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Future Tactics Writer Interviewed On Unnoticed TRPG
Thanks to NTSC-UK for its interview with scriptwriter Paul Rose regarding Zed Two's tactical RPG Future Tactics, as he discusses some of the issues with current game scriptwriting ("You may think there's nothing wrong with them, but to someone like myself who makes a living out of writing scripts and stories, they set my teeth on edge. Especially when you get developers, or publishers, going on about their Hollywood-style scripts"), as well as the sad demise of Zed Two (then a part of Warthog) just before the game's release ("A big, big shame, given that Zed Two's ethos was to produce genuinely innovative and interesting games.") Elsewhere, Gamecritics.com has a thoughtful review of the PS2/Xbox/GC game, "saddled with poor cover art and positioned as a budget release", but considered "a breath of fresh air" by the reviewer, though NTSC-UK's review is a little more ambivalent, arguing: "It can only be hoped that [the developers'] inventiveness is met with the time and budget to do their creativity justice [in the future]."
First some info about the game: http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/749/Future-Tactic s-The-Uprising/p1
;)
Hm, let's see, how would I like this?
It's a SRPG, starting score 8.
3D graphics, -1.
Includes the word 'Tactics' in the title, -1.
Not Japan-developed, -1.
For the XBOX, -1.
Aliens, -1.
All characters have ranged weapons?, -1.
Final score: 2... quite sub-par.
I don't think I'm going to like it, couldn't find a single point that sounded interesting. Sorry, SPRGs are supposed to be pseudo-medieval with lots of swords and magic
seriously tho, this game isnt that good, certainly not good enough to warrant all this 'slipped under the radar' crap.
/very first level/, 4 or 5 enemies appear (i cant remember exactly, its been a while, its possibly more), and if you dont have a clear shot to at least three, then there is a better than very high chance that they will kill one of your characters next round, forcing a restart. im the last person to complain about hard games, more games need to employ a challenge nowadays, but games that are just blatantly unfair thru randomness really arent worth bothering with. im sure this issue was addressed in at least one of the reviews i read (possibly gamespot)
the combat system, while different, on the whole is pretty poor and doesnt immerse you in the action, or whatever they hoped to achieve by employing it, as much as you think.
for those that dont know, the combat system is primarily based around a large circle placed over the direction you wish to aim, and a line starts moving diagonally across that circle, back and forth. a button press stops it when you think its best lined up across the target, and then a second line does the same thing perpendicular to the first. stop that in a similar way and you have your target reticle, and thats where you fire.
i never played it far enough to see if the system changed at all, but obviously as it stands like that it makes the idea of RPG style skill upgrades pretty pointless, in all except damage dealing, and possibly area of effect.
and it employs this amazingly stupid system whereby creatures that, when they do a sucide melee attack (their only attack), take off half your health, and half way thru the
from what i played it seems to be badly designed, and, graphically and character wise, its not in any way appealing, and quite rightly was released as a budget title given its unknown name and less than impressive gameplay, and probably deserves nothing more than to slip under the radar into the xboxes of the few that might appreciate this sort of thing.
Since when did SRPG's suddenly become TRPG's? Let's get our stupid anagrams straight here. This is the second time I've seen TRPG in the last week, and I've never heard of it until now. Were people getting bored of the old SRPG moniker? This must have been thought up by the same guy who came up with the wonderful MMORPG tag. I fucking hate that guy.