STEALT
TAC H^
TICS
GAMENo talking animals this time around
Corruption 2029
SWEDISH DEVELOPER The Bearded Ladies
made a game a little while ago that was
a mix of real-time stealth and turn-
based tactics, in which you were heavily
outnumbered by the enemy, and had to
tune your approach to combat situations
effectively. There was a duck in a top hat,
a pig with a blunderbuss, and a sniper fox.
You know the one.
With Corruption 2029, just over a year
later, the same devs have released the
same game, but without talking animals.
It’s an unexpected and slightly bizarre
release, which might perhaps make sense
if it were framed as a prequel. In fact,
you’re given very little information about
what’s going on. The opening cinematics
tell you more about your troops than the
geopolitics, introducing them as drones
stripped of their humanity. There’s a
distinct whiff of Syndicate or XCOM in the
way they stomp around in their long flappy
coats, giving the occasional glimpse of
a robotic leg, but their large angular
helmets set them apart. You act as their
controller, using them to explore the
ruined streets of America during a new
civil war in real time, activating some sort
of stealth cloak when you want to remain
unseen. Getting spotted brings the entire
map’s worth of enemy soldiers down onThe game uses lighting to
great effect, especially reds.Turn-based combat mode
shows lines of sight and
hit percentages.Hide behind cover to snoop
on enemy conversations.Cover comes in low
and high variants.world of decaying buildings and crashed
planes, but the context of a war still
being fought even though both sides have
forgotten why means the XCOM mechanics
make more sense. It helps that the game
can be beautiful at times, with light slicing
through autumnal trees and wonderful
blue hexagonal domes popping up as you
deploy an energy shield, although your
viewpoint is maddeningly fixed in terms of
height and angle.
A dev reusing so much of a previous
game to make a new one may have been
unexpected—the game has no official
website, and even the developer’s site
doesn’t mention it—but when it results
in a fully refreshed title like this, sold for
a budget price, it’s very much the kind of
thing we can get behind. –IAN EVENDENyour position, so it’s worth putting off until
the last possible moment.
Engaging enemy soldiers drops the
game into a turn-based XCOM mode, with
high and low cover, overwatch, and to-hit
percentages. Apart from at the very start,
you are alw ays outnumbered, so at tacking
from ambush and whittling down enemy
numbers using distractions and silenced
weapons are a must. Get a lone trooper
far enough from his buddies, and you can
open up with all weapons without being
heard, but gauging that distance is a fine
art. Add to this the pathetic weakness of
silenced weapons, and it’s only the very
basic enemy troops who go down easy.
Where it deviates more from the XCOM
formula is in the lack of a strategic layer.
You choose your missions and you play
them, almost as if you were some sort
of drone yourself. You pick up additional
weapons and “implants,” such as the
ability to jump really high, along the
way, doling them out to your squad of
three. Nicely, there’s no restriction on
what weapon combos you can equip, so
if you want two assault rifles, go for it.
Ammunition is infinite, but magazines are
small, leading to frequent reloading.
Corruption has a lot to like about it. The
duck, pig, and fox brought personality to aCorruption 2029
DUCK Stealth tactics and
ambushes are all the sweeter
the second time around.
COVER Maps quickly repeat; reloading
(both weapons and game) is a must.
RECOMMENDED SPECS Core i7-4771/AMD
FX-9370; 8GB RAM; GTX 970/RX Vega 56.
$20, http://www.epicgames.com, ESRB: Not rated7
VERDICT©^
THE^ BEARDEDLADIESin the lab
78 MAXIMUMPC MAY 2020 maximumpc.com