19-Oct-2004 Turn-based strategy games - love 'em or loathe 'em, one thing you won't be is indifferent. Thankfully, we're suckers for a little turn-based skulduggery - just so long as there are enough weapons, the camera never obscures the gameplay, and the maps you fight in are designed with strategy in mind. If all three of those points are met, chances are you're onto a winner. Future Tactics: The Uprising has just scored a hat trick.
A merry band of drifters has been uprooted from its home because of an alien horde and, between bouts of selling pegs and trotting about the country like gypsies, they form a resistance. Armed with individual weapons, each has a unique strength - be it sniping, explosives, stealth etc.
All the maps (ranging from disused mines to snow-covered glaciers) are fully destructible and, unlike Worms 3D (Issue 22, 7.3), if you dislodge a boulder or wall and an enemy is below, they'll get a wallop, often ending up in a sticky mess or a whopping great crater. More often than not there'll also be a lead alien thrown into the fray, who'll target you and who you'll need to dispose of. Expect anything from a catapult high on a hill pelting your encampment to a laser-wielding crab - a fishier but no less intimidating enemy.
Although Future Tactics doesn't quite have the humour or breadth of Worms, and the multiplayer game isn't as all-encompassing as it should be, the campaign mode is quite endearing (even if the voice talent is god-awful), and the Trumpton visuals are sweet, if somewhat last-gen. If you're a sucker for turn-based games then prepare for a game that will sate your appetite. Otherwise you may want to hold out for Worms Forts Under Siege.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
