Ironclad Tactics is a game from Zachtronics, and while I am a huge fan of Zachtronic games, most notably TIS-100, and Opus Magnum, Ironclad Tactics doesn’t grab me in near the same way.
Ironclad Tactics is set up like a Collectible Card Game. The player has a number of cards (And before long this number multiplies quite a bit.) and is able to form a deck of 20 cards, containing two “factions” which are basically the groupings of the cards. It limits your choices a bit, but it allows cards to have good synergy without just allowing the player to pick the best cards of each faction. The factions aren’t really named, but there’s a definite type of card in each faction.
The deck of cards is created from three types of cards. Units (automatons called ironclads and infantry, that can do minor things, but the ironclads can crush by moving into their square.) There are also equipable items for the ironclads and tactics that get different effects.
In addition to the deck, the game is played on a four-lane board. The player spawns units that try to march to the other side. They can change lanes with the right cards, and attack enemy units as well as control special tiles (if they are infantry). There’s a strategy to where the player spawns cards and which cards they use. The goal is to get units to your opponent's side of the board to score victory points.
The cards themselves are gained through gameplay though with not even a hint of randomness. If you beat a level you get the "story cards”, after which there are two additional challenges per level. There’s always at least one challenge for story mode such as “Don’t let any of your units die”. And often there is a puzzle challenge or a second story challenge The puzzle challenge is more about showing you how a card works than really stumping the player. It illustrates great synergies or great uses of cards, and I rather enjoy them. In fact, I wish there was more of them.
The game is set up to be played at a constant speed, you can have a hand of up to five cards, you can play a card almost at any time, but they only activate in a specific play phase, then the game quickly moves to an “act” phase, which is attacks, Kill which resolves enemies with no life, and then move when all the robots that want to will move forward. (You can pause movement of your units as you want so you can control points)
The phases of the game are quite fast, there’s almost a rapid-fire movement to the game that is a bit faster than expected, for some puzzles it’s a bit overwhelming, and they expect an action in the first rame. But give less than what feels like three seconds to act. The pace though makes the player have to stay with the game and focus. I only found a long//dull level once and it was due to trying to tackle a challenge with a special deck. I often was either playing a card, equipping an item or waiting for the end of the current move (something I have to wait less than ten seconds for). It’s about 5 seconds to play cards, and then the resolution moves at a quick pace that it’s engaging after a bit.
There are enough games that linger and allow the player to make choices, but this game feels strategic enough to make the player come up with strategies but not require them to wait long periods to implement them. At most they have to wait a few seconds to get the necessary resources to play the next card, however often that waiting feels quite long when you need 4 action points, and have 0
However, there are two pieces that really don’t work here. The first issue is the story. This is an alternate history of the American Civil war where the war is mostly fought with robots and infantry. It’s certainly a nicer idea than reality, but rather than really give anything a personality, or discuss the deep-rooted issues of states rights, slavery, or the right to succeed the game ignores that and says “This is 1860” and then has you chase down ironclads. It’s… a bit laughable. Zachtronic games have never had what I would call a strong story, but this one feels particularly out of place. It doesn’t add to the feeling of what I’m doing, usually giving me a cutscene just to try to explain why I’m in an area or why are enemy units bombarding me, but overall, it doesn’t really work in a strong positive way.
The other issue is a bit more damning. I love Zachtronics game, I’m really passionate about their puzzles, and their gameplay. I always feel powerful in their games because they tend to be about programming or planning. This isn’t that type of game, and that’s ok. I bought this because of the strength of the company and want to see how they tackle a different genre. The issue is the game’s very random. The enemy appears to always use the same tactics from what I saw, or get the same cards. Problem is, if you have a great deck, but get only items and tactics for the first 10 cards, you could lose a match. If you get only ironclads, you still might lose. If your combo cards don’t come up at the right time you lose.
That’s the nature of CCGs when you play other people of course. And it makes sense here, but it’s a pain to sometimes lose because of a random dice throw even when you have a good deck. You can’t even mulligan your first hand, you just quit and re-enter the game until you get the starting hand you want. I’d like a little more agency. Because it’s a real-time CCG, you can’t even “select a card”. There’s not even a drawing of a type of card. You just quickly get a card every 5-10 seconds and if you have 5 cards, you lose the oldest card. It’s faster pace but it feels spastic. I keep wanting to have that little more agency so I can strategize a bit more.
The choice though makes the game more random, a CCG IS random, but the game feels like a puzzle game at times, in that you have to figure out a good deck for the next level. And sometimes there are specific decks that might win. There’s at least one stage where a lot of decks seem to lose (Las Vegas). The final stage is also quite challenging. So there’s strategy, but it’s randomized strategy, a disappointment.
Oh and there’s ONE achievement. It’s an odd omission that there’s only one achievement to this game and it’s to click an instruction card. That’s a bit disappointing, especially when the PlayStation version had a full list of trophies attached to the game.
There are also multiplayer options including a co-op the main story mode the game offers. I wasn’t able to try this, but it might be of interest to other people as that’s a bit unique.
At the end of the day, Ironclad Tactics is a unique CCG, it has great gameplay, and a great feel as well as a ton of content. If you like CCGs, you’ll find good gameplay here, as long as you can deal with the fast past. There’s a number of challenges in the game, and if you like to build decks to tackle opponents or a good story, this has that. It’s a solid CCG, and with not even a hint of monetization, that’s fantastic as well. I think at the end of the day I’ll personally stick with Opus Magnum, TIS-100, and Spacechem, but Ironclad Tactics is a good addition to my Steam library, and while I might not return to it as readily as the rest, it’s rather enjoyable for the time I played.
If you enjoyed this review or want to see my opinion on other games you can find my curator page at this link.
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31803828-Kinglink-Revi... Give me a follow.
3.0