WARMACHINE: Tactics
- November 20, 2014
- Privateer Press Interactive
- 5h median play time
Get on SteamWARMACHINE: Tactics is a turn-based strategy game set in the steam-powered fantasy world of the Iron Kingdoms. Command a warband of elite soldiers and mighty warjacks in tactical battles, utilizing unique abilities and customizable loadouts to outmaneuver and overwhelm your foes. Experience a deep and immersive story in single-player mode, or test your mettle against other players in multiplayer matches.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game captures the essence of the tabletop experience, providing a tactical and strategic gameplay that fans of Warmachine will appreciate.
- The graphics and character models are well-designed, creating an immersive atmosphere in the Iron Kingdoms setting.
- The developers are actively working on updates and improvements, showing commitment to enhancing the game based on community feedback.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and performance issues, making it frustrating to play at times.
- The user interface is clunky and unintuitive, leading to confusion during gameplay and making it difficult to execute strategies effectively.
- The single-player campaign lacks depth and can feel repetitive, with limited content and a lack of meaningful choices for players.
- story143 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- 73 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The story in "Warmachine Tactics" is generally viewed as engaging and set within a rich universe, but it suffers from poor execution, including unclear mission objectives and a lack of depth in character development. While some players appreciate the lore and find the narrative enjoyable, many criticize it for being formulaic and riddled with bugs that detract from the overall experience. The absence of a save feature during missions further frustrates players, making it difficult to fully appreciate the storyline without repeated setbacks.
“They do a great job of keeping the balance between different factions, and the storyline and characters pull you into the setting beautifully.”
“Warmachine Tactics had a lot of potential to be a really good game; it takes place in an interesting setting, follows interesting characters, and has a very solid story that is enjoyable and contains missions with unique and cool objectives.”
“The game plays well, and the universe and story of the campaign are fairly engaging.”
“Though the campaign claims to sport an 'extensive, story-driven experience'; I felt that it was sloppy and the story is one-dimensional and dull.”
“The story is almost cringe-worthy in its absolute lack of originality and, so far, bad presentation - I mean, another superweapon that could change the course of the war / end the world as we know it plot line?”
“The campaign flip-flops on which characters are critical to your success and nothing is more frustrating than seeing 'keep jakes, sarge, rourke, and your warjacks alive.' however, several missions throughout the game only have 'keep jakes alive.' as your main objective.”
- gameplay93 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
Gameplay in this title is a mixed bag, with many users noting clunky controls, awkward mechanics, and performance issues that detract from the overall experience. While the game attempts to capture the essence of the tabletop version, it often feels slow and cumbersome, leading to frustration during matches. Despite these shortcomings, some players appreciate the strategic depth and potential for fun, particularly for fans of the original tabletop game, suggesting that with further refinement, the gameplay could improve significantly.
“The gameplay is very similar to XCOM, but spun very much in the style of Warmachine.”
“The core mechanics of the game are still very fun, and if you're into this style of tabletop emulation, I highly suggest trying it.”
“When you start to understand the synergies of your units, the gameplay feels very satisfying; you feel like you have to earn victory against a competent opponent.”
“Awkward mechanics and clunky controls.”
“Gameplay is laggy and uncomfortable.”
“The main gameplay feels like a kludgy, sticky mess where you often feel like you're fighting the controls more than the enemy.”
- graphics75 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 67 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising the art style and unit designs as visually appealing, while others criticize them as dated, glitchy, and poorly optimized. Many users report issues with the user interface and camera controls, which detract from the overall experience. Overall, while there are moments of impressive visuals, significant graphical bugs and performance problems persist, leading to a generally mediocre reception.
“Graphic design is awesome, looking units and backgrounds.”
“Graphics are amazing, and bring the universe to light.”
“Visuals: the game looks very nicely crafted, the game models are very accurate to their original tabletop models.”
“The graphics are incredibly dated, the cinematic scenes are out of sync, and the controls are blocky and jarring.”
“It's just horrible in almost every way, from glitchy graphics, horrible gameplay, almost no units and no real storyline, there's not much to say.”
“Bought the deluxe version, didn't get any of the additional units, can't even play the game since on the lowest graphical settings possible it still runs at only 4 frames a second.”
- stability51 mentions
- 6 % positive mentions
- -4 % neutral mentions
- 98 % negative mentions
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with numerous reports of bugs, glitches, and performance issues, including frequent crashes and graphical problems. Many players find the single-player campaign unplayable due to these issues, while others note that despite some improvements through patches, the game remains unrefined and lacking polish. Overall, the consensus is that the game is not finished and requires significant work to reach a stable state.
“As far as system performance, I have everything maxed out and it runs great.”
“The game runs smoothly without any crashes or glitches, providing a seamless experience.”
“I've played for hours without any issues; the stability is impressive.”
