Key provided by the developer through curator TURN-BASED TACTICS | Click to follow and receive updates for similar reviews

More info below....

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3350697684

🟩 TURN-BASED TACTICAL COMBAT is shaping up to be lots of fun, even if most encounters feel the same and are attritional in nature. Tactics are limited to unlocked class abilities. The essence of combat is denying initiative and stacking harmful states on enemies, while diminishing their effects on the squad. Damage can be augmented with weapons with corresponding secondary traits that amplify these states.

🟩 AUDIOVISUALS are great. Visuals are immaculately drawn and already generate a good amount of immersion. The notably hypnotic SOUNDTRACK proves a suitable companion throughout. Supporting AUDIO adds to the immersion, though more atmosphere could be created by additional background noise.

🟩 Standard DIFFICULTY is quite forgiving. Downed soldiers can be revived once per mission with a penalty until fully rehabilitated back at base. Squads can retreat from tough encounters, losing only XP and gaining fatigue. While health and armour is fully recovered between battles.

🟩 FATIGUE is a well conceived factor to control the use of soldiers. It equates to a loss of time on failed missions and XP when the squad wipes or retreats. Soldiers become unavailable once fatigue becomes too high and they must be rested.

🟩 BALANCE in combat is more or less on point due to the attritional model, though boss fights and enemy waves give encounters an extra threat. Character levelling feels about right, but career specialisations for classes do not happen quickly or often enough. Gaining resources to upgrade the base is painfully slow.

🟩 QUALITY for existing content is solid. The game looks POLISHED though BUGS are being reported regularly. One reoccurring game stopping bug regarding enemy bosses that do not spawn new mobs causes the game to freeze. Zero problems with STABILITY experienced.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3350715310

🟨 CHARACTER BUILDING can be a little confusing due to a disjointed UI that separates relevant info. They are limited to just x4 basic classes. Each has possible specialisations every x10 levels with a mix of both passive and active abilities. Skill trees provide the barest freedom of choice when assigning points. Passives rise through their use in combat instead. Ultimately all upgrades will be chosen.

🟨 Despite a fair mix of combat SKILLS early abilities are underwhelming, but become slightly better with progression. Attacks come with a full gambit of options; single, area-of-effect and multiple targeting. Some bypass armour. Some apply states of damage. Apart from a solitary basic attack, all other abilities are limited through cooldowns rather ammo or item count. Those that trigger powerful team-based combos stand out.

🟨 INVENTORY is limited to class based weapons, armour and equipment. There are no consumables apart from stims that must be assigned between missions at cost. There are no true tactical alternatives to equipment, only those that possess traits that diminish certain enemy attacks or add damage to certain combat states. Only better versions are available.

🟨 ENEMIES are arachnid themed with fair variation between size, attacks and abilities. Most missions rely on a combination of basic types. True threats come when they attack in waves, with bosses or ambush the squad to gain initiative. Enemies seem to mirror soldiers in the type and range of abilities they possess. More sub-types would be welcome here. Both in appearance and ability would be good.

🟨 The GAMELOOP needs expanding given that base-building is on the thin side, squad and inventory management is rather lite and missions are fixed to specific planetary locations. There is no research such as performing autopsies to gain extra damage for instance or having a need to develop telepathic defence against a potential hive-mind threat.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3350723240

🟥 COMPLETION of development is not in sight and will require a good portion of the year estimated for Early Access to reach the level a full price game justifies. Right now it is between an alpha and beta version with enough content to take up around x20 hours even if much of it will be repetitive and grindy.

🟥 BASE-BUILDING is shallow. x4 core facilities offering services such as: healing, inventory trading, resource exchange, slim allocation, soldier recruitment, a bestiary and facility upgrades. This is one aspect of the game that needs to be expanded. Perhaps missions to expand the base with additional facilities would add to mission types but also base-building too.

