There are some video games the place I solely have to see the briefest of glimpses to know that, oh sure, that is for me. Cantata is on that checklist. One take a look at its kaleidoscopic map stuffed with funky little troops and alien topography was all it took for me to desperately have to know extra—to see what all these evocative items and unusual buildings do, and discover out what this hanging sci-fi warfare is all about.
It’s an unconventional wargame that is impressed comparisons with numerous necessary video games, from Alpha Centauri to Into the Breach. There are shades of Advance Wars, and a logistics system that is been in comparison with Factorio. These comparisons are honest, however Cantata could be very a lot charting its personal course, and when all of the disparate components that conjure up these traditional video games come collectively, there’s little or no really prefer it.
Chiselled right down to the naked necessities, Cantata is a turn-based wargame with a selected concentrate on logistics, particularly the switch of products and sources from one constructing to a different in an increasing community that retains your warmongering ticking alongside. To construct the jeep-like rickshaw automobile, as an example, you want gas from one constructing and metallic from one other, so that you hyperlink them up collectively and ensure each node within the chain is effectively provided.
Regardless of having a top-level view of the community, I really feel like I am down within the guts of my factories, thumping huge buttons and pulling levers to maintain the availability chain operating. There is a subtly tactile magic at play right here, regardless that you are not actually ferrying items your self or working the engines of business with your individual palms. It is a system for tinkerers. Despite the fact that you are making an attempt to construct an automatic system, pure automation shouldn’t be the top purpose. You’ll at all times have to step in and make changes as a result of your wants will preserve altering. By necessity, the community will must be expanded to different areas, and because it grows it is advisable to be much more reactive and on the ball.
You may solely plonk down a couple of buildings per area, thrusting you into battle as you delve into your opponent’s territory. So you need to struggle off your enemies, lock down a brand new space and proceed the community. Growth can be vital if you wish to keep the circulate of world sources like ore and diamonds that each development undertaking requires, which should be ripped from the bottom and solely exists in finite portions. You’re at all times on the mercy of the planet, Shoal, and what the map decides to offer you.
Failure is much less more likely to be the product of a wise enemy or a giant assault—your foes are surprisingly missing in aggression and do not vary very far within the three campaigns on this Early Entry construct—than mismanagement of your logistics community. Perhaps you forgot to show off your mines, or ended up making a great deal of gas while you really wanted one thing completely completely different. The conquest of Shoal, undone by unhealthy admin.
Regardless of having a top-level view of the community, I really feel like I am down within the guts of my factories, thumping huge buttons and pulling levers to maintain the availability chain operating.
This isn’t to say that opposing armies aren’t a menace, and inside every of the three chapters there are many challenges. In Chapter One’s map, I misplaced an costly military in only a few turns by recklessly wandering right into a fog-drowned swamp, hiding inside it my introduction to the alien faction, lingering on the peripheries of the human-machine battle raging throughout the area. Visibility points and enemy mechanics I wasn’t conversant in spelled my doom. However the actual threat from foes is that they could break your provide community, destroying an important constructing and leaving your warfare machine starved for sources.
Managing logistics is among the extra grognardy elements of wargaming, and for a logistics slut like me one among my favorite components, but when the considered spinning elaborate webs to verify very important sources get to your entrance line would not get you all sizzling and bothered, this might sound a bit dry. Fortunately, that is not one thing Cantata might ever be accused of—it is delightfully uncommon.
The combination of daring character and map artwork—that are distinct however equally evocative—and the delicate world-building achieved by conversations which might be in some way each terse and characterful creates a singular concoction that I confess I’m totally enamoured with. Picture Comics’ Prophet revival, created by creator Brandon Graham and a steady of remarkable artists, might be the closest relative to Cantata’s vibe, which I can guarantee you is excessive reward—it is one of many best sci-fi sequence of the final decade. Saga, Invisible Kingdom and Spire—all printed by Picture—additionally spring to thoughts. Cantata is, as I mentioned earlier than, completely doing its personal factor, however all of them share a love of high-concept sci-fi with a giant dollop of thriller and magic.
Love triangle
Every of the three factions is juiced up with flavour and does issues their very own approach. The people are probably the most typical of the trio, with their huge, blocky factories and armoured automobiles juxtaposed to the alien world they’re pillaging. The aliens and machines are a bit extra unique, and importantly they are not meant to be reflections of one another. Their buildings, items and mechanics are all distinct, stuffed with quirks unique to every military.
