Line #28 VideoGame/FutureTacticsTheUprising


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/40665_future_tactics_the_uprising_playstation_2_front_cover1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Take your turn saving the world!]]
3	->''Welcome to the future. It's not a pretty place. Not since the creatures took over anyways. What's left is a rag-tag bunch of human survivors who live in squalor, battle their multidimensional overlords, and wax nostalgic for better days.
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5	Future Tactics: The Uprising is a turn-based shooter developed by Zed Two and published by Creator/{{Crave}} in the US and Jo Wood in Europe, released for all major platforms in 2004.
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7	The game features Low, his sister Pepper, and a group of other ragtag survivors AfterTheEnd, who must battle a race of malevolent interdimensional creatures that have invaded and taken over the planet. A ways into their mission they meet a fellow survivor Scallion and steal a MacGuffin from the creatures, which may be a means for them to SaveTheWorld. Most missions involve simply getting through hostile territory, but it has its fair share of KillEnemiesToOpen missions and even a few "blow up a structure" type-affairs as well. If you can imagine what ''VideoGame/FortNite'' would be like as a turn-based strategy game, you basically have ''Future Tactics''.
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9	The game's primary selling point was its [[EverythingBreaks fully destructable environments]] akin to games like ''[[VideoGame/{{Worms}} Worms 3D]]'', where quite literally ''everything'' from the ground, to walls, and buildings, and objects can be destroyed and sent flying by both your and the enemy's attacks. The map gets reshapen as you fight, allowing you and the enemy to create trenches to slow and block their opponents or to destroy cover to leave them exposed. However, while this was impressive for its time, the game received mediocre reviews and is largely forgotten nowadays save for a small [[CultClassic cult following]].
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12	!! This game gives examples of:
13	* AndThisIsFor: One of Low's win quotes is "And this is for my Dad!"
14	* ActionBomb: Hubriks, the weakest creatures, attack by getting close and blowing themselves up with dynamite. They do a ''ton'' of damage, but also die in one hit.
15	* AntiFrustrationFeatures: The game features a fast-forward button that can be used not only during cutscenes, but also during the enemy's turn.
16	* AfterTheEnd: Creatures from another dimension invaded Earth, and now humanity has basically been reduced to a medieval level but with laser guns.
17	* ArtificialStupidity: The creatures [[ItCanThink can think]], but not very well. They have a habit of wandering over their own mines, and if a Hubrik can't reach you it'll just blow itself up seemingly for the hell of it.
18	* BoisterousBruiser: Scallion, who just sort of shows up, introduces himself as "the man with the ten-ton gun" and then muscles his way into Low's battle.
19	* CardCarryingVillain: The creatures are cruel and sadistic to humans for the sake of it, as evidenced by their EnemyChatter when hunting you during battles. Even according to an ApocalypticLog in [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]], when they first appeared humans attempted diplomacy: the creatures responded by blowing them to pieces ''Film/MarsAttacks'' style.
20	* ChivalrousPervert: Scallion. He asks for a night with the daughters of a town he helps save (naturally, they put the run on him), and when it's revealed Peace is pregnant, General ''immediately'' assumes Scallion is responsible.
21	* CombatMedic: Caraway's secondary ability allows her to recover ally HP... by shooting them. Hey, if it works it works.
22	* CrutchCharacter: Low's father, who is basically Low on the highest level possible, is your partner for the first mission.
23	* DeathFromAbove: Characters like Scallion and Pepper are able launch Ballistic Trajectory attacks on enemies, allowing them to remain behind cover while doing so. Eventually Grenadaks how up who can do this to you.
24	* DeathIsCheap: The creatures revive a half-hour after being killed, and even taunt you about this when taking aim with quips like "Go ahead! Kill me!" Losing one of your party members is an instant GameOver though. [[spoiler:Once you steal the [[MacGuffen Infinity Engine]], death becomes cheap for you, and permanent for the aliens.]]
25	* DoomedHometown: More like "Doomed Camp", but Low and Pepper lose their home after the first mission.
26	* DrawAggro: You can take advantage of how enemies have to spot one of your allies before knowing where they are to lure them into traps, or draw them away from your weakened or vulnerable allies.
27	* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler:The game ends with you quite literally ''blowing up the creature's planet!'']]
28	* EliteMooks: Patrioks are basically a combination of a Sentrik and an Insidiak: they have a ''crapton'' of health, hit like a truck, can snipe from across the map, are basically immune to Hand To Hand, and if ''that's'' not enough they can also heal their allies. Thankfully they're rare: you only have to content with them in two missions.
