Strike Team Hydra

Strike Team Hydra is an indie turn based strategy which reminds me of the classic xcom series.
The game starts off with a basic story, where the player is an elite force that combats hostile aliens.
Players control a team of 6 different characters of their choosing, all with different abilities.
The characters have an experience bar for leveling up, allowing character progression.
There is also an equipment screen, enabling customisation to a certain extent.
The "missions" are not limited to just elimination, there is also variants like escort, survival etc.
Clearing "missions" award exp and random item drops that are beneficial to building the team that the player desires.
+++ The Good +++
1) Well planned maps, decent 3d models and character animations.
2) There is a tutorial that teaches the basics of the game.
3) Music and sound effects are decent, fits well with the game's environment
4) There is a certain degree of strategy mixed in, depending on the player's team structure and their equipment.
5) Wide selection of characters to build your team, very uniquely different with their own skillsets.
6) There is mission variety and replayability.
7) Devs are friendly and approachable, open to suggestions and feedback
--- The Bad ---
1) Skills are a little unbalanced, some skills are utilised most of the time, while some are barely used.
2) Even though there is an auto-save feature, there is no manual-save feature, so players have to clear the mission before the game is saved.
3) Learning curve is a bit steep, tutorial only teaches the basics, casual players will need to spend more time figuring out the more advanced features like skills, equipment.
4) The game is still dependent on RNG % rolls, can be frustrating when high probability leads to failure.
5) Can be a little grindy at higher levels, when you need to level up your chars and farm better equipment, so as to clear the next mission.
I enjoyed Strike Team Hydra as it reminds me of the classic xcom series to a certain extent. It is turn based, there is strategy involved, based on your team builds and positioning.
It is a rough gem in the making, I believe there is room for improvement, such as a better storyline, more character customisation, unlockable skills at higher levels, more ship customisation(upgrades), manual-save features, etc.
With the devs being friendly and open to suggestions/feedback, I'm sure this game will get better with more updates.
This game will appeal to casual players who are new to strategy turn-based games, or experienced players who want to enjoy classic xcom nostalgia.
Final Score : 7 / 10

I'm an old Julian Gollop fan from ZX Spectrum days and enjoy this style of TRPG a lot. Strike Team Hydra is a very accessible 3D hex-based (if that makes sense.. units stand in a hex but the view can be zoomed and rotated) tactical squad shooter. Kind of a simpler/more arcadey XCOM. Quite a lot of use of terrain and ranged attacks vs direct scrapping, plus use of return/suppressing fire. If you dont play the tutorial first time (I admit it, I skipped it as I'd played this already on IOS but forgot a few things...) it doesnt pop up again but can be started from Missions/Training.
Runs smoothly on my Surface Pro 2017 (i5/8GB RAM/Intel HD 620 integrated graphics) at 2736x1824 on "Good" mode with extra effects turned off (transparency/dynamic shadows/post-processing effects) as I'm more interested in the mechanics not the visuals; I should probably just play in a much lower res. Install was fast but you have to pick your graphic preferences on first startup and I intially chose the top settings and even the main menu screen struggled a bit..
Basic Touch funtionality is ok (ie mouse-click-as-finger), but I didnt get a right-click for a touch-and-hold when wanting to look at a unit/terrain detail. And two-finger pinch or rotate didnt control the zoom/angle for me even in tablet mode.
A few interface glitches; some of the UI/menus are a little inconsistent - eg some screens have a red "Leave" button, others expect you to press ESC - and at the resolution I play the scrollbars are so tiny i have use scrollwheel/two fingers to move down menus. And if you arent paying attention you'll start relying on the End Turn button to find your units that still have action points left..
The game mechanics are easy to pick up and the missions/specials are compact enough to have a quick game as and when.
Overall - great graphics and mechanics, decent amount of content, a few UI blemishes. Fresh, faster-paced take on the genre.

