First look into the Warmachine Tactics Early Access – Scrap Some Jacks

By Chris Fett

For those that might not recognize the name, Warmachine Tactics is based on a tabletop wargame distributed by Privateer Press under the name Warmachine. The game has been making great strides over the past ten years in establishing a name for itself in a market largely dominated by Games Workshop’s plethora of gaming systems. They have now decided to move from the tabletop to the desktop with Warmachine: Tactics developed by Whitemoon Dreams. Whitemoon Dreams has just released early access of their client to those who backed the game through Kickstarter, but it is also possible to get in early through Steam. As a word of caution, like all beta releases what is listed here is subject to change.

Gameplay

Warmachine Tactics is an overhead, turn-based, combat game where each player takes control of a warcaster, his or her warjacks, and a few individual footmen in an attempt to eliminate the enemy warcaster or complete some other form of objective. For those familiar with the Valkyria Chronicles series, you will feel right at home as you assign each individual soldier movement and commands ranging from shooting, throwing down smoke grenades, or casting a variety of spells. However, Warmachine Tactics has a little more of a Battlefield General, overlord view of things as opposed to the personal feel of other turn-based games.

Units move on a grid system, with their movement limited by individual stats. When locked in combat, whether melee or ranged, damage is dictated by a units capability as well as the targets defensive capabilities. While it may be quite possible for a lone riflemen to kill another soldier, the chances of taking down one of the walking, mechanical behemoths known as warjacks are slim at best. It is through tactics known as combined ranged and combined melee attacks, that soldiers of the same type can work together to create one unified, powerful blow. For the other units, warjacks and warcasters, they power up their attacks through focus, a resource system allocated through the warcaster at the beginning of each turn. Focus allows warjacks and warcasters to enhance their hitting capability, damage capability, make additional attacks, allows warcasters to cast spells, and finally it is used to force a warjack to run double its normal movement.

The single player campaign is unfortunately a little light as of the writing of this article, with only one map and a pre-assigned army. However, that is to be expected for a game in the preliminary steps of testing things out as opposed to a full release. The multiplayer mode, on the other hand, offers endless gameplay as it allows you to construct an army of your own design to take on other players.. Want to create a firing line that will fill the battlefield with lead or perhaps a devastating shocktroop deployment? Completely possible with the army builder. If you have played the tabletop version of Warmachine, the multiplayer mode will likely satisfy that itch for gaming between sessions, albeit with less dice rolling.

Controls and Interface

Overall the interface is clean and easy to read. A recent patch has added a decorative menu screen where options are presented as bolted on plates, fitting the steampunk motif of the game. The in-game interface is equally clear as each action a unit can take is presented as large, color-coded gears listing exactly what the action will do. Movement is made via a pathway arrow within a colored area around a unit depicting his or her available range. When attacking or using abilities, a panel is presented that gives you data on the likelihood that your attack will succeed or fail. including the potential range of damage. Health and focus is clearly displayed above each unit in the form of squares similar to how health is show on cards in the tabletop game. In addition, to the left of the screen is an entire list of your units, letting the player know who has or has not activated in a given turn and their current health.

Unfortunately, there is no in-game chat interface currently. However, because Warmachine: Tactics is being released through Steam, Whitemoon Dreams has cleverly found the means to use the Steam messaging and chat system to allow communication between players. As the game nears release, it is likely that users will instead see something directly in game.

The help system is largely demonstrated through a series of videos rather than in the single player campaign. For those not familiar with the tabletop rule set, users may be a little confused on what exactly is being done at any given moment in the game. The videos supplied in the main menu do a lot to clear things up for new users, so it is strongly suggested that new players start there before jumping into a game.

