USC: Counterforce Demo First Impressions

USC: Counterforce is an old-school tactical squad shooter in development by Angry Cat Studios and published by Firesquid Games. Players can jump into the game’s new demo to fend off alien invaders in procedural levels, deep tactical combat, challenging encounters, and RPG-lite game systems that offer complex character attributes, skills, and inventory management. Inspired by XCOM, Jagged Alliance and Aliens, you control a strike team of commandos sent out to planetary body M-8322 to investigate and neutralize the remainders of a still mostly unidentified alien threat.

With a class-free skill system and a multitude of weapons and gadgets to utilise against the alien wave, players must lead their marines through extremely challenging missions across multiple game modes. The demo showcases the infinite replayability of the finished game with hours of unique challenges. I started with the tutorial which has a heck of a lot of reading, almost too much initially, however it all comes into play once you get into the tactical mission tutorial. What first caught my eye was the bodycam section of the user interface which shows you what the selected soldier can see at ground level, while we maintain tactical overwatch. The main game area is an isometric grid-based playing field. There are barrels that are both half and full height, doors that you can open and of course aliens to take out.

Featuring fully interactable, multi-layered destructible environments, players can leverage terrain and building layouts to maximise their defensive or offensive positions. Coupled with environmental hazards, buildable barricades, and walls that can be destroyed, the tactical possibilities for assaulting or retreating from combat positions are vast. With alien foes also able to execute similar tactics, USC: Counterforce builds on its layers of depth to create a unique, atmospheric experience. The tutorial mission has you searching a base with the goal of seeking and destroying a total of 26 aliens.

There are different alien types and aside from melee-only soldiers, it’s best to keep your distance. You can alter the direction your soldiers face by pressing the right mouse button in the direction you want to look, and this does not use action points. When you’re in position to attack, you click on each soldier’s weapon in the bottom right of the UI. This will then show the spread of attacks you can do. My squad had a sniper, one with a submachine gun and another with a cryoblaster. Each weapon also has multiple firing modes depending on the situation, so it is quite versatile in how you play the game compared to your mates with the same squad of soldiers.

Aside from the tutorial, there are two game modes to play in the demo – operations and single missions. Operations are two and three-mission objectives while the single missions are just that, one mission to hone your skills. You can very easily find yourself out of position given the high movement values of the aliens and being turn-based you have limited AP yourself to split between moving and attacking. The demo provides adequate mission parameters to play around with different tactics on the ground but also different weapon types with your squad members.

Key Features:

• Create your ultimate squad to face every situation thanks to our unique class-free skill and progression system; hundreds of weapons & gadgets are available to suit your playstyle
• Outsmart aliens in epic fights taking impactful tactical decisions, triggering combos and environmental interactions of all kinds;
• Access to massive content at launch: USC:CF offers huge replayability through a fully randomized Campaign, customizable missions, multiple game modes, and local co-op using Steam’s Remote Play Together
• Experience a genuine space/alien horror fantasy; explore and fight through abandoned bases and mining facilities in a dark, tight, deadly environment, where dangers lurk about in every corner–you must be ready for anything! Head cameras on every marine bring the terror even closer to you!
• Discover the truth behind the demise of colony MC83-A, and protect Humankind from an ancient alien threat.

Watching the trailer, the gameplay looked very complicated, however once you get stuck into the tutorial, it’s a clever take on a sci-fi tactical turn-based game. I enjoyed the slow and methodical branching out from your starting location, ensuring you don’t agro too many aliens at once. Positioning your squad based on the weapons and items they have becomes key, and it’s a lot of fun getting through the few missions available to us. It’s certainly got me looking forward to the early access release of the game. The demo of USC: Counterforce has been made available to players early and will be featured in the February Steam Next Fest. I highly recommend fans of turn-based tactical combat games to give this demo a go, and USC: Counterforce is looking at a Steam early access release in Spring 2023.

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