Approachability has always been one of the hurdles of any RTS game. The line between ease of use and complexity is delicate. The finest of the genre are easy to learn, but difficult to master. Unfortunately, these games are few and far between, and often still require players a significant amount of time to just learn all the controls and systems, let alone strategies. Tooth and Tail strives to remove many of the barriers of complexities of similar games, yet maintain the strategic gameplay – all wrapped up in a haunting setting of a cannibalistic animal revolution.
On the surface, Tooth and Tail appears more like a game for kids, featuring fully clothed talking animals. Look deeper, and what you’ll find is much more sinister. Reminiscent of Watership Down and Animal Farm, the talking animals of Tooth and Tail are much more violent than that of their Disney counterparts. A bloody civil war has broken out among the four factions, and the winners will feast on the losers.
The visuals and art direction are some of the game’s strongest assets. The Russian Revolution is a strong motif of the game, adorned with music of the era and a made up language that is strongly reminiscent of Russian. Gorgeous drawn portraits of the different factions and characters are found throughout, giving you a close-up view. The sprites used in gameplay are masterfully done as well and the flame throwing warthog was a standout of some of the unique units you can utilize in your army.
One of the main ways Pocket Watch games was able to strip down some of the complexities was through how you command your units. You control the flag wielding leader of your army, who commands units to move and attack through one button. Right trigger commands movement and pressing and holding it will command units to attack. You can manage placement of individual troops through commanding a single type by selecting the unit with the solder buttons, and then using the left trigger to only move the selected type. Though the controls of combat are simplified, battles are still highly strategic. In order to succeed, you must be effective in unit placement, type, volume and more.
At the backbone of all this comes the economy of the battlefield. Grist must be produced in order to feed the pigs that become meat to feed your army. Ironically, these mills are also worked by pigs, adding to the dark undertones mentioned earlier. Meat is is used to build the tunnels that create your units, create more farms, and to replenish downed units. The grist production only lasts for so long, forcing players to continue to expand and move on to new territory. Keeping watch and making sure your income stays steady can sometimes be more important than combat. Loosing just a few fields can quickly send you down a loosing spiral.
The campaign keeps things interesting by introducing unique objectives and rules. Rules contribute to making each round’s strategy unique, such as placing units over water to heal. The pace of the difficulty can be all over the place. The first few missions seem easy enough to get you used to the game, but quickly things became very difficult, and then back down to simple again. Another issues comes in with the procedurally generated levels. Each time you replay a level, the map is newly remade. Because of this, you may sometimes get placed in a map that could give you a small advantage or disadvantage.
Multiplayer features ranked and non-ranked, as well as a local split screen mode. Matchmaking was quick to jump into and each round lasted around 10-15 minutes. The procedurally generated levels presented the same issue in multiplayer, with some matches having slight advantages. Though there is something to be said about quickly getting the layout of the battlefield to work into your strategy, it would be nice to have the option to play on pre-made levels.
Our Recommendation: Tooth and Tail packs RTS fun into a quicker and somewhat more approachable package, all with a unique and beautiful art direction. Despite making the game more approachable for more casual players, the difficulty spikes of the campaign and complexity of the economic flow might be too much for new players. RTS fans will feel right at home, and will love the quick in and out battles.