🟥 MISSION format is not so great. Right now they are cornered into a small area of the map. Organised into only a handful of locations which reduces variety. Each one a stack of missions dependent on the previous being completed. There is a real lack of alternate mission types, objectives and interactive points of interest.

Apart from the odd chest to collect new inventory or hidden pockets of resources to collect, they are almost exclusively combat oriented. The number of encounters stay almost exactly the same from mission to mission. Some have alternate navigation paths, but there is no possibility to return or traverse previously avoided areas.

🟥 The STORY feels too on-rails and is only present in a few missions. As is interaction with the crew and allied NPCs in the field. This needs to be increased throughout to raise immersion.

🟥 Its hard to tell just how much LONGEVITY the game will have as only Steam achievements look to provide any, past the initial playthrough. REPLAY VALUE does not look to be that great given the on-rails design of the campaign, mission types and limited diversity of character development and inventory loadouts.

Thank you for reading. | Click to follow my curator THE IRREGULAR GAMER.

[h3]OUTLOOK:[/h3] [table] [tr] [td] [h3][strike]TRAINWRECK | UNDER PAR | ON THE FENCE[/strike] | [b]PROMISING[/b] | [strike]IMPRESSIVE [/strike] [/h3] [/td] [/tr] [/table] [h3]SYNOPSIS:[/h3] [table] [tr] [th][b]IMPRESSIONS:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] Tenebris: Terra Incognita is looking like a [b]PROMISING[/b] SF themed strategy adventure. With a Starship Troopers vibe, fun turn-based combat, its colourful landscapes and hypnotic soundtrack already generate a notable level of immersion. What content there is, is fine but lite. Features lack diversity and alternate options, cutting into the depth of strategy and replay value. Apart from missions the gameloop is too lean. Missions are to repetitive and the campaign is on the grindy side. Base-building needs expanding, character customisation and equipment loadouts have to offer more genuine alternatives. It may be playable but its early days. One to keep an eye on. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]STATUS:[/b][/td] [td]Needs its full year in Early Access despite being a 'complete' game [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]APPEAL:[/b][/td] [td]May eventually appeal to fans of SF themed side-scrolling strategy adventure and Work In Progress [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]VALUE:[/b][/td] [td]Current price is too high for the x20hrs of content. Get on a medium sale [/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Key provided by the developer through curator [url=https://steamproxy.net/groups/tbtactics/][b]TURN-BASED TACTICS[/b] [/url] | Click to follow and receive updates for similar reviews[/quote] [i]More info below....[/i] https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3350697684 [h3]POSITIVES:[/h3] 🟩 TURN-BASED TACTICAL COMBAT is shaping up to be lots of fun, even if most encounters feel the same and are attritional in nature. Tactics are limited to unlocked class abilities. The essence of combat is denying initiative and stacking harmful states on enemies, while diminishing their effects on the squad. Damage can be augmented with weapons with corresponding secondary traits that amplify these states. 🟩 AUDIOVISUALS are great. Visuals are immaculately drawn and already generate a good amount of immersion. The notably hypnotic SOUNDTRACK proves a suitable companion throughout. Supporting AUDIO adds to the immersion, though more atmosphere could be created by additional background noise. 🟩 Standard DIFFICULTY is quite forgiving. Downed soldiers can be revived once per mission with a penalty until fully rehabilitated back at base. Squads can retreat from tough encounters, losing only XP and gaining fatigue. While health and armour is fully recovered between battles. 🟩 FATIGUE is a well conceived factor to control the use of soldiers. It equates to a loss of time on failed missions and XP when the squad wipes or retreats. Soldiers become unavailable once fatigue becomes too high and they must be rested. 🟩 BALANCE in combat is more or less on point due to the attritional model, though boss fights and enemy waves give encounters an extra threat. Character levelling feels about right, but career specialisations for classes do not happen quickly or often enough. Gaining resources to upgrade the base is painfully slow. 🟩 QUALITY for existing content is solid. The game looks POLISHED though BUGS are being reported regularly. One reoccurring game stopping bug regarding enemy bosses that do not spawn new mobs causes the game to freeze. Zero problems with STABILITY experienced. