Strike Team Gladius Reviews

Update: The game has improved tremendously in early access and a lot of the rough edges have been removed. And the difficulty curve has been mostly smoothed out. A tutorial has also been added that helps quite a bit in getting the player oriented. Two new classes (exo armor troopers) were also added an are a lot of fun! And now it is out of early access! Definitely recommended for fans of tactical turn based games! Original Review: Strike Team Gladius is a solid squad based strategy game by WaveLight games. Your 6 squad members will fight aliens in a variety of outdoor environments, with a large variety of allies and enemies. It is currently in early access and has some rough edges, but progress has been fast on sanding them down. Definitely worth a buy if you are a squad based strategy fan! Pros: Lots of characters choices - there are 22 different characters (11 roles with male and female variants) to make your party of 6 from . The skills of the male and female are very different, as are the base stats. Fun inventory system - lots of inventory slots, and lots of loot provides a satisfying gearing up process. Large variety of enemies - from alien dogs to infantry to huge monsters with poison breath, your squad will fight many different types of aliens. Lot of allies - A variety of armored vehicles, turrets and infantry types will aid you in various missions. You often take direct control of them in addition to your squad. Solid core rules - The basic rules system is fun, though a bit under explained at the moment Wide variety of skills - From smoke grenades to explosive ammo, there are lots and lots of skills with a big diversity of effects. Cons: Rough around the edges - this is an early access game, so somewhat to be expected. The updates are regular, and have already smoothed a lot of problems, so hopefully by release the whole thing will be a polished experience Really needs a tutorial - this is in the works according to the developer, but as noted above, the rules aren't obvious unless you go digging around in the help. The rules aren't hard to follow, but they aren't explained enough yet, especially some of the subtleties Uneven difficulty curve - again, this is something that has seen big improvements since launch, but certain levels are still extremely difficult unless you go back and replay some earlier missions to improve your levels and gear. Limited strategic layer - The strategic layer basically allows you to change your team and buy new equipment. Not a problem for me since the tactical layer is so much fun, but if that is what makes these games fun to you, it might be for you. So overall, I like the game a lot. Definitely recommended, as long as you can stomach the typical issues of early access!

Really enjoying this, best game in the 'Wavelight' series games yet (as always, keep in mind I almost 'love' these wavelight games for the simple reason they are highly grindable and allow customization of your characters through what you buy at the shop - meaning you can replay missions over and over and get xp and level your characters, and then buy items at the store that give specific bonuses that will create certain types of builds, you can change the difficulty but with the endless grinding possible you will always be able to create almost 'unstoppable' characters, for the people that hate weird 'frustration' points in games, I love grinding and customizing and these are the perfect types for it, and you can always go masochist and play on high difficulties with low level characters, if you feel like it - this game doesn't force you in a 'linear' progression path and Wavelight is an amazing game company for catering to those types of gamers, should be how all games are made but aren't.. )

I am enjoying it. I love the sound of a snipers bullet when it impacts a bug, Especially in the morning. Sounds like.... Victory.

Enjoyable TBT game. Very Xcom like minus the base building and more tedious parts of it. It pretty much immediately throws you in the action, but once you figure out the game mechanics it's simple yet challenging. Not much of a story to it, which makes it a great game to put down for a while. Come back and pick up right where you left off. Was worth the $$$.

