Dreadlands Reviews

TL;DR: recommended for fans of turn-based tactics games who enjoy grinding. Dreadlands is vaguely XCOM-like, but with a vibe somewhere between Mad Max and Borderlands. It has an open-world-style map that you move around in real time, and small-map battles where all enemies and terrain features are immediately visible. The combat is okay, following the common system with 2 AP for moving or attacking and high/low cover. They altered the basic XCOM playbook by putting an emphasis on melee combat, which is fairly vicious. When you move next to an enemy unit, both units are locked into melee. Ranged attacks can't be made by or against melee-locked units, so if something jumps on you, you have to either back off (granting a free attack) or pile on. Missed attacks cause a counter-attack (once per turn). When units reach 0 HP, they "bleed out" over 3 turns unless revived, but you can short-circuit that with a melee execution. Ammo for ranged weapons is limited, usually to 3 or 4 shots per battle. Your units will generally come with one reload opportunity, though more can be purchased. Firing a ranged weapon twice in the same turn is very likely to cause the weapon to jam, requiring the use of a specific item to un-jam it during combat. On the other hand, hitting something with a ranged attack removes 1 AP from the target (can be resisted), making overwatch a very effective way to keep most units from charging you. Everybody loves deck-builders these days, so at the start of combat you get 4 "tactics cards", chosen at random from your deck. These apply various buffs and debuffs, such as minor healing or AP penalties. Your enemies get these too, which can be annoying: if you knock an isolated enemy out of action, you'd like to be able to ignore that unit, but if they have a rejuvenation card they can revive it, potentially leaving you flanked unexpectedly. There are a few different types of missions, but somehow they all feel the same. The tactical maps within a general region of the world are very similar. Your units have ability trees, but most abilities are shared across all types of units, so the various classes feel very similar. Generally there's a lot of same-ness, which could be perfectly fine if that's what you're in the mood for. Your squad and your base are improved by spending resources, which are not supplied in large quantities. You need to poke around the map, looking for level-appropriate encounters, or just make do with what you have. This makes it feel a little grindy. The game allows only one save file, but the consequences of units dying - or even squad-wiping - are fairly minor. There are some minor bugs, or perhaps just things I didn't understand. There'a an "energy drain" ability that requires LOS within 16 tiles, but sometimes it wouldn't trigger even though I could target the enemy with a short-range pistol. There's a "scavenge" encounter, where you grab stuff and run for the exit, which seems to end after a set number of turns, but there's no indication of that on screen. It's not a bad game, and the combat system feels different from most others in the genre, so it's worth a look at the right price.