Frozen Synapse 2
USD$29.99 | PC | WWW.FROZENSYNAPSE2.COM Superlative turn-based strategy that’ll melt your brain.
Taking control of a security force tasked with eliminating a sentient AI, Frozen Synapse 2 sees you battle your way through isometric maps, while planning, testing and routinely reworking your combat strategy. After deploying your troops, you issue a series of intricate commands to each individual soldier, giving them orders to move into position, shoot at or ignore enemies, or duck for cover. These delightfully tactical turn-based encounters take place in increments of five seconds, meaning that acute attention to detail and meticulous execution is the order of the day.
Fortunately, you’re granted the gift of foresight for concocting your segmented plan of attack: you can issue endless orders to your units and watch the resulting scenarios without having to commit until you’re satisfied with the outcome. When you’re done daydreaming about how useful that function would be in real life, you can use it to save hapless soldiers who’ve unwittingly fallen foul to a hail of enemy gunfire, or get your soldiers into position to pull off the perfect shot. As long as you remain undetected, you can even see enemy movements; open fire or get spotted, however, and the opposition’s manoeuvres are reduced to educated guesswork involving trial and error tactics.
When you tire of battling armies of AI opponents, there’s also a robust multiplayer on offer to test your tactics against other payers. The unpredictability of human opponents makes for vastly more thrilling and memorable encounters compared to playing alone. A variety of different modes greatly extends the game’s lifespan, including ‘One Turn’, a mode in which you must complete the objective in a single round to achieve victory.
More casual strategy enthusiasts may be put off by Frozen Synapse 2’ s overwhelmingly considered approach to conflict, but the game’s slow pace and second-by-second execution of the perfect strategy can make for a thrillingly tense experience.