Within five minutes of starting Falling Skies, a videogame adaptation of the fairly decent Sci-Fi T.V. series, you may well get a heavy dose of déjà vu. Humanity fighting back against an alien threat? Researching to create supplies, tech and weaponry? Turn-based strategy? Permadeath? That’s right, you’re playing an XCOM clone, minus the huge budget.
Nearly the whole set-up of Falling Skies is unashamedly aping/homaging/ripping off (delete as applicable) Firaxis’ award-winning Sci-Fi strategy, so forgive me if I mention it a few times in this review as the comparisons are fair and just in this instance.
Set in between Season Three and Four of the show, the game focuses on the potential discovery of a new weapon that could wipe out the invaders (known as the Esphani). So, by banding together a squad of rookie resistance fighters, you alternate between finding weapon parts, collecting resources to sustain and grow your cause as well as generally being a thorn in the side of the Esphani by rescuing enslaved children, sabotaging important facilities and killing a whole heap of alien scum in the process.
Despite it being fairly light on any fresh content for fans of the show, it’s understandable that it’s left a bit ambiguous for anyone not all that familiar, or not caught up with the events to date. Still, it tells a passable story of its own that feels more like a spin-off than a fully-fledged season. During the game, players are often helped along the way by various characters from the series, all voiced by the actual cast quite competently. Mainly though, you use rookie resistance fighters to achieve your goals and, much like XCOM, they are divided into a series of classes (Heavy, Scout, Medic and Assault in all but name) and need ranking up to unlock new skills to aid them in the escalating battles against the Esphani.
Combat is a fairly decent turn-based fare, if a little wayward with its hit percentage stats. At one point I stood right in front of an enemy with 100 percent chance to hit, and missed…twice, while in the same mission I hit a critical shot with just a 5 percent chance (with a shotgun) from range. It remains enjoyable to play though, as the tactical opportunities are varied enough to tolerate the questionable hit detection mechanics.
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The key to success, generally, is all about positioning. Enemies can cover some serious ground on their turns so moving one tile too far can be the difference between life and death. Only a certain class can take reaction shots on enemy turns too, so weighing up whether you should advance that little bit further or be patient should be a tough choice. Indeed, it’s this tactical approach during combat, which can be enjoyably challenging, that provides the game’s most memorable moments.
Sad to say though, there is little sense of urgency to the missions; the fact you can leave side ops for later with no time window in which to complete them is one of the biggest detractions. Also, rescue missions don’t put those you are rescuing in any danger whatsoever. Or, in probably the most criminal case, any time you set a bomb off you have infinite time to amble your way to the exit point, often without any enemy threat as you’ve eliminated them all in the journey to the detonation point, killing any possible exciting tension off.
The structure of the campaign is yet another factor in this lack of urgency.Though you could feasibly keep playing forever and a day, even after the main story has long been finished, you would realistically have had enough by the 20-25 hour mark. It is at least welcome then that you can finish after a set amount of missions if you so choose. If you wish to pursue a longer run, the overly familiar environments will still provide you with random skirmishes and start points for quite some time.
These quibbles shouldn’t detract from the fact that the mechanics are otherwise sound. Though the gameplay is not as deep as it could be, it still requires some actual strategy to progress. And yet, ultimately, these minor quibbles in combat upset the balance of risk and reward, which is a design sin considering that’s a big part of what makes strategy-based battles work well.
There is also, however, a more robust side to the game in the form of HQ management. Here, player must use the resources collected in missions to improve weaponry, medical facilities and help recruit new soldiers to the cause. The system of gambling where to spend resources such as food rather than cash is one of the few genuinely good things Falling Skies has that isn’t nabbed directly from Firaxis’ title.
Now, while the gameplay and voice acting are solid overall, Falling Skies is one of the ropiest looking PS3 games around. It is an oft-used throwaway comment to say a game that doesn’t look all that wonderful has ‘PS2-era graphics’, but this is one of those occasions where that is entirely true. In fact, there are a fair few PS2 games that look better.
The main cast look like melted action figure versions of their real-life counterparts and all of the characters are poorly animated, shonkily juddering along like you’ve walked into a neverending flash-mob of sozzled derelicts doing ‘The Robot’. The areas you visit are equally rough on the eyeballs, full of terrible textures and foliage that wouldn’t look out of place in Minecraft.
One of the worst examples is when a grenade or rocket explodes and the effect is a laughable ‘poof’ of fire making it seem the human resistance is relying on firecrackers to win the war. Worse still, the games front-end presentation is also lacking in polish or effort. From HUD, to menus and everything in between, the visual appeal of Falling Skies is that of watching someone nonchalantly popping their spots onto your lunch.
Graphics shouldn’t matter of course, but in an age where some people moan about indie games looking ‘rubbish’ and others squabble over resolution and frame-rates like it’s some sort of Holy War, it would be naive to suggest nobody could be put off a game that looks pretty awful. The HD loading screens showing stills of the cast only add to the disappointment.
If you can stomach Falling Skies’ horribly disfigured front-end, forgive the minor balance issues and imagine your way out of the tension vacuum, then there is a turn-based strategy game worth a rent here, but it will always be eclipsed in the memory of anyone who has enjoyed XCOM.