Battle of the rainbow! - My Opinion of Tacticolor

This one, I found so bizarre I just had to play it. It turned out to be pretty addictive. So here goes, my opinion of Tacticolor.

Put simply Tacticolor is a real time strategy game with a twist. Unlike real time strategy games (RTS) such as Halo Wars or Starcraft II, Tacticolor does not involve use of different unit types or special abilities, it instead revolves around strategic timing and basic maths.

Taking a standard match as an example, any combination of up to four human or AI players and can also be player over Live. All of the players begin with possession of only territory. (areas that the map are divided into. In a standard match there is sixteen.) Each player will also begin with one piece (unit). Once the match has begun, players can attempt to take control of the territories directly surrounding the one they already possess.by moving their piece or pieces to that territory.

At this point, this is where the factor or maths comes into action. Each piece acts as a dice and a player can have up to six pieces on each of their territories. If the territory is currently not owned then the territory value is 0 and they can take it over straight away. If the territory is possessed by another player, then when they
attempt to take it over all of the pieces will be 'rolled', which will generate a total value. If the attacking player's value is higher, then they will take the territory over. If not, they defending player will hold that spot and the attacker's attacking pieces will be lost.

While this may initially sound very confusing, after playing just a few short matches, the rules and how to play begin to become clear. While still sounding confusing the game is make both clearer to understand and visually interesting by each player having their own colour, which will either be pink, blue, yellow or green.

Beyond this, the game also features 'awardments' which act as achievements as the game, along with all other indie titles, cannot use the achievements feature, which adds to the game's playability and replay factor.

When I originally downloaded the game, it was due to how simple the game appeared to be, and while it to an extent it is, it also demands a great deal of strategy and quick thinking. After playing Tacticolor and getting the hang of the game, the appearance of the game was something that still made the game rather appealing as the visuals are not too complex or out of place, which is something  have commented on with previous indie titles I have looked at.

Referring back to my philosophy of ''if you like the demo, you'll most probably like the full game'', it did indeed work for this title. As so I would like to congratulate errcw (Eric Woroshow) on his creation and hope to see many more titles from him in the future.

Tacticolor is available from the Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace for just 80 Microsoft Points, making this something of a bargain. And of course a trial is also available.

Here also is a few relevant links to pages and sites relating to Tacticolor:
Tacticolor - Xbox Marketplace Online
 Tacticolor (Debut Trailer) - Game Trailers
errcw - Youtube
errcw - Twitter

So, that's all for my opinion of Tacticolor and all for this week's content. I am now rounding off for the final time this week by saying that I've been randomthings and thank you very much for reading.