Quick Look: Tooth and Tail

Aw, cool! I was hoping you guys would cover this.

Keeping with the Redwall series theme, maybe @benpack could take a look at Ghost of a Tale.

Rats eat everything.

I'm excited to see this in action after hearing about it on the Bombcast and from several friends who are currently playing. Seems like "The Secret Of Nimh But You Control the Murder."

Wow, this is a LOT more action-y than I thought it'd be. I could probably get behind this.

Okay...was not expecting this, but I like it.

Given how quickly you kill things in this game, I would imagine the skill ceiling will be high since a very small advantage can balloon up quickly. I worry about recovery though since it looks like the outcome of the first encounter has the potential to basically deciding the game.

I love this game a lot! The secret is that it's actually opposite of what Brad said: being good at this game means getting a good control of the quick micro as the macro strategy takes a back-seat.

About moving the mouse around:

The reason you can not freely move the camera is because it is the point that you cant!

If you could it would control very much like other RTS. In Tooth and Tail you have to put an actual investment, your control unit and time necessary to physically move it, into scouting the map / gaining detailed information on a skirmish / ordering units.

@elevator: So long as your farms are producing meat, your troops losses can be replenished pretty quickly; troops automatically "spawn" at regular intervals. Static defenses (such as the hives) are critical in prevdnting early-game rushes, also.

Anyway, glad this quicklook came out -- Tooth and Tail is super rad! There's a surprising amount if depth for being a "single-button RTS", and the game oozes character(there's a great amount of world-building from talking to NPCs and interacting with items in the "hubs".

The squeaky war-cries of dozens of squirrels charging into battle with a revolver in one hand and flask of acorn-whiskey in the other is freaking adorable, also. Just be earned that the story goes into some dark places.

EDIT: A little correction for Brad an Ben: there's a LOT more to winning than "Zerg rush every time, all the time". Your commander can direct your troops to focus-fire on a specific troop/building, and you can control all four of your troop-types individually. (You can "Rally Army" or "Rally Squad" of a single animal-type.) So, for example, you can have your squirrels or skinks take on the enemy troops head on, while your mortar-ferrets fire and enemy buildings from behind the front lines, and your Sniper Fox (subtle MGS reference?) Flanks the enemy and snipes the leader from high ground.

Ironically this gameplay is pretty much a copy of what Brutal Legend was supposed to be at its core, which everyone hated.

Or it's actually a copy of Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde, which some liked.

Or, maybe that's a copy of Sacrifice, which a lot of people really liked.

Or, mayb--

Eh. You know what I mean.

This seems like a game Austin would've quicklooked if he was still here.

Ben knowing Russian for "Hurry Up" thanks to DOTA, says a lot about DOTA

When I hear "RTS designed with a controller in mind"

My mind goes: "noooooooooope"

@tennmuerti: As Jeff mentioned in this week's BombCast, console-RTS was perfectly workable in Herzog Zwei, and it works very well here, too.

It's the RTSs that AREN'T designed to be played on console, which are shoe-horned into a console release, that would make me say "nope". ;)

D/DOSvidaniya, Comrat!

@lumbermancer: Except for the green wobbly bit.

@pixel-pew: Do you mean "davai"? That is more along the lines of "come on!" or "go (forth!)".

@dasakamov: I know a lot of people seem to be enjoying this one for sure.

It's more of a reflection on myself that somewhere in my head there is a virtual hand brake that's developed over my gaming lifetime when it comes to this issue, that's never going to go away, no matter how well designed the game in question is.

I mean for example: I don't like playing shooters with a controller, but I get it, I get it, I've tried it and I get how getting used to playing well designed shooter on a controller can be a good experience. Character action games with a controller? Awesome just perfect, love it!

But in case of an RTS it's like imagining myself crawling on all fours for miles along the sidewalk rather then just walking on two legs, it's equated to a bizarre and an unnatural perversion of the natural order that should never see the light of day. Like, why would I want to do that when there is a clearly a better, more efficient and easy to use method by orders of magnitude? Just can't do it. I do the mental equation in my head and the math is just not working out.

