Othercide Xbox review: This tactics game is brutal in more ways than one

Othercide Source: Windows Central

Focus Home Interactive has congenital upwards a reputation for signing unique titles that have creative risks, or put a unique spin on existing paradigms. Fifty-fifty on the face of it, Othercide seems to continue the tradition, with a astringent monochrome aesthetic that permeates the entire game.

It was the game's art style alone that drew me in, merely I stuck effectually for its brutally rewarding gameplay, intriguing story delivery, and epic boss battles. This is Othercide, a game tactics fans mustn't miss.

Tactics brutale

Othercide Review

Othercide

$40

Lesser line: Othercide could utilize some quality-of-life improvements, just this is i of the most stylish games I've played in years, complete with oppressive gameplay that is as thrilling as it is rewarding.

Pros:

Truly challenging tactical gameplay
Incredible and striking art mode
Intriguing story beats
Great music and sound

Cons:

UI can be sluggish and cumbersome
Mission structure tin can get a bit repetitive

What I adore virtually Othercide

Othercide Source: Windows Key

Othercide is a tactics game at its cadre, borrowing from the likes of XCOM and Darkest Dungeon with its combat and gameplay structure. XCOM in the sense combat takes place in turns, with characters and enemies taking upwardly spots on a grid. Darkest Dungeon in the sense that your should look failure, character deaths, and difficult choices, with no choice to relieve-scum your fashion out of a bad decision.

Category	Othercide
Title	Othercide
Programmer	Lightbulb Coiffure
Publisher	Focus Home Interactive
Genre	Turn-based tactics
Platforms	Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Nintendo Switch
Game Size	5.7GB
Players	Single
Xbox Game Pass	No
Launch Price	$40

It'due south this lack of saving that really adds to Othercide's challenge and tactical layer, especially when you factor in that healing your units requires the blood sacrifice of some other. You volition recycle dozens upon dozens of procedurally-generated "daughters" as you lot weave through the game'south gothic narrative, with an ever-evolving, always-revolving army of badass heroines who move with the same kind of deadly grace as 2B from Nier Automata, or Dante from Devil May Cry.

When I first began playing the game, I was concerned it might've been intentionally vague as a way to hide a lack of any existent narrative, but thankfully this isn't the case. As yous progress through the story, the game'due south imagery, dominate commentary, and codex entries brainstorm to pigment an increasingly harrowing tale, that I doubtable with further analysis may nowadays some grade of apologue.

The game is filled with mutual themes revolving around a few central characters and in-game events: a disease, cultists and plague doctors, religious tyranny, and beyond, with each deed serving a unlike central theme or event. The narrative too seems to span hundreds of years, with unlike eras depicted, although the events and how they interconnect play out with a nightmarish disjointedness. The story will have you scratching your head for a good portion of the game, but the mystery, great grapheme acting, and haunting creatures will more than hold your attending as you lot pare abroad at its layers.

The presentation of the game, its combat, and its enemies all lend farther weight to the game'south primal mysteries and keep y'all engaged every bit you wrangle the game'south difficult combat mechanics. Indeed, you cannot revert to an earlier salve or try once more. If all of your units are wiped out, you have to first a new "Recollection," although subsequent runs come up with roguelike-style bonuses and powerups that make skipping past previously-defeated bosses much easier.

Othercide Source: Windows Central

Units are split into three classes (with a fourth one later on) that tin can take up typical RPG-style roles. Without spoiling the 4th, y'all accept a ranged Soulslinger, with dual-wield revolvers. A Shieldbearer tank that tin can hold a monster's attention, and a Blademaster, who can deal truly monstrous amounts of melee harm upwards close. About gainsay scenarios are simple to begin with, but as you progress, monsters, and their tactics get increasingly complex, forcing you to alter your playstyle on the fly. Time management is too crucial to success in the game, since every piece on the lath takes their turns in a specific gild, forcing y'all to program ahead, and estimate around the enemy'due south ain AI and tactics.