As far as the controls go, like most tactical-based games the focus is largely around the mouse. Because you are not controlling large number of units, the micromanagement usually required of a game like an RTS is not necessary. Camera controls are manipulated through the traditional WASD combination with the Q and E keys allowing rotation. Lastly, you can get right into the action using the mousewheel to scroll close enough to see each individual unit’s face. Movement may feel a little difficult to manage with the default camera placement as the player attempts to navigate soldiers through terrain and the melee ranges of other soldiers on a flat plane while viewing it all from a 40 degree angle. It’s not unusual for the player to find his or herself fussing with the mouse as they attempt to navigate a soldier not to one point of the movement grid, but the one next to it. This issue is simply solved once the camera controls are discovered, it should be fairly easy to shift the view slightly higher or at an angle to get pinpoint accuracy. Everything from the user-interface buttons to the movement system feels responsive and accurate.

Graphics

System Requirements:

Minimum:

OS: Windows Vista 32/64 bit

Processor: 2 Ghz Quadcore or Better

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: Intel HD4000

DirectX: Version 10

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Hard Drive: 20 GB available space

Sound Card: Soundblaster Compatible

Recommended:

OS: Windows 7/8 64bit

Processor: 2 Ghz Quadcore or Better

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: NVidia GTX 670/AMD Radeon or HD 7870 w/2GB VRAM

DirectX: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Hard Drive: 20 MB available space

Beyond the interface, the game looks quite amazing. It is brilliant seeing the traditionally static models one sees on the tabletop come to life as they bang their shields, taunting the opponent to attack. The game has a dark, gritty atmosphere common of something within the steampunk genre. Gas lamps and the glowing furnaces of the players’ warjacks feel warm and cozy compared to the cold streets the players’ units creep through. Each unit seems alive as they fidget, react to hits, and trundle along in search of enemies. Gunshots seem powerful and destructive. Although the footmen look a bit repetitive, their depiction is rich and detailed with crackling generator blades and small features like cracked paint jobs on their shields. The warcasters and warjacks, on the other hand, each have unique details that let the player know exactly who and what they are facing at a glance. Each of the four factions have their own color scheme and theme, whether it be the noble Cygnar, russian-like Khador, zealous Protectorate of Menoth, or undead Cryx.

There was one minor graphical glitch, where every once in a while units would move right through terrain as opposed to around it. Furthermore, the ragdoll effects common in first person shooters and modern RTS games look kind of silly when applied to giant mechanical constructs. However, these inconveniences will most likely be patched as users submit bug reports.

Sounds

What would graphics be without complementary, pleasing sound effects. The interface sounds are a little soft, which can be beneficial if the player is looking to really get engrossed in the game. On the other hand, the effects like a warjack wrenching its fist across another’s chassis sound realistic and did cause a few sympathetic winces. Gunshots sound explosive, but not overly loud; pulling the player into the dangers of the battlefield without causing their ears to bleed. The voice acting was clear and quite pleasant as far as tactical gaming goes. The only downside a user might find is that the background music is a little repetitive, but its quite common for players to listen to their own music during a long gaming session, so it’s not as distracting as it might first appear.

Final Reaction

Overall, Warmachine: Tactics early access is a blast to play for new initiates or grizzled adepts alike. For those already introduced to the tabletop game, they will find an excellent translation of the miniature combat, but now with living, breathing characters destroying each other as opposed to being put back in their foam. Those that have not yet joined into the geekcraft of wargaming will find an enjoyable, challenging player-on-player experience that is pleasing to the ear and the eye alike. What few issues that could be gleaned from a couple hours of gameplay, like minor graphical bugs, are barely noticeable and likely to be patched long before release. Just the first level of the single-player campaign promises a fantastic development of the lore of Warmachine. One caution is that the game is a bit number-crunch heavy, so if someone is looking for something a little less mentally intensive, they might find it slightly overwhelming. As long as Whitemoon Dreams is able to fulfill their promises of future developments, Warmachine: Tactics is definitely a game to pick up for the tactical gamer. Pick up a copy of the game as well as early access through Steam.

Rating: 4/5 Atoms