If you are looking for your next post-apocalyptic, turn-based RPG, then Urban Strife might be what you are looking for. Currently, in Early Access on Steam, Urban Strife is looking to be the next turn-based strategy game with a twist. The developers have made an old-school TBS with a modern feel. Let’s jump in and see what this one is all about.
Here is what I am going to go over in this preview.
Story
You are a mysterious patient from the CDC lab in Atlanta. CDC was trying to relocate you when the vehicle crashed. You were the sole survivor. Rescued by the locals from a nearby town, you must now help them get organized and get ready. You need to rebuild the town, negotiate with neighboring factions, and prepare for the coming zombie horde. 
The Town
The town you now call home is in disarray. You need to help clear out the surrounding neighborhoods and gather resources to rebuild. The surrounding neighborhoods are full of zombies and people with a wide array of beliefs. It is your job to remove the zombies and create allies with whoever aligns with your cause.
Who you become allies with will affect other parts of your story. It can also unlock unique upgrades for the town. As you are exploring and clearing the surrounding area, you will want to gather all the resources you can find. These will be useful for rebuilding and expanding the town in preparation for the coming horde. It’s also a great way to find new weapons and stock up on ammunition. 
As you continue to expand, so will your map. It will open up to even more locations for you to explore and colorful people for you to interact with. You will need to pick sides and continue to gather resources for your own people to survive. Picking sides is not always easy, though. In a post-apocalyptic world, everything leans on a morally grey line. There are no easy paths or clear decisions to make. It’s all about who can provide the help you need when you need it.
Combat
Urban Strife has a turn-based combat system based on action points. The thing I like about this system is that you are free to use your action points however you want, in any order you want. So you can move, shoot, and move back into cover as long as you have enough AP to do so. This provides a lot of freedom and strategic depth. However, it can also put you in a tough spot if you do the math wrong like leaving your character out in the open because you don’t have enough action points to move back to cover after shooting. 
Unlike many other turn-based games in the genre, Urban Strife uses a realistic ballistics system. Similar to that of Phoenix Point. That means that each bullet that comes out of the gun can make its own impact. So, if you shoot a shotgun into a crowd of zombies, you are likely to hit more than just one. This is a feature you need to be extra cautious about, though. If one of your allies is between the character shooting and the target, you are probably going to hit them instead of your intended target. The realistic ballistics system also means you need to get a flank on the enemy as much as possible because high cover plays a big factor in this game.
Urban Strife also uses a targeting system similar to that of Fallout. You are able to target individual body parts both when shooting and when attacking with melee. You can target the head, arms, chest, and legs. There is no percentage to base your attack on. Instead, the targeting system shows each body part in a shade of green or red to give you an idea of your chance to hit.
Speaking of melee. There is no shortage of melee weapons. You can use everything from a rolling pin to the butt of your rifle when you run out of ammunition. You can even modify some things to do more damage. Such as adding nails to a baseball bat or rolling pin. 
Weapons in this game do break down over time. However, it is nowhere near as quickly as some games that I have played. So, it never really became an issue of needing extra weapons on hand. There is a wide range of weapons, though, from shotguns and rifles to crossbows and crowbars. With no designated classes, you are free to swap out weapons on characters as needed.
RPG
Urban Strife has a lot of role-playing elements built in. You have a full range of stats from HP and Strength to Dexterity and Intelligence. However, there isn’t really a leveling system. Characters’ stats will increase based on their actions.
There are quite a few NPCs to interact with throughout the game. Some will offer to help you if you help them first. There is some branching and hidden dialog depending on what you did before interacting with certain characters. The affinity of certain characters in your party can also have an effect on dialog with certain NPCs. 
It looks like there is still some space for improvement when it comes to incorporating all the RPG elements into the game though. Something like strength is pretty obvious by increasing your character’s carrying capacity. Other stats like Intelegence don’t seem to have any effect on dialog from what I could tell. Maybe it is just more behind the scenes.
Crafting
Urban Strife also has a pretty in-depth crafting system. You can craft a wide array of things, from modified melee weapons to ammunition and even armor. There are even multiple levels to crafting something, such as breaking down a cooking pan into a flat piece of metal. Then, you can use that metal and some cloth to build a bulletproof vest.
One great feature is the ability to craft things in town, even if they are in the storage box or on another party member. You can even craft items while exploring as long as you are grouped up so you have a shared pool of supplies. This is a key feature that a lot more games with crafting systems should incorporate. It can be such a pain to have to move things around from one person to another just to be able to craft something. Luckily, you don’t have that problem here. 
Roadmap
The developers have posted on their Steam page a roadmap of what is to come during Early Access. Below, you can see what they have in store. It looks like they are planning on adding more armor, more weapons, and NPCs. They are also intending to add additional maps and RPG elements to the game. We are not sure how long Early Access will be, but it looks like they have quite a bit of work lined up before the final release.
Conclusion
Urban Strife is off to a great start. They have quite a bit going for them in Early Access already. The combat felt really good, and the story and dialog were enjoyable. That’s not to say everything is perfect, though. They still have quite a bit to get done.
I liked the realistic ballistics system in combat. It is also nice to have a targeting system where you can specifically go for headshots when you are going up against something like a zombie horde. Urban Strife also tries to address the slowness of combat in turn-based games by moving all of the zombies at the same turn. This really helps to keep things moving instead of slowing combat to a painfully slow process. 
On the other hand, it feels like there are elements that still need to be fully incorporated, such as the day and night cycle. Night time didn’t seem to have any effect on the game. People were still up and doing the same things they would do during the day. It also didn’t seem to hinder the line of sight or anything in combat. It would be nice to see night time have some sort of effect on things.
Like I said, Urban Strife is off to a great start, however, you need to keep in mind that it is still in Early Access. Which, of course, means it is nowhere near being a complete game. If you are looking for a new post-apocalyptic, turn-based RPG to play right away, then you might want to look at supporting Urban Strife and getting the game now on their Steam page. If you aren’t ready to jump in while it’s still in Early Access, we won’t hold it against you. Keep an eye on this one though. We are excited to see how this one comes out.
A copy of this game was provided by the developers at White Pond Games.
