- Total Score - 8.4/108.4/10
Summary
Othercide’s striking visual style is backed up by innovative and solid turn based gameplay.
Developer – Lightbulb Games
Publisher – Focus Home Interactive
Platforms – PC, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch

Focus Home is quickly becoming one of my favorite publishers. The line-up of titles embracing familiar genres and titles but providing a fresh and unique twist has led to some really excellent, underrated hits.
First it was third person action adventure with Vampyr, then they did what EA hasn’t and created Greedfall. Now they tackle the turn based genre X-Com has brought back with Othercide.
Right away the X-Com inspiration is readily apparent. The timeline mechanic and the unique rogue lite systems quickly differentiate Othercide from it’s peers.

Right away, the games striking visual style will catch your eye. Greys, blacks and crimson reds create some eye popping scenes and beautiful moments.
The art style of the sisters and enemies almost remind me of the haunting imagery of the Scary Stories book series.
The story is told with beautifully rendered cut-scenes and various story sequences. This focus on a non- linear campaign with set random heroes is a big departure from most games that follow X-Com and its well established formula.
Due to the heavy rogue like influence, the meta layer of global conquest is absent. After every mission, you can recruit or level up one of your sisters to fill out your ranks, and these ladies can be customized in terms of name and character class.

In between major story missions, several side missions will be offered that offer different rewards.
This small but crucial rule of the perma-death ensures that a full roster is maintained and balanced. Instead of relying purely on your handful of best units , focusing on building and getting to know your full group will be key to victory.
The game’s seemingly simplistic meta layer doesn’t strip the game of it’s difficulty, if anything, the smaller scope is pretty rigid. More than once, you will almost guarantee fail and need to rebuild the bloodline.

As you advance down skill trees, you will accumulate a massive list of passive and active traits and abilities. Knowing each of these passives, and taking advantage of them in battle is the key to success or failure in many instances.
If used properly, certain powers can take down an entire group of enemies in one turn, therefore giving the rest of my team the advantage to set-up for the next wave of enemies.
All of these tools are vital, because the timeline mechanic can work for you, but the enemies will use it against you in some brutal ways.
The story is well told, but as the game goes on you will encounter less and less of it.

The only other knock I really have, is that most missions can be quite long, and without to much of a strategic phase between missions it can feel like a chore to just churn out mission after mission of relentless combat.
Despite the limited scope and the die and repeat nature of the rogue like approach, developer Lightbulb crew have created a title that stands out from the average X-Com clone.
