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“A tactically rich casual game with some meaty role-playing elements,” was how Staff Sergeant James Archer described his character. Intimidation at handIn the month of September. The only thing missing from the game’s history was the bread needed to make that rich, meaty concoction into a delicious, nutritious sandwich.
And by bread, I really mean the strategic layer – the sections where you choose your next mission, upgrade your team, run pop-up stories, assess your standing with each NPC faction, and fight battles. Beat cruiser with auxiliary systems. Developers Overhype have now shared a few details on how it all works. Adormology and anointedness of Agrigama, and the uncleanness of Atonement.
In fact, all of them Sounds Very straightforward next to the problems of removing surface damage. Between missions, you’ll return to the Wayback Solar System Star Map where you can see the planets and their respective factions with any help requests. There is a reputation management body – leave a faction’s claim hanging and they can hurt you.
Faction concerns aside, the Starmap map is where you spend the game’s main resources. Promotion points are for leveling up teams, OCI units (that’s “Efficiency Upgrades” – no one is impressing anyone with this fancy talk, Overhype) are for boosting your ship’s Impetus, and Authority Points are for keeping a lid on your crew. Morality and emotion.
Your crew is described as “motley,” which here means “a large liability.” You might have to intervene in a bar fight, or deal with a problem at a moonshine factory, or solve a disaster in Hungary. It seems normal Strategy–RPG Fixing a problem now or letting it slide to save resources and getting into hot water later.
As for ship upgrades, these have both active and passive benefits during missions. You can equip facilities that allow you to dial in pressure with a dropship strafing run or a bunker-buster missile. Other upgrades restore unit health during missions, but the one you should have is probably the one that gives you more knowledge of enemies and their positions during briefings. Intimidation certainly seems like a game that encourages intelligence.
Last but not least, there is an armor screen where you can choose from a variety of weapons, armor, accessories, and vehicles, and advertise promotions. Each squad leader has a unique perk tree, although some perks are shared between characters and each squad leader starts with a trademark personal trait. Everyone is their own unique snowflake. At least until they get pushed by the mechas.
And that’s it for the strategy stuff. In a future blog post: black market listings, operations where gear, squad leaders and pilots, and a series of linked missions are sold.
I was blindly hoping for a gimmick that would make some sort of difference, but Menace’s strategy aspect seems to be by the numbers. Again, that’s what bread is all about, isn’t it? If it is too exciting, the filling will lose its capacity. A sandwich where the bread is the star part isn’t a sandwich at all, it’s a stick of bread you accidentally dropped in the stew – and now Lance Corporal Vicarus is riding you because he’s perfect after sampling the chickpeas. Boiling behind the main reactor. Captain Le Michele please! There is a risk of later next year.