29	* EnemyChatter: The creatures loudly announce things like "There he is!" when they spot you, and things like "I think he ran away!" when they lose sight of you. They'll also goad you into firing on them, threaten party members, and gloat when they land a hit.
30	* EverythingBreaks: The game's defining feature. You can blow up buildings, blow holes in the ground, and knock down walls. You can even do this on purpose to create makeshift barracades, or to create slopes to reach areas faster. Of course, the enemies can do this too.
31	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The game drops tons of hints that The Stranger is [[spoiler:actually an older Low from the future. He consistently shows a ton of concern for Pepper and remarks that he knows exactly what Low is going through when she dies, he wears similar armor with the same steel-toed boots, and he gets similar abilities. Most notably, is he uses the exact same gun with the exact same HUD in a game which makes a point of giving every other character, even {{Temporary Party Member}}s like Low's Father, their own unique gun and HUD. He even goes so far as to comment on how obvious it is when his identity is revealed.]]
32	* GlassCannon: [[ActionBomb Hubriks]] die in one hit from no matter what since it detonates their dynamite. [[ColdSniper Insidiaks]] can easily be {{One Hit Kill}}ed by a headshot, and even the powerful Sentrik's are ''very'' vulnerable to melee attacks.
33	* InfraredXRayCamera: One of the upgrades allows characters to toggle this on in first-person view, making it ''very'' easy to spot enemies at a distance or even on the other side of an obstacle.
34	* LandMineGoesClick: The game features land mines as an "obstacle." Since enemies have a nasty habit of [[TooDumbToLive stepping on their own mines]] as they trudge toward you, you'll likely never get near one of them. Alternately, you can shoot them yourself to set them off and catch creatures in the blast.
35	* LetsYouAndHimFight: Low has a beef with "The Stranger", and challenges him to a duel. This serves as Mission 7.
36	* MacGuffin: The Infinity Engine, which serves as the crux of the game.
37	* NewGamePlus: Beating the game once unlocks a harder mode where only one character may move each turn, and turns are rotated between characters.
38	* OptionalStealth: Enemies only know you're there if they get a bead on you via line of sight, and will communicate to their allies when they spot you to move in for the kill. You can take advantage of this to lure them into traps, or hide your injured characters long enough until enemies lose track of them.
39	* PlotLineDeath: [[spoiler:Low's Father, Pepper, General, and Wardwarf all bite the dust at various points of the game.]]
40	* RespawningEnemies: Most maps involve some manner of this to a degree. Often each enemy turn ends with one more {{Mook}} entering the fray, ready to fight next turn.
41	* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler:The Stranger is actually Low from one possible future, who was sent to the past to put things right.]]
42	* SchizophrenicDifficulty: The game is all over the bloody place in terms of difficulty. The game throws you right into the frying pan from the get-go with RespawningEnemies and a BossInMookClothing in the very first level, then throws an outright boss battle against you for mission 2 that, again, makes heavy use of respawning enemies. There's also no tutorial at all, forcing you to learn how the games obtuse mechanics work by just running blind with them, and probably to learn the hard way that if any one of your teammates dies it's GameOver. Then the game's difficulty drops dramatically once you get your hands on the MacGuffin that allows you revive lost teammates after battles and you start getting much more powerful allies like Scallion, and then just sort of randomly goes up and down from there.
43	* SchizoTech: Humans live on farms and in Romani-style camps, but have laser guns and high-tech armaments. Even the creatures make use of low-level tech like dynamite and catapults.
44	* SpiderTank: [[spoiler: The second-to-last mission is against a big four-legged walking tank with a gun controlled by the severed head of a Patriok]].
45	* SplashDamage: Scallion's unique upgrade is Scatter, which makes his projectile burst into numerous smaller ones before hitting the ground.
46	* StockSoundEffects: You'll recognize nearly all the sound effects in the game, save for the grunts and yells of the creatures. ''Especially'' the laser sound of enemy {{Mooks}} that has been in countless video games.
47	* TargetSpotter: All enemies do this. If they spot one of your characters, they relay the info to all their allies and begin converging.
48	* TechnicalPacifist: Peace is very much against combat, but knows diplomacy isn't an option and will fight when necessary. One of her win quotes is even "I hate taking life!"
49	* TooMuchInformation: This bit, between Scallion and Low:
50	--> '''Scallion:''' Well, I can normally tell if something's up by my, er, plumbing. And you can rest assured that I'm still as regular like clockwork first thing every morning. One time I had this cold, and I was so gummed up I--
51	--> '''Low:''' Ugh, ''please''! Too much information, Scallion!

Context VideoGame / FutureTacticsTheUprising