Strike Team Gladius is essentially Strike Team Hydra V2.0, or even V1.5 with some improvements. You gain allied units that are a bit more powerful, but also bigger and badder enemies that are even harder to kill. Some gaming mechanic changes and UI changes were added. All in all, STG presents a more coherent game that represents a minor evolution of the game engine and design that adds onto STH, but little else. STG is clearly derived from Strike Team Hydra, its predecessor, in that most of the menu screens are the same, or at least have recognizable counterparts in the game. However, there are many notable differences. STG is a hex-based turn-based tactical combat game where you can take a dozen different classes of soldiers (6 at a time) through a campaign (chained missions) against the invading Sethari. There is no elevation on the map, but fog of war is in full effect with weapons reaching most of visual distance. The ST series has a counter-fire mechanic where the unit being attacked can retaliate (counterfire) but is often limited in the number of counterfire available per turn. Otherwise, the game is similar to XCOM where you can take half-cover or full cover behind objects, you shoot, you shot some more, hit end turn when you used up all the action points on all assets you control. Then enemies does the same, repeat until one side has achieved victory condition. STG now has armored units on the map joining your fight, and AI units fighting by itself. Unfortunately, sometimes, the AI units behave like kamikazes even on mission where your objective is to make sure they don't die. For example, there was a mission where you are to protect \a downed pilot. Instead of sitting still waiting for rescue, the pilot is charging enemies... with just a pistol or carbine. ARGH! On the other hand, it is actually quite cool to see tanks, APCs, and even rocket artillery pummel enemies alongside your soldiers. Unfortunate, these AI doesn't understand "overrun" (physically run enemies over). Somehow, after playing a bit of of STH, the changes in the play mechanics and UI felt somewhat backwards. Basically, in STH, the larger UI has the elements larger and easier to read, like how many action points left. It's much harder to read with STG, where the UI elements are somehow much smaller even when both games are set to 1080p. Also, STH and STG have different AP mechanics. In STH, movement and actions use the same pool of action points. You can move a lot, or you can shoot a lot, or you can mix shooting and moving, but the more you shoot the less you move. But then, the whole game was about fighting onboard a cruiser boarded by the enemy with tight corridors and rooms. In STG, movement and actions are separate. You can move to the maximum distance, but still perform all the actions available to you. This requires a bit of tactical adjustment from STH, but necessary because in STG the maps are also more open with enemies may be coming from multiple directions. You are planetside dodging burned out ruins, rocks, destroyed vehicles, and so on. Often, the mission ends when you've destroyed the enemy teleporter beaming in reinforcements. The skill tree is a little different and a lot of skills unlocked early, so you don't have to grind through initial missions with an extremely limited arsenal. Almost everyone have the first few skills unlocked, and some have up to 10. However, the color palette is a bit weird, and I have no idea why the swordsman is holding his two-handed sword like a bat at a baseball game... The game also made cover very effective. Units hiding behind full cover is 85% covered. Add some natural bonus and to hit drops to under 10%, which is extremely low. However, liberal use of grenades and other explosive ordnance will even the odds, at least at easier levels where grenades can kill instantly. Unfortunately, the AI pretty much relies on rush, and occasionally use a grenade. So it is up to you to don't get near enemies or terrain features that will go kaboom. The graphics are quite good, and character models are improved from STH. However, as mentioned before, UI seems to have taken a step or two backwards. Some UI scaling would have been nice. And a lot of character animation is way exaggerated. And the death animations are all pre-packaged instead of ragdoll. The economy is also a bit stingy on the easier levels, and doesn't improve much on the toughest levels... same as in STH. On easy, a typical mission is worth a few hundred credits, only enough for a lousy item. On the tougheest missions, you're looking at a few thousand credits, but some of the very best items are over 25000 credits. Also keep in mind you are outfitting at least 6 soliders, each of which has a DOZEN OR MORE pieces you can upgrade, with some strict class restrictions. At least when you trade the item back in you don't lose anything. All in all, when it comes to turn-based tactical combat, IMHO Silent Storm and XCOM (the Firaxis one) are still the best. Strike Team Gladius does somewhat scratch the itch with its own mechanics, but a tactical combat game with a somewhat clunky UI, brain dead AI, and no dynamic campaign in 2022 is aiming a bit low. Recommended, but with reservations.

[h1] Things I like: [/h1] [list] [*]I like how they characters react to taking hits, but sometimes when my heavily armoured battle droid gets knocked to the ground by a 1 damage counter-attack I chuckle [*]As always, great feeling of progression between accessing new abilities and the gear upgrades [*]Fun to have some additional troops on certain missions, esp when they can be controlled manually, and ESPECIALLY when they're actually useful- armoured tanks or troops that (I assume) could have been selected from the roster, considering they have a bunch of abilities to use [*]Really appreciate the bars showing health, ability points, and movement points next to the character portraits. Without these, it would be easy to forget to move a troop or two, especially considering all the abilities that give you summons, and within the many maps that give you additional units [*]Architecture, enemies, and weaponry are all suitably futuristic and alien [*]Great variety of enemies, with a variety of abilities, strengths, and weaknesses [/list] [h1] Compared to Shieldwall: [/h1] [list] [*]I prefer the medieval setting- fighting mostly humanoids with low tech is just more satisfying to me [*]I dislike the reliance on ranged vs. melee. Although it's understandable given the setting, it isn't my preferred playstyle [*]I prefer being able to see all the enemies on the map from the start. I understand the "realism" that fog of war offers, but it's a bit strange to move a single hex and all of a sudden the house-sized dino alien is suddenly in view. This issue seems even more noticeable through attack range boosting equipment that lets you see and target distant enemies only if one of your other troopers gets closer. Essentially, they can accurately shoot at targets that they can't see themselves. If the fog of war is needed, since there are enemy indicators anyway, and these could be manually counted to determine the number of remaining enemies, a nice QoL change would be an onscreen counter :) [*]I liked Shieldwall's branching paths- even if the story is mostly the same, you can choose to support or attack a few different factions throughout the game [*]Another plus to Shieldwall- I like the big battles where there are two hostile factions that are fighting, and your goal is to eliminate everyone [*]Shieldwall gives more map variety overall- open woodland areas and cities and within taverns and caverns, for example, rather than Gladius' open outdoor areas [/list] [h1] Suggested improvements: [/h1] Most of these relate to all Wave Light games, since they all play similarly [list] [*]Controller support [*]Support for higher resolutions [*]Cloud saves [*]Translucent effects- can be hard to see troops because of the trees/structures, esp on the enemy turn when you lose control of the camera and can't pan/rotate [*]Would love to see a translucent mini-map with enemy and power ups tagged [*]I like that there's an activity log, but I'd prefer a log that can be pinned and shows all the rolls/calculations behind the scenes [*]The move hexes show up easily, but the teleport range can be hard to see in the terraformed parts of the later stages [/list] [h1] Bugs: [/h1] [list] [*]Moving too quickly after using the Deploy Gun Drone skill can result in the drone being unresponsive and immobile for the remainder of the mission [*]Sometimes the move range highlighted shows movement is possible far beyond the normal range- when this happens and I get greedy, the game essentially stalls and I have to retreat from the mission [/list]

