If there is one field where PC gaming is seriously deficient, it’s anime mechs. You just can’t get enough good games about mecha that hold upscaled infantry weapons in their fully articulated hands and slide around instead of running. Oh, but what luck is for those souls suffering from this particular yearning that Kriegsfront Tactics – Prologue has just given us a preview of the full upcoming game.
We start off by kissing Front Mission straight on the lips by starting out on Earth, which is inhabited by novel twists on existing nations. The local World War 2 equivalent has ended, and the retreating (Not!Japanese) Empire has left behind all of their Krieger Mechs. As soon as you get over the shock of the Weird Japanese Empire actually having the production capacity to make armor, the Kriegers are taken over by the local Nusanesian (not!Indonesian?) forces in a bid for national sovereignty. This upsets UOC (not!USA) and their own Kriegers are dropped into the jungle to commit war crimes and take care of this problem. You’re commanding a squad of those guys!
Stomping towards the sound of gunfire
Like I said, it’s very, very Front Mission. You control a handful of mecha and take part in turn-based battles where the robots shoot and bludgeon each other to death. The game works on an actual AP system instead of XCOM-ian two-action, and once a mecha ends the turn, you get 4 AP to react (read: shoot back) to enemy shenanigans.
The mecha has five damage zones – the core and then one for each limb. This becomes very important as Aimed Shots straight out of Phoenix Point allow you to manually target the enemy. Parts have armor as well as HP – fire at long range has a chance of depleting it instead of health.
The battles in Kriegsfront Tactics – Prologue are tense. Even if you’re fighting the indigenous mecha that limp onto the battlefield with missing limbs, all of them are dangerous. Since you don’t get automatic repair after a mission, all damage adds up. It adds up even faster if there’s a sniper hidden at some elevation outside your line of sight.
Enemy Kriegers are especially dangerous if they’re in the jungle and thus nearly invisible. To wink out these smartypants, you need to go into the woods yourself (and likely get hit with overwatch) or use mech rocket pods to just blast away and mulch some trees.
Except you can’t use such abilities willy-nilly, as such weapons come with limited ammo supplies that can only be replenished on the campaign. On the other hand, with regular rifles and shotguns, you can shoot till your arms fall off as long as you keep reloading. This is a good thing, actually, because it forces you to actually get in and get stuck in instead of relying on the god-of-war option (and overwatch) to slowly level the map.
Kriegsfront Tactics – Prologue also forces you to by giving mechs a 50% evasion chance if attacked directly from the front. The targeted mech usually just slides out of the square they’re in, though I’ve seen them take some damage anyway because of the aforementioned Phoenix Point-esque realistic ballistic combat. Still, you want to flank, backstab, or shoot the legs to nullify the missed chance.
We were soldiers, and mecha
Outside of combat, your mech group travels the overworld map, dodging patrols and engaging in random encounters. In the prologue, it’s either villages (dangerous, might result in fights) or mecha depots left by the Yamato Empire. These are the spots where you can repair your mech or even swap out parts because this is Front Mission/Armored Core like that. In the prologue, I couldn’t find parts that would have been better than my own, and repairs are the most handy option. It makes me wonder how it will all shake out in the main game.
There are hints at pilot skill and stress systems. As you use weapons, you see notifications of skill increase but no explanations of what they do. Similarly, pilots have a purple gauge marked with a swirl, which I assume will impact their likelihood of panic. Only by crawling through my screenshots did I discover that one of my pilots did get a mental break at some point, dunking their accuracy. But the incompleteness isn’t surprising. The WIP tag next to part weight stat shows that the devs have some more things cooking – and they’re aware they’re not yet done.
What they have cooked already is writing. This is Weird Vietnam, and you’re playing the Americans. You’ll face questions of morality delivered with the subtlety of a brick – that much is obvious in the mission present in the prologue.
But Kriegsfront Tactics goes a step beyond, with dialogue that will remind you of early localized ports of Japanese console games. “Booger hook on the boom button” is a phrase I’ll take to my grave. The game doesn’t shy away from swearing and even slurs, either, but the former is to reflect warrior camaraderie, while the latter is reserved for villains.
Another Kriegsfront Tactics standout is solidly PS1 visuals. You can also slather on more retro feels via CRT emulation and other visual effects. But even without them, it creates the atmosphere of playing a console mecha game in ages past. The amount of voiced dialogue, however, is straight up a modern touch.
All in all, as far as previews go, Kriegsfront Tactics – Prologue looks well. The cutscenes mix slides with mecha action filmed in the engine. The combat is easy to understand, with intentional twists to encourage mobile and aggressive gameplay. But only the future will tell if the writing – and campaign mechanics – won’t get in the way!
