Game Reviews

Legions of Steel - Slow and Solid

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Legions of Steel - Slow and Solid
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| Legions of Steel

It seems to be the season for squad based sci-fi strategy games. Hot on the heels of Deathwatch, which itself seemed a modernised version of Space Hulk, we have Legions of Steel.

Except that this most recent offering isn't recent at all. It's a digital version of a miniatures game that dates back to 1992.

Anyone familiar with the genre will feel instantly at home in the tight rooms and twisty corridors of Legions of Steel's maps.

It's still very much a case of identifying choke points, guarding doors, and praying you've got enough troops left by the time you fight through to the objective.

Even the setting is wearily familiar. You control human troopers struggling desperately to stave off an alien invasion. The aliens are actually robots in this case, but everyone knows the drill by now.

Actual play, however, takes a bit more getting used to.

Confusing

This is a much more complex game than all of its competitors. You might expect as much from developer Slitherine, better known for its complex conflict simulations.

There's a wide variety of units, weapons, and grenades to master. Troops can adopt different stances between standing and running, each step increasing speed and decreasing accuracy.

You can move-lock, strafe, fire, and pop back behind cover in one smooth turn.

There are a lot of rules, but not enough to be overwhelming. The game, however, seems determined to make it feel otherwise.

The tutorial rumbles on for ages, forcing you to go over simple concepts and repeating itself a lot. The interface is clumsy, the iconography misleading. The lack of an undo button compounds these issues.

It's probably faster and more informative to read the manual than work through the tutorial. There's not much more of a negative assessment of an interactive learning exercise than that.

Competent

Once you finally join battle with the pitiless machines for real, Legions of Steel reveals itself to be a competent and interesting game. The levels are well thought out and demand careful planning.

Yet success is never certain. Shots miss, soldiers die, enemies deviate from their expected path. It's especially brutal because most units die with a single hit. Mistakes are punished severely, which is sometimes compelling, and sometimes just frustrating.

A competent AI helps in building up that crucial sense of tension and uncertainty. The machines don't always look like they're moving with a purpose. By the time you work out what they're up to, it may be too late.

You can see their evil genius at work across both a campaign and a wide selection of skirmish scenarios. If you prefer human opposition then there's online and hotseat play.

In spite of all these options, after you've pushed through a few maps, a real sense of deja-vu sets in.

Not about the game itself, which offers up sufficient variety. More about all the other games very much like it that you've already played.

Insufficient

So the question becomes whether all the extra bells and whistles in the Legions of Steel rules add enough extra depth to the game. And the answer is not really.

It's still about carefully inching across the map, securing junctions. It's still about praying that you're going to be able to hit the nightmare that's about to chew your face off before it can open its jaws.

It's still about treating each level as a puzzle, using careful trial and error and a bit of luck to solve them.

This game delivers all these things just as effectively as competitors like Hunters 2. But in exchange for a little extra depth it adds a lot of drudgery. Extra icons to tap and rules to learn. It's at a slightly higher price point too.

Real fans of these tight, tense corridor strategy games will have a treat here. Providing they're willing to work for the privilege.

The majority of gamers will find things are much more accessible and just as enthralling elsewhere.

Legions of Steel - Slow and Solid

There's a decent tactics game here, but the interface is too clumsy and the idea too familiar to appeal beyond hardcore fans
Score
Matt Thrower
Matt Thrower
Matt is a freelance arranger of words concerning boardgames and video games. He's appeared on IGN, PC Gamer, Gamezebo, and others.