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You know, I’m really not sure whether I like chess or not. Bear with me, this is going to be related to Metal Slug Tactics. See, I really like chess in theory. It’s a wonderfully tactical game, that’s simple enough for everyone to play but complex enough for deep strategy. Problem is, I find it immensely stressful. Every time I reach out to touch a piece, my brain immediately tries to predict the outcome of every move, which causes it to overload and shut down. The end result is hesitation before every move because I’m never sure that I’ve thought of all the possible counter-moves.
I bring it up, because a lot of turn-based strategy games conjure up the same feeling. So, I braced myself for stress when I loaded up Metal Slug Tactics. Strangely, though, it’s not stressful at all. Perhaps I hadn’t considered that this is part of the Metal Slug franchise. It’s not a series known for pensive strategy. It’s known for running’n’gunning, and Metal Slug Tactics works hard to transfer that from one genre to the other. The end result is very enjoyable, though the genre switch does bring in one major issue.
Charge And Barrage
I’m going to leave that issue dangling there for a moment, because I want to dig into the gameplay. Metal Slug Tactics is a turn-based strategy game, with roguelike elements sprinkled on top. We begin each run by picking three characters, with different weapons and skills, and then pick which territory we want to assault. Each territory has a set of missions and a boss that appears after three victories. Generally, the aim is to beef our soldiers up so they can assault Sirocco City, the final territory. Fail a run and it’s back to the beginning, with our failure translated into cash to spend on new skills and weapon mods. Fairly standard stuff on the surface.
The interesting stuff happens on the ground, though. The turn-based combat is grid based. You line your lads up by the enemies with your movement points and let the bullets fly with your action points. There are two exciting modifiers to this. First is the ‘dodge’ mechanic. Essentially, the more squares you move, the higher your dodge and the less damage you take. This changes things immensely. There’s no more hunkering down behind cover; you have to lace up your sneakers. It’s paired with a ‘sync’ mechanic, where if you have two soldiers lined up with an enemy, they’ll both fire. To sum up: you have to run’n’gun. It’s an interesting approach to strategy.
It works rather well. My first run ended in dismal failure, but once I’d picked up on what Metal Slug Tactics was trying to tell me, everything went a lot better. My favourite run involved Eri, a grenadier, Ralf, a close-combat specialist, and Marco, the all-rounder. I’d get Ralf in close, Eri behind cover and Marco at a mid-range. If I did it right, Eri’s grenade could set off a chain reaction of slashes and gunshots. It’s a rather accessible approach to strategy, if that’s the right word. Making a perfect decision is less important than just getting your guys moving, which I found alleviated the stress a lot.
A Touch Wobbly
There’s some nice touches going on around the gameplay too. I find the art to be quite charming. There’s lots of little funny scenes going on in the background. At one point I saw two enemies posing and taking pictures of each other. Would probably have been more pleasant if their friends weren’t being grenaded around them. Each region feels distinct too, with unique enemy types. There’s also a fair bit of writing on display. I wouldn’t say it’s amazing writing; more like saturday morning cartoon writing. I do appreciate that it gives the heroes some banter though, even if it slid right out of my head a second after reading it.
But I’ve left that ‘major issue’ dangling for a while now, so let’s get to it: the balance is awful. It’s a tricky thing to get right. Unbalanced towards the AI and a game is frustrating. Unbalanced towards the player, it’s too easy. Metal Slug Tactics is unbalanced massively towards the player. The fact that moving gives you defence means you can just zip around the battlefield, shooting without care. Even if you do mess up, you can undo moves, get two turn resets per battle and a generous amount of 1-ups for your heroes. I ended up beating the game on my third run, then beat it again on my fourth. Higher difficulty does help, of course, but the same core issue remains: it feels more like a puzzle game than a strategy game.
It’s annoying because the boss fights, for example, are interesting on the surface. The first one forces you to move from one floating platform to another in a tight time limit, for instance. But because moving is defence, this works in our favour. Some skills are a bit much too. Eri’s starting skill can throw two grenades in one go, which can easily carve up a tenth of a boss’ health. This balance really hammers home how short Metal Slug Tactics is. Four regions – which don’t all need to be conquered – and four battles in each. You can knock out a successful run in an afternoon, if the boss fights behave.
Metal Slug Tactics – Unbalanced Entertainment
Still, there is a reasonable amount to do within that short timeframe. If you just carve through the regions, you won’t get the true ending, for one. There are also quite a few different mission types – and more than a few different map types – so each run feels reasonably fresh. That said, the between run upgrades aren’t particularly exciting. Most just slot different skills or gun mods into a deck, so you only have a random chance of trying out your new upgrade. The different characters and loadouts are more exciting, as they can actually change up your playstyle between runs, though a lot of the loadouts seem like similar weapons shuffled between characters.
Metal Slug Tactics feels like a light snack of a game. The short length of runs – and the individual battles – means you can knock out a fair few in an evening. The gameplay is also quite straightforward on the surface, but has some tactical depth, so it’s good at getting its hooks into you. The balance issues do make things a little unsatisfying, but these things can be patched and, hey, there’s always the higher difficulty settings. In the end, it makes me wonder if I’d enjoy chess more if there was a rule where you can just pick up a pawn and fling it at the King.
