For about a month now I’ve been kicking around this idea for an article on turn-based strategy/tactics games, specifically those that tend to mimic X-com or XCOM. I’d been playing with the idea because there are a few games that get those mechanics right and a few that get it so wrong. With that, I’ve been replaying XCOM and a few others in the genre to see what works where and why. This included Wargroove, Narcos, Into the Breach, and Mutant Year Zero. The last one being developed by The Bearded Ladies, the developers of what I’m talking about today, Corruption 2029.

Think of a more grounded tactics take on Warframe or Destiny, that’s what the aesthetic pulls from as a reference point. It is an interesting one for sure, but is different where it’s predecessor set itself apart.  The weird setting of a future with anthropomorphism beings shooting up the joint very much begs the question of “What would happen is Daffy Duck really wanted to,” as Elmer once sang, “kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit.” Corruption 2029 goes for a rather sedate faction story of America after yet another civil war splitting up the group into “peace-loving weirdos with guns,” and what is effectively “the Nazis with guns.”

It’s a simple plot of good Vs. evil, but when it comes to Corruption‘s take it is all mutated in grey and dull fluff. Something tells me the artist working on character design was only in for a week, and sat about twiddling their thumbs for the first four and a half days. Both your squad and the enemy are dressed in Batman’s favorite work clothes, so sometimes I’ve seen someone budging about in the distance to realize it’s just Steve with crotch rot behind a truck. I don’t expect someone to be goose-stepping up the streets, but when you’re both humans dressed in grey the only way to tell them apart is their Warframe-style headpiece.

The gameplay doesn’t like to distinguish itself from the rest either. Out of combat, you can move as a group in an isometric RPG-style; something you might hear more about in another article, but adds little on its own. You can, of course, drop the others in your group outside of a combat-heavy zone and stealth through. This is where I think this system works as an improvement, while combat is turn-based, your stealth work in something like XCOM only works for a second before your spotted. Here, stealth is as it should be, real-time and quite tense. My problem is fighting my way out with those 10 HP and still getting killed in two shots.

I’ll say it, I am dreadful at these games, but I still have fun with them. So the only way to counter being slaughtered by people with the same health points as my party, is to save scum it. There’s no better way of explaining the tactic when there is a lack of quick saving, it’s something so simple yet not featured at all. It’s not a hassle to press escape, click the save game, double click the save slot, and back out, but when you’re doing it between stealth shots or while sneaking through an area, it’s a little annoying. It is especially annoying when you drop the others off down the road to let the one with a silencer weave in and out of other men in grey.

Of course, the stealth mechanics aren’t Metal Gear Solid, but function well all the same. Something that could be said for the combat and general XCOM-like gameplay is just how one-for-one it all is, sure you can’t hit escape to back out of selecting combat or reloading, but everything else is there. Though I do like the mechanic that while moving in combat there is an indicator of your hit percentage if you move to X spot or run to Y cover. There’s also a bit of the UI that tells you if you are crouching behind half cover (small crate or barrier) or full cover (a wall or tree trunk) that you’re standing behind. I think I can see that well enough already.

What I don’t like, which might be a trade-off with the stealth, is how little you can walk/move while in combat. Comparing as I’ll do, sometimes moving three or four squares to cover is enough, and other times it is not for an XCOM-like game. As usual, you have two actions to perform every turn, you can use one to move in a small area then shoot, you can shoot and let that end the turn, or overwatch using up the turns. That’s a simplified explanation, but when you have three squares to move and need four or five to get to closer cover, it can be annoying. You’re left either in cover far away, standing in the middle of nowhere, or running and doing nothing.

It’s just better to stealth, but that goes one of two ways when you’ve only got one member with a silenced weapon. If you go full Rambo with one man and his silenced weapon, you’re most likely going to put him in the thick of it when it all goes sideways. This is why I’m partial to the “save scumming” method. It almost defeats the point of the entire XCOM heritage Corruption 2029 has within itself.

All that’s left from there on is the story, which is the type of thing Ubisoft would set in Washington DC, say there’s nothing political about it, but have two factions fighting over authoritarian regimes and peace-loving “Why Can’t We Be Friends” hippy-isms. Which is to say, it is all a bit weak when it comes down to it. That isn’t helped by the Warframe and Destiny aesthetic to character design, everyone is just void of personality. Even the dialogue is at best vain, and might as well be mild grunts with “I like killing stuff,” and “I like killing stuff too; let’s both kill stuff together.”

Overall, I don’t hate Corruption 2029. It’s not particularly refreshing but doesn’t rest on the genre to do absolutely nothing at all. I think there might be something to XCOM: Enemy Within‘s bulky heavies, skinny snippers, and so on. Otherwise, we’re here with both sides looking like averagely athletic gimps in dull grey outfits standing around each other yelling about Pyramid Head in the corner.

A Epic Games Store review copy of Corruption 2029 was provided by The Bearded Ladies for this review.

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Corruption 2029

$19.99 USD

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Usual XCOM-style gameplay.
• Interesting stealth mechanics.

Cons

• An art style that's just bland.
• lack of "Quick Save option."
• Lacklustre story.
• Minor performance issues on slightly older PCs.