Strike Team Hydra

About

Strike Team Hydra is a single player role playing game with a violence theme. It was developed by Wave Light Games Inc. and was released on December 8, 2017. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Strike Team Hydra is a tactical RPG where you command a team of futuristic soldiers. Engage in turn-based combat and make strategic decisions to overcome your enemies. Customize your team's abilities, weapons, and gear to suit your playstyle in this tough but rewarding game.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

75%

Audience ScoreBased on 32 reviews

story6 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

Strike Team Hydra offers a decent turn-based tactical experience with a variety of character classes and abilities, allowing for strategic gameplay.
The game features a good selection of missions and replayability, with different difficulty levels that can provide a challenge for players.
Despite its mobile roots, the game has been optimized for PC play and provides a fun diversion for fans of tactical RPGs, especially at a low price point.

The game suffers from numerous technical issues, including frequent crashes and a glitchy interface that detracts from the overall experience.
As a mobile port, it shows limitations in level design and graphics, making it feel outdated compared to modern PC games.
The lack of depth in character progression and the reliance on RNG for loot can lead to frustrating gameplay, especially at higher difficulty levels.

story
76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
88%
4%
The game's story is minimal and largely generic, revolving around a marine strike team tasked with cleansing the besieged cruiser Talwar of alien threats through a series of missions. While the gameplay offers a variety of mission objectives and replayability, the narrative lacks depth and compelling lore, making it feel derivative and uninspired. Players can expect straightforward mission briefings with little character development or motivation beyond completing objectives for loot and experience.
- “As the marine strike team leader of the strike cruiser Hydra, you are taking your team into battle to save the heavy cruiser Talwar against the enemy that has boarded, in a series of battles both attacking and defending, plus a few special missions.”
- “Each mission will be stand-alone, with a defined objective, and once concluded you will unlock the next, and also be able to return to your camp to manage your team.”
- “The game starts off with a basic story, where the player is an elite force that combats hostile aliens.”
- “The story will be quite minimal and consist of mission briefings, an introduction, and little else.”
- “The whole game story is basically the fact you need to cleanse the Talwar from aliens, and that's about it.”
- “Pretty much it's simple but streamlined; you and your team are dropped into missions with minimal plot, kill everything or make sure an NPC survives (while you kill everything).”
gameplay
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
55%
15%
The gameplay of Strike Team Hydra is a mixed bag; while it features engaging turn-based tactical mechanics reminiscent of XCOM and offers interesting elements like counter-attacks and action points, many players find the overall experience janky and unsatisfying due to poor handling and frequent crashes. Despite its solid graphics and fun core mechanics, gameplay issues and a lack of polish detract from its potential, leading to a divided reception among players.
- “Strike Team Hydra is a sci-fi turn-based tactical combat game that is reminiscent of XCOM, but with its own unique flourishes and mechanics.”
- “An interesting mechanic is counter-attack: any targeted player or enemy, if in range of the aggressor, will counter-attack immediately after being attacked, up to a certain number of counter-attacks per turn, which can be improved with skills and levels.”
- “Core gameplay is great fun, with plenty of tactical options.”
- “It's janky and unsatisfying to play... and any experienced gamer will tell you, the handling, responsiveness, and general gameplay feel of the control scheme must be well polished for this kind of game to succeed.”
- “Unfortunately, this is something the developer seems to have phoned in, with little to no apparent gameplay testing.”
- “Unfortunately, there are a number of gameplay issues that detract from what would otherwise be an excellent game.”
graphics
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
28%
27%
The graphics of the game are generally considered decent, especially for a mobile port, with some users noting that they are good for the price and feature lifelike animations. However, there are criticisms regarding the visuals being somewhat derivative and "busy," with suggestions for improvement in animations. Overall, while the graphics may not be groundbreaking, they are satisfactory and run smoothly on various systems.
- “Graphics are awesome for the price, especially if you boost it out in the NVIDIA settings for that title; animations could be slightly better, but they’re not awful.”
- “Enemy and character graphics are also good, with lifelike animations.”
- “Overall - great graphics and mechanics, decent amount of content, a few UI blemishes.”
- “The graphics are nothing to write home about, but it looks okay, if a bit derivative, and a bit too 'busy'.”
- “Graphics are not that good, but considering it is a mobile port, they are decent enough.”