It's just one of those things.

@durman667: Not eating the green wobbly bit is always sound advice.

From the screenshots, this game is reminding me of

General Chaos

Serf City: Life is Feudal meets Papers Please.

I have see this on steam for a while and wondered if it was any good, but it looks a bit too chaotic for me and i don't like the idea of not being able to attack with your hero unit.

Plenty of good RTS's on consoles over the years. Like Warhammer: Battle March, TC: Endwar...

@lestephan: Ironically he's not the person who would QL it at Waypoint.

1. It's not all that similar. The only thing really similar is that you have to capture the resource that gives you 'currency' otherwise Brutal Legend had bases you had to destroy and actual factions, Tooth and Tail is much more rock paper scissors with what your troop loadout ends up being. You also can't attack, only your troops.

2. This game isn't hiding what it is under the marketing

3. I personally didn't hate Brutal Legend or the RTS element and actually enjoyed it :D

So haven't watched the whole thing yet, but is this basically Watership Down : The Game?

This is the most fun I have had with an RTS since SC2 released.

It is surprisingly deep game for how simple the controls are. My old man reflexes are happy that I can finally play an RTS again.

@twolines:

I fucken loved goblin commander

Really appreciate the Westwood Studios/ early Blizzard toned pixel graphics.

This is not my kind of game, but it really does look awesome.

A light RTS on my PS4, that both is mechanically sound and looks gorgeous? Sign me up.

@Coreus: Isn't that The Settlers?

@Coreus: You might be surprised to know that game got a large number of sequels under its original title, The Settlers.

I bet this was a lot of fun to design.

I was half-expecting this game, but hearing that abysmal pseudo-Russian is way too off-putting. Is there some canon/in-world reason for it? Like an invented language or something? Cause it seems weird how there obviously is quite a bit of different people speaking and all. Come to think of it, replacing other than English languages with gibberish is borderline racist in my head. Oh well, my problem. Otherwise the design seems pixel-perfect golden.

@Coreus said:

Serf City: Life is Feudal meets Papers Please.

The Artstyle reminded exactly about this old Settler game! nice find...

@tennmuerti: Totally fair points. ;)

@redjimi: The language actually *is* a fictional language created for the game, similar to how Far Cry: Primal created their own "tribal" language. The T&T devs stated that they drew inspiration from several Slavic languages, not just Russian.

The "canon/in-world" reasons for not just using English, Russian or any other real-world languages is because 1) They're all animals, not humans and 2) Tooth and Tail doesn't necessarily take place on our Earth.

The reason Slavic languages were chosen as inspiration for the in-game language is because of the obvious nod toward the Bolshevik Revolution, but the game also can be seen as referencing the French and American Revolutions as well.

@redjimi:

Which was the best part of the whole C&C: Red Alert series.

Which reminds me: Lt. Zofia from RA2 is deadly sexy. Kari Wuhrer as Agent Tanya was fantastic, but SOVIET POWER SUPREME

How could they pass up saying, "Owl Units!"

You might be surprised that I've admined an old gaming website (The Retro Spirit) for over 12 years and help moderate at Mobygames, and probably know this.

@Coreus: short of being psychic, how was anyone on these forums supposed to know about your credentials?

That's not Russian

@dasakamov: Perhaps the page dedicated to such info; The about me page.

Having a character as a cursor for a RTS just reminds me of Brutal Legend and how disappointing the 2nd half of it is.

@Coreus: Firstly, most people here aren't going to click through other people's profiles on a whim.

Secondly, I *had* checked your "about me" page when you originally made your comment. There was nothing there except an unexplained web URL until you made the changes a few hours ago.

Thirdly, all I'm saying is, there's no need to sound offended when someone adds to or expands on your original comment.

they didn't make snipers wolves

:-/