Frontline Tactics

[Farmer Harv]

I have lots of problems with this one. I was really looking forward to it, but dozens of missions and hours into it everything seemed...pointless.

The enemy is essentially the same as you. Same abilities, same weapons, same equipment. They're reskinned and renamed, but that's it. You're fighting a mirror image all the time. When you level up, they level up. When you unlock a new weapon or skill, they get that weapon or skill. There are always more of them, but they have fewer hit points and deal less damage, which seems odd given the "realistic" nature of combat they're attempting to portray. And they don't use grenades (thankfully, or else even more of the early missions would be impossible), and your grenades don't harm your own troops (friendly rifle fire will though).

Some maps are impossible. Period. Your men will be gunned down on their start points before getting a turn. Occasionally they'll get a turn or two, and then be completely overwhelmed. Eventually you'll find a map you can win on, and then you'll farm that map forever in order to get new weapons, soldiers, skills and equipment. You might go try other maps occasionally, but if you want to progress it's either grind a single map or spend (big) dollars. And it really is a grind...five wins to upgrade or unlock anything, figure 5-10 minutes to play the mission, and you're going to invest a LOT of time (or $$$) to make any headway (and I use that term loosely, as I dunno if you really ever gain anything when the opposition instantly has what you have).

Keyword: Boring.

And for the curious, a meaningful amount of credits (960,000), enough to buy 5-8 upgrades, will cost you $20 in real money.

Secondary keyword: Expensive

Now, pretending we're in an alternate universe where there was no IAP or endless grinding, I'm still not sure about the base gameplay/combat system. Shots always hit, never miss. There is no ammo tracking. The cover system seems "off". LOS is iffy at times (or simply broken). The maps are too small (or movement allowance is too large). Giving a soldier an additional skill is actually a detriment (he loses lots of initiative), and once you learn this it's an expensive (time or $$$) fix as you only get half his value back if you want to retire him and try again.

I'm really looking for the upside, as I really Want to like it, but the more I play the worse it gets. Here's hoping they build on this and come out with a non-freemium fleshed out product, as this seems almost like an alpha/demo/sales pitch version they decided to monetize .