I am 68 years old...and I love this game. It is a real-time isometric strategy game that allows multiple ways to solve the puzzles to reach the end goal. Been looking for a game like this for a long time.

The graphics are superb. An elegantly designed environment. A joy to just wander around in and explore.

I hope they add modules to keep this genre going.

Shadow Tactics harkens back to the glorious days of realtime tactical strategy games like Commandos. Instead of gathering supplies to build forces, the genre had you control a small set of heroes. As you use a combination of stealth, clever timing and frequent use fo F5/F8 to make your way across the map filled with enemies to complete various objectivies. Being outnumbered by a 100 to 1 at times, players had to use the map, the heroes and create a synergy amoung them to even the odds.

The game takes place during the Feudal times in Japan. You control a group of heroes with different motives, come together for a common goal. The plot does an okay job to keep things going forward with a predictable twist in the end.

The game introduces you to the basic controls and key abilities of the heroes with time. However, that is not enough for the players to complete the missions. Once the players understand the abilities, the map and start to combine them in clever ways, this is when the game really opens up. The game has pretty straight forward abilities, however as you play on you will learn clever ways to make use of those abilities for some really fantastic combos. There is also a tactical mode called Shadowmode which let you queue up 1 command per hero at a time and execute it instantly with a press of a button - this can open up to a lot of tactical opportunities when you have a very slim opening to do a number of things. You cannot queue up more than one action at a time which might be sad news for some. According to the developer the reason behind this is so the players play the game more in real-time as opposed to simply queue up every few steps along the way.

Also bear in mind that you will be saving and reloading A LOT. This infact encouraged by the developers and part of the game to the point you see a handy timer which shows how long it has been since you last saved. So don't be be afraid to constantly F5 and F8.

There is no clear way of using the abilities, you can use it as well as manipulate the game world the way you see fit. This sense of self-discovery is one of the reasons I enjoyed playing this game and reminded me a lot of the childhood days of me playing through Commandos for the first time.

I had a number of frustrating moments with the game however. It is not always very clear when enemies can see you behind an object. Sometimes you feel like you are hidden behind a prop, only to be spotted instantly. The game has also pathfinding problems: I died a number of times trying to navigate my character to a certain point closeby, however the character ends up taking a really terrible way to get there by going through a different, lengthier path altogether. This can be very frustrating when you have a very small window to do a number of things, you do everything right but die because the pathfinding decides to break momentarily.

Overall I enjoyed this game, reminded me how much I missed this genre. The voice acting is pretty good to for the main characters, although I find some npcs sound too british for my taste. It is not perfect as mentioned, but it is more towards fun than frustration. I really hope more developers start to make games like this.

7 /10 - GOOD!

If a soldier finds a body, they aren't just *more cautious for a few minutes before relaxing*, they sound the alarm.
If a soldier finds footprints they don't recognize in the snow, they make a beeline straight for the cover the footprints lead to.
If a soldier regularly sees another soldier, then suddenly finds post empty, they actually look around in nearby bushes.
If a soldier hears a sound meant to attract him, but it's up on a ledge, he's not going to climb up there.
This is a stealth game that takes the player seriously.

This is a rare game from an almost extinct genre. Clone of Commandos series from the 90s, but instead of world war setting, we got a feudal japan which is surprisingly works very well. The game mechanic is great too, if you played other games in the same genre such as Commandos, Desperados, or Robin Hood, you'll feel right at home. Usually I don't care much about the story, same like in Commandoes, but the story Shadow Tactics is more than decent, I enjoy it, and it has some twists as well.

The game is tough, but very satisfying. People say each mission needs 2-3 hours to complete, but I took 4-6 hours each mission because what I like about the genre is I can took my time, and feel the satisfaction of eliminating all enemies on map, stealthy..

I'm hoping for expansion, DLC, or sequel, but sadly the dev confirmed that there won't be any, but they're curently working on a new game but with a same genre.. and I can't wait to see it.

What to say, where to begin?

