Tetra Cube
Synopsys
Nae and Dio are Hunters. They solve various events in the universe.
And at Alpha Centauri’s Science Institute, Nae and Dio are dispatched to information that an unknown Cube caused a disaster.
Whether you can’t beat the Cube is up to you.
Characters
Each character has a clear personality. Dio is good at using weapons, but Nae can’t use them!
Using strategies that bring out the character’s personality, you can lead the battle efficiently.
Turn-based Strategy Roguelike
Tetra Cube is a single-play turn-based strategy game. Player must explore maps and grow characters to combat enemy threats so that Nae and Dio can successfully defeat the Cube. Since it has the characteristics of roguelike, the structure of the map, the placement of enemies, and acquisition of items are random, so it requires accurate judgment according to the situation.
Survivors
There are survivors left in the lab who survived the attack, and players need their help to achieve their goals.
Help the survivors defeat the enemy!
Hacking
Nae can hack enemies and turn them into allies. The game of the game varies greatly depending on how you use hacking.
Steam User 25
Tetra Cube is a turn-based game with puzzle-style combat, dungeon-crawling, and rogue-lite experience.
Into the Breach is arguably the closest game to Tetra Cube. If you liked that game, you'll like Tetra Cube too.
If you didn't, then you'll have to find satisfaction from viewing anime-style characters, which strongly depends on personal preferences.
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First, about combat.
In order to win a run, you need to win a number of combat encounters on every floor.
To win in combat, you need to take advantage of environmental objects and hazards to gain an edge over the opposition. There is no accuracy-system like XCOM, your abilities always hit.
This is the biggest reason why I mentioned Into the Breach; you cannot stomp enemies with raw damage-numbers, and you cannot rely on luck either.
However, you can outsmart them with good use of terrain and position-manipulation instead, and don't have to worry about missing a 99% point-blank shot.
Combat feels like a puzzle, a checker-jumping problem. In a way, Tetra Cube is similar to Invisible Inc and Atlas Reactor because there is always the best answer for every encounter, it's just that the game wants you to find it out yourself.
Your job is to find and secure that answer using equipment and enemy information in your hand.
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Speaking of enemy information, the game is quite clear when it comes to conveying vital information. Not only do you know how much HP each enemy has, you also know their exact stats and how their abilities work.
So you don't have to be a coward and always distance yourself from the enemies, just because you don't know how they behave. You can use enemy information to your advantage, and you definitely should.
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There are also exploration and resource-management.
You need Batteries if you want to upgrade your equipment, but those Batteries are also necessary for moving to an adjacent room. If you run out of Batteries, your character will start choking.
So you need to balance your greed and patience. Too greedy, then your character will start to die. Too conserving, then your team will be under-equipped.
You need to minimize backtracking as well, and ask yourself if searching all rooms in the current floor is a good idea.
If Tetra Cube's combat is akin to Into the Breach, its exploration is closer to Darkest Dungeon and Invisible Inc; a lot of rooms that are randomly connected, you must find the exit elevator, you need to the elevator key for it, and you also have to loot enough while optimizing your route so you don't run out of Batteries.
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Rogue-lite aspect feels weak. The procedural map-generation is okay, but I didn't see a lot of unlockable content and permanent upgrade-paths that would keep me interested.
The game has solid bones but it doesn't come with enough meat. I believe this is something Tetra Cube has sacrificed for its cheap price-tag.
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I wasn't a fan of the game's control mechanics. Since there's no keybinding, I had to get used to its default settings.
First, I wonder if Mouse Wheel + Mouse Movement for camera rotation was the best answer, when pretty much every 3D-tactics game uses Q & E for rotating.
I did not enjoy click & drag for inputting unit movement either. All games I mentioned uses LMB click for gaining control of a unit, then RMB click on a tile for confirming movement.
It seems like mobile-porting was considered, but even then I had to question if Tetra Cube unnecessarily needed to re-invent the norm for PC gaming.
And finally, Upgrade UI sometimes confuses me because it doesn't convincingly reflect if my purchase has been applied.
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Dialogues didn't interest me. The game uses anime art-style, but not aggressively enough. Maybe they should display character-illustrations while the characters are talking, so the dialogues stand out more than how things are now.
At the start of my second Hardcore run, I skipped all dialogues, and even didn't bother interacting with NPCs and still won said run.
Speaking of interacting with NPCs, they can sometimes turn against you. That's one more reason I avoided conversation.
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So do all those downsides mean the game is bad? No, not bad enough to get a Negative review from me. In fact, this game is overall good.
It's not ground-breaking, and has some shortcomings that usually stem from low budget.
But it uses proven concepts and mechanics from the other games for solid and stable gameplay.
When I first saw a promotion for Tetra Cube in a gaming website in South Korea, I predicted what I should expect, and the game gave me the exact material. In other words, it's very unlikely it will disappoint its target-audience.
Plus, it's 7 dollars in here, which is quite acceptable and reasonable for what it offers at the moment.
If I had to give Tetra Cube a score, it would be 7.5.
