Urban Strife

White Pond Games and MicroProse present Urban Strife as a classic, turn-based, strategic fight for survival in a zombie apocalypse. The Early Access game is reminiscent of Jagged Alliance and