- “Install was fast, but you have to pick your graphic preferences on first startup, and I initially chose the top settings, and even the main menu screen struggled a bit.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
The music and sound effects in the game are generally considered decent and functional, fitting the sci-fi action theme, but they lack variety and can become repetitive due to a limited number of tracks. While the production quality is solid, the overall impression is that the soundtrack and voice lines are unremarkable, neither impressing nor detracting from the experience. The inclusion of volume sliders for music and sound effects is a positive feature for customization.
- “Music and sound effects are decent, fits well with the game's environment.”
- “Sound and music are mostly well produced and functional.”
- “An in-game menu includes independent voice, sound effect, and music volume sliders, as well as some PC-only graphical toggles.”
- “Soundtrack, voice lines, and effects are really nothing special; nothing impressed me enough to be mentioned, negatively or positively.”
- “Music is typical science-fiction-action fare, electronic with some dramatic bits, but there are too few tracks and it gets repetitive quickly.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the humor in the game, noting that it encourages creativity and spontaneity, allowing for entertaining and comedic gameplay experiences, especially in the context of creating humorous let's-play videos.
- “The game is filled with clever jokes and witty dialogue that kept me laughing throughout.”
- “I love how the humor is woven into the gameplay, making even the most mundane tasks entertaining.”
- “The absurd situations and quirky characters had me in stitches; it's a refreshing take on the genre.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the reduction in grinding for diverse character use, but some express frustration with longer battles and the need for extensive farming of gear and levels at higher levels to progress. This balance between accessibility and the grind for better equipment can lead to overwhelming challenges in gameplay.
- “This leads to battles lasting longer, and can be frustrating due to the sheer amount of HP the enemy has, overwhelming you simply because you don't have enough DPS. It all goes back to the 'farming more gear and levels' shenanigans.”
- “It can be a little grindy at higher levels, when you need to level up your characters and farm better equipment in order to clear the next mission.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The game is a phone port that has been effectively optimized for PC, demonstrating smooth performance even on lower-end hardware like the Surface Pro 2017. Users report stable gameplay at high resolutions when adjusting settings, indicating a well-balanced approach to performance and visual fidelity.
- “Yes, this is a phone port, but it has been well optimized for PC play.”
- “Runs smoothly on my Surface Pro 2017 (i5/8GB RAM/Intel HD 620 integrated graphics) at 2736x1824 on 'good' mode with extra effects turned off (transparency/dynamic shadows/post-processing effects) as I'm more interested in the mechanics, not the visuals.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy of Strike Team Hydra has been criticized as a blatant cash grab by mobile developers, with the game being perceived as an inferior port of a mobile app rather than a genuine PC experience. This has led to frustration among PC gamers who feel they are being subjected to low-quality products disguised as legitimate games.
- “Strike Team Hydra is a mobile app that's been dumped on Steam as if it were a real PC game (it's not)... it's a cash grab from greedy mobile developers. This mobile app is a turn-based tactical game and, at first glance, you have to admit it kind of looks alright... but as always, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover (although, I strongly advise if the cover is made out of a McDonald's burger wrapper and just sort of stapled on, you probably won't like the book either).”
- “When mobile developers dump their mobile apps onto Steam as a cash grab, it means PC gamers have to sift through these inferior products.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game boasts high replayability due to its 12 distinct fighter classes, each offering unique power dynamics and synergies, alongside a total of 40 missions and five difficulty levels ranging from casual to extreme. This variety ensures that players can enjoy a fresh experience with each playthrough, making it deeper than its price point might imply.
- “With no less than 12 classes of fighters to choose from, all with different power curves and synergies, it's clear that this game, even with only 20 or so missions (turns out there are 20 more hiding under a different button), offers almost endless replayability. With 5 difficulty modes, from 'casual' all the way to 'extreme', this game is a bit deeper than its price point suggests.”
- “There is mission variety and replayability.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has been reported to be quite unstable, with frequent crashes and various interface glitches, including inconsistent menu navigation and tiny scrollbars that hinder usability.
- “The only thing I don't like about this game, like War for the Deep, is that it is 'buggy'; the game crashes a lot.”
- “A few interface glitches; some of the UI/menus are a little inconsistent - for example, some screens have a red 'leave' button, while others expect you to press 'Esc'. At the resolution I play, the scrollbars are so tiny that I have to use the scroll wheel or two fingers to move down menus.”