USC: Counterforce - sequel to top-down sci-fi tactics Ultimate Space Commando

[LESS T_T]

https://af.gog.com/game/usc_counterforce?as=1649904300

Spoiler

USC: Counterforce is a turn- and squad-based, tactical sci-fi strategy game, the direct sequel both story- and gameplay-wise to Ultimate Space Commando ("USC" for short), taking up on the events where USC ended. As a high-ranking naval officer of United Space Command, you’re tasked to lead a 3-ship strike force back to planetary body M-8322--the scene of the original Wraith Incident--to investigate and neutralize the remainders of a still mostly unidentified alien threat. But what you find there may very well change the course of history forever…

The “original USC gameplay” returns with a brand new engine with realistic, top-down 3D graphics, an improved and modernized user interface, and partially redesigned, even more in-depth combat mechanics.

Main Features

• FIELD TACTICS REDEFINED: An in-depth, RPG-lite game system with complex character attributes and skills, detailed combat mechanics, and elaborate inventory management fuels the turn-based tactical core of the game, enabling you to truly customize your forces and face the threats as you want. Train and equip your marines according to your tactics with a class-free, yet versatile skill system allowing for many powerful builds and combinations.
• LIVING ENVIRONMENTS: Fight and explore through fully interactable and destructible, varied, multi-layered environments with useful, realistic mechanics: rearrange the battlefield, build barricades, avoid and exploit environmental hazards, lay traps, trigger chain reactions, seal airlocks, or break through walls--but be aware, your enemies can also do so! The combinations of hazardous elements and effects open up even more tactical possibilities and dangers.

• DETERMINE THE FATE OF HUMANKIND: Take command and lead your fleet in the story-driven, semi-randomized, multi-ended Campaign mode, where your tactical tasks are accompanied by detailed management of your planetbase installation, the making of life-changing, narrative strategic decisions, and defending the fleet and the relay station to Earth.
• INFINITE REPLAYABILITY: Discover the other games modes: lead your marines on various, extremely challenging multi-mission Operations with unique goals; build, maintain and defend a functional outpost in Defend the Base!; and play however you want in the fully customizable Single Mission mode featuring a hot-seat co-op multiplayer option. All missions throughout the game are made by our proprietary Random Map Generator, providing limitless possibilities!

• DISPLAY YOUR SKILLS: an *optional* online profile system takes your experience even further: compete in seasonal challenge missions, earn ranks, achievements and in-game goodies, dominate the leaderboards. Upgrade and improve your official, ranked squads mission by mission to create the Ultimate Space Commando.

1-hour gameplay:

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Tbh fam, I am not a fan of the artstyle, but this looks interesting. The RPG elements appear to be fairly deep for a tactics game, which is always nice to see.

Wishlisted in any case, good to see there is plenty of promising tacticool stuff in the pipeline.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Alpha demo is available, check the Steam page for the download link!

I played the demo for a bit (there is one mission which I completed, there is random generation of the map so there is some replay value to it). Here are some impressions:

- there is very impressive amount of RPG elements, you can fully design your squad with multiple members, there are lots of skills (including stuff like electronics, biochemistry, endurance, weapons etc), which allow you to build various "classes" (medics, snipers, heavies etc)

- the demo has only relatively small selection of weapons (AR, SR, minigun and grenade launcher), though I am sure much more will be added, weapons have multiple ammo types (standard, AP and incendiary, again I guess more will be coming later), which have clear effect on combat (ie they allow you to counter various enemies)

- there are three enemy types in the demo: worms (slow, not really dangerous), alien-style bipedal monsters (more dangerous) and alien praetorian (the ones from AvP games)-style monsters (highly dangerous, can easily kill your troopers and are also highly resilient)

- the UI is very nice and detailed, allowing all kinds of functions (like pushing items, overwatch etc)

- mission area (in the demo you can play either inside a base, ie closed corridors/Space Hulk style, or outside, which resembles the exterior missions from Templar Battleforce) contains various interactive objects (barrels and containers with all kinds of things), you can for example collect fuel form barrels and (I guess use it to start fires), or you can detonate the barrels by gunfire, causing AoE damage

- certain weapons can push back enemies on hits and/or can make AoE attacks with secondary mode of fire, all weapons can also be used in melee

- there is no "attack of opportunity" mechanic, so you can retreat from close combat without problems

Honestly I am pretty pumped for this. The game is basically Space Hulk/Templar Battle Force, except it focuses on Aliens-type of setting, rather than on 40K-style one, and the focus on RPG elements is much stronger than in TB or any SH game that ever came out. It needs more weapons and equipment though that is definitely coming, pushing of items allows for some funny stuff, like creating baricades or setting up large chain explosions. I hope that the devs manage to create an engaging campaign (Steam page mentions even base management) with some branching (at least like in TB), but in any case there is a lot of potential here.

