Excellent. A solid game system with a nice, graphical overhaul.

If you've heard of Advanced Squad Leader, the old tabletop dice 'n chits wargame system, then know that this game is basically that. It currently features American, German, and Russian forces during WWII. It comes fully equipped with plenty of scenarios which increase in difficulty, but the game is complemented with a native map and scenario editor plus support for, and in-game integration with, Steam Workshop. All of this is to say that there's no shortage of scenarios to try.

If you haven't heard of Advanced Squad Leader, then how about tabletop wargames? It's something of a dying pasttime, but has a large international following. Anyway, that's what this game truly is; it's a tabletop wargame system made accessible to mouse and keyboard while removing the common tabletop wargaming tropes in video games (like dice rolling).

Each scenario is a challenge to overcome, and while there is no 'dice rolling', there is RNG and calculations for everything, and sometimes the results just aren't in your favour. That's the way the game works. That's a feature, not a bug.

Second Front *is not* Advanced Squad Leader, but it's *like* it. And because Second Front *isn't* ASL, there's an opportunity here to adopt this game system in to other battle theatres, like the American Civil War, World War 1, Modern-Era battle pieces, Vietnam War - the opportunities are endless. I hope this is realized!

In the meantime, if you are a tabletop wargamer, or if you have - right now - a boardgame in your collection that has hexes and square chits and you'd love to play it - then this game is for you.

The game is not impressive with its graphics or its action, it's impressive with its deep complexity and opportunity for growth and expansion combined with its solid game system and hours of opportunity for new play. If that's you, then give this game a shot. DasTactic on YouTube has a great intro video that's worth watching over lunch.

Tagline: the JRPG for dudes who don't like JRPGs

I don't like JRPGs, but I felt that my prejudice toward JRPGs was holding me back from some great gameplay and story, so I needed to get some input from the JRPG scene to inform me on some games I should review over the holiday break, 2023.

I went to Reddit and Yakuza:LAD was overwhelmingly suggested to me (as was Octopath Traveler but I'll get to that later).

Ok.. this game is pretty wild and while it's PG-rated, the themes are definitely for mature audiences to grasp. But yet, the gameplay itself - when boiled down - is strikingly similar to the early JRPG tropes that I remember (like early Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy). That is, turn-based movement, party tactics, spells and weapons and such, but all somehow reimagined to fit a kind of 'real world' setting. It's clever as heck.

I asked for a story and this game delivers. I know nothing about any of the other Yakuza titles (though I did try a few hours on a Yakuza title years ago on the PS4), so there is definitely a layer of the overarching story (that ties all the Yakuza titles together) I'm missing out on, but that doesn't impede the enjoyment or undestanding of what's happening.

I'll not give any of the plot here. I wasn't spoiled on the story and I enjoyed it, so I won't do that to you here. Know that it's a sprawling thing, but enjoyable and generally easy to enjoy in bit-size sittings.

There are a lot of side quests and minigames to play. Some of them are fun. Playing Virtua Fighter 5 and Out Run, cool. Baseball, stuff like that. I'm generally not all that interested in those.

I'm about 50 hours in and probably around 60% of the way through the main story. I've spent a lot of that time exploring the city and searching for stuff. I'm a slow roller.

Now that the holidays are over and time is limited once more, I'll still come back to this game because I'm invested in the story and I'd like to see how it turns out. Especially that there is a new Yakuza available in two weeks. I think I'll wait a good while before I jump in to that one, I still have a lot of quality content to go through here.

I played on an xbox controller exclusively.