Tenderfoot Tactics
PC
We weren’t expecting a turn-based tactics game from Ice Water Games. A loose collective driven by a commitment to fair working conditions, the label is known for meditative floral adventures or virtual gardens such as Viridi and Eidolon. In Tenderfoot Tactics, the garden has become a battlefield, where squads of goblins – here, rustic animal warriors rather than greenskins – vie for loot and XP. But it is still on some level a garden, and therein lies the genius.
The battle maps are dangerously fecund. Like terrariums in stop motion, they evolve as your characters move and act. Grass thickens. Rainwater flows downhill. Many abilities affect the ecology in potentially decisive ways. Healing spells coax shoots from the soil; these may become bushes that slow down lighter characters. Grenades carve troughs which may become pools, encumbering those within. Other spells punch the earth upward, transforming a scrum into a clifftop duel. Most perilous of all is fire, which spreads through vegetation to engulf characters on both sides – you’ll want to break up the undergrowth before resorting to the flame.
This wonderful terrain chemistry gently warps the rules of a game that is otherwise a familiar question of positioning and turn order. Most units can be spooked into delaying their turn if you strike from an unguarded angle, so flanking is about more than boosting damage. The classes run a colourful gamut from teleporting forest witches to archers with elemental arrows. Classes have separate skill trees, but you can tailor them a little by carrying over abilities as Memories. Equipment effects are sparse: attack power, health and simple modifiers such as ‘pull,’ which yanks targets into objects.
The vast open archipelago beyond battle is equally vibrant: a molten, flat-shaded cloudscape that solidifies up close into islands and structures. Tenderfoot’s world is being devoured by a magic fog, which turns goblins into mindless shades. Once defeated, they return to the towns where you’ll undertake fetch quests, mix dyes for outfits and barter for gear. The backdrop’s eeriness is matched by an audio component consisting of hushed ambient sounds and slow, rolling tones. In fights, meanwhile, the music ratchets up as the bodies fall.
The writing is cryptic, with few cutscenes and ‘boss dialogue’ that feels like a whimsical philosophy lecture – it might leave you cold if you’re after a Final Fantasy-esque narrative. Exploration can be dreary, sometimes feeling as though the contemplative quality of previous Ice Water games has been stretched across too large a frame. Still, there’s a beauty and a strangeness to Tenderfoot Tactics fans of gardens or grid combat owe it to themselves to discover.