The Troop Review

The debut title from developer Giant Flame, The Troop is a turn-based World War II strategy game where you have control over a battlefield of, well, a variety of troops. Set around the time of D-Day, The Troop delivers a historical experience of Allied forces making their way through Normandy against the opposing German forces.

The gameplay follows a hex-based movement system similar to other turn-based strategies like the Civilization series, but the combat has more of a feeling akin to XCOM. Your turns will focus heavily on positioning your units in crucial spots to get the most effective shots on enemy forces. You'll want to make sure that you take your time to plan your strategies because the opposing battalions will punish you. There's a decent variety of units to utilise, from infantry squads to armoured vehicles. Infantry ranges from standard riflemen and light machine gun troops to snipers and mortar squads, whereas a decent variety of heavy armoury in the form of tanks, armoured infantry vehicles and artillery cannons will be your main bread and butter for tackling enemy Panzers.

The Troop comes packed with a whopping load of content for a debut title from a small team, with a Skirmish mode, individual missions, a Campaign mode, which lays out missions in a specific order, as well as a Story Mode. There's not much of a detailed narrative to follow here, however, aside from the standard progression of World War II, but the Story Mode gives you a persistent set of forces that you can choose to deploy for each mission, adding a form of team management to the overall experience. The missions start simple enough to ease you into the game mechanics and combat before dropping you headfirst into the deep end several missions in, where you will undoubtedly lose your first few attempts if you're unprepared.

Ridin' in the drop-top with the top down, saw you switchin' lanes, girl

Combat is affected by various factors, with line of sight, distance and angling of shots being among the variables that will influence the effectiveness of your offence. Different units you fire on will also have their own individual factors, such as most tanks having a highly armoured front, meaning that even the most accurate of shell fire could deflect off of them. Position is crucial here, as you'll have to get your shots lined up to hit them on their less armoured sides. Movement of your units will also be affected by the terrain around them, with moving through bushes or climbing over walls greatly reducing the distance they can traverse. Force morale plays an important part in combat, too. Displayed as a number during your turns, the loss of units and armour will cause it to fall. If it diminishes too far, then your units will pull out of the battle completely, causing you a loss. The enemy also functions on the system, so it's not necessary to clear every hostile force on the map for a victory.

I'm not usually one to try to claim that a game feels unfair, but my experience with The Troop seemed to be full of double standards during combat sessions. As with most turn-based strategy games, RNG factors into the experience, and even on the Medium difficulty setting, I found enemy units pulling off miraculous shot after miraculous shot, diminishing my armoured units to the point that I was losing most of my morale by the time the first offensive turn from the enemy was over. Line of sight is crucial in titles such as this, and you could approach an objective point carefully to survey the surrounding area, but as soon as you end your turn and the enemy takes theirs, they appear out of nowhere — sometimes in buildings right next to your units or in a field directly in their line of sight — perfectly positioned to take a lethal shot at your now flanked troops or unfortunately positioned tanks. I have to commend The Troop for having such a punishing enemy AI, and maybe a more seasoned tactician than myself would have had a better chance against them, but at times, it felt like I might have missed one crucial aspect during the tutorial, which led me to have such a difficult time.

Don't mind me, I'm just a bush.

The presentation is another part of The Troop that scored less than favourable in my book. The graphics are serviceable but rather dated, with the terrain and soldiers reminding me of when I played PUBG at launch on the lowest settings possible to get a semblance of a decent framerate. The tanks, however, do look well-modelled, and the dramatic camera angles when taking critical shots, superbly showcase them. The janky animations when moving your soldiers around the battlefield will snap you out of that momentary appreciation nonetheless. Despite some decent voice acting from the narrator/General who provides overwatch and notifies you of your mission and developments during the battle — with an old-timey posh British accent so strong that you can practically feel that stiff-upper-lip nibble on your earlobe — the voice lines from your units get stale instantly. There's nothing wrong with their delivery, but it's the same line uttered for each infantry unit on selection and movement over and over. Weapon sound effects also feel like stock audio, with minimal oomph or pizzazz to sell the action occurring in front of you. On the other hand, the soundtrack provides some well-placed tension to each battle, even if it does get a bit repetitive.

Despite my difficulty in mastering the combat and the lacklustre audio/visual aspect, I did enjoy my time with The Troop, and I'm tempted to dip back in now and then to see if I've finally got the patience and foresight to tackle the brutal AI, only to remember the old-man Captain America meme and think to myself: "No. I don't think I will".