In A Nutshell
Strike Team Hydra (STH) is a turn-based tactical RPG set on the Battleship TALWAR, a human spaceship invaded by aliens, and that must be liberated again by your strike team.
The game will be divided in five chapters, each having five missions, except the first that also includes tutorial ones. Each mission will be stand-alone, with a defined objective, and once concluded you will unlock the next, and also be able to return to your Camp to manage your team. The last mission of each chapter will always contain a Boss fight. Campaign Missions and also Special Missions are present, the latter have to be unlocked by completing Campaign chapters first, and count basically as "side quests" to get more loot and XP. Each mission can be farmed any number of times to get loot or XP if needed.
You will be able to manage your team, and select who is going to be deployed from a roster of 12 specialists, but only 6 can be put in the Strike Team at the same time. Of course, each hero has unique abilities and roles such as Support, Medic, Frontline, Assassin etc. Also, your team members can be equipped with RPG-style loot, featuring different randomly generated statistics for each piece, and rarity levels. Some equipment can only be put on certain specialists, while most of it is universal. Equipment is gained at the end of each mission, most of the time, but in small quantities, or purchased at the Shop using Credits earned.
Combat is turn-based on an Hex grid, it features cover systems with different levels, classic RPG elements such as crit. chance, dodge chance, armor etc. and uses an Action point system. Generally, combat is tactical-paced and using the abilities of your team correctly is paramount, especially creating effective combinations between them to gain great bonuses from multiple skills stacking together, creating powerful buffs.
Overall I found STH to be a decent turn-based tactical game, it is far from perfect and has some problems as you will read further, but still can provide enjoyment to those who like this type of game and have already played all the other similar titles.
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Gameplay Analysis
General Gameplay
Gameplay will mainly be divided into Team Management and Combat. Each team member will level automatically when getting enough XP, and have better overall statistics such as max. AP, health, armor, precision and so on. Leveling up also means unlocking more advanced and powerful skills for each specialist. Gear has no level restrictions so you can equip very powerful gear on any of your soldiers from the start, if you manage to get it. An hero getting KO on a mission will not receive XP, and be resurrected when the mission ends.
Missions generally have a handful different objectives. The most common being to exterminate all enemies, while also escort, defense, survival and timed missions are present, but in lesser frequency.
The fact you cannot customize how your soldiers level up takes away depth, with no branching skill trees or different progression options. The addition of RPG-style loot is unusual and good in some ways, but also is unbalanced and too much relying on RNG (chance) to determine if you get very good, game-changing pieces of equipment. In later missions, you may be forced to grind already completed ones for money and items, in order to finally get good equipment on all your soldiers.
Story
Story will be quite minimal and consist of mission briefings, an introduction, and little else. The whole game story is basically the fact you need to cleanse the TALWAR from aliens, and that's about it.
Combat System
Combat is classic turn-based, hex-grid style, with a strong focus on positioning and buff / debuff stacking on allies and enemies. Preparing your team adequately with such things will be invaluable to survive the alien attack. Enemies come in various sizes and shapes, and aswell have classes such a frontlines, assassins, heavy, etc. each with unique abilities. As you progress in missions, enemies will come in more powerful variants and some also will be completely new.
Combat may be decent enough but also relies a bit too much on random chance for my taste. An unlucky critical hit on a team member will mean instant death in most cases, while in later game enemies will have to absorb way more then a couple of criticals to be destroyed.
An interesting mechanic is Counter Attack: any targeted player or enemy, if in range of the aggressor, will counter attack immediately after being attacked, up to a certain number of counter-attacks per turn, that can be improved with skills and levels.
Content & Pricing
It takes around 14 to 18 hours, depending on your playstyle, difficulty, grind amount etc. to finish all the campaign missions and special missions. There is nothing else apart from this to do. for being a mobile port the quality is decent, but i'd still advice to wait for a discount before buying, as the overall quality does not justify full price.
Balancing & Challenge
There are some balance issues: critical hits rely too much on luck and disfavor the player's side considerably, some skills both enemy's and player's are way overpowered if stacked together, easily granting monstrous stats such as 100% critical chance, or 80% evasion bonus, or absurd weapon ranges and damages all the time. When stats like these come into play, a lucky shot is all that makes the difference between losing and winning, as enemies can insta-kill you and aswell you can insta-kill them, or kill even the toughest ones rapidly.
Difficulties above normal transform enemies into huge bullet sponges, with also a little increase in damage (it already is high in Normal). This leads to battles lasting longer, and also be frustrating for the sheer amounts of HP the enemy has, overwhelming you just because you simply have not enough DPS, hence it all goes back to the "farming more gear and levels" shenanigans. Better ways to implement difficulty such as different objectives, more advanced (and not spongy!) enemies, or additional mission parameters, would have been so much better.
Technical Analysis
Graphics
Graphics are not that good, but considering it is a mobile port, they are decent enough. Animations are a bit janky, effects are mediocre, and textures are not the top, but sufficient.
Sound
Soundtrack, voice lines and effects are really nothing special, nothing impressed me enough to be mentioned, negatively or positively.
Performance & Stability
Nothing to report. Good.
AI
Enemy AI will not be very smart, as it will run in AOE damage areas such as fire all the time, and die in the process, or attack less vulnerable specialists when a more vulnerable one is in range.
Quality of Life
UI has some problems of scaling, as some elements of it are very small and hard to read, while others appear deformed and stretched in weird ways. Nothing of this breaks the game, it just makes it clunkier and less user friendly.
Bugs / Issues
Obstacle detection regarding firing ranges is quite broken and many times you will see enemies, and also allies, being able to fire through walls or at impossible angles and hit enemies. Cover system is also not always reliable and sometimes it will just not give cover, or give cover when there isn't, to both enemies and allies.
Conclusion & Rating
Strike Team Hydra is a sufficiently well-made tactical RPG, with several issues, part deriving from being a mobile port, and part being not very good design choices. It is not THAT bad, but it's not very good either.
RATING: 6.0 / 10

