I’m gonna start this with an admission that will probably lose me some nerd cred – I’m not really a fan of The Dark Crystal. By which, I mean I’m not all that familiar with it. I’ve seen parts of the original Jim Henson movie and read a graphic novel side story, but that’s about it. And it’s not cause I hate the series or anything, I just haven’t really tried getting into it yet. Which is why I’m excited for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics. When I’m not playing video games I read voraciously, and I love me some good old fashioned fantasy. Especially when it’s related to a highly regarded new Netflix series (which I also haven’t seen, yet).
My failings aside, I really had a good time with the demo for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics. Why, you ask? Simple. It’s evident to me that BonusXP are big fans of the tactical genre, and in many ways they emulate some of the best aspects of classics in this game. There’s definite influence from games such as the original Final Fantasy Tactics, which is one of my favorite all time games. But this adventure is irrefutably influenced by The Dark Crystal as well. You play as a heroic Gelfling on a quest to start a rebellion against the Skeksis. Your job is to put those vulture bastards down before it’s too late.
You have a variety of races you can control, and each one has various classes they can play as. Depending on your class, you’ll have different stats and abilities, and you can even have a primary and secondary class to mix things up. There are physical and more magical classes, and all that sort of wonderful minutiae that tactics fans like myself love. In combat, you move along a grid, and use various attacks to progress. One especially nice touch is each character can meditate to recover some MP, which is great if you’re running low and lack the recovery items you need. I felt everything was very intuitive, and quite enjoyed the demo. I got to play one mission where I fought a bunch of giant spider creatures, called Arathim, as well as another where I fought the Chamberlain and company. The second was a bit more challenging, but not so hard I lost any of my team.
Better yet, there’s a lot of game to enjoy, according to the devs. If you want a lot of challenge, there’s one difficulty for veterans of the genre, or you can pick an easier one to just enjoy the story. And best of all, there’s New Game+. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics will likely do what years of being a nerd has not – get me fully invested in this classic series. In the meantime, fans of the game can pick it up later this year for PC and all major consoles.
