1971 PROJECT HELIOS Reviews

Nice TBS game in the vein of the XCOM series, with a focused and strong narrative, excellent soundtrack and a combat system that is simple compared to other titles in the genre but still poses a challenge. All in all a great addition to any strategy fan's library!

Turn-based, squad-based tactical game - mighty appealing to me! And yet, having played this through, I can't recommend this game for anyone, not with clean conscience. The terrible control system, the linearity, the...uhh..."story", the rudimentary inventory and pathetic pixel-hunting for "documents" which have no bearing on the "game's"...uhh..."story", the necessity of mucking about with the "skill trees" (more like weeds, trees might suggest something larger) because the "game" does occasionally "forget" the choices you made... The fights do pose a challenge, which is good, but since the "game" was, after all, designed to be completed (in a sense), it's usually the case of finding the right combination of actions and moving onwards to the next scripted combat. "Silent Storm", despite its age, outclasses this at every step.

This game just comes with too many deal breakers for its price point. It's difficult to combine a simple engine with the tactical genre and this really didn't succeed. This game feels like it was trying to be the next Wasteland or Shadowrun but falls flat without the RPG elements, and the sense of progression that comes with it, but also penalizes you by making the start of every combat pre-scripted. Your characters will always begin in a pre-determined spot no matter how or what angle you approach from, and that spot is usually going to disadvantageous. It feels like playing a chess-master challenge. There is little room for variation or deviation from the way the creators of the game intended for you to play out each combat. For this reason, calling this a tactical game seems a bit deceptive, because tactics are rather non-existent, just a limited list of options. Angle of fire, cover, and range all feel like unfinished products. There's really only two levels of accuracy, 50% and 100%. The cover system only works in a straight line, so an enemy that is even one grid space to the side will have a an unhindered shot on your characters, and most weapons have range that reaches across the combat map. As for the technical aspects of the game, there are only two options in settings, audio volume and language. That's it. So if you're like me and you find inverted controls for camera rotation to be counter-intuitive, then you're stuck with it. The ambient music is actually atmospheric and haunting, but is quickly replaced by the same repetitive and grating song once you enter combat. As combat dominates the majority of the game, you will quickly learn to despise it. For some reason I find this more disappointing than anything else, because when I first heard the background music it set the tone for a potentially lethargic and tragic story like This War of Mine, with a very simple but deep story, but delivered a meandering combat romp with a story that falls apart at every point instead. Story-telling was the final straw that got me to write this review. It may be because it's foreign, but the writing feels like all instances of Who, What, When, Where, and Why were all filled in with complete randomization. I still can't understand how the prologue lead to the second mission, it felt like it was an unnecessary plot point that the characters could have completely avoided. The story is only propelled from there by the power of NPCs being omniscient, and knowing everything that you did despite no survivors being left alive to tell the tale.

This is my first game review on Steam only because the I strongly believe that this game is not what it says it is. I just reached lvl4 in the game and, honestly, I feel I've had enough. Let me be very clear on this: it is not that this game lacks polishing, it lacks everything. The combat couldn't be more simplistic - it is just walk and or shoot, and there's absolutely NO tactical element to it. No customization. No engagement with any of the characters. (There ain't even a graphic setting option!). The music is something borrowed from a (bad) atari game from the early 80's - and there's only one - and it will annoy the hell out of you. Although the art project is quite beautiful, the actual graphics are awful with everything looking exactly the same: you can't distinguish the types of enemies from their looks. The gameplay mechanics are a mess: clunky movements, no clear distinction between elements of the scenario (it's all the same either half or full cover), no range distinct elements, nothing. I would not recommend it.