Halfway is the brand new game from Robotality that promises to be a beautiful space sci-fi turn base strategy. We have a hint for you: It's good.
The game was tested on a laptop with an Intel HD4000 chip and a desktop with an Nvidia 650ti and both worked really well. It's great to see such a good looking game work so happily on lower end hardware, so that's already a point in Halfway's favour.
Let me say this straight away I absolutely love Halfway. The setting and story are great and the battles really do remind me of XCOM with the cover system. The game plays out very differently though, as only the battles are turn based, and in between battles you can go explore as you see fit. The exploring part is useful to find hidden ammo crates that can contain other niceties like better armour too.
The game throws you right into it the thick of it without much in the way of a tutorial, but luckily the basics of the game are quite simple. If you have played any turn based battle game then you should pretty much know what to do right from the beginning. The game is really easy to just pick up and play thanks to an easy to understand and minimal interface.
You don't start off with much at all, and because I was a bit gung-ho I very quickly ran out of ammo which made things a little on the difficult side as we were already outnumbered from the beginning. Luckily though finding a couple bits of ammo and armour quickly put the main first battle in my favour. One of the best things about Halfway is that you can melee an enemy if you are next to them giving a 100% hit chance and conserving those vital rounds. It does seem to take two melee hits to kill one of those weird creatures, so don't count on killing them with melee hits easily.
I love the fact that when you shoot this leaves big pixelated shells on the floor after firing it's little details like that which make me like games. Games can have great gameplay (which Halfway does), but having artistic attention to detail on little things boosts my interest in it even further.
Just look at how pretty the game is:
Gorgeous
In between missions you get to outfit your characters at your home base with more ammo, grenades and whatever else you need to buy from the store. So eventually ammo won't be as scarce as it is. It doesn't take long for your current home base to come under direct attack either, so make sure you are stocking up on the ever more important ammo.
One thing that does bug me also bugs me in a lot of other games like Halfway. Your soldiers have terrible aim! I've repeatedly been two squares away from an enemy with ~70% accuracy and missed, and this happens a lot. Trained soldiers my arse!
What I do love though is that it's much more forgiving than games like XCOM, as your soldiers don't die which is great!
I don't want to spoil it too much, so I won't say much more on what actually happens so that you can find out for yourselves.
You can see a mostly spoiler free gameplay video below:
In this video I utterly failed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3-qCRFLw_A&feature=youtu.be
Overall I am very impressed with Halfway and think it's an excellent addition to the strategy genre well worth checking out. Be sure to grab a copy on Steam or Humble Store to show your support.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going back to my dark cave to finish playing Halfway. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The game was tested on a laptop with an Intel HD4000 chip and a desktop with an Nvidia 650ti and both worked really well. It's great to see such a good looking game work so happily on lower end hardware, so that's already a point in Halfway's favour.
Let me say this straight away I absolutely love Halfway. The setting and story are great and the battles really do remind me of XCOM with the cover system. The game plays out very differently though, as only the battles are turn based, and in between battles you can go explore as you see fit. The exploring part is useful to find hidden ammo crates that can contain other niceties like better armour too.
The game throws you right into it the thick of it without much in the way of a tutorial, but luckily the basics of the game are quite simple. If you have played any turn based battle game then you should pretty much know what to do right from the beginning. The game is really easy to just pick up and play thanks to an easy to understand and minimal interface.
You don't start off with much at all, and because I was a bit gung-ho I very quickly ran out of ammo which made things a little on the difficult side as we were already outnumbered from the beginning. Luckily though finding a couple bits of ammo and armour quickly put the main first battle in my favour. One of the best things about Halfway is that you can melee an enemy if you are next to them giving a 100% hit chance and conserving those vital rounds. It does seem to take two melee hits to kill one of those weird creatures, so don't count on killing them with melee hits easily.
I love the fact that when you shoot this leaves big pixelated shells on the floor after firing it's little details like that which make me like games. Games can have great gameplay (which Halfway does), but having artistic attention to detail on little things boosts my interest in it even further.
Just look at how pretty the game is:
Gorgeous
In between missions you get to outfit your characters at your home base with more ammo, grenades and whatever else you need to buy from the store. So eventually ammo won't be as scarce as it is. It doesn't take long for your current home base to come under direct attack either, so make sure you are stocking up on the ever more important ammo.
One thing that does bug me also bugs me in a lot of other games like Halfway. Your soldiers have terrible aim! I've repeatedly been two squares away from an enemy with ~70% accuracy and missed, and this happens a lot. Trained soldiers my arse!
