Lately there has been a lot of Turn Based Strategy RPG’s coming out on the market, many of them have a brilliant game design, story, and plot, and on the opposite side of the spectrum there are others that just plain shouldn’t have come to the market. Recently Crave Entertainment released their “Tactics” game unto the gaming world, entitled: Future Tactics: The Uprising, this game teeters on both sides of the spectrum, it is not bad but it is not great either. Read on to find out why!

The story line for this game is pretty much what I like to call “cookie-cutter”, meaning it is not highly original. Several years ago your planet was attacked by “the creatures” and since then the world has been in chaos. These demented creatures have nearly succeeded in killing off the entire human population. Now there are only a few humans left who struggle to stay alive during these hard times. One day, a young boy and his sister get a group of humans to drive these alien minis back to the place they came from. They can only succeed with your help. Are you up to the challenge?

There are three modes players can play in: boot camp, battle, and story mode. Boot camp is the training mode of this game, where players get used to how the game is played. The battle mode is where two players can go head to head and see who the best fighter is around. The story mode is the real meat of the game. In this mode players will follow the story line to find out why the aliens are here, and find out if you can drive them away from the planet.

Here is how the story mode plays out: the mission loads and tells you what to do, usually ranging from killing all the enemies or destroying a certain object. Next the player’s choose which character they want to start off with; they will move that character into place, then attack an enemy or an object. After they attack, they will have the choice for them to rest, shield, or heal their wounds. Then players will choose any other remaining characters and do the same thing. This is the entire games cycle, and this gets repetitive quickly.

The worst thing about this game is the camera when players are about to shoot something. If you have ever played Metal Gear Solid 2, you will remember that when you are using the sniper rifle that snake will not be steady until you take a pill to calm down. In this game there is no pill, so the sniper will always move, and it makes you think, since everyone has no nerves, which makes it hard to hit anything, so it’s no wonder that humans are being killed off.

The graphics used for this game can be summed up in one word: average. The game uses a lot of lush colors, which make it almost feel “cartoonish” in a sense. The textures used are on the bland side of things though. The biggest complaint, and one that will make you feel like laughing each time you see it is when you see an explosion. After some terrain is destroyed, a humongous chuck will start rolling around the level, it is really ridiculous.

What is with the choice of music in this game? It is some of the worse musical scores I have heard in a long time. After listening to it for one minute, you will be sprinting to your stereo to mute the sound, to avoid hearing the mundane music. The sound effects are adequate but they are all very generic. The voice acting is better than the rest of this category, but it is nothing that will blow you away.

Future Tactics: The Uprising is rated T for Teen fantasy violence, alcohol references, and mild language. It requires 4 blocks on your memory card for game saves.

Gameplay: 6.5
The game is very easy, you select what character you want to be, move them, shoot an enemy, get to objective point, then rest. While there is some deviation from that path mentioned, the majority of the game is told in that one sentence. The bottom line is that the game is just too repetitive.

Graphics: 7.6
The graphics for this game are decent, but it wont blow your socks off.

Sound: 5.9
Be prepared because the mute button will be your friend!

Difficulty: Easy
This is one of the easiest tactics games I have played in a while; it can be beaten in no time flat.

Concept: 7.2
Future Tactics: The Uprising takes bits and pieces of many games out in the market and makes one big Tactics game. While this was a good idea, they never perfected each element, so the game really feels incomplete.

Multiplayer: 6.0
The game offers a head-to-head mode, but it is nothing too special.

Overall: 6.2
The thing that really hampers Future Tactics: The Uprising is that it is just too repetitive, and it feels like this game didn’t receive that much polish. If the developers really hammered down on a few of these areas like: sound, graphics, and just polished the gameplay this game would have been huge. If you are in the mood for a good Tactics game, there are others out there that are much better than this.