Corruption 2029

Smartly designed but lacks flavour.

Corruption 2029 is set in a dystopian semi-postapocalyptic America, split into a forever war between two indistinguishable factions: the enemy NAC (New American Council) and the player-aligned UPA (United Peoples of America). These wars are fought between ‘units’, soldiers that have been so heavily cybernetically augmented that they have seemingly lost all free will and are controlled remotely by drone-piloting commanders.

There’s a real lack of personality here, especially compared to Mutant Year Zero, whose cast of loveable anthropomorphic weirdos were far more memorable. Even by the standards of XCOM, Corruption is wanting, with no visual customisations, no permanent levelling choices, and no permanent death, the units are as interchangeable and unmemorable as the fiction states they are. The environments are equally underwhelming, with the same handful of locations re-used for multiple missions, and you’ll find yourself repeatedly raiding the same motel over and over. It gives the impression this entire continentspanning war is actually being fought in a single one-horse town.

All of which is a shame, because once you dig into the tactical toolbox on offer, you’ll find a lot of fun toys to play with. Each level has two distinct phases – units can wander around in real-time so long as they aren’t seen, then drop into turn-based combat to fight.

Much of this first phase becomes an intricate dance where you carefully figure out just how to inflict the perfect amount of damage so that the enemy gets taken out before anyone notices. Weaker enemies can be killed by the handful of silenced weapons on offer, but tougher ones require tricks – maybe you can lure them out of range of their allies, where louder weapons can be used, or perhaps you can hit them with a stun attack to get a precious second turn of silent shooting.

Fans of Mutant Year Zero might want to check it out for another dose of turnbased stealth tactics, but anyone else should opt for its more illustrious predecessor.