Match Check: Oakenfold – Time jumping round tactics – News

The story of Oakenfold is quickly told: Strange creatures have almost expelled mankind, the earth is now a hostile place. Heroine Asha tries to reach the last airworthy biodome, called Oakenfold. On the way, she is attacked by all sorts of strange enemies. Not only does she have to survive herself, she also has to protect crates with energy to start the biodome drives.

Combat takes place in rounds, all in the style of the obvious paragon Into the breach (this name will come up more often) the actions of all opponents are displayed and you now have to try to protect all boxes with the remaining moves. Unlike the model, you only control Asha herself, who has 12 action points for this. Each step and each ability consumes one point – the latter also have a cooldown and are refreshed once after the sixth action point. Time is also on your side for this. This check reveals what makes Oakenfold fun and where the weak point of the one-man project lies.

Enemies can also pick up energy balls and become stronger, like the enemy in the top left. On the right is a controllable helper figure, which only appears rarely.

Back to the Future?

At the beginning you can choose from one of three classes that determine your three standard skills: Survival gives you a punch that causes damage and throws opponents back a field, which means further damage to the opponent and the object hit. You also get a harpoon that pulls enemies one field towards you. And your grenade can push all opponents on the neighboring squares one square away. For example, the other classes, Agile and Scientific, instead have abilities that allow you to rotate opponents’ attack direction by 180° or jump over them when attacking.

If you destroy an opponent, he leaves behind an energy ball, which – in addition to unused action points – is the currency in the game and can be exchanged for improvements at special tables. These can, for example, increase damage, improve the minimum or maximum range of your grenades and harpoons, or give you small passive bonuses or special abilities.

The special feature of Oakenfold: You can rewind your moves almost at will to try out other approaches. Only your death, certain obstacles and a special enemy type can prevent this. You lose life points if you stand in the way of attacks or if your opponent is on a reinforcement field. You also have to watch out for special attacks that are instantly deadly. These can come from a dune-like sandworm, for example, which appears as soon as you (or an opponent you pushed onto him) stand on his field for three action points. The normal enemies, on the other hand, cause one point of damage with their attacks, which, like in Into the Breach, can be, for example, a melee attack, a rush to the next obstacle or a ranged attack over several fields.

One of the three bosses who – unlike the other two – only intervenes with his tentacles.

Crates and Campaigns

There are also three boss fights in the game, some of which also act at certain points in the middle of the player’s turn. But they don’t have to be defeated, because as with normal fights, it’s just a matter of surviving a certain number of waves and losing as few energy boxes as possible. However, many orders still have optional side tasks, such as protecting robot workers, which bring you bonus currencies and, rarely, a new box. If you lose the last crate it’s game over. You cannot save freely: if you fail, you have to start over.

The campaign is divided into three areas with five battles each. These are randomly generated with every restart. However, you cannot unlock permanent advantages or new classes. In addition to winning the game and the achievements, high score lists and three levels of difficulty, which are affected by a larger number of opponents, should also provide motivation. In addition to the campaign, there are also weekly challenges in which all players start with the same class and the same cards.

There were no technical problems during the check. However, you have to do without a German translation. However, there are very few texts, such as a popup for enemy abilities, so perfect English skills are not required.

You can choose the next mission on the campaign map, although the path is not always linear.

Conclusion

Oakenfold takes the concept of Into the Breach with turn-based battles that are more puzzle than tactical and adds some nice ideas like boss fights and the rewind mechanic. In addition, it even plays a little more smoothly due to the focus on only one character. In return, due to the lack of unlockable classes, you have to reckon with significant cutbacks in long-term motivation.

The campaign itself is also very short: After four thoroughly entertaining hours I had completed the game including the achievement for a win without losing any crates. But I don’t have the motivation for another round with a different class or even a higher level of difficulty – also because the three classes differ less visually and playfully than the unlocked squads in Into the Breach.

• Round Tactics for PC and MacOS
• single player
• For beginners to professionals
• Price: still unknown
• In one sentence: Coherent but very short puzzle/tactical fun