last minute tactic changes if the party were stuck on the other side of the map, but it's not only easier to just wait for enemies to leave cover, it's going to be happening regardless.

The actual gameplay feels terribly slow and the camera doesn't do the maps any favours unless some major key binding is done. Level design focuses on moving across flat surfaces and occasionally sprinting up a hill, but everything else is otherwise static in terms of mobility. In an alien world, Point Blank Games could have played around quite a bit with verticality, but they seem content in sticking to the basics.

The absolute worst thing about Shock Tactics ends up being its mission objectives. Open fields are already a huge detriment to any turn-based strategy, but Point Blank Games goes one further by forcing every playable character to stay alive in far too many missions.

Part of the turn-based strategy genre, especially one that takes so heavily from XCOM, is party management. If the game ends whenever a party member dies, then this is no longer possible. It also means sacrificing an ally in a tough moment isn't possible and, in general, just closes the door on countless tactics and strategies.

Paying homage and taking inspiration is understandable, but Shock Tactics does not understand what made XCOM work, nor does it understand the turn-based strategy genre. As it stands, it's just a poor attempt at ripping off a far better video game.