The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance Tactics
PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
We’re only in February, but the ‘unlikeliest tie-in’ category for this year’s Edge awards has surely already been sewn up. Following its effortful adaptation of the third season of Stranger Things, Bonus XP is back with another game based on a Netflix original, in this case the lavish prequel to Jim Henson’s ’80s fantasy classic. But where Stranger Things 3: The Game launched mere hours after the series’ premiere, this is a spin-off whose story runs parallel to a show that debuted six months ago; one that, despite glowing reviews, never quite seemed to capture the cultural conversation. And while Stranger Things’ 16bit style was in keeping with the series’ retro fetish, it’s harder to understand why a turn-based tactical RPG was deemed the right fit for Age Of Resistance. We suppose it’s likely to be similarly overlooked – though in this case, that wouldn’t be much of a surprise.
An underwhelming intro – betraying a significantly less generous budget than its parent series – welcomes us to the planet of Thra, where all is not well. A phenomenon called The Darkening is turning friendly creatures hostile thanks, seemingly, to the tyrannical Skeksis, the ruling overlords whose cavalier use of capital letters appears to be the least of their sins. A group of Gelflings, the Dark Crystal’s central elf-like race, foment a rebellion, gathering their fellow clans in an attempt to overthrow the Skeksis. It’s a simple story at heart, but ideas and names are tossed around with casual disregard; some are explained through clunky exposition while others are presented without any kind of context. If you haven’t watched the series, you’ll likely be left baffled at times – not that you’re missing much. Little effort has been invested in differentiating these characters; here, one Gelfling is pretty much indistinguishable from the next. That’s particularly true when you glance at the turn order at the top-left of the screen – or, rather, squint if you’re playing in handheld mode on Switch, which suggests the developer didn’t bother accounting for the size of the tablet display.
What follows is a generic isometric turn-based strategy game that pinches a trick from The Banner Saga by putting you in charge of different groups scattered across the world – in theory to make its battles more varied. Yet regardless of the makeup of your squad, in these boxy arenas you’re often facing the same kind of opponents and relying upon the same strategies. Besides, almost everything here has already been done better elsewhere. You’ll find different points of elevation, with attack bonuses for units that have claimed the high ground. There are hazards such as pits of carnivorous plants to knock enemies into, and missions in which you’re charged with rescuing allies and escorting them to safety. Over time, you’ll end up with more than a dozen characters, though in several cases you have limited control over team selection. In the early stages you’re frequently only able to choose one or two units, with the rest predetermined – which is a bit much when you’ve spent your stingy supply of pearls (the game’s main currency) on gear for characters you can’t use.
Three self-explanatory classes are available to begin with – scouts, soldiers and menders – though as you progress, you’ll unlock new jobs, letting you mix and match abilities from primary and secondary roles. In theory, this gives you more options, letting you have a powerful attacker that can also heal their allies. And yet these hybrid classes end up making each unit less distinctive than they were. Other races such as Podlings and the yappy, dog-like Fizzgigs come with job types of their own, although the more unusual ones take too long to unlock, with most moves having analogues elsewhere. They can, however, open up some intriguing combinations, even if few seem quite as effective as one you’ll discover in the early game, whereby you can shove a stunned opponent to reduce both their physical and magical defence. They’re also contingent upon turn order – the idea that ending a turn without attacking shifts you forward in the queue is a fine one on paper, but in truth no tactic makes as big a difference as the quality of your equipment.
It adds up to a game that doesn’t seem to know its audience. Despite the (eventual) breadth of options, this doesn’t really have enough depth for serious genre fans. Beginners will likely struggle, too: some concepts aren’t explained well, while at other times it introduces new elements without warning and expects you to figure them out through trial and error. There’s no reason to believe the mid-mission arrival of a new enemy unit is going to be a major problem, until you watch in horror as an attack registers as barely a tickle. The RNG often seems firmly tilted in the enemy’s favour – the number of glancing blows you’ll land, dealing a fraction of the estimated damage, seems to be in direct proportion to the enemy’s luck with critical hits. On one occasion, four in a row are enough to do for a crucial unit that would otherwise have comfortably survived, with our healer next in line. As such, it discourages risk-taking or experimentation for safe, dull, attritional strategies.
Even so, Age Of Resistance Tactics would merely be tolerably mundane, were it not brought low by a UI as cumbersome as the game’s title. Choosing an action involves navigating the least responsive radial menu we’ve ever encountered; little wonder it prompts you to confirm that you want to end a turn, since it’s easy to inadvertently select that option while trying to use one of the moves to either side of it. The result is a game that becomes a chore to play, with little of the dark magic of Henson’s original, nor the storytelling nuance of the Netflix series. If this is the world we’re expected to save, the Skeksis can have it.
If you haven’t watched the series, you’ll likely be left baffled at times – not that you’re missing much