MicroProse is back and is announcing its line-up bit by bit. Are you keeping count?
This time it’s the turn of Urban Strife, a love letter to Tactical RPG players waiting for the next proper Jagged Alliance 2-style experience.
The game will be released in Q3 2021 on Steam (other platforms TBA) but players will have the chance to taste Urban Strife gameplay way sooner than that (hint!). In the meantime watch the brand new Teaser!
Enjoy a unique blend of old school turn-based strategy, post-Apoc survival mechanics, and a thrilling RPG storyline.
With all the benefits of the modern Unreal Engine, real bullet ballistics, day/night cycle, fire with dynamic material consumption and spread, advanced sound propagation mechanics… the list goes on: AI NPCs with independent lives and faction-based morals and, hunger, thirst, wounds, and sickness and last but not least, advanced modding support.
About the game
Starting as an amnesic survivor, rescued half dead by the kind people of the Urban city shelter, somewhere in backwater south of USA, you need to raise up and become a true leader, rebuild the pillaged camp and bring hope back in the hearts of the survivors.
Then venture out to negotiate alliances with ruthless factions or go to war against them.
And finally, bet everything you have and know to survive an impending return of the massive zombie horde that almost ended civilization just two years before.
Can you push back against fate, live among ruthless gangs, and fight back the zombie horde, with just a handful of ragtag militias to help you?
Real Ballistic
Urban Strife brings you the common weapon classes that you can expect to find in the context of the story, somewhere in a southern US city: handguns, shotguns, hunting, assault, and sniper rifles.
Each of these classes has special pros and cons that make them the right choice in specific situations. Handguns and shotguns, for example, excel in CQB with excellent damage. While pistols do cumulative damage due to their low AP costs, shotguns have individual pellet damage adding up and a cone of fire!
Assault rifles bring tremendous cumulative damage when used in burst mode, with frightening multi-body penetration.
Provide you can come by such expensive ammo and afford to waste it.
Old School Turn-Based Tactics
Urban Strife uses a classic Action Points system (Jagged Alliance 2 style), with consecutive turns & interrupts based on skills.
But the team has also avoided the pitfalls of turn-based combat, especially against large numbers of foes. Zombies come first in this list of enemies everyone hates to wait for in TBS, because they are both numerous and slow. Hence we introduced a special turn for the horde, with a simultaneous movement for all undead, while still letting each AI take individual decisions.
Survival Mechanics
You will find the Urban shelter dilapidated and in ruins, full of refugees on the brink of despair, locked down by vicious looters and roaming zombies. You need to regain control of the neighborhood fast. Start rebuilding and expanding.
You have to scavenge resources and show the locals you’re the hero they waited for. Then start repairing and upgrading the shelter, hiring the residents as specialists, and using the refugees as labor. Depending on the allies you make you will be able to unlock unique upgrades that will make shelter management more and more rewarding.
RPG
Once you will start exploring, you’ll find a world populated with living, busy NPCs, with their own life and convictions. Among these, you’re to find those willing to help you – provided you help them first. And as long as you serve their interests. Because in Urban Strife everyone has an agenda.
Three main factions are fighting for control through numerous proxy groups in the town. Army rebels, a zombie loving cult, and a ruthless gang of bikers. You’re free to choose one of them as an ally. But be aware – no path will be easy or morally justified – an apocalypse comes with a dire lack of innocence.
It is all about survival. And being able to live with your choices.
Body Parts Targeting
If you feel accurate you can aim for specific body parts for either instant kills or crippling shots; that can make hunting and sniper rifles true long-range exterminators.
How much fun you have depends on which side of the barrel you end up…
Melee Attack Modes
The ranged arsenal is complemented by a wide array of stuff that can be used to smash, slash and punch – basically almost anything that can be wielded as a melee weapon in Urban Strife is a melee weapon.
The melee combat is based on stamina management – the more tired you get, the less you will be able to dodge hits. And comes with its own array for special moves, for certain popular weapons
Features
- Dynamic Campaign — Write your own story of survival with complete freedom of choice over who you befriend and who you annihilate. Your actions will forge your reputation and decide who will be your ally and who will be your enemy in the final hours.
- Advanced Combat — Bullets follow real ballistic calculations with variable penetration and damage based on range, caliber, and type. Blood loss, crippling injuries, and other afflictions can lead to long-term damage if you are not careful. And the AI will make sure to punish you if you rush into battle unprepared.
- Urban Shelter — Your own base where you can rest, heal, and resupply. A community with its own troubled history and internal dynamics that you need to bring together to bolster its survivability and upgrade its defenses.
- Changing Environments — Dare face the threat of undead and alive enemies and explore the city of Urban and its vast system of highways, railway and subway routes, urban and wild sectors, where the powers to be are fighting for dominance. Build a customized zombie-proof vehicle to travel faster and deeper into the unknown.
- Faction Bonuses — Gain the trust of a faction and they will allow you to access the unique, specific items and base upgrades. Take the warrior path and be the ultimate killing machine, show everyone and everything ultimate mercy following the monk way or simply party your way into oblivion, while making a profit of the apocalypse with the biker gang.
- Advanced Vision and Sound — Night and day cycle dynamically changes the perception factors, making stealth a viable option. Sneak and make use of cover to stay out of sight then use melee for silent takedowns. Or lay the perfect ambush and raise hell to lure your enemies in it, only to set everyone alight with fire that dynamically consumes everything that burns.
- Unique Zombie AI — Tackling the issue of having large numbers of slow enemies each taking its turn to move was one of the great challenges developing a zombie TBS. Urban Strife comes with a unique horde AI that allows all undead enemies to use a single turn for movement yet preserve their individual sensors and alert status. So, it is up to you how big the horde gets and where it is heading.
- Modding SDK — Complete ownership of the code and assets and the features of the Unreal Engine helped us build the game with modding in mind. After the main campaign is released, we will publish a free Modding SDK with extensive documentation & support that will allow our community to unleash their creativity.
About White Pond Games
White Pond Games was founded by Razvan Radu and Alex Trutescu, both ex-Ubisoft game devs, with a work portfolio of popular titles, such as Assassin’s Creed series, Tom Clancy’s games (Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Endwar, etc.), I Am Alive, ZombieU, etc.
We are a small indie gamedev studio based in Bucharest, Romania, but we dare to dream big. We have the know-how to produce great games and we’re keen to show it.
About MicroProse
MicroProse, founded in 1982, is a world-famous simulation software company, known for developing groundbreaking, classics and cult titles like, the Falcon, F15 Strike Eagle, Silent Service, Gunship, Grand Prix, Civilization, B-17 The Mighty Eighth and X-COM series and many more simulation products, that sold millions of copies each at retail.
Today, MicroProse is not only remaking select classics from its past but also paving the road to next-generation, state of the art games that will create the memories and experiences of the demanding new generations of gamers.