Another good tactical game from Wave light, a successor to Strike Team Hydra that I spent 50+ hours on, very playable not too simple or complicated the balance is perfect for me, plenty of upgrades for your team and choice of characters to use.

I love this game, it has a small niche but fills it perfectly; it may not have a deep story but the turn based combat is well done and feels fairly balanced. If you want a simple turn based game to sit back and relax with this is it.

I'm a bit on the fence here... The first thing to mention is that the game is paaaainfully retro. It would be a B-C list game on the PS2. Battlefields are sparse, the intro is near enough a still with one of the devs putting on a funny voice, and even the save slots were somehow old school (took me back to memory card days!). If I'm honest with myself it actually reminded me of Amiga games more than anything. I had the Total Recall song stuck in my head for an hour... The second thing to mention is that, whilst looking a hell of a lot like X-Com, this game plays more like the battles from the Age of Wonders series. By that I mean, it feels a bit more like ramming troops at each other than meticulous planning and a lot of RNG finger crossing. That said, I have only tried normal, maybe positioning becomes more of a thing on harder difficulties. (Edit - Seems I spoke too soon. The RNG is strong with this one) There are a number of very cool elements to this game. Squad selection, an equipment shop, and a pretty good spread of skills, all add a bit of flavour to the game. Also, there are some cool character models that appeal to the DnD/RP player in me. The sound effects are generally pretty satisfying too, even if the limited voice acting would be better off left out. Most of what I mentioned in the first few paragraphs comes down to preference, but one thing that is a solid negative is horrendous UI. Icons are clumsy and hard to find, and there are some really unintuitive design choices, such as the shop layout and post battle loot collection. All said and done? I like a bit of tactical pew pew, and the squad customisation ticks a big ol' box for me, so this gets a recommendation. It won't be for everyone, and if budget/ old graphics are a deal breaker for you then walk swiftly away. I reckon I'll get a bit of joy from the game though, even if I don't see it changing all that much in the future. Oh, as a final note, I do firmly believe this should be about 20% cheaper... than the sale price. Hi there! If you like my review, please feel free to check out our curator page! https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39307662-Brothers-Dim-Gaming/ For more full reviews, you can check out my personal page: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198011754979/recommended/

Strike Team Gladius is a typical Wave Light game, and in my book that’s a good thing. The story serves as the framework for the game campaign's 40 combat missions, so it’s all about building a team and tactical combat. Finishing the campaign twice took me about 100 hours. There are 12 different classes, each with a male and a female version. They all have different stats, skills and abilities. You choose 6 of them and off you go. After each mission your units get EXP points and after roughly 5 missions they get an upgrade - if you can keep them alive, that is. If not they still get some EXP, but it will take longer to get an upgrade. There is no permadeath in the game and if you fail a mission you can always try again (while keeping the EXP you got in your first attempt). You can also replay successful missions to gain more EXP points. However, that is not necessary at all when playing on normal difficulty: the game is well balanced and you should be able to complete every mission with a minimum of casualties. If you want a bigger challenge go for Hard. In previous Wavelight games Extreme was meant to be played with a team that already completed a full campaign, so I guess that’s the case here too. One feature I really like is that unit upgrades are automatic: you can’t choose which skills are upgraded or which additional abilities are assigned. So you have to live with the way your units evolve, but on the other hand you can shape your team by buying weapons and armor with the money and looted gear you get after each mission. Spending some time in the store, choosing carefully which gear fits your strategy, is definitely worth it. My advice: first go for items that enhance missile attack range (they are not very expensive) and later on, when you get more money, spend it on better weapons: if you kill the enemy first, he can’t hurt you. Defensive gear comes last when you have all the rest (except for close combat units of course). Speaking of enemies, usually there are a lot of them, varying greatly in the way they pose a deadly threat to your team. Some only appear in a specific biome, others can be found wherever the missions take you. During combat, often new waves of enemies appear or are teleported in by portals (or spawn from cocoons). So never assume the battle is won before it’s really over… Graphics and effects are nice. I like the new action camera that gives a bit of an XCOM vibe (it's off by default, you can choose how often the action cam takes over - I set it to 20%). I had a lot of fun with all the previous Wave Light games, so buying this one wasn't a hard decision. If you like turn-based combat and don't want to spend too much time on the story, this game is for you. Highly recommended!