Cantata’s spooky aliens, as an example, use ghosts as their major unit. They are not a lot of a menace, however they’re additionally an necessary useful resource used within the creation of extra superior items, and when these items are destroyed in battle, they go away behind that very same ghost, giving you a chance to get revenge and, if the ghost survives, recycle it, popping it in a brand new unit. The very foundations of every faction set themselves other than one another, proper right down to how they harvest international sources. They’ve distinctive commanders, too, who present a lot of the textual content accompanying the chapters, and are additionally current on the map, helping their minions with their beefy well being pool and extra-powerful assaults.
The distinctiveness of every faction is a feather in Cantata’s cap, besides it makes studying to play a bit difficult. See, the essential and superior tutorials solely allow you to play because the people, which makes the primary chapter comparatively accessible, however while you transfer onto the second, the place you are enjoying because the aliens, numerous what you may have discovered will likely be fully ineffective. Whereas the early targets do attempt to educate you the fundamentals, a dearth of clear tooltips or data on items and buildings makes figuring issues out a ache within the arse.
Extra tooltips and tutorials do not seem to be too huge a job, although, so I hope to see them launched whereas it is in early entry. Tougher to unravel, maybe, is the very sluggish tempo. It takes an age to do something, and people valuable motion factors run out in a short time. It was even slower, however Afterschool Studio made some tweaks after releasing a demo, unshackling unit motion and assaults from the AP system. Now, each unit will get one free transfer and one free assault, and it is solely while you push them additional that AP will get spent. Nevertheless it stays vital for all development and recruitment tasks, and thus continues to impose important limitations on what you are able to do every flip.
Limitations could be good, in fact. Simply take a look at Previous World’s good Orders system, which limits what number of actions you may take per flip. Whereas this does, at the very least initially, drive you to prioritise, its actual profit is taking the stress off you to do one million issues each flip. No extra notifications that you’ve a unit you may nonetheless transfer, regardless that you do not actually need to. Previous World additionally boasts an undo motion function that can be utilized to undo whole turns, so in case you really feel such as you’ve wasted some Orders, you may right your mistake.
Cantata remains to be looking for the stability that makes Previous World’s system work so effectively. Whatever the measurement of my military, I simply by no means really feel like I can do sufficient, an issue that is exacerbated by the truth that I usually find yourself burning turns whereas I anticipate sources to be funnelled into new buildings.
The distinctiveness of every faction is a feather in Cantata’s cap, besides it makes studying to play a bit difficult.
Simply take the work concerned in setting up the alien therapeutic unit, as an example, which additionally doubles as a useful resource harvester. First, it is advisable to plonk down your HQ, after which the constructing that constructs the harvester. The HQ has to begin producing its distinctive useful resource, which is then used to provide the opposite constructing. A ghost additionally must be recruited on the HQ, which requires the identical useful resource being funnelled to the opposite constructing, in addition to AP and among the fundamental international sources. As soon as the ghost has been recruited, it must be moved and saved within the different constructing, after which, as soon as that constructing has been totally provided, you may lastly construct your harvester. You will nonetheless have to hit ‘finish flip’ yet one more time earlier than you need to use it, in fact.
Now, I really love how concerned the logistics system is, and the way a lot fiddling round with it I’ve to do, turning issues on and off to maximise effectivity, creating new provide routes, enjoying round with so many levers. However even for me, there’s simply an excessive amount of busywork and ready round simply to get probably the most fundamental a part of my faction’s infrastructure up and operating.
So yeah, Cantata might stand to select up the tempo a bit. That mentioned, it already works higher than it did within the demo, even when it introduces a component of inconsistency in how AP is used. The provision community does alleviate the issue of constructing your approach throughout the large maps, nonetheless, since you may make the hyperlinks between buildings work like roads, getting you throughout the alien terrain sooner, at the very least as soon as you’ve got spent many, many, many turns growing the community.
Here is the factor: Cantata is an experiment. Afterschool Studio has some bold concepts which have already spawned one of the crucial fascinating technique video games I’ve performed shortly, however it’s nonetheless very a lot figuring issues out. I’ve obtained to confess that I am fairly bored with early entry normally, and I feel builders are getting far too used to utilizing gamers as free labour, however Cantata has so many peculiarities that this type of open improvement makes extra sense. I can not wait to see how the suggestions and Afterschool’s plans coalesce, and that is completely a technique recreation you have to be keeping track of.
