I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: some genres are made specifically for a particular platform. If you were given the choice of playing Command & Conquer on a PC or a PlayStation, the obvious answer is PC. Does it work on PlayStation? Sure. Is it as good though? Not even close. The genre has made many attempts to break into the console space with little success, despite the hype and gimmicks involved (Tom Clancy’s Endwar, I’m looking at you). So is it possible for a team that’s never developed for the console space to do it?

Quite honestly, Tooth and Tail is the game to break down the RTS barrier. It takes the formula you’re familiar with and creates a control scheme that’s simple yet effective. Too often in these games you’ll find yourself using the gamepad in the way a mouse would, dragging a cursor to select who you want. Not here. You will either call all of your available army, or you can select them by class. That’s two buttons for calling, and one analog stick for selecting; doesn’t get much more streamlined than that.

Opposed to being a floating camera that will hover over the battlefield, you are the captain of your team, and are able to scout around the map as you build your defenses and armies (I immediately thought of Pixeljunk Monsters with this approach). In the event you walk into a very precarious situation while scouting and die, don’t fret, as you’ll respawn at your base. Your base is a windmill with farmland around it that serves as your resources for everything you do. Eventually the soil becomes barren, so it’s important to branch out and make sure not to pigeonhole yourself, as the enemy will also be gaining ground.

The levels are chosen from a hub of sorts, where you can talk to the different characters you take care of, and each animal clearly has a different place in the animal kingdom hierarchy. Additionally, the animals will perform jobs that are most like them, and clearly fits their demeanor. You can choose to replay any completed levels here, which will be necessary if you don’t complete all the Heroic Goals from each level, assuming you want the platinum. The majority of the trophies are tied to these (the rest will be earned through ranked matches online), and while they are easy at first, they quickly become more time consuming. And that is very much the game in general.

Right out of the gate the game seems to be something much simpler than it actually is. There is no real strategy involved, as you are just learning the mechanics of how to play. It’s a nice way of building up your self-esteem, because it doesn’t take long for it to trounce it if you’re not overly familiar with RTS games. It wasn’t until I was posed with defeating the enemy with soldiers I could find scattered about without creating my own ranks that I truly took a beating. It’s at this point that you regret not learning the best way to use each class, as each one is notably better at one thing over another. This is when choosing who you bring into battle and when you do so becomes the focus of the game, and it truly is real-time strategy.

On top of the fairly extensive single-player campaign, you are invited into the world of multiplayer, because what’s an RTS game without multiplayer. While limited with players at the moment, I expect the campaign to be a warm up for what will be the ultimate difficulty of human logic. Prepare for an assortment of strategies the developers probably didn’t account for while making it. Until some patches are brought about to nerf them, I can see people finding a way to take advantage of some geographical stopping points that characters get caught on.

In addition to ranked and unranked matches with people across the internet, there are offline modes as well. This allows for up to 4 players locally, as well as 2v2, 2v1, and 3v1. Even if you don’t have any friends, you can play these modes using bots, each with six different difficulty settings. This will definitely help you hone your skills for online play, and maybe even try some strategies out for the single player.

The game has four factions to choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. If you can’t wait to play as them in the campaign, you can always go the multiplayer route as none of the factions need to be unlocked. While the differences between them aren’t as big as something like StarCraft, there’s enough variation that it will make a difference for strategy.

If you’re a fan of real-time strategy games, regardless of where you enjoy playing them, it’s a safe bet you’ll love Tooth and Tail. It does some things you may not love with the mechanics from the norm, but I promise they work well once you get used to them. A beautiful art style, a wonderful score from Austin Wintory (what doesn’t he do these days?), and simple controls with a deep understanding of mechanics leads to a fantastic console debut for Pocketwatch Games.

9 out of 10

Pros

• Simple to Play, Hard to Master
• Satisfying Optional Objectives
• Solid Campaign/Extensive Multiplayer

Cons

• Occasional Issues with Movement

Tooth and Tail was developed and published by Pocketwatch Games. It was released on PC and PS4 September 12th, 2017 for $19.99. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of Tooth and Tail, check out the official site.

 

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