Hot take: Video games are too long and most of them stop being interesting long before the credits roll. Enter Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics, a turn-based strategy game that first captivated me as I plotted a course through its final confrontation.
It?s too good to spoil here, but in its last level, Auroch Digital?s virtual take on the Kickstarted tabletop roleplaying universe, finally becomes the Nazis-meet-the-Elder Gods mash-up its title promises. Think Panzer tanks, tentacle beards, and oozy black shoggoths. It?s fleeting, though, an inspired, eldritch-infused capper on an otherwise boilerplate XCOM-style tactics game.
Turn-Based Eldritch Horror
In this take on Firaxis? formula, players head deep behind enemy lines with a diverse squad of Allied soldiers. They?re thinly drawn?I can?t tell you much about any of them other than their nationality and gender. And class distinctions are similarly wispy. Any soldier can shoot, heal, or hurl grenades, though some are more specialized in short-range arms or melee combat. Each has a skill tree for developing these talents further. Additionally, modifying weapons with various unlockable scopes and stocks can make even a nearsighted shotgun deadly at a distance. An introductory cutscene reveals what is soon shown on the battlefield: in this alternate take on World War II, the Nazis are backed by an evil more ancient than anti-Semitism. The Germans are in some sort of dark communion with mythos powers from beyond their ken. Average gru...