March announcement of role tactics The Lamplighters League surprised many fans of the work of the studio Harebrained Schemes. From the creators BatTletech And the last Shadowrun They waited for the continuation of their favorite episodes, having received as a result a certain "League of Lanterns", fighting with some kind of ominous cult ..

However, wishing Harebrained success, the players began to listen carefully to what the authors of The Lamplighters League about their creation very enthusiastically tell. And the developers themselves decided that instead of a thousand words, it is better to offer to evaluate the game. And they gave reporters access to the very beginning of the League: the first two tasks that last in total about an hour (which, of course, is insanely not enough – especially for role -playing tactics). We played and share our impressions of The Lamplighters League!

The game meets us on the roofs of evening Paris.

The Lamplighters League sends us for 90 years in the past-in France of the early 1930s. While the world is slowly transforming and developing technologically, somewhere behind the scenes of this theater, a long-century terrifying confrontation unfolds. The very “League of Lanterrs” and the ominous cult “disgraced”, longing for power and the embodiment of mystical nightmares.

Here are just the legendary heroes who once appeared on the side of good, have long left our world. And now, to fight the upcoming darkness, it is almost the discharge of society – the best of those talents that can still rally to achieve the goal. Thieves, adventurers, smitriors … Many of those who "always want evil and always do good". And yet each of them is good in its own way. First of all, with its special skills.

Our fighters have a supply of cartridges in the clip and glasses of action that can be spent on attack, movement, observation, and so on. When trying to attack, as in XCOM, the percentage of the hit and a critical blow will be indicated.

The Lamplighters League gameplay is a strategy where we manage a detachment of motley specialists and “romantics from a big road”. In the course of the game, our company https://black-magic-casino.co.uk/ will expand everything, and with an increase in level, the player will have more opportunities to implement his plans during tactical operations. That is, directly tasks.

Missions are arranged by familiar lovers of the genre. First, the player explores the area, finds potentially useful objects (such as, for example, bandages or bottles with incendiary mixture) and a threat preventing him from reaching the destination. If desired, we can simply slip by, being unnoticed. Or get rid of opponents without raising anxiety. But most often you have to place their fighters in profitable positions and move into step -by -step regime – directly to the battles.

You can sneak up from behind and quietly eliminate. Or enter into an open fight.

Playable characters in The LampLighters League are divided into three types:

• Experts of hand -to -hand combat like Ingrid are able to lay the road with fists, getting rid of obstacles, and deal with enemies in close combat;
• Secretive fighters (Latif) – Stlas masters who creep up to opponents from the back and silently neutralize them without raising anxiety, and also overcome barriers that are impregnable for others;
• Saboteurs (Eddie) – rely on the use of technology and traps, as well as skillfully hacking locks.

Each type has unique abilities that can help in the battle very much. Or help avoid skirmishes. For example, Latif (as already written a little higher) eliminates enemies from the back without raising anxiety. Eddie throws an electrician that electrizes water (and causes damage to several fighters at once). And the ingrid can scatter in a straight line and tie up the back of at least two opponents at once.

Another thing is that we can use these skills a limited number of times per mission, so to cope with the task completely according to stealth, alas, it will not work. A strange restriction that does not please me as a connoisseur of secretive passages without excess blood. But, apparently, this is the path and idea of ​​the developers.

Latif calmly climbs the grid, and Ingrid literally destroys the walls.

As expected in tactical games, directly on locations you need to actively use the environment. Most often we have to steal in the grass or in the shade, avoiding the circle of detection of opponents. And at the same time, see if there is explosives nearby (or something like that), capable of riding us from meeting with a couple of unpleasant personalities. By the way, the reconnaissance mode in which you can carefully examine the battlefield helps well with this.

Basically, before the battle, we are grouped – we find a safe place – we allocate our agents one at a time and lead to where it will be easier to fight. So, someone is perfect for someone at a height, while others let them be closer to enemies.

Even if the enemies hid behind the wall (a full shield) or bended at the fence (which provides half -wired protection), sooner or later they will lean out to attack our team. And then the traditional opportunity to “observe” (or overwatch) will help to shoot – automatically attack those who are included in the cone that we have defined. And the enemy will certainly stick out and enter this cone. In the version of the AI, not the most gifted.

However, in fairness, we have seen not so much so far. And the same opponents in the first two missions once or twice and expected. Basically, at first we will meet typical “assaults” in gas masks and with an automatic machine, which is not, but still will fall on the target. But there are enemies who prefer hand -to -hand combat. These guys are much more dangerous. Already on the second task, if you act hastily, you can sweat great. Some of the local villains will immediately surprise their abilities. But even then, getting used to it, you will quickly return control of the situation.

Given the records of the developers, in the future The Lamplighters League will offer us much more diverse opponents: nimble and mobile, slow, but healthy, long-range and hiding in the shadows, it would seem unrealistic … By the way, we can accidentally miss some of the enemies. If the purpose of our assignment is directly, we can easily pass by the turn to the right. And there are more dangerous enemies, and some secrets or consumed objects.

"Observation" helps when it is necessary to stop the incredibly purposeful enemy.

By the way of the secrets: to explore the world in the League is interesting, because here you can see small details of the environment (which the heroes themselves) or wiretap can be seen everywhere about the plans of the enemy or about the nature of the key antagonist. Small, but interesting strokes that make the story more lively. In the end, just fighting is not as fun as fighting and rejoice at the found little things.

We also note that The Lamplighters League is not very pleasantly managing with the keyboard and mouse on PC. Especially in comparison with the same Jagged Alliance 3, in which we spent about a dozen hours ago. It can be seen that the "league" is created with a guideline primarily for gamepads. That is, you can play with the keyboard and mouse, and you get used to it over time … But, starting the second passage with the gamepad, you get much more pleasure from the game.

Perhaps all this is just a taste and nit -picking (although I used to play strategy and tactics on PC exclusively on clamps). And in general: if you wish, we can configure management as it is convenient for us? But if you have gamepads, probably The Lamplighters League will seem more friendly.

Like the previously mentioned ** jagged alliance 3, ** The lamplighters league is coming out this year. But, alas, not in the summer – and so far it is even approximately unknown when. The developers understand that there is still to work and work on tactical role -playing to improve the same animations and AI or save it from bugs. Although during the acquaintance with the first missions I did not specifically look for them – and did not meet them.

I would like to believe that the creators of the League, now a stylistically pleasant project with attractive characters and understandable gameplay, will offer exciting history and gameplay in later stages of the game. So we will wait for news and release on Xbox Series and PC.

• Review of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Survive at all costs
• What to play in May 2023: Age of Wonders 4, The Legend of Zelda, Redfall, System Shock and not only
• Age of Wonders 4. Fantasy strategy about evolution and inevitable war