It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes it feels like the collective gaming industry has telepathically read my thoughts and decided to make something that’s just for me. Combining turn-based strategy, low-poly visuals, a plot inspired by the early Metal Gear games, and XCOM 2-style battles and management, this new mech game that you can try for free on Steam right now is like the combination of all my favorite things in one extremely wonderful bundle. This is Kriegsfront Tactics, and while the full game is still in development, the first hour is playable today.
Part XCOM 2, part Front Mission, part JPRG, Kriegsfront Tactics takes place in Southeast Asia during an alternate history version of the 1970s. Civil war is tearing the region apart. As a member of a private military faction, you and your squad (and your mechs) are deployed to quell the conflict on behalf of your sinister benefactors. So begins a strategy game with late ‘90s-style visuals, a narrative fueled by political intrigue and real-world analogies, and intense turn-based battles.
There are essentially three components. Initially, you need to choose your squad and customize your mechs, or ‘Kriegers,’ with different weapons and countermeasures. After that, you explore an isometric map, choosing between a variety of missions, side missions, and potential battlefields.
Finally comes the combat proper. Destroy the environment to create new flanking positions, use overwatch to ambush enemies as they maneuver, and work your squad into the perfect position to trap and eliminate the opposition one by one. It plays like the Firaxis classic, but the voice acting, visuals, and atmosphere of Kriegsfront Tactics elevate it above many of its peers.
Available today, Kriegsfront Tactics Prologue lets you play the first 60 minutes of the game. You can explore the initial section of the map, get to grips with the main systems, and learn the fundamentals of the world and the story. If you want to try it out (and you do, I promise) then just head here.
Otherwise, try some of the other best robot games, or maybe the best RTS games available on PC. We’ve also got the best free Steam games out right now.
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