Pulp Tactics, Granular Difficulty
I picked this game up having heard next to nothing about it, except a couple of fair to good reviews, and having generally been happy with HareBrained Schemes games.
I had a blast. It has a solid pulpy feel and storyline, with an art direction that matches, and the score is delightful. The turn-based tactical elements are familiar and easy to pick up, the real-time stealth components are also remarkably solid, though they can be twitchy if you are trying to lure a lone enemy from their position to kill them without raising a larger alarm. And the character skill trees combined with the random (and levellable) mystic abilities from the Undrawn Hand make for some interesting synergies & progressions.
The biggest positive for this type of game were the granular difficulty settings - want the strategy on the world map to be a slow burn rather than a frantic race? Can do! Do you prefer story advencement difficulty on your tactics, or do you want to unleash Mythos-adjacent monsters with abandon? Can do. Want to suffer the total death of an agent because you want consequences? Or do you prefer that they merely flee the scenario, and need a few weeks to heal back at the hideout? It's got you covered.
It does have some drawbacks. 1) Loadtimes into a mission aren't instant - but not particularly longer than Firaxis' X-Com reboots. Your mileage may vary. 2) There is re-use of maps, and it could've benefitted from a handful more, but it wasn't so few as to be a deal breaker. 3) No quicksave, and limited save slots per campaign save. For those who want a quick trigger to save, it's not there. However, as long as the enemies on the tactical map aren't nearby and suspicious, and you aren't in combat, you can save. If you are in combat, there's no save scumming each action/round.
Overall it was very stable for me, crashing once, mid-mission during an entire 37 week campaign (1 week is one mission). If the above sounds up your alley, you may want to give it a try.
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