Tacticool is another example of strategic action combat games available on mobile that gives the player the ability to fight death matches with other players around the world. You control your character by moving forwards or backwards on the left-hand side of the screen, with the right-hand side of the screen allowing for turning. The actual combat is through automatic shooting, ala Guns of Boom, where if an enemy enters your crosshairs, you’ll open fire. You get to choose between a variety of different types of weapons, which entirely determines how well you are going to fare in different ranges against enemies.
The core gameplay of each match is focused on killing your enemies and possessing a gigantic money bag. Each kill gets you a point, as well as more points for every second that your team maintains control of the money bag, making each match a combination of a regular deathmatch with all the attached intensity, as well as an objective based hold the flag. The majority of the combat itself is spent running around the map, finding the enemy and pointing at them before they point at you. There is no auto locking on the reticules, so you are expected to hold your crosshairs onto your target, even as he moves away from you. This forms the actual gunplay as, besides manual target tracking, there is no actual skill involved in killing enemies.
[sc name=”quote” text=”It might be called Tacticool, but it is sometimes a bit too Tactiboring.”]
Different guns are obviously better at different ranges, allowing for some small degree of customization. By far the most interesting aspect of Tacticool is the use of terrain objects. You can get into cars and drive them around the level, as well as utilize the mounted guns on the back of certain cars to great effect. You can crouch behind pillars, jump over obstacles and otherwise remain quite maneuverable. While all this does sound pretty good, Tacticool has one major flaw – despite its intricacies of detail, it is still overly familiar shooter fare. You move your guy around the map, shoot people and then hopefully win the game; that’s pretty much it.
[sc name=”quote” text=”This forms the actual gunplay as, besides manual target tracking, there is no actual skill involved in killing enemies.”]
This is exacerbated by the fact that this game rewards defensive positioning, as once you can get hold of your money bag, your team can surround you and you can take a defensive position. Though there are grenades on a cooldown to clear players out of areas, it is remarkably easy to simply turtle in a few locations and rack up points. Tacticool is a pretty fun game, all things considered – it is action filled enough to not be boring, while still tactical enough to require some thinking to win. However, the deck is stacked too heavily against the losing team, making it feel almost impossible to catch back up.
It might be called Tacticool, but it is sometimes a bit too Tactiboring.
[review pros=”The mix of tactical and action gameplay feels quite rewarding. There is a nice amount of inherent teamwork.” cons=”The lack of actual depth in gameplay can feel pretty boring after a while.” score=6.5]
[appbox appstore id1240200305]
[appbox googleplay id=com.panzerdog.tacticool&hl=en_US]
