Article by: Kirby Chin
TASTEE: Lethal Tactics is a turn-based strategy game by Skybox Labs. The game seems simple on the surface, and that carries through the short and precursory tutorial. The tutorial just gives you a feel for the basics. You’re on your own after that. In actual gameplay, you then discover how difficult this game really is!
You command a 4-person tactical team. The four mercenary classes are Gunmen, Bomber, Shotgunner and Sniper. The goal is to complete various tasks within a given mission, and there are 30 mission maps in the game. The only thing standing in your way is a very aggressive AI.
TASTEE plays out like a classic chess match. You have to be one step ahead of your opponent at every turn. The game is broken down into 2 phases. First up is the planning phase, in which you move and assign actions to each character on your team. There is an Action Wheel with options, which is easy to navigate and allows for stringing actions for the round. There’s also a preview button that you can utilize, which is a helpful tool as it allows you to play out your plan before you actually commit to it. The planning phase can be time consuming, as it’s not uncommon to spend up to ten minutes or longer to get your affairs in order. You then move to the final phase, the action. This basically executes your team orders along with the orders of your opponent, and the round plays out. This process repeats itself until all the goals are achieved or all team members are eliminated.
The gameplay is quite challenging and not having a countdown clock is extremely helpful. When playing against a human opponent, you can pop out to deal with other tasks and a message is sent to let you know you’re up. TASTEE is a game that takes a fair time commitment to play each mission, but it’s also very rewarding to complete a single task, let alone an entire mission. If you possess patience and have the time, give TASTEE: Lethal tactics a shot.
Pros
+ Easy to pick up as the controls are simple
+ Challenging but not impossible
+ Great replay value
Cons
– Camera control could use some improvement
– Limited selections on characters in each class
Add comment