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3350715310 [h3]NEUTRAL:[/h3] 🟨 CHARACTER BUILDING can be a little confusing due to a disjointed UI that separates relevant info. They are limited to just x4 basic classes. Each has possible specialisations every x10 levels with a mix of both passive and active abilities. Skill trees provide the barest freedom of choice when assigning points. Passives rise through their use in combat instead. Ultimately all upgrades will be chosen. 🟨 Despite a fair mix of combat SKILLS early abilities are underwhelming, but become slightly better with progression. Attacks come with a full gambit of options; single, area-of-effect and multiple targeting. Some bypass armour. Some apply states of damage. Apart from a solitary basic attack, all other abilities are limited through cooldowns rather ammo or item count. Those that trigger powerful team-based combos stand out. 🟨 INVENTORY is limited to class based weapons, armour and equipment. There are no consumables apart from stims that must be assigned between missions at cost. There are no true tactical alternatives to equipment, only those that possess traits that diminish certain enemy attacks or add damage to certain combat states. Only better versions are available. 🟨 ENEMIES are arachnid themed with fair variation between size, attacks and abilities. Most missions rely on a combination of basic types. True threats come when they attack in waves, with bosses or ambush the squad to gain initiative. Enemies seem to mirror soldiers in the type and range of abilities they possess. More sub-types would be welcome here. Both in appearance and ability would be good. 🟨 The GAMELOOP needs expanding given that base-building is on the thin side, squad and inventory management is rather lite and missions are fixed to specific planetary locations. There is no research such as performing autopsies to gain extra damage for instance or having a need to develop telepathic defence against a potential hive-mind threat. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3350723240 [h3]NEGATIVES:[/h3] 🟥 COMPLETION of development is not in sight and will require a good portion of the year estimated for Early Access to reach the level a full price game justifies. Right now it is between an alpha and beta version with enough content to take up around x20 hours even if much of it will be repetitive and grindy. 🟥 BASE-BUILDING is shallow. x4 core facilities offering services such as: healing, inventory trading, resource exchange, slim allocation, soldier recruitment, a bestiary and facility upgrades. This is one aspect of the game that needs to be expanded. Perhaps missions to expand the base with additional facilities would add to mission types but also base-building too. 🟥 MISSION format is not so great. Right now they are cornered into a small area of the map. Organised into only a handful of locations which reduces variety. Each one a stack of missions dependent on the previous being completed. There is a real lack of alternate mission types, objectives and interactive points of interest. Apart from the odd chest to collect new inventory or hidden pockets of resources to collect, they are almost exclusively combat oriented. The number of encounters stay almost exactly the same from mission to mission. Some have alternate navigation paths, but there is no possibility to return or traverse previously avoided areas. 🟥 The STORY feels too on-rails and is only present in a few missions. As is interaction with the crew and allied NPCs in the field. This needs to be increased throughout to raise immersion. 🟥 Its hard to tell just how much LONGEVITY the game will have as only Steam achievements look to provide any, past the initial playthrough. REPLAY VALUE does not look to be that great given the on-rails design of the campaign, mission types and limited diversity of character development and inventory loadouts. [table][tr] [td]Click for:[/td] [td][h1][url=https://steamproxy.net/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/4696783659624116025/]Full Review[/url][/h1][/td] [/tr][/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]REVIEWED WITH:[/b][/td] [td]Game Build v0.01.059 INTEL i5 6600 3.3GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX970 @ 1GB 1920x1080 windowed, EVO850 SSD [/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Thank you for reading. | Click to follow my curator[url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/40556040-The-Irregular-Gamer/] THE IRREGULAR GAMER[/url].[/quote]