I am a huge Commandos fan and seeing this game's announcement was a dream come true after so many years of stalemate in this genre. And I have to be honest, seeing the first couple of trailers and screenshots I was not that hyped. It looked low budget to me but I still wanted to give it a chance.
And then, out of the blue....A DEMO! Yes, a demo, believe it or not that thing still exists. I downloaded it not expecting that much....Boy, was I wrong. Demo got me hooked, a perfect sample that made me buy this game at launch. But my surprise did not end there.
Not going to spend half of the review telling you about Commandos, because it is obvious that this was heavily inspired by those games (let's not forget legendary Desperados). This game is a mix between the first games in the genre and the awesome Commandos 2. Not too complex with inventory management and indoor sections, but still complicated in it's own way.
Graphics really surprised me, those first trailers and SS's do not give this game justice. In motion it looks beautiful, animations are amazing and attention to detail is stunning (like weaker characters pulling bodies instead of carying them, different styles of execution depending on the size of the character and their personality (Yuki-chan takedown FTW) and plenty more).
Sound is also amazing with different sounding footsteps, depending on the surface, together with weapon and ambient sounds it creates a great atmosphere. Also, voices (with a neat feature of being able to turn on Japanese VO). Every character's voice actor fits perfectly IMO.

Gameplay is something familiar to the fans of the genre, but it is not a simple 1:1 copy. Game takes a lot from the legends of the genre but also adds plenty of new things to the table. What the game does great is combining all these characters in going through amazingly designed levels and with the use of all characters equally. While in Commandos 2 I would mostly focus on one character and kill an entire map with it (Tiny was responsible for the death of thousands of Third Reich soldiers :D ) that's not the case here. Every character was interesting and could be used to deal with a certain situation. The levels are amazingly designed and even if you think there is no way out, there is always a way out. And this is where game encourages you to use a combination of character (with a great Shadow Mode feature that let's you queue up actions of a couple of characters and make them execute orders at the same time). Amazing stuff.

The game also has a story, nothing too complicated but still interesting enough to make you question what will happen next. All this with well written characters that have plenty of developement through cutscenes and during gameplay. Certain actions will promt interactions between characters that tells us more about their personas. Plenty of humor too :)

I also have to praise the amazing polish this game has. Devs thought about almost everything, from the Japanese VO option, to the neat LAST SAVE reminder, even allowing us to choose if the dialogue will advance automaticaly or on click, choosing the highlight option for the characters that are talking during gameplay etc. Something that plenty of AAA titles add post launch or not at all. Plenty of quality of life features, I have to give it to the devs. Haven't seen any bugs so far. Amazing state for a modern game.

The review is already too long, but I had to :D I rarely write reviews but I simply had to for this one.
An amazing game with a reasonable price, with a demo and with Devs that are very active in the forums, giving advice and supporting their game and the players. You can feel and see the hard work they invested in creating this little gem. Try out the demo and decide for yourself, but I know you will not be dissapointed. The game opens up later on an surprises with every level. Almost every level introduces new tactics or features. It gets more complicated as you progress.

In short :D : A must buy for fans of tactical stealth games :)

I use a Tobii eye tracking device for every day tasks because of my disability and I was very excited to find out that this game has an option to play it with it. It worked super well and I loved the game.

To give you context: I am more of a FPS guy, not really into RTS games. However, I had alot of fun playing this game.
You have 9 missions, but if you're new to the genre or to this game, each mission can take you 1.5 hours. They get more difficult, but even more satisfying to pull off. When you learn of a strategy you can use to take down three people without sounding an alarm, and even execute it beautifully, you will never get a feeling like that.

Honestly? Thanks to this, I am looking forward to more RTS stealth games like these, especially the upcoming Desperados III.

Before you bomb the forums with your complaints about the base price at launch please read this.

It's not just the game you are paying for. You are paying for a time machine that will take you to an era of game development in which the released games were bug-free at launch, in which there were free demos to try out and in which tactical real time strategy was a popular genre.

