Steampunk Mechs! Say no more. Acaratus have got it covered fam.
From indie developers Nodbrim Interactive comes Acaratus, a turn-based tactical RPG with a medieval steampunk setting. It’s all that and more, quite a bit more actually. So without any further delay, time to set forth and sort through it all.
There’s a lot going on here.
Normally I’d go right for the story elements to start off, but with Acaratus the multitude of game mechanics really are the story here. Get ready cause here we go. First it is a single-player, turn-based, tactical RPG. That alone is several things in one, but there is more. There’s a card game integrated into the battles. But wait there’s more, there’s also a leveling system, crafting, challenges, quests, unit customization and… ok, I think that’s everything. So yes, there really is a lot going on in Acaratus.
Let’s start by breaking down some of these elements. The single-player turn-based combat should be fairly self explanatory. Players command units of Steampunk styled mech suits. That sounds reasonable enough, but it’s time to add on to it. The commander also has a few other duties. Besides the basic movements and attacks, there is a card system in play. Take for instance Overwatch, which seems to be fairly standard among a lot of turn-based tactical games, it’s not an innate ability of any of your mechs, rather the commander can play a card to activate it on any one particular unit. This will also drain AP (Action Points) for that turn as each card is marked with a value.
How many cards are in the commanders deck? Well that depends. The commander has a separate level and skill tree which can, among other things, increase AP or the number of cards available in their hand. If there is a rhyme or reason to what skills the commander has a choice of what to level-up I haven’t found it yet. It seems rather random, so less a skill tree and more just a collection of skills that there is the possibility to enhance. Right, what about those sweet Steampunk Mechs? Those babies are fully able to be customized, provided all the necessary parts are in the inventory.
Where do the parts come from? To stick with the theme, many places. Occasionally from the story, even a full ready built mech early on, but otherwise either from merchants, treasure chests or crafting. The crafting is especially interesting and I can’t say I’ve encountered a crafting system like it before. Rather than bringing parts and making something new or upgrading an existing part, it’s a game of slots. Yes, that’s right, slots. Pay to pull the lever up to 3 times, pieces or bonuses show up on the reels. If it’s something good, lock it in, then after the 3rd spin you can now buy the item that was “crafted”. It’s certainly a unique way of doing things to say the least.
So that just leaves the challenges and quests. Challenges are pretty simple, at cities along the map are Arenas. Complete the goal, staying alive for x number of rounds for example, and get a reward. There are some quests scattered about as well, very simple as well and mostly just add 1-2 encounters on the map that when completed will give a reward. I only ever recall them giving a key, but there might be more to some others as well.
That does seem like a lot in play right? Oh, I’ve complete forgot, there is a time mechanic involved in the game overall as well. What is the actual impact of that however? I honestly haven’t a clue. Days and weeks pass by with each battle and movement across the map. I’m sure it has some effect on something, do I need to finish in a certain amount of time? Does it change possible endings? I was alerted to it’s existence during the tutorial, but other than that it’s a total mystery to me.
Not to be picky but….
So there is a lot to talk about here, while most do have good points, they also do have weaknesses as well. Acaratus is quite the jumble of many different things and some that probably don’t need to be there. At the basic level the turn based combat is rather fun. Guns, catapults, mortars and an array of melee weapons give a good mix of play styles and teams to build. But even on the basic level there are some issues, namely friendly fire. Ranged attacks quickly became a favorite of mine and packing 2 guns was even better. This however presented an issue. With two guns where the mechs arms should be, I could freely choose my first target, the second however, totally random. This made getting out of the line of fire of literally every single unit a priority because as I found out, there could be 5 possible follow up targets and being in the line of fire between just one of them was almost always a certainty that I could be sure to find bullets in the back of a friendly mech.
How bad can it get? 10 hours into my latest campaign attempt, more on that later, nearly all my mech deaths were due to friendly fire incidents. Even being extremely careful about it still didn’t completely eradicate the issue. So how about some of the combat on the more advanced level. The layout for most battle stages is on the small side. Any kind of real movement based tactics difficult, can’t exactly flank someone when they are spread from one side of the battlefield to the other. That leaves the cards to sub in for more “tactical” maneuvers. Trouble is, they didn’t really seem to be necessary. The only ones that ever saw use where ones gained through the progression system that could be reused once per turn. Everything else almost seemed like overkill.
I had already mentioned the random nature of the progression system for the commander that makes going for a certain type of build near impossible. That isn’t the only random thing in Acaratus however. With each campaign the map and what’s on each point is randomly generated. While I would hazard a guess that this is to give some replay value to the game; it does end up making life at times tougher than it needs to be. Building cool and crazy mechs is really the strong suit of this game. That can’t happen however if the proper pieces can’t be bought, found or otherwise obtained. My latest campaign has only yield 3 pairs of legs (one bought, one crafted and one found). Those are kind of vital. While I have been steamrolling through everyone, it’s still not hard to imagine getting a real bad map generation that acts as a stopper to all progress. The crafting that is another one that just seems to be an odd choice. Pay money, which is not exactly abundant in game mind you, for the opportunity to maybe purchase an item, that is if you need it, want it or can afford it when all is said and done.
So yes, there is plenty in the “not so good” department. The biggest however is with the campaign. There are some minor issues of dialog starting at the wrong time, for example, a conversation about having just taken a city that plays out, before the actual battle for the city starts. I guess they could just be really cocky though. On occasion the dialog will play under the wrong character, quite clear when both participants of the conversation are calling for themselves to come and talk. That’s just some minor polishing though. The biggie is also the reason why I had to state that it was my “latest campaign”.
The patch to version 1.0 wiped out the previous campaign. That is actually understandable. However there was a follow up patch had to fix a bug in the campaign. That also forced a total restart. Now there is a note saying that this is the last time that the campaigns will need to be restarted with a patch. But I am honestly a bit weary that it could happen again, especially given the amount of things that could use some touching up and possible reworking. While it may indeed not happen again, as a player I don’t feel entirely confident that it’s not at least in the realm of possibility that it will get rest somewhere down the line again.
Final Thoughts
While it may seem that there was plenty I could find fault with I still did enjoy Acaratus. Yes, there are plenty of different mechanics going on all at the same time. It may actually be somewhat good that there are a lot of aspects aren’t exactly vital to enjoying the game. While still fun, Acaratus could really use some more focus on making a few of those core mechanics more solid and possibly shuttering some others in the process. It feels as if it is a test bed for ideas or mechanics. A stronger focus on fewer, but better, mechanics can elevate the enjoyment beyond just Steampunk Mechs battling it out. It really isn’t a bad game, but it could certainly use some refinement.
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