After I was nothing however a small boy, certainly one of my mom’s favorite movies was An Officer and a Gentleman. I personally wasn’t bothered by all of the romance and smoochy nonsense, however the hero for me was the drill Sergeant, Sergeant Foley, brilliantly performed by Lou Gossett Jnr. His foul mouth and the best way he spoke to the recruits, whipping them into form was an inspiration.
What this rambling introduction is resulting in is that of Full Steel Sergeant from CarloC Video games and PolyCrunch Video games. You see, this guarantees to let me dwell out my fantasies of being a drill teacher, moulding younger males into troopers and so forth and so forth. So, let’s see if it lives as much as my hopes and goals…
First off we’ll have a look at the presentation of the sport, and right here the information is combined. It’s yet one more retro type affair, together with your sergeant and your recruits depicted in-game as tiny piles of pixels. I want I could possibly be kinder, however that’s what I’ve seen – tiny piles of pixels doing issues. The bottom the place we practice our recruits is pretty easy, with 4 train sections to it, and we are able to change these sections round to go well with the actual wants of our recruits. There are a few different screens to say too and after the recruits have graduated, there’s a mission display, that appears like a map that you just fill in, and a battle display, the place our piles of pixels shoot at different piles of enemy pixels. Once more, the graphics are easy. However they work.
The sound is best, with our character, the sergeant, having a pleasant line in insults and operating cadences. In reality, if you choose him, he’ll really reply you again, which is a pleasant contact. Coaching and gunfire noises are all current and proper too and so every part by way of the Full Steel Sergeant audio works.
There’s not a lot by way of narrative or story although, and what’s there may be easy – we’re a drill sergeant and each 12 weeks we’re given three new recruits to hone into lean, imply combating machines. Our recruits flip up as off form civvies, and now we have to get them to indicate us their battle faces in a really quick time period. That’s just about it – after you could have skilled them, they head off for an precise mission, after which it’s recreation over, begin once more. Brief? Undoubtedly. Good? Properly, that continues to be to written…
And so we get on to the precise gameplay, the center of the sport. Right here the information is fairly good as Full Steel Sergeant is nearly a roguelite; if our recruits are killed on the mission on the finish of their coaching, now we have to begin once more and attempt to do higher. Every recruit has the potential of having a flaw once they come to us – they are often introverted, lazy, and so forth. Fortunately we all know a approach to remedy them of those flaws. In case you’re in any doubt, Full Steel Sergeant does let you know how one can remedy the character flaws, and it’s all the time executed by drilling. Lazy individuals want power coaching, as an example, and if a recruit is afraid of water, we have to get them doing laps within the pool. Curing a recruit of his flaw offers Status, which is the in-game foreign money for getting new train gear and for upgrading the present stuff, so it’s properly value doing.
When drilling the recruits, you must keep watch over what is going on, principally as they’re delicate little flowers. There are two stats to observe over – stamina and stress – making an attempt to maintain one excessive whereas guaranteeing the opposite stays low. Are you able to guess which approach spherical?
Every train included in Full Steel Sergeant will take stamina away and add to the stress degree. After which there are two different choices if issues are going badly in your recruits – you’ll be able to sit them within the guardhouse, which can recharge their batteries, or you may make them polish a cannon, which has the identical impact, however to a lesser diploma. Occasionally an inspection will happen to verify your recruits are nonetheless in fine condition, and additional status could be earned on these visits.
Spending the status can also be fairly an essential a part of the sport – we are able to purchase new train yards within the Workplace, and these could be swapped every week to allow us to provide properly rounded troopers. There’s additionally the chance to spend status on coming into competitions towards rival bases, the place recruits will compete in operating, swimming, boxing and even taking pictures towards different recruits. These aren’t occasions that you may affect – you simply want to verify your troops are skilled within the related areas to make them aggressive. These areas come within the type of Energy, Stamina, Melee and Capturing, with completely different workouts able to growing the stats of your troop. In case you are actually fortunate, one train can improve two stats, such because the NoMans-Land gear that you may purchase. The operating observe is one other good train for the squad, nevertheless it makes use of up all of the weekly train factors you get – two per recruit.
As soon as the 12 weeks are up, the troops graduate and are despatched on a mission. This can be a 5 stage affair, with every seeing your troops going by enemy territory to an goal, overcoming obstacles on the best way. These could be firefights with enemy troopers, encounters with various things (resembling minefields or villages) and all of the whereas, the provides your troops carry are depleting. As soon as they’ve reached the target, you’ll be able to then select to return or proceed with the mission. As soon as the mission is completed (all 5 phases) that’s recreation over, and you must begin once more from scratch. Ought to your troops all perish (which is solely attainable as my guys appeared to search out themselves in a minefield and had been blown to items!), then once more, you begin another time.
There’s little doubt that Full Steel Sergeant is an fascinating recreation, however its large downside is in its size. It doesn’t take lengthy to determine what it is advisable to do to get your guys mission prepared, and as soon as they’ve completed their targets, that’s it. There isn’t a New Sport + and little replayability – simply begin once more. Extra finish recreation content material could be very welcome, nevertheless, for the comparatively low asking worth, there may be enjoyable available right here.
