ARC SEED is a theoretically beautiful game. The pixel art is stunning, the setting is enticing, but if I try to focus on any single element at a given moment, I feel like my brain is going to start leaking out of my eyeballs.
ARC SEED is Into the Breach and Slay the Spire’s illegitimate child. Massive Galaxy Studios proclaim it a turn-based tactical game, and they aren’t technically wrong, I just couldn’t focus enough to actually figure out the tactics. The world is overrun by invading Archangels, so humanity built giant mechs to fight back, and it’s your job to pilot those machines and kill the angels. Simple as that.
You can perform this slaughter over three (apparently) distinct game modes. Regular, Story (in Easy and Iron Man variants), and Draft. Regular and Story seem to be pretty similar from the time I’ve spent in this technicolour nonsense, and Draft has you build a deck from scratch by drafting before you get in, as opposed to using a starting hand. As of the time of review, there are three different mechs available with different starting stats, and three different pilots with different abilities.
You start a level, get dropped into a map, beat up the divine bad guys, then follow a branching path to the next level. If you’ve played a rougelike before, you’ll get the idea. The actual combat has you using cards from your deck (using an energy resource to play them) in order to move and use weaponry to survive. So far, so Slay the Spire. What about Into the Breach?
Well, the influences here go beyond the fact that both games are turn based mech fighters. Firstly, you want to protect the buildings you’re fighting between, and you can shove enemies about and physically move them in order to help do this. During your turn, you can also theoretically see exactly what your enemy is going to do. I say theoretically, because this is the main problem I have with ARC SEED.
I’ve really struggled to spend more than a few hours with ARC SEED, because it is actually giving me a headache. The individual elements of the game are gorgeous, but every component is slapped on top of each other in such a way that I struggle to make out any part on its own. Enemy intent is shown by shading squares with certain colours. You can also see the range of your attacks and movements. All of these visuals are overlaid on the meticulous pixel art environments… and it’s all just too much. Details are missed, you can barely see your cursor most of the time, it’s like trying to pick up your glasses from the floor of a nightclub.
I’m playing on console, and the only settings I seem to be able to adjust are audio levels, and my TV settings don’t have enough variance to make a difference. The brightness and sharpness of the native visuals are simply too much. It’s such a shame, because from the scraps I’ve managed to play, the core gameplay is incredibly strong.
There’s evidence of internal achievements, a clear path of unlocks, an enticing story and solid mechanics to get your teeth into, but between awkward controls (please let me un-invert my camera controls and rotate how my d-pad moves the cursor), insufferable light levels and overall visual cluster-muck, I just cannot recommend anybody try this game on console at the moment. If you’re on a PC then you might well be able to solve some of these problems and have a much better experience.
ARC SEED was reviewed on Xbox Series X, but is also available on PC and Playstation 5.