

It would've been nice to have more control over the game speed, especially when you're in a rescue mission with 8 or more mobs on-screen, slowly taking their turns one by one. The only way to speed up enemy turns is to speed up the entire game, including the UI and camera movement and speed. The game is also missing a few "quality of life" features that are becoming more prevalent in the wider genre. Optional missions are described by difficulty, but the terms include "hard" and "challenging," which in my mind basically mean the same thing. The menu in general could use improvements as well, both in terms of speed and clarity. Coming in from games like Mutant Year Zero and Gears Tactics, Othercide feels like it needed more attention in this area, although it may fare better on PC.

Selecting a unit, then placing a movement reticle on the combat grid can be a slog, taking a strange amount of time to register your actions before movement actually takes place. Perhaps my biggest issue with Othercide, at least on Xbox One, was the sluggishness of the UI. There are a few issues I'd love to see Othercide address either in a future patch, or a future sequel, though. Othercide is a truly intriguing game, with mysteries that beg to be unlocked, and combat that rewards creativity and planning. This sense of reward is amplified several times over if you're overcoming a difficult boss for the first time, many of which simply felt insurmountably difficult on my first attempts. Pulling off a successful strategy, often involving cascading combo attacks between your units feels great in practice. Each mission gives you currency and power-ups to further customize your units Managing these risky moves is crucial to navigating some of the game's more difficult challenges. If you use too many action points, you'll enter a "burst phase," and sacrifice speed on the timeline in order to gain extra actions for that turn.įurthermore, you can sacrifice your unit's hit points to gain even more attacks. Othercide has a unique approach to action points, that let you sacrifice your units to gain additional bonuses, in-keeping with the sacrificial themes of the narrative. Time management is also crucial to success in the game, since every piece on the board takes their turns in a specific order, forcing you to plan ahead, and estimate around the enemy's own AI and tactics. Most combat scenarios are simple to begin with, but as you progress, monsters, and their tactics get increasingly complex, forcing you to alter your playstyle on the fly.

A Shieldbearer tank that can hold a monster's attention, and a Blademaster, who can deal truly monstrous amounts of melee damage up close. Without spoiling the fourth, you have a ranged Soulslinger, with dual-wield revolvers. Units are split into three classes (with a fourth one later on) that can take up typical RPG-style roles.
#Othercide surgeon windows
Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central) If all of your units are wiped out, you have to start a new "Recollection," although subsequent runs come with roguelike-style bonuses and powerups that make skipping past previously-defeated bosses much easier. Indeed, you cannot revert to an earlier save or try again. The presentation of the game, its combat, and its enemies all lend further weight to the game's central mysteries and keep you engaged as you wrangle the game's difficult combat mechanics. The story will have you scratching your head for a good portion of the game, but the mystery, great character acting, and haunting creatures will more than hold your attention as you peel away at its layers. The narrative also seems to span hundreds of years, with different eras depicted, although the events and how they interconnect play out with a nightmarish disjointedness. The game is filled with common themes revolving around a few central characters and in-game events: a disease, cultists and plague doctors, religious tyranny, and beyond, with each act serving a different central theme or event. Othercide (Image credit: Windows Central)
