REVIEW : Supernova Tactics (PC)
Upgrade and equip your forces with various items to buy time for citizens to flee to another planet on the Exodus. General Praxis commands the defensive forces. If he is killed in battle, the ports that load civilians will be overwhelmed.
Supernova Tactics appears to be a good game with a lot of potentials, but you’ll have to be patient to enjoy it. It’s a slow and steady grind that provides the impression of steadily drifting through zero gravity towards… something delightful (and I mean that in the nicest way possible). The UI, tutorial, and gameplay loop may all use some improvement to make them more entertaining and intuitive, but it still has the essential components that people look for in an auto-battler. The units are cool, the opportunity for diverse experiences there, and the overall difficulty presented is sufficient to keep you grinding for a while if you so desire. I’d recommend checking it out to see if it’s something that works for you and stay up to date on its progress if it doesn’t.
Let me begin with the positives: This game appears to be quite enjoyable. The troops, attributes, and possibilities for varied runs are all presented with a level of style that quickly drew my attention. I was eager to try every new unit, trait, or modifier I saw, regardless of rarity, which I believe is a positive sign. I sincerely want this game to thrive and grow, and I’ll be monitoring its progress with bated breath.
The lesson and user interface are clumsy and uninformative. Even though this is an auto battler with fairly simple mechanics, there is enough variation in the formula that there are some critical things that you won’t know exist until you either survive long enough for them to become relevant or take it upon yourself to press every button on your keyboard in-between rounds to discover that they exist. You will die a few times before these fundamentals are taught to you, but the instruction will have an impact on your runs long after it has occurred.
My unwanted proposal is that the tutorial and UI be modified, or that a “Codex” or guide of sorts be implemented that offers all the information you’ll need in one location. If the latter option is chosen, redesign the tutorial to be a one-time event that provides all of the essential knowledge up front and allows the user to genuinely lean into starting each run differently.
According to my little experience, the game’s depth looks to be based on percentages, as well as being pretty slow and… a little shallow. Aside from the upgrades and enhancements that you can permanently unlock between runs (a few +0.5% stat increases here and a 1% probability increase there), the most interesting game mechanics come from your units, spells, and the infrequent modifiers that you choose, such as buffing the enemy with a passive, buffing your team with a passive, and so on. Your victory condition is to promote (but not necessarily buy/develop) random units determined at the start of each run to tier 3, however, there is no assurance you will roll these units, thus I guess your upgrades/enhancements are geared to make this process more fun. Overall, the gaming cycle appears to be a strict and repetitive march, which turned me off, and I almost want to encourage the creator to loosen up and become a little crazy with the alternatives offered to spice up my progression.
My only true, disagreeable recommendation here would be to introduce large-scale mutations, unlocks, or various objectives that affect the entirety of your runs—three things that are regular post-release debuts for roguelite games, so no concerns there.
