What happens when you take the run-and-gun gameplay of a classic arcade game and replace it with strategy gameplay and sprinkle in roguelike elements as a topping? You get Metal Slug Tactics; A spin-off of the long-running iconic arcade franchise and, though it’s not a bad game, it’s one that does one area well but doesn’t really stick the landing in the other area.
Truthfully, the gameplay of Metal Slug Tactics, I personally feel, will be very divisive among gamers as it combines two genres: the aforementioned Strategy and roguelike Elements. Each stage begins with you placing your chosen characters, which includes Marco, Eri, and Fio at the start with three more to unlock as you progress, onto a map then moving them around the area to either take out an enemy, prepare for a sync-attack (more on that in a bit), or get in a defensive position. The sync-attacks are a cool addition to this game and can really help turn the tide of a battle. The way it works is if two of your characters are both aiming at an enemy and one of them attacks, then the other follows-up the attack with one of their own. Each character also has special abilities to help win battles. For example: Eri specializes in explosive ordinance and can rain fire from high places while Marco can boost others weapons, allowing them to deal great damage to enemies. Now, while each character does start off relatively weak, you can earn weapon mods and cash to upgrade each character and their weapons in the shop back at base and these range from higher damage to being able to ignore cover. These are fun ideas and they do work well enough, leading to a generally fun game for the most part, but it does teeter on being both a fun entry and a surprisingly frustrating game at times.
Where I think this game doesn’t really stick is with the roguelike nature of the game. Basically, if you fail a mission, then you have to restart all the way back at the beginning of the world map you’re on, losing any progress you made on said map. Granted, any upgrades you bought in the in-game store throughout the game do stay with you, though I didn’t personally notice any real difference with the characters when I unlocked them. Still, it is disheartening to have made it so far through a world, only for the enemy to get lucky and wipe your squad out, despite your best efforts to keep them alive. I do like, though, how you can revive your fallen comrades if they fall in battle, but you can only do this once and, if they fall again, you can’t revive them until you either win the level or lose, the latter is more likely to happen than the former as it is very easy to lose a level in this game and that is where I think Tactics falters greatly. I don’t know if there is RNG in play but, a lot of the time, I couldn’t even progress past the first stage of the world as I got my butt handed to me on a silver platter. Honestly, it just feels too easy to lose at times and that, I feel, may hurt this game for many in the long run. Normally, from the roguelikes I’ve played, the first area usually is there to ease you into the game before throwing you into the wolves den. Here, it feels like the game expects you to be this 4-star general from the outset and planning everything down to the most minute of details. That’s not a bad thing, hear me out, but it did catch me by surprise and, even though I did get used to it, it still was something I wasn’t a fan of.
Still, there are some things about this game I liked. For one, the graphics are just as vibrant and detailed as the original series, even though it’s lacking the cool death animations. The maps themselves are nicely laid out and designed, with clear indicators on where you can move, what is proper cover, and the areas you can climb on. I also like how it kept the series' humor, though a few of the jokes in the between-missions sections were hit or miss for me. The music, too, is perfectly fitting within the Metal Slug series, retaining that epic militaristic feel the series was known for, though, admittedly, none of the songs reach quite to the levels of epicness that was in Metal Slug 3’s soundtrack. Lastly, I like how the games has these special objectives you can do as a way to mix things up, like one level could task you to defeat a set amount of enemies using one character’s ability while another may have you try to keep one character from being damaged at all (a feat I’ve yet to pull off successfully, though I came close a few times).
I have to say I am mixed on this game. On the one hand, this is a fun spin-off to the series and the strategy elements do work well here. On the other hand, the roguelike elements do hurt this game a bit and I can see that being a big turn off for many gamers, especially nowadays. Personally, while I don’t mind some roguelike games, Dead Cell comes to mind as an great example of a fun roguelike, and I’m all for combining genres together, strategy and roguelike was one combination I’m not a fan of and it did somewhat hurt my own enjoyment at times. But, at the same time, I did have fun playing Metal Slug Tactics and it was a nice change of pace from the usual side-scrolling action games in the franchise.
