A brutal cyclops rules the forest.
A slime devours the plains.
A rogue AI administrates the tropics.
A vampire drains life from the swamp.
Gather friends and equipment. Defeat the four kings.
Enemy is a tactical Roguelike Turn-Based Tactics game by Tom Johnson. It was funded
on Kickstarter on March 9th, 2013, and released on March 17, 2015 for PC through Steam.
The game takes place in a procedurally generated world that uses decades-old video games as its building blocks. The result is a collision of genres, where haunted swamps, tropical war zones, and peaceful mushroom villages all stand side-by-side. You are a hero who has decided to fight the evil that plagues their land, building up your own custom squad of retro game characters with their own mix of skills. These abilities range from mental health and reaction time, to the use of blasters and the ability to jump five times your own height.
Enemy is built on a turn-based combat system closely inspired by X Com UFO Defense and Jagged Alliance. You'll devise strategies based around the unique set of abilities you've chosen for your team, and then execute them step-by-step, all while responding to counter-moves made by the enemy. It models the stress of battle on your heroes, who can flee or go berserk if things start to go too wrong. Additionally, everything in the game is destructible. If you damage the supports of a building in the middle of a fight, the whole structure can come crashing down on you. Inadvertently starting a small fire in the wrong place can lead to being caught in the middle of a massive inferno. Combat is dynamic, and easily spirals out of control.
The Steam page, which includes a downloadable demo, can be found here.
Is unrelated to the 2013 film of the same name. Or to a 2014 game named Enemy Mind, for that matter.
Enemy contains examples of:
- Action Bomb: The "Explosteve" enemies in the plains. Upon seeing a hero, they will leap at them and promptly explode during their turn.
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Vendors in the towns will flat-out not buy anything from you, and hotels (One of the few ways to heal in the game) often cost outrageous amounts of gold. Also, you can buy almost all the items in the game...except for medkits.
- Blatant Lies: The aforementioned Explosteves.
- Cartoon Bomb: A possible weapon for heroes and enemies in the forest, coming in fire, smoke, or just plain explosive flavors.
- Laser Blade: A high-level weapon for melee characters. It deals absurd damage, but each swing drains the ammo (batteries). There's also a laser shield that works the same way.
- Multiple-Choice Past: The player hero.
- Throw the Mook at Them: Heroes with points in the "Throwing" skill are able to pick up anything and throw them during their turn, including other enemies.
