Othercide’s grid and turn-based tactical gameplay is functionally identical to several other I.P.’s that have gone this route, so I shall only touch on some of the defining elements. Much of the same holds true for enemies meaning that battles turn into delightfully visceral affairs as your girls dish out devastating attacks, or react with unsettling realism to taking damage. Whether in poses as you select one of the Daughters in the menu screens or setting off her most powerful attack on the battlefield, every movement is elaborate and looks awesome. This is all the more complimented by the game’s beautifully rendered moment to moment animations. During gameplay this becomes a pretty cool visual technique where a single colour on screen makes the Daughters themselves feel powerful and lethal without overpowering the noir visual style. The only real colour that ever makes an appearance is red which symbolises the connection between the Daughters and the Red Mother, most notably in their special abilities. Running on the Unity Engine, Lightbulb Crew have rendered their game in a stark, monochromatic colour palette, which is highly effective at setting the dank atmosphere of the game’s decaying and melancholic world. In fact, despite the macabre themes, Othercide is really nice to look at. Blades good for high damage single cuts, scythes hits up to three enemies at once, guns is a range attack specialist, shield and spear is the tank of your squad. The Daughters, in a pleasing contrast, are all sexy fashionistas, and they are randomly generated with a surprising variety of different names, outfits and hairstyles. With an emphasis on body horror and plague iconography, the enemies could easily be the cousins of the creatures from the Silent Hill franchise. Playing as the Red Mother, the player commands squads varying between two to four Daughters during each of the short missions, and the main objective is usually to hunt down small clusters of Suffering’s manifestations.
She therefore unleashes echoes of her own strength in the form of ‘Daughters’ to stand a fighting chance against the legions of Suffering. Suffering is in the egg, and the child is the one on the left. In an effort to protect its incarnation, Suffering spawns an entire army of avatars known as the eponymous ‘Others’, which means Red Mother needs a hand or two if she is to protect something called ‘The Child’. Othercide plays out within in a sombre, plague-infested city where the Red Mother – a guardian entity – prepares to thwart the imminent birth of her nemesis, Suffering itself. The gameplay lacks the feature of randomly generated experiences that a good roguelite thrives on, so even the gorgeous visuals inevitably loose the battle against the increasingly obvious sense of repetitiveness.
The result is that Othercide’s progression feels like a square peg forced into a round hole because the roguelite mechanics never really feel as if they serve a purpose. At its core, this is a well-rounded and engaging turned-based RPG which is all this game needed to be, but Othercide makes the most detrimental mistake of a bad roguelite title: Inconsistent difficulty. While numerous other studios have given us great games from an creative use of this formula, Othercide somewhat misses the task. The game therefore aims to combine that intensive strategical thinking you can only get from turn-base combat, but the possibility of loosing all progress and character development raises the stakes. I therefore feel a little guilty for posting this review of Othercide, the latest game under their production.ĭeveloped by the studio Lightbulb Crew, Othercide is fundamentally a roguelite release that plays out within the tactical, turn-based genre.
If ever the endless stream of AAA titles start to feel like clones off the factory line, playing something from Focus Home Interactive never fails to offer a refreshing experience. Isn’t Focus Home Interactive just amazing? They are one of the last major publishers still working consistently with smaller studios to release unique I.P.’s.
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