When booting up Kriegsfront Tactics – Progue, you’re greeting with the following message: “This project is a culmination of our indie passion project more than 5 years in the making.” After playing the prologue, I can say that the passion is seen throughout.,Â
Toge Productions has been on fire with hot release after hot release. Toge’s game Coffee Talk really catapulted them into contention for one of the best indie developers and publishers out there. I know this to be true because when I booked appointments for PAX East, they were fully booked within the first day they released the email. The demand is real.Â
Kriegsfront Tactics – Prologue Looks and Feels Feels Like A Classic Turn-Based Strategy Game
We are dropped into the jungles of Southeast Asia in an alternate version of the 1970’s. The Allies dropped a bomb to end the war, but that was the catalyst for a new war. The Nusanesian resistance made functioning mechs out of old destroyed mechs from the previous war. UOC forces return to take the land back from the Nusanesians.
The gameplay has traces of the classics like X-COM and Front Mission. The game does have some unique gameplay elements, like aiming in first-person to land shots on certain parts of the mechs with greater accuracy. You have your standards of the genre with things like an overwatch skill. You have skill actions for your guns. Strategy in battle is king in Kriegsfront Tactics.Â
Image Credit: Toge Productions.
Let’s talk about the presentation and sound. The graphics look like high-quality PS2 graphics, an artistic choice that I love personally. The look just reminds me of all the older RPG games from that era. It seems like the team put almost like a comic book filter mixed with a pixelated look to make things look retro. Voice acting is very good and goes great with the Metal Gear Solid-esque character models.
When not in battle, you move across an overworld map with question marks at which you can stop. These spots of interest can be battles, search for ammo, or a time to heal your mechs. After battles end, you find new parts salvaged from defeated mechs. Random enemy mechs can roam the map and catch your group to start a battle.
Kriegsfront Tactics – Prologue Promises An Engaging Story
Your Sergeant Thomas Berenger goes missing. Your team thinks he may be captured after arriving at the scene of an Ambush. After traveling across the overworld and stopping at points of interest, you endure tough battles and sometimes find parts, but no Sarge yet. Then you find the Sarge and his small team. They are doing the unspeakable. Rounding up women and children while killing all the men. Your team arrives as they are torching the village. The Sergeant is paranoid about everyone being a rat. After confronting him and telling him to stand down or be court marshaled, he decides you and the team are traitors. “Traitors are punishable by death,” he screams. Then, you engage in a vicious battle. This is where I found out your squad can get debuffs.
Alpha became shell-shocked as he watched our squad be decimated. Receiving a loss of AP and accuracy really hurt at this pivotal moment. Alpha fell; he was the third member of the party to be destroyed. With only the sniper, Delta, left, how can we survive? Outnumbered and outgunned, I decided I was going down swinging. I aimed my rifle and pulled the trigger. I killed two enemies, but there were so many enemies left. Delta fell, and I was hit with a game over screen. I had to completely restart.
Image Credit: Toge Productions.
With my party half dead, I needed to make better decisions before the confrontation. With your most experienced party member dying at the beginning of the fight, you only have three party members. After a restart and better tactics, my full team made it to the final showdown. Three of my squad were K.I.A, but two of them made it through. It seems like the UOC that you fight for might be on the wrong side of history. It could be all a misdirection. We won’t know until the full game drops.
Wrapping Up
Kriegsfront Tactics – Prologue shows that the full release has really high potential to be something special. Mechs and tactics haven’t felt this good in a while. If everything lives up to its potential, this game will surprise a lot of you. With political turmoil similar to what you see in a Gundam series, you can see influences from different media blending into a great game. This will probably be one of the better turn-based games to release later this year. I’m eagerly awaiting the game’s full release, and you should be as well.Â