Yes, this is a phone port, but it has been well optimized for PC play. It is a simple version of an X-Com type of turn-based tactical shooter, RPG. It is a lot of fun. You can choose up to 6 team members from a field of 12 different types which each specialize in different weapons/tactics. There is a Team Leader, a Medic, a Melee Assassin expert, a Flame Thrower, a Shot Gun, a Space Marine, a Psi Ops, a Missle Launcher, a Small Tank, a Sniper, and a teleporting Cyborg.
There are 28 mission battles in the linear campaign, and an additional 20 special one-off missions that you can also fight between campaign battles. The tactical fights are on a space cruiser, so tight quarters in corridors and small rooms. You can use cover to hide behind and suppression fire. Don't group your team (beware of grenades). Each team member has Morale, Action Points and Hit Points, special abilities, different weapon skills, etc.
You unlock the next mission as you successfully complete a fight. You can find loot (e.g., armor and weapons) to use/sell after battles, and you can sell/purchase better weapons, armor, etc., in the store between missions.
The stats are simple and easy to figure out. If you have played any X-Com type of turn-based tactical shooter, RPG game, you will pick this up in a few minutes once you complete the tutorial. About the only thing missing is cover fire, but the Dev said that was becaused he wanted it to be a more fast-moving, offensive tactical game and less defensive fighting (think "Strike Team" not "Ambush Team").
Overall for what you get for the very low price, this is a gem and a steal, a 9/10. Try it, you will like it.
Also, the very small Dev Team, Wave Light Games, is extremely active on the Steam discussion boards, and has just put out two new games called "Demon's Rise: War for the Deep" and "Demon's Rise: Conquest of the Deep". They are turn-based Fantasy, RPG, dungeon crawlers, and just really great fun as well. Enjoy!

Fun game well and truly worth it's asking price!
It's XCOM that has traded away the pesky base management for more in depth soldier classes and loot!
You choose your team of 6 soldiers, out of a whopping 12 character classes, and exterminate varied aliens that are boarding your enormous battleship.
Each of the classes are very different, ranging from rocket launcher toting fellas in heavy armour, to sword wielding ninjas, cyborgs and even a pair of magic (psychic) users. Lots of synergy between classes, lots of abilities, lots of combos.
Add to that, RPG styled levelling up and gear.
There is a shop that sells you weapons, armour and mods (in-game currency only, there is NO premium currency). You can also acquire gear at the end of each mission.
One of my favourite features is that swapping between characters is seamless. In between missions you can swap out one of your 6 people for another class - all experience and gear from the swapped character is transferred.
Meaning, no more grinding for hours if you wish to use a diverse roster, hurrah!
In short it's a lot of fun and I'm glad I spent money on this and not a cheeseburger.