What I do love though is that it's much more forgiving than games like XCOM, as your soldiers don't die which is great!
I don't want to spoil it too much, so I won't say much more on what actually happens so that you can find out for yourselves.
You can see a mostly spoiler free gameplay video below:
In this video I utterly failed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3-qCRFLw_A&feature=youtu.be
Overall I am very impressed with Halfway and think it's an excellent addition to the strategy genre well worth checking out. Be sure to grab a copy on Steam or Humble Store to show your support.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going back to my dark cave to finish playing Halfway. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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5 comments
What I do love though is that it's much more forgiving than games like XCOM, as your soldiers don't die
...
don't die? So what happens then, do they fall unconscious and are just out of that particular battle?
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Plintslîcho Jul 23, 2014
The game is simply beautiful! Fantastic graphics (I love the art style), very nice soundtrack and the gameplay is easy to handle but hard to master. Right from the intro Halfway has a great atmosphere. I haven’t played much yet – so far I only have a team of three characters – but what I’ve seen has already convinced me: Halfway is worth any single cent. In fact, I think at roughly nine Euro the game is a steal. I’m really enjoying it.
True. That’s a gripe I have with many turn based games. Halfway just isn’t any different in that respect- unfortunately.
Correct, they fall unconscious and are out for the rest of the battle. After the battle, they also have only limited HPs, which makes any following encounter considerably tougher. If the whole team is taken out (which can happen easily) the player has to restart the mission again.
I think the developers choose this way because Halfway is pretty much a story driven game and the characters are an essential part of it.
One thing that does bug me also bugs me in a lot of other games like Halfway. Your soldiers have terrible aim! I've repeatedly been two squares away from an enemy with ~70% accuracy and missed, and this happens a lot. Trained soldiers my arse!
True. That’s a gripe I have with many turn based games. Halfway just isn’t any different in that respect- unfortunately.
What I do love though is that it's much more forgiving than games like XCOM, as your soldiers don't die...
don't die? So what happens then, do they fall unconscious and are just out of that particular battle?
Correct, they fall unconscious and are out for the rest of the battle. After the battle, they also have only limited HPs, which makes any following encounter considerably tougher. If the whole team is taken out (which can happen easily) the player has to restart the mission again.
I think the developers choose this way because Halfway is pretty much a story driven game and the characters are an essential part of it.
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One thing that does bug me also bugs me in a lot of other games like Halfway. Your soldiers have terrible aim! I've repeatedly been two squares away from an enemy with ~70% accuracy and missed, and this happens a lot. Trained soldiers my arse!True. That’s a gripe I have with many turn based games. Halfway just isn’t any different in that respect- unfortunately.
Yep... ad the assumption of the turn based combat is that 'in reality' though the enemies don't seem to move when you shoot them, the accuracy is supposed to account for the fact that indeed do...
Also I was just watching a youtube video about Brutal Doom and the player (skilled btw) easily misses the enemies when they are very near, like 3 meters (10 feet , 2 "squares" in D&D), even more easily than when they are a bit far, specially if turning around the player.
And 70% accuracy is like 30% missing? Because like 3 planes crashing every 10 wouldn't be a very good ratio... :D
And finally... where would be the suspense if you could never miss that last bullet you shoot to the enemy that just got near to you (like a Chrysalid in XCOM)
Correct, they fall unconscious and are out for the rest of the battle. After the battle, they also have only limited HPs, which makes any following encounter considerably tougher. If the whole team is taken out (which can happen easily) the player has to restart the mission again.What I do love though is that it's much more forgiving than games like XCOM, as your soldiers don't die...
don't die? So what happens then, do they fall unconscious and are just out of that particular battle?
I think the developers choose this way because Halfway is pretty much a story driven game and the characters are an essential part of it.
Hmmm... if its story related it is good! And thinking about it... character fatalities usually just means that the player would load and retry anyways as most are probably not found of an iron man mode.
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Plintslîcho Jul 24, 2014
And thinking about it... character fatalities usually just means that the player would load and retry anyways as most are probably not found of an iron man mode.
That's exactly what I always do. I agree that it feels kind of weird that the characters can't die. But then again, when I look at how I play games, I never accept any casualties anyway and always reload a game when a character dies. Therefore it doesn't bother me that the characters can't die in Halfway. I still find the battles in Halfway challenging enough.
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oldrocker99 Jul 28, 2014
Turn-based tactical games like this attract me, but I (for some reason) don't do all that well in them. The story, however, does make this look interesting enough to get next payday. I'm very interested in Adventurenator: When Pigs Fly, as well. Are you going to take a look at that?
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