Future Tactics: The Uprising – Review

Set in the fairly distant apocalyptic future of Earth, Future Tactics the Uprising follows the story of a group of people trying to stay alive in the face of Alien Invasion… gee that’s a new idea huh? It’s a third person turn based title with a difference, so lets examine just what Future Tactics The Uprising can offer the turn based fan….

I’m no turn based junky, I hate all that stop start rubbish, it’s boring, dare I say it…. Final Fantasy titles really yank my chain and I yowl in bored pain as I’m yet again stopped mid flow to work out and strategize hits, mana and other BORING things. Yawn is me. So why bother reviewing Future Tactics? Simple, it’s different, it’s essentially one of these pre-mentioned boring titles with most of the bore taken out, it’s straight to the action, it’s choose your character, choose your move, aim and fire!! Oh glee is me to be sure. But enough of the informal banter, let’s get to the tech stuff.

Graphically speaking Future Tactics isn’t the most earth shattering you’re going to see, particularly in the Xbox incarnation, it’s cartoony and it’s generic BUT it does have a few clever tricks up its sleeve. The environments are fully destructible so no two games are ever exactly the same. You can alter the environments in real time with a well aimed cannon.

Check 1, 2, 3, … The sound in Future tactics isn’t great either, but it, like everything else in this title does the job. Yes it may seem unfinished or unpolished to the nitpicky gamer out there, perhaps it suffered from low production monies but it still has ‘something’. The voice acting isn’t that bad, though emotionless could be said of the ‘acting’ given some of the stories outcomes. The sound effects again do the job they’re meant to without distracting, or indeed adding overly to the title at large. The musical accompaniment is… strange… like some odd 70’s folk rock, but again, it does the job and again, it’s different.

Did someone say innovation? Yes Future Tactics is innovative, it has taken an old concept and given it a new creative twist. This means this style of gaming is opened up to those of us who generally find these turn based outings one big yawn. It’s like an odd jumble of turn based strategy and action 3D platformer, wow that’s some mouthful. For me this title does it so well I think they’ve actually hit on something others may copy, it’s such a shame they didn’t polish it up a little more. The ability to zoom in and snipe enemies in first person perspective just added to the fun, oh wonderful headshot!

Female Gamers … same old same old ladies, the heroes of the piece are men, with the main hero being Low… yes that’s his name and his Father early on. Though there are female characters they’re weaker and less important. Nothing new there then, and just when I was going on about innovation too. Oh well.

Overall I found Future Tactics to be a rare treat and it’s cheap at around half the price of a regular new title. BUT… oh yes you knew there had to be one… because of the unpolished nature of the title I couldn’t help but feel this one just missed the amazing boat ever so slightly. I felt that had this title stayed in production a few more months it would have been something truly groundbreaking. As it stands it’s still a fun title that puts you in the thick of the action with its unique style of turn based action. At times too I found it to be difficult given the sheer number of enemies to do away with during a turn. These are small niggles really, but if you add them all together you may wish you’d spent your money elsewhere. Definitely a must try title though for its innovation.

Review by Angela

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