70/100 Quite fun.. but challenging.
Playthrough: 30-40 hours fun (Campaign + Special Missions)
Also, the Replay-value is quite high ^^
Want to feel like a Space Soldier ordered to fight Aliens? Yay, then this is YOUR game ;D
Similar to Demon´s Rise 1+2 the Developers used the underlying Engine and most Systems to create a SciFi environment, instead of the medieval theme before. I have to admit, now the game is more polished than in 2018 and aside some general flaws regarding general Comfort and Mission Briefing - this game is quite fun ^^
Gameplay:
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- turn-based Action (inside a Spaceship)
- Kill and fight off alien Invaders from your fleets Battleship
- 12 different classes with unique skillsets
- Play Story-missions to progress
- Grind(!) through Story/Extra-missions to gear up
- Regularly consult your Spaceship´s Vendor to buy/change GEAR
- the FUN starts once you´re above 100 ActionPoints and can use the best Skills
- the game is quite tactical - COVER,BUFFS,DEBUFFS make a big difference
- Finally, their game has a Tutorial to TRAIN the fighting (unless you played the other games)
- Challenging(!) ..it takes some hours to get top gear, so be prepared^^
- Mission objectives vary from easy to quite hard.. (eg: M 5 - prevent Teleporter destruction)
- Difficulty setting: "EASY" is ok.. any higher and you might get serious trouble.. no joke ;)
- Another new feature is Reinforcements ..watch out
- MORALE is very important now (keep track or your fighting might go downhill in 2 turns^^)
- Gear for Gloves and Cloak -slots cannot(!) be bought in Shop !! You need to grind it ;(
- the Cloak- slot (left Shoulder side) is now "Ammo" ..very nice bonuses (eg: +30%crit)
WARNING:
This game is a bit different in some ways compared to Demon´s Rise 1+2
It is advised to really check the Skill- and Combat descriptions.
Quickguide:
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-Select your 6 mercs and jump into the fray
-decide your playstyle: agressive or defensive
-play first 5 missions.. then grind for gear..
-higher difficulty = more money + better rewards
-ideally grind in "extreme"-mode
-once your mercs hit level 5-7 they can use all skills (if geared properly)
-Personally, I suggest a tactical "breach & clear" -team (mobility/utility/dps)
My favourite Strike-Team aka "Breach & Clear" :
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No medic needed.. "extreme" proven.. highly mobile.. much fun to play^^
only medium armor, but good evasion and ofc.. very high dmg
Mercs are basically tailored around your NovaMarine and Cyborg.
1. Nova Marine (a real combat monster, skills complement the "Rushing" playstyle)
2. Cyborg (mobile support, gets really strong after geared properly)
3. SPIDR robot (mobile support, very strong once geared)
4. Command (utility+support , big array of gimmicks for any situation)
5. Infiltrator (ranged support, the swiss-knife of debuffing)
6. Vanguard (strong fire support - later huge AoE fireworks)
A slight warning.. you need to grind a bit to get your main merc geared.
But don´t worry this setup can do first levels in "extreme" without gear ;)
Generally, this team needs level 8+ to fully utilize all skills (esp. Vanguard)
Also needs a ton of AP for those high-end skills
>>> Gear-priority: AP > most other things (esp. first 5 levels)
--->>> Regarding the price - FAIR.
Rarely I say that, but can´t go wrong with this one!!
If you like turn-based tactics like the classics (from Xcom to JA2) this is a MUST-have anyway.. and quite similar If you loved the former Demon´s Rise games - this is just more fast-paced ;D
(If you´re interested check the steamkeys ~ $3-5 )

Played this on Android tablet many years ago and enjoyed, got it in a deal with Gladius for PC and still a very good playable tactical sci-fi TBS. Developer needs to fix some issues with shop as noted in forum.