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Shadow Tactics is a real time strategy game where you control a small number of characters or units through each map in an attempt to achieve your objective goal. If you’ve ever seen or played a game called “Commandos” you’ll be familiar with this style of gameplay. While it is an RTS, it isn’t your typical RTS where you construct a base and build/train an army. In this game if you lose even one team member during the level your game ends, which certainly adds to the difficulty of completing a level. As the title suggests, it is based upon Feudal-Japanese setting, and your team is comprised of several different agents loyal to the Shogun who rules the world and is trying to stamp out a rebellion that has grown up from the ashes of his conquest.


Gameplay & UI

The UI itself is fairly clean and straightforward and I didn’t find it to be overly intrusive on the gameplay itself. Shadow Tactics begins by slowly introducing you to each of the members of your team and each map switches up which team members you’ll get to use. Each member has their own set of skills you will need to use to clear sections of the map, preferably without alerting any of the guards. See if you alert the guards, you’ve just upped your challenge for completing that level as more guards pour out of doorways to reinforce the security in that area. There is also an option you’ll want to make use of where you can queue an action for each of your characters and allow them all to complete that action at the same time. That way when you run into a couple of different guards separated by a distance, but can still see each other, you can position your team to strike at both simultaneously.

My one complaint about how the game plays is, if you do get caught your guys won’t defend themselves. They only act if you are giving them instructions. This can be a problem at times when you get discovered in one part of the map and you have another unit on another part of the map that gets discovered. With the guards on alert and and attacking your units you can’t keep them both alive. If they at least used their basic attack to defend themselves, you might be able to survive long enough to get back into cover and escape.

Conclusion/Rating
Design: 9
This game and the artwork for it is beautifully done and does a lot to showcase the setting for the story.

Challenge: 9
I found the game to be quite challenging especially when trying to complete a level without ever being seen, which in some cases I’ve found to be impossible. Though not so much that I ever wanted to stop playing in frustration. The game does a great job of being challenging in a way that even if you fail you want to go back and try a different approach to clear through a level.

Fun: 8
I haven’t yet found enough time to play through more than the first several levels, but I’ve had a lot of fun playing thus far. Even when I end up cursing myself or the game because I made a dumb mistake or tried to rush an area. The only thing I found frustrating was sometimes getting seen by a guard off-screen, but it has taught me to take things a little slower and check out an area a little more before moving on.

Replay: 7
There are several reasons one might want to play through this a few times. Speed running it could be fun. Finding different ways to get through the maps or even handicapping oneself by not using certain team members just to see if you can do it can add quite a bit of challenge.

Price: 8
Considering the price tag of $39.99 I feel the game is definitely worth the cost. But if you’re on the fence they do offer a free demo on Steam you can check out to help you make up your mind.

Overall Score: 8.2 out of 10.