With the expansion out, it is also time for a NEW AND IMPROVED OP.
For those of you who haven't heard about it,
Frozen Synapse is an award-winning Simultaneous-Turn Based Tactics game by UK based indie developer Mode 7 Games. It is very pretty, and extremely fun to play.
Y'all should play this game.
Really.
There is a demo available. Go get it if you don't already have the game.
GameplayThe main game offers both single-player and one-on-one multiplayer skirmishes in several game types. Most multiplayer gametypes have three to five units per player, with the singleplayer often featuring massive odds against the player. All games function similarly enough; each turn consists of the Planning Phase, during which you issue orders to your units and can test out different strategies against any possible enemy strategy you can think of, and the Outcome Phase, where both players' moves are played out in real time after the computer calculates the outcome.
Multiplayer is the clear focus of the game (and it is really really good), with the singleplayer AI being kind of quirky at times. That said, despite the problems with the AI and the character writing being pretty dumb at times, the singleplayer is well worth the time it takes to finish it. The overall plot is fun enough and the later missions, where the focus seems to shift from straight tactical combat to puzzle solving, are absolutely brilliant. The ending twist is pretty nice as well
Game modes- Extermination: Basic "kill dudes"-game type; the player to do the most damage to his opponent wins.
- Hostage: The attacking player needs to get a couple of civilian hostages out of the map safely. The civilians start in a safe zone, where the defending player can't shoot them. The attacker must make an opening for the civilians to escape through.
- Disputed: After a short while, a number of boxes spawn on the map. Pick them up with your units and get the package-carrying units out of the game area safely to score points. The player with the most points wins.
- Secure: The players "bet" on how large an area of the map they can defend against the other player. To win the game, the winner of the bet must prevent his opponent from getting a living unit onto his protected area during the game.
- Charge: The players "bet" on how far along the map they will be able to get during the game. The winner of the bet needs to have one unit alive and across his line at the end of the game.
"Betting" is a brilliant feature of some of the gametypes that don't have a set attacker and defender role right at the beginning. For example, the Charge gametype is pretty simple: The attacker has a vertical line across the map he needs to have a unit across (and alive) at the end of the game, while the defender tries to prevent this. The opening turn consists of both players considering their team's advantages and disadvantages on the particular map and placing their own preferred target line. After this turn is resolved, the player with the harder to reach (furthest away from their starting line) target zone gets to be the attacker, while the player with the easier target gets to defend.
CombatCombat resolution is always determined according to four factors: Basically, whenever a direct-fire unit sees an enemy (and is not set to ignore it), it will start aiming at it. Based on the
firing unit's type, the
distance to the target, whether the target is in
cover or not, and the
stillness of the firing unit (from best to worst: standing still, moving while aiming, or moving), the game will determine the Time to Kill; the time it will take until the target is shot and killed. There is no chance involved; you can always trust your simulations during the Planning Phase (it's another thing entirely if your opponent does things exactly like you predicted).
Typical mistakes include assuming that a crouching unit is more stable or in better cover than a standing one. This is not the case, and in fact both standing up and crouching down are considered moving and thus increase your unit's aiming time for a short while. You can also not fire over waist-high cover while crouching (except with a grenade launcher).
UnitsDirect Fire: these are your primary units. They fire bullets at dudes.
- Shotgun: Low max engagement distance, very fast time to kill in short ranges.
- Machine Gun: Medium max engagement distance, superior time to kill in medium ranges
- Sniper Rifle: High max engagement distance, best time to kill in long ranges
Indirect Fire: support units, never fire bullets at dudes.
- Rocket Launcher: Fires powerful rockets, which can only hit walls and low cover (if fired when crouched). Blows walls the fuck up.
- Grenade Launcher: Fires timed grenades, which you can bounce off walls and fire over cover. Does not blow up walls, but the area of effect is very large.
System Requirements PC OS Requirements: Windows XP, Vista, 7
Ram: 512meg
Processor/Gfx card: will run on low-end modern hardware (e.g. netbooks)
Mac OS Requirements: OSX Leopard or later
Ram: 512meg
Processor/Gfx card: 1GHZ PowerPC (or Intel)
Gameplay VideosI'm tooting my own horn here and posting vids of my games. If you get cool things uploaded, please share and I'm gonna link to them.
Gameplay Video #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5fSLmrx5F0Gameplay Video #2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ-_CEfvW5EGameplay Video #3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz1MMdyofrYGameplay Video #4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XOi_PNErUoLaunch trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOlV_9DYnOwReviewsBit-Tech (beta impressions)
The WargamerEurogamer
Frozen Synapse: RedThe expansion pack (available now) has a bunch of cool features. I'll expand this section once I actually get to play it properly. Here is the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tMoM2Oeq4dYFeatures:- Co-op for all single player content
- Hotseat mode
- New game type and unit
- Three mutators
- Red Mode: it makes things red
Did I mention the music is fantastic? Well, it is.
