Urban Strife Game
This game has been in my wishlist for months and tonight the Demo dropped and it's a blast! Previously I'd only seen screenshots and short 1 minute clips of Urban Strife and it looked very promising. After playing the demo, let me tell you it's living up to all of my expectations.
Urban Strife Game (USG) is an isometric Jagged Alliance action points style turn-based shooter (TBS) role-playing game (RPG) with a "realistic ballistic simulation" system unlike anything I've ever seen. If you've ever played TBS games before, you're probably all too familiar with being shot from behind cover and how annoying, not to mention unrealistic, it is.
Realistic Ballistics
Not only does cover work as it should, but the developers of USG, White Pond Games, have taken it to the next level and turned the knob to 11 when it comes to realism. For an example, just watch the video below where 12-guage buckshot is loaded into a shotgun and the player attempts to shoot a person squatting behind a barrel.
As you would expect the buckshot does not strike the player in cover and ricochets off. However, once a slug is loaded into the shotgun it's able to penetrate the barrel and strike the player dealing some damage.
Shotguns and high power assault weapons can hit multiple targets and sawed-off shotguns are deadly against multiple enemies or a horde of zombies.
GIF from alpha gameplay.
Interrupt & Body Parts Targeting
Action points & skills allow characters to interrupt attacks using overwatch, offering even more strategy to battles. If you want to bring more precision into your strategy, USG has body parts targeting as well.
I love the smell of a headshot in the morning ... smells like victory.
Mix in some full range melee using just about anything in the game that a player can wield in their hands; be it a pipe wrench, crowbar, baseball bat or dozens of other tools of destruction and you'll never be without a weapon in this apocalyptic future!
And if that weren't enough, some popular weapons offer up special moves. The combat system in USG also has stamina management, so as you grow more tired, the less you'll be able to dodge attacks.
Crafting
Urban Strife has a very deep crafting system as well. You can modify weapons, create ammo from items you find in the world, make grenades & Molotov cocktails, become your own personal lab rat in the field and mix up some random chemicals for cures to all kinds of ailments, disassemble gear for needed parts, fashion together random clothing and hardware to create armor and more!
There are dozens of crafting combinations between all of the tabs.
NPC & Zombie AI
One thing I noticed during my first battle was how smart the AI played, even on the beginner level. Up against a couple of NPC's, once my 4 characters had downed one of the NPCs, the other NPC suddenly decided to take cover inside a house instead of take on all 4 of us. This was something I haven't seen in a lot of (if any) games. The AI knows when to back off and when to pursue.
If I began retreating my players back or if a player of mine was downed, the NPC's would come forward to chase me down or finish off my downed player with a melee weapon. Which brings up another cool feature, bleeding out. If a player's health is dropped low enough they will fall and go unconscious, giving you time to attempt to revive them while they slowly bleed out over time.
Reaching a downed player in time to apply some medical attention is crucial, otherwise they may not survive. Even if you do reach them in time, they may not revive until the battle is over if their damage was significant enough or if you didn't reach them until they were just about dead.
Another great feature is when a zombie horde is moving and all of the zombies move at once, instead of one at a time like most TBS games. This speeds up the action considerably and makes the game even more challenging. Each zombie acts on their own using advanced AI routines with sensors and alerts.
Modding
To top it all off the USG developers have created a full modding SDK with tutorials, offering even more depth to an already fantastic game. If you've played Project Zomboid before you know how
important it is to have modding capabilities to keep the game fresh for many years to come. PZ was released in 2012 and is still going strong today thanks to the large modding community helping make it a cult classic in the post-apocalyptic gaming genre.
RPG
If that weren't enough, Urban Strife has a deep branching dialogue system that will influence the NPCs you meet in the game, with opportunities to completely change your game each playthrough. Will your reputation be that of a helper or a raging lunatic hellbent on destruction? It's entirely up to you! Your reputation will follow you through this post-apocalyptic world, so choose wisely, you may need someone's help one day.
If you want a bit of peace and quiet, sitting around smoking “medicinal” plants from your hydroponics room won’t be the enough. You will need to go out and make strong allies and they will give you access to unique materials, weapons and recruitable NPCs.
In the current alpha version there are 3 factions you can either befriend or piss off. Your choices are a cult, some shady bikers or a rogue army who are great for bartering with for better weapons in the demo.
Screenshot from the USG website
Demo
Speaking of the demo, what are you waiting for? The demo is out now!
Download the Demo
Release Date
The scheduled release date for the full game is sometime in 2022. If you would like to read and view more about Urban Strife, you can do so at the developers website UbranStrifeGame.com, their YouTube Channel, their Discord or on Twitter.
Alpha Trailer
