Developer and publisher The Bearded Ladies are known for their previous release Mutant Year Zero: The Road to Eden and its expansion Seeds of Evil, but you could say their new budget title Corruption 2029 came as a surprise, with the turn-based tactical shooter being announced only two weeks before its February 17 release date.
Corruption 2029 takes place in a semi post-apocalyptic USA split between two factions: the New American Council (NAC) and the United Peoples of America (UPA). The NAC have devastated the land, leaving it barren.
You play on the side of the UPA trying to stop the NAC from taking full control in order to restore the country to its former glory. You take control of three heavily augmented units of the UPA that almost seem robotic as they are fully controlled via a drone.
The game tells you very little about this at the start and creates a great sense of interest to the story. You do get some narrative element s throughout the missions but this is easily missed at times when you are working out ways to take down groups of enemies.
You also get small bits of dialogue between mission screens, but again this is brushed over when creating character load-outs for the next mission or viewing your rewards. Unfortunately, just like many of my soldiers’ shots, they have missed the mark on storytelling and character attachment here.
Without visual character customisation options and permanent character levels, you don’t feel the attachment to your team like you do in similar titles like XCOM or even the studio’s own Mutant Year Zero. Your character does not level up for completing missions or getting kills. Rather, you get rewards from the missions that your character can use once the current mission is over.
The rewards range from weapons to grenades and even abilities. The three classes I used were an assault-style character with a rifle, a sniper for longer-range engagements and a heavy class with a railgun. You unlock these weapons and more as you go along. Your character class will adjust to how you set them up for the mission in hand.
There are some visual changes to the characters throughout the missions but these are very small, like lighting on different class jackets, I would have loved to see more options to create my own style per class.
Environments are dark and edgy, really creating a sense that the country is in despair created by this civil war. The level layouts have various configurations but they do become repetitive after a while. Although the game is set in a near-future semi-apocalyptic environment it would have been nice to have a few areas that are a little more well preserved and built up as this would have helped with that repetitive feel.
The levels themselves have an objective and side objective for you to complete. Some of the side objectives are very difficult to complete the first time round as they are time-related or require stealth. Coming back to these when you think you have sufficient upgrades will allow you to unlock more weapons and abilities for your units to use in future missions.
The first part of a mission revolves around trying to pick off weaker units before getting to the final stage where you fight the main target. The game allows you to choose between taking out enemies stealthily or going in all guns blazing.
Rarely did I manage to take out all the weaker units undiscovered and often ended up in a fight, but the game does balance this well, allowing you to lure enemies into spaces where you can quickly eliminate them or use tricks or the environment to take them down.
The levels also have pickups and handy medkits when stuff gets tough. There were times where I could obtain turret codes from guards which allowed me to mow down some easy targets before going in loud on the rest of the NAC.
At times, stealth isn’t enough and you need to reveal yourself. This is where you start your regular turn-based tactical fight, whereby you cannot then interact with items on the map or free roam until the fight is over. This is also where you get to use most of your acquired abilities and weapons.
For instance, early on you get a Bionic Leap move that allows a unit to cover more distance. This was a personal favourite, allowing my sniper to take out an enemy unit in a high place then pick off the rest of the enemy squad without any worry.
Some of the other abilities offer stat increases, and there’s also a Freeze Shot that will stop enemies from moving. These can come in very handy in the later stages of the game, but none of them are set in stone as you can swap them out as much as you like in between missions.
The game is visually stunning, helping to evoke a post-apocalyptic feel when playing. The lighting effects and woodland areas give you a real reason to explore the level rather then beeline to the objective. There is also a handy autosave feature that triggers before combat and after you pick up something in the open world.
This allows you to go back if you royally mess up like I did a few times. It was also rather useful when I had completed an encounter and wanted to quickly reload just to try something that might possibly result in me completing a side objective and earning more rewards.
The game has an intriguing storyline but lacks memorable characters to really make it stand out. At times the levels feel slightly repetitive but the design immerses you in the dystopian atmosphere. The side objectives create replayability throughout the levels, allowing you to unlock extra gear to use in future missions. Overall, it’s a great game for the budget price tag that scratches a tactical shooter itch if you’ve played XCOM 100 times over and fancy something new.
Price: £15.99
Platform: PC ( Epic Games Store )
Release date: Out now
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