Player needs to use elite modern armed forces, from infantry and artillery to drones and armored divisions to disrupt supply lines and find and stop the countdown of a global catastrophe.
With its hybrid control mechanics and switching from a top-down tactical view directly into the cockpit of tanks, the game promises to offer some serious grounded modern warfare.
The Command Deck: Hybrid Control and Tactical Grounding
In essence, Final Strategy has an awesome concept. Combining top-down RTS tactical gameplay with direct controls of vehicles, both in third person and first person, brings the sense of control that most indies fail to achieve. Stepping into a battle tank, feeling the powerful strike of the main cannon and manually maneuvering through the enemy defense is a great feeling.
Being grounded and not offering any arcade-like approach to tactics, the game punishes for mistakes really fast, just like charging into a choke point without proper position leads to losing the whole platoon in seconds. For strategy fans that love micro-management and methodical positioning, this game is interesting for sure.
The Rough Edges: Bumpy Visuals and UI Issues
The problem appears when you take a closer look beyond the unique hybrid concept. As it stands, Final Strategy is plagued by its low-budget nature. It looks pretty bare-bones. Environments lack depth, unit animations lack smoothness, and the physics do not reach the bar of modern RTS titles. On top of that, low-effort voice acting ruins the immersion.
Also, the user interface and quality-of-life features need some serious work:
- UI & Menu Bugginess: Minimalistic menus with awkward navigation.
- Lack of tooltips and objectives tracking: Tactical HUD lacks crucial information. Important data such as units' roles, their exact ranges, or even key mappings are often missing.
- Bad tutorials: The game fails to introduce the player to its mechanics, which leads to artificially great difficulty in the first campaign's missions.
Developer Commitment and Game's Value
One of the redeeming factors of Final Strategy is the commitment of its developer. Being sold for only $12, the game is far from being a AAA-level title. However, the developer shows his activity in the community and updates the title with new patches that fix units’ pathfinding, tweak weapons’ sounds, and adjust the difficulty spikes based on the player's feedback.
For strategy fans who want to be part of the ongoing polishing process and help an indie developer to create niche systems, there is a game here. However, if you are expecting a finished product without any bugs, you might be disappointed.
The Verdict
Final Strategy is the example of a game that could be a gem but is hindered by its budget issues. Having good concepts and vehicle combat, as well as a passionate developer behind it, the game is still rough visually and has problems with its user interface. At the moment, it is an average indie game with potential but it is better suited for fans of tactical RTS.
Score: 64 / 100
Disclosure: A review copy of Final Strategy was provided by the publisher via Keymailer for evaluation purposes.
