The game itself is very simple. You control a small squad of units that has to complete some kind of objective.
Some of those are area sweep (clear the map of hostiles), defend (you have to defend one unit until it reaches the exit) or
slaughter (kill unarmed civilians to make a point). There are many more, but I don't have the energy to define every single
one of them.
Anyway, the game plays like a hybrid of RTS (real time strategy) and TBS (turn based strategy), and it functions suprisingly
well.
Now, while the game itself is simple, it's gameplay could hardly be described as such. Sure, there is a tutorial, but it
won't teach you the half of the things you can do ingame.
Gameplay mechanics
The mission begins with so-called "planning phase". The "planning phase" is a phase when you issue commands and movement
patterns to your units (no shit sherlock). It has an awful lot of options and can be rather confusing at first, but once
you get the hang of it, you are going to love it.
Once you tell your men where to go, their path is represented by a breaking line and blocks. Blocks are placed at places
where the unit has to make a turn, and you will want to pay extra attention to where are they going to appear.
At these nodes, your unit will make turns, engage enemies in line of sight and such. But in vanilla (PC defined) path,
the unit looks straightforward, without taking time to check corners or crouch for cover. These orders have to be placed
manually somewhere during the path to be executed.
The funny thing is, there is a timeline present here, and all of these actions take time. So, while you'll have to think
about giving the right orders, you will also want to take care of when they are executed and how much time they take up.
Now, some of you will ask: "How the hell does a TBS have a timeline?". As I mentioned earlier, Frozen Synapse is
a hybrid between two genres and the game actually plays in real time, whilst stopping every couple of second for you to
issue orders. It might seem as a mindf*ck now, but once you try it out, everything gets in order.
I should also mention that every move can be tried out before being actually executed, simply because this game does not
forgive mistakes.
Look and feel
Graphics are interesting, ditching the hi-res look for artistic and "digital" expression. A picture is as good as a
thousand of words, so just take a look at any of them.
The good thing is, Frozen Synapse can probably work at your grandma's laptop. The bad thing is, when you zoom in...
well, you'll see. But on the other hand, that doesn't even matter for this kind of game, now does it?.
And, I couldn't give off the feeling that the UI (user interface) could use a little more polishing.
It's just too bulky and could have been simplified by implementing something different. But patches may yet fix that.
Soundtrack and sound on global level, are awesome. 'nuff said.
The music that plays reminded me of the legendary Deus Ex and gunfire sounds really brutal. And, you can download the tracks
from Steam as a side pack. Perfect, if you ask me.
When I killed my first enemy, I was surprised as it gave me that "killfeel" that usually COD-like shooters give when you
kill some german twelve year old who was camping 'cause he had to try out his new sniper.
It is just as satisfying as it should be.
And situations such as pushing the line trough one tight hallway and eliminating five enemies in one turn are unf*cking
beatable. There is nothing more to say but: great work, Mode 7 (developer).
Another (rather important) fact is that you will never, ever play the same map twice. Not even in campaign. Battlefields are
generated every time you start a match, and your tactics will have to adapt to it.
Also, explosives can wreck all objects on the map, so that gives the game another dimension of depth in planning.
Weapons are, unlike most of the game, very simple. There is the machinegun (assault rifle), shotgun,
sniper rifle (think .50 cal), grenade launcher and rocket launcher (RPG).
Not much versatility, eh? But, when you think about it, it's really enough. Assault rifles for room sweeping and mid-range
combat, shotguns for CQC and snipers for... well... just about everything else.
Explosives are more of a finesse.
Conclusion
Another great game that can be bought cheaply (around 15 euro at Steam). I doubt it will leave you disappointed.
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