I have just two problems with the game - the artstyle is a bit to light for my taste, but I guess that I can get used to it. The second problem is the control scheme, where you for example have to click on the weapon three times to shoot (select weapon, get it to "firing mode," select attack type) - it felt clunky at the start, but it isnt that bad and after a while I was able to function with it quite well.

In any case, if you like Space Hulk/Templar Battleforce type of games, definitely keep an eye on this!

 

[Norfleet]

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Darth Canoli]

I have just two problems with the game - the artstyle is a bit to light for my taste, but I guess that I can get used to it. The second problem is the control scheme, where you for example have to click on the weapon three times to shoot (select weapon, get it to "firing mode," select attack type) - it felt clunky at the start, but it isnt that bad and after a while I was able to function with it quite well.

I don't mind the art-style but the controls problem is an issue.
Other than this, I hope they increase the bestiary exponentially.

Quite promising.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Steam demo available during that fest thing.

 

[Modron]

Steam demo available during that fest thing.

It was available before it, so I don't expect you need to rush and play it before the end of the fest.

 

[ArchAngel]

This seems interesting but looks like another game that needs 10 years to be finished if ever.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

Another 5 items will be added to the tech section (e.g. welding, IT & hacking tools), so your marines will have additional tactical choices during missions. Check out the demo & wishlist USC: Counterforce on steam.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Angelo85]

Seven posts in a row, not bad.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Difficulty: Extreme. The number of survivors: 1. All because of a silly mistake... Let's get the dog tags, Johnston!

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[ArchAngel]

EA in 2023.. as I said 10 years..

 

[luj1]

The RPG elements appear to be fairly deep for a tactics game

this is more of an RPG than Disco Elysium, Pentiment, Skyrim, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Outer Worlds, etc. (popamoles and fake RPGs)

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1574870/view/3680037352704428728

Our references: 90s turn based games
Two games from the 90s inspired Aliza for USC Counterforce: Incubation: Time Is Running Out (1997) & Gorky 17 (1999).
Hey retro game lovers!
In today's news, we're going to talk about two turn based games that inspired Aliza, developer of USC: Counterforce. From the 1990s, learn more about:
Incubation: Time Is Running Out (1997)
and
Gorky 17 (1999)
.
USC: Counterforce and its prequel, Ultimate Space Commando, also take a lot of inspiration from some lesser-known games, a few
„hidden gems” from the late 1990s, the “age of 3D revolution”
. While many developers were preoccupied with the evolving graphical capabilities of computers, and the addition of the third dimension, there were still titles that mainly focused on classic, almost
tabletop-like gameplay
, and still managed to bring something new and cool to the table.

One of these games is
Incubation: Time is Running Out (1997)
by Blue Byte. It was a
turn- and tile-based, squad-oriented tactical game with a heavy focus on management of very limited actions per turn
. It was heavily story-based, with a long campaign mode, and squad members you grew attached to and could equip with different gear, gadgets, and weapons, tailoring them to the tactics you wanted to use. During the whole game, you felt like your options were limited, but never your tactics:
this game really shined in shoehorning you into situations you could somehow still get out of alive if you found the proper tactics
.

There were some very unique mechanics that are not seen in many games: a well-implemented
weapon overheat system
(instead of ammo); a
non-class- or skill-locked overwatch mode
that
—since most enemies died from 1 or 2 shots—
was very often important in stopping an alien before it reached you; a simple, but tactically
relevant use of elevations
; and the
ability to control the battlefield with some items and weapons
—for example, if you used the flamethrower, it created an area of impassable terrain for a few turns.
Incubation also had a PvP game mode in which up to 4 players could fight against each other in asymmetric objective-based battles.
USC is directly inspired by the way Incubation handles overwatch (or “defense mode”) and the importance of facing in the right direction with your units
.

Another game to mention is
Gorky 17 (also known as Odium, 1999)
by Metropolis Software. It was also a very
heavily story-driven game
in which a small group of NATO operatives had to fight to survive and to reveal the mystery behind the sudden appearance of hybrid creatures in a former Soviet military base in Poland.

There was an “
exploration mode
” where you moved around with your characters in real-time, discovering items, talking to people, and finding your way, but
whenever a combat situation ensued, the game would not only switch to turn-based but you and your enemies were put on a grid-based
, not-too-big battlefield, where the actual fighting took place. All weapons and items had their specific, very
board game-like mechanics
, and that, combined with the often
very confined spaces led to some rather interesting battle scenarios
. Just like Space Crusade, Space Hulk, or Incubation, the
emphasis on smaller spaces and tighter rules was not a constraint
, but rather a playground for devising smart tactics.

In fact, I was so hooked on this approach to turn-based mechanics that I perfected dealing with the enemies using only the more basic weapons while stockpiling explosives and all kinds of nasty stuff for those really hard battles and
ended up completing the game with a whole nuclear arsenal still in my inventory
... All said and done, I think Gorky 17 was not flawless, but still an excellent game, and showed yet another way,
another approach to how boardgame-like rules can be applied in a computer game, while making it feel like NOT a board game
.

Did you know these games before? Let us know in the comments!