Brass Tactics is a real-time strategy game that offers a living tabletop battlefield game experience in VR. Even though other real-time strategy games have already appeared in the VR industry (e.g. Tactera, AirMech), Brass Tactics offers the player a medieval warfare-feel game and leverage the player’s immersion into the artificial world.
If you’ve ever played a real-time strategy game, the game mode of Brass Tactics shouldn’t be new to you. You start with some warriors and archers, but then you can upgrade them. To attack, you simply point your troops at specific squares via the Touch controller.
Why they are engaging?
Brass Tactics takes advantage of how engaging strategy games can be. It allows players to compete with an opponent (an AI or another player) and earn rewards through winning. With the immersion that comes with VR, the player can gain a greater sense of accomplishment by imagining themselves as part of the virtual world.
Another factor that makes this game more appealing is the speed you can connect with other players. Brass Tactics supports three game modes: single-player vs AI, online competitive and cooperative mode. The players are allowed to socialize with others through the game.
What features are well done?
The game successfully increases the credibility of an artificial world through details. The setting for the game is medieval warfare; the theme colour, characters, the playing board, scene all match up with the background story. I am amazed by the consistency between the art style and the game mode.
For example, the jewellery on the user’s virtual hand matches the overall look and feel. This increases the immersion, similar to how players dress up in unique costumes while participating in Live Action Role Playing games.
What features can be improved and how?
Most of the players pointed out its lack of content in terms of strategy. There are limited military characters and buildings to sustain players’ interests. Some players also responded that the unreasonably long game round (i.e. 40 mins – 1 hour for one game round with AI) had frustrated them. From my point of view, even with the title of “Real-time strategy in VR”, the core of the game is to entertain players through fun and engaging game mode. The developers should never blindly focus on building great modelling in VR only.