The pricing scheme was also different back then. Nowadays you figure out what the market is ready to pay either through pre-order or crowd funding. Then you make the game with the funds you received and release it once the money are spent. The result is a game in which the devs made cuts and compromises on some crucial aspects of the game such as graphics and artwork (just decrease the texture resolution and call it retro), level design (use algorithms to automatically generate level and call it procedural), or game play design (just make it overall hard and call it rogue or just don't introduce any game play and call it sandbox), proper testing (release it with bugs and expect the mods to fix these, call it AAA) or without sufficient content (make and release the content once the sales from the launched product hit in, call it DLC).

Mimimi, the developer of Shadow Tactics did something different. They developed and released a finished product. They then calculated their development costs, made their sales projections and based on these they calculated the price of single copy of the game, such that the projected sales cover their costs and perhaps create some profit. If the base launch price is too high for you, wait for a sale or wait a couple of months until the price drops. In the meantime you can play the demo or (re)play its genre ancestors Commandos or Desperados. If you like the genre, consider buying this game at the full price - make it a success and show all game devs that we want more of these "time machines".

Personal Rating: 8 of 10

An excellent semi-hardcore real-time stealth tactical game. The game offers 5 different characters with distinguished abilities, skills and behaviour stratigically placed onto the map each level meaning you cannot choose who or how many to bring into each level. There are no leveling system, upgrades system or items to equipt. Each character and their skills are introduced pretty soon.

There are not many levels in the game and in my opinion it was just right. Each level is pre-generated meaning enemy locations and behaviour are fixed. If all these seem like a generic game so far, why the good rating?

First of all, since the game was set in Japan and it offers Japanese Language, naturally I choose that to feel more immersive and the voice acting is on point. It really feels like those of anime. Then the story; quite typical or predictable perhaps but be prepared to take your feelings on a roller coaster ride for the plot. This is because each character is so well designed that you can really feel attached to them. Speaking of immersive, the art style and design are just perfect to bring out the era and conditions of the game settings. The scores are well composed blend into the game perfectly too.

In addition to what is mentioned above, the game also does not offer much logic and surely you will notice when playing such as, bodies clipping through when stacked together or a small barrel can fit basically unlimited bodies. This has everything to do with the game design actually. The game focuses heavily on the stealth action part. Planning, exploring your options, taking opportunities, quick reaction, keen observation, making use of what is available and thinking outside the box are essential in this game and I literally mean all of those. You can feel the developers actually tested and played the game probably over and over again themselves to improve it to such extent with all the minor but great features.

To name a few, you can pan the camera but at times you really need to be quick and so there is a toggle to allow you to highlight overlay interactable places. You can also place a pointer at any location and check for enemy vision on the specific point. Of course you can also select to view the enemy vision. There is also a simple mechanic for you to plan multiple actions for multiple characters and execute them with a push of a button.

Map designs, apart from being beautiful, are done so you can have multiple options or ways to tackle complete your goal. There are props or even event that you can create that could be a game changer. You just really need to use your imagination and do some trail and error. No big deal because the game also offers quick save and load at anytime.

Each mission allow plenty of time to think and play without punishing you. There are no rush mission (unless you want to take on the challenges) so you can have fun instead of pressure. Each mission has badges or challenges to complete. These are optional ofcourse but tackling them sometimes gives you more insight of what the game has to offer and the achievements well shows even more bizzare or imaginative methods to play.

Enemy A.I. are well crafted. They behave quite consistent and as predicted each time you replay so it really saves you the frustration of random events. The few enemy types are really something when they work together and can provide quite a challenge.

Overall, this is a pure stealth tactical that has simple yet refined mechanics and each of these mechanics and features complements each other perfectly like puzzle pieces.

Too good to be true in 2016:
- game is thrilling fun for many hours
- beautiful look
- nice English or Japanese voice-acting
- all texts are translated in many different languages
- superb soundtrack
- still works on small PCs, Macs and Linux-Systems without bugs
- offers you a demo where you can play 1.5 hours for free
- costs only under 40€ (a no-brainer or me after playing the demo on my Mac and PC)

Well, my late highlight in 2016 !
Good job, Mimimi and Daedalic!