Othercide has a unique approach to action points, that permit you sacrifice your units to proceeds additional bonuses, in-keeping with the sacrificial themes of the narrative. If you use too many action points, you'll enter a "burst phase," and cede speed on the timeline in order to proceeds extra deportment for that plow.

Furthermore, you can sacrifice your unit'due south striking points to gain even more than attacks. Managing these risky moves is crucial to navigating some of the game's more than hard challenges. Each mission gives yous currency and power-ups to further customize your units

Pulling off a successful strategy, often involving cascading combo attacks betwixt your units feels bang-up in practice. This sense of reward is amplified several times over if you're overcoming a difficult boss for the beginning time, many of which simply felt insurmountably difficult on my first attempts.

Othercide is a truly intriguing game, with mysteries that beg to be unlocked, and combat that rewards creativity and planning. There are a few problems I'd love to see Othercide address either in a future patch, or a time to come sequel, though.

What yous might dislike about Othercide

Othercide Source: Windows Central

Perhaps my biggest effect with Othercide, at to the lowest degree on Xbox One, was the sluggishness of the UI. Selecting a unit of measurement, then placing a motion reticle on the combat grid can be a slog, taking a strange amount of time to register your actions before move really takes identify. Coming in from games similar Mutant Year Zero and Gears Tactics, Othercide feels like it needed more than attention in this area, although it may fare better on PC. The carte in general could use improvements as well, both in terms of speed and clarity. Optional missions are described by difficulty, but the terms include "hard" and "challenging," which in my mind basically hateful the same thing. Which is actually more than difficult?

The game is also missing a few "quality of life" features that are becoming more prevalent in the wider genre. The only way to speed up enemy turns is to speed up the unabridged game, including the UI and camera movement and speed. The implementation feels a tad rushed. It would've been nice to have more than control over the game speed, especially when you're in a rescue mission with 8 or more than mobs on-screen, slowly taking their turns one by one. It as well gets a tad abrasive when the narrator repeats the same phrases over and over in some of the longer battles.

Othercide Source: Windows Primal

Speaking of mobs, Othercide has some truly stunning art in this regard, with enemy designs that look like they were plucked directly out of horror titans similar The Evil Inside or Silent Hill. New monsters starting time showing up afterward on as yous progress too, in true tactics-fashion, but the repetitive animations and flat map layouts to suck a fleck of the dynamism out of the game a bit. The get-go time yous encounter a Soulsinger do her badass gun-kata revolver combo, it looks badass. The v hundredth fourth dimension, though? Non then much. I experience like the game could've used either some ragdoll physics, slow-mo, or other photographic camera flairs to add a bit of variety to the combat proceedings. Every now and then you exercise go a cursory anime-style character flourish on a critical hit, but information technology's cypher to write dwelling about.

None of these things suspension Othercide, though, which remains a uniquely gorgeous and challenging championship, nailing all of its central gameplay elements and atmospherics with conviction and manner.

Should you purchase Othercide?

Othercide Source: Windows Central

If you're non into turn-based tactics, Othercide isn't the game that will change your opinion of the genre. It's very much designed to entreatment to strategic players who relish planning ahead, managing resources, and studying enemy attacks and AI.

Othercide has a few rough edges, with menus and gamepad controls that could employ some optimization here and there, only these aren't game-breaking pitfalls that will stop you from enjoying the game.

The narrative is a brutal and twisted tale that is complimented with stunning horror fine art that I cannot praise developer Lightbulb Crew for enough. If they wanted to make one of the near atmospheric tactics games ever, they certainly nailed it. The game is suitably challenging as well, with complex boss battles that will provoke the fury of even the well-nigh steely tacticians, but information technology but makes the victories e'er sweeter.

Othercide is a brilliant start effort, and I promise to run across more from this haunted universe in the future.

To the otherside

Othercide Review

Othercide

Barbarous tactics

Othercide is a turn-based tactics game that knows you're going to die, over and over. The gameplay weaves neatly into the complex narrative, which defies a few crude edges to take a place as i of the greatest tactics games of the gen.

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