An above-average game that stays somewhere between "good" and "great".
While it's noticably short of content, it largely offsets that issue with its cheap price. Thanks to it, it's easy to recommend this game to anyone who's looking for a light brain-game, or someone who wants a slightly different taste of turn-based stimulant.
Steam User 18
Tetra Cube is a solo project by DDal, an Illustrator, known for art from gacha game Girls' Frontline. With small budget and zero marketing, Tetra Cube gets instantly into a pile of Steam games with near zero discoverability on the release day, but let it not deceive you.
So what is Tetra Cube? Basically, if you played Into the Breach and Invisible Inc, the game will give you those feels, except on a much smaller scale since the game isn't that complex. It's fast paced, fun, small puzzle battles in 8x8 tiles or 8x4 tile rooms, and you control only 2 characters + 1 hacked robot of your choice. You dungeon crawl through floors, manage your resources, upgrades, equipment and try to win battles without taking any damage if possible. Full run from start till the end is around ~2-3 hours. Music is probably one of my favorite things in Tetra Cube. And surprisingly, plenty of different tracks for such a small project.
I am big fan of puzzle battle games like Into the Breach and this gets my approval. No glitches, performance issues, and in general, very solid for a 1st video game project from DDal.
You can also check my showcase stream/video to see the game in action from pespective of a new player:
Steam User 4
Tetra Cube is a Dungeon Crawler Roguelike similar to Enter The Breach.
Any "normal game" compared to this will be extremely different because this game will make sure you use
your own play style OR ELSE. This game values the ability to know when to turn back and how to come back
stronger, (not due to it being a Roguelike) and I nearly didn't adapt. Luck is very rarely a factory you need to
trouble yourself with especially in part to the AI witch will make the perfect move at all times leaving you to
prevent them or make sacrifices just to survive long enough to reach a printer (this games shop) or the next
floor. Now that you kind of understand the feel of the game ill move onto the first topic.
Story
There is a ton.
So in short Cube Mad, DIO!!!! and Nae (Who is rapidly perishing) are "hunters" so they go to stop the cube
from doing bad stuff.
In long i got like a 3 page script of things random crew members have said that make this world more real
and tell us how screwed they are if you fail and also why and what this cube is.
Characters
Nae is a human robot mix. DIO!!!! is a 130 yr old chick with a ton of guns and a sword. You start the game
and they act like they have know each other for along time. This would be strange but this continues
through the game and you can believe it. The loading screen for Nae says her origin is and i quote "Ham"
now I want to think that she is strait up from beef so please don't ruin this for me.
Gaming
This game runs like i'm cutting butter with a laser Perfectly smove. The game feels near perfectly balanced
in the sense where when i die i can find the solution fairly fast but that solution comes with a trade-off
where by covering it will eventually end with more risk (as it should) . Most of your damage will be done by
attempting to lure your target into the perfect position witch is fairly simple due to the AI acting like the AI
in this world would by going for what looks like the most optimal at the time. The dungeon crawling part of
this game is mainly just measuring risk. at the start of the game Nae has a broken generator and you use
batteries to traverse the facility making this cool dynamic of "Is it worth it" or "should i get more of X
beforehand" BUT at a floor this is removed so you can go wherever only worrying about the
threat of the AI.
Quests
They do need some work but i still love this game.
Sometimes the quest giver just decides "You know what screw you!" and fights you.
The best quest is one where you get a guys module and the rest are more like trading.
Overall
This game is great, the art style of the characters against the environment looks perfect (also its anime) the
concept of the story while loose is good for a Rougelike. Gameplay is exactly what the devs were looking for
(I can feel it) and the quest system will probably be fixed up with time. As a member of DAY 1 GANG I have
found only one bug, if you end your turn in front of a hostile quest giver npc he'll punch you right there.
I can shoot a strange floating thing out of the air with a gamma ray so i'm on brand.
My Final Score
9.5/10 I want MORE!!!!!
Steam User 2
Fun game by a solo developer that you'll be able to sink a few hours into, once you get your head around some of the mechanics and different abilities, combat becomes a fun puzzle to get around in the later stages. Definitely worth the price tag, just don't expect a spectacular story.
Steam User 0
It's a cute game, pretty basic rogue lite, but not particularly difficult. It feels a bit like an early access release or a prologue even though it's pretty clear development is done at this point. feel like if it went through a little more development it could be a really solid tactical game entry. In the meantime though it is still pretty fun and kudos to being built by one person.
From a technical standpoint:
Meta progression is one weapon unlock each playthrough, 4 unlocks total
Upgrades are wasted on most weapons as almost all enemies have more armor than the weapon can damage by the time you can upgrade them (so they do the minimum 1 damage 90% of the time).
A bit on the easy side, even on "hardcore" mode.
Steam User 0
it's a fun game with enough challenges and difficulty to keep you company, it also has good replay value. Well done DDAL, we always support you
Steam User 1
Explore events in the universe as Nae and Dio and find out why an unknown cube created a disaster. Punch all the things and battle enemies to explore the universe and solve the mysteries