“I can't get past the 3rd or 4th mission as it just glitches out.”
“It runs poorly, is overflowing with bugs and glitches, and its multiplayer community is all but gone.”
“This game is a buggy pile of crap.”
- optimization37 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with many users reporting severe performance issues such as lag, stuttering, and low frame rates even on high-end systems. Despite some improvements over time, players still experience crashes and bugs, leading to a frustrating gameplay experience. Overall, the consensus is that the game remains poorly optimized, making it nearly unplayable for many users.
“As far as system performance, I have everything maxed out and it runs great.”
“Performance-wise, it's the best so far and there is still more content to come.”
“I would like to point out that despite the overall disappointment towards the game by many reviewers, the patches fixed a lot of issues over time as well as adding new stuff, even though some glitches and bugs are still out there and the performance of the game isn't at its best yet.”
“You will need a beast PC to run it; it is horribly unoptimized, and even on low settings, you will get lag and stuttering.”
“The performance is atrocious, making it nearly unplayable.”
“There are constant bugs, the optimization is non-existent (I get sub 10 fps despite my system clearly passing minimum specs), the single-player content is really minimal, the camera is super wonky, the UI is a mess, and generally everything in this game is unfinished.”
- humor9 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with some players appreciating the witty and funny moments in the campaign and character interactions, while others find certain gameplay mechanics, like the erratic movement of troops, amusing at first but ultimately frustrating. The game's charm is highlighted by humorous updates, such as festive hats for characters, but overall, some users feel that the game's rough edges detract from the enjoyment.
“I didn't know the Warmachine universe before, and it made me fall in love with it. The campaign is funny, and the army editor allows you to create your own strategy.”
“When moving, the trooper will often turn to a random facing after finishing the move, which looks hilarious at first. The trooper dashes over barrels and walls, then turns around as if pleased with his little hurdles run, but it can be annoying when you have to spend time turning all your troopers back to face the enemy after moving.”
“The characters of the campaign are diverse, offering a variety of witty, funny, and serious moments to the game.”
- music6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players finding it irritating and repetitive, while others appreciate its fitting nature. Many users report issues with sound effects cutting out during gameplay and the inability to adjust music volume independently, leading to frustration. Overall, the music aspect is marred by technical problems and a lack of customization options.
“Nice graphics & music.”
“Background music is fitting.”
“The music is irritating, and apparently never changes.”
“Music/sound effects cut out every time an enemy unit moves.”
“Finally, you cannot turn off the background music without turning all the sound off!”
- atmosphere3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is praised for capturing the essence of the tabletop version, providing an engaging experience without the need for physical models and measuring tools. However, some users feel that while the atmosphere is present, it can be hindered by certain gameplay elements. Overall, the single-player storyline contributes positively to the game's atmosphere.
“Played several ranked games; it's a great game to play if you love the tabletop version. It's not the same, but the atmosphere is there without actually pulling out models and measuring tapes.”
“Sadly, the only thing that really makes it worth playing is the single-player storyline, which is decent, and the atmosphere.”
“It may have pertinent information (it usually does), but it also impedes the atmosphere of the game.”
“Sadly, the only thing that really makes it worth playing is the single player storyline, which is decent, and the atmosphere.”
- grinding3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be frustrating due to a clunky control interface that leads to frequent miscommands, making it tedious to manage large armies. The difficulty in reading maps and navigating the minimap further exacerbates the grinding experience, while inconsistent mission objectives add to the confusion. Overall, the combination of these factors results in a slow and laborious gameplay experience, particularly in large-scale battles.
“The control interface is clunky and unresponsive; it's too easy to give the wrong command to your units without any way to undo them. Activating your units becomes exponentially more tedious the more units you have under your control. The maps are difficult to read in terms of where you can and can't go, and even the distances your units can move become impossible to determine on certain maps because of the color schemes. The minimap is almost unusable due to how little information it provides and how difficult it is to navigate. Mission objectives are revealed either very obviously or way too obscurely, with no middle ground. For some reason, shields seem to be more effective weapons than spears, swords, and guns.”
“In my experience, I can't even imagine how slow and tedious activating a large-scale army would be, whether against the PC or, I shudder to think, against another opponent.”
“This is adrenaline-injected metal-on-metal grinding hopped on steroids!”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy of the game is criticized for prioritizing microtransactions over essential improvements and content expansion, leading to a perception of it as a cash grab. Reviewers suggest that significant enhancements are needed before they would consider recommending the game.
“If this game wants to be anything other than a floundering, half-functional cash grab, it needs a lot of work. The clunkiness needs to be reduced considerably, the factions need to be expanded, and the DLC needs to be added as regular content available upon purchase and expanded as well.”
“I don't recommend it for now, but once they focus more on fixing the game and less on microtransactions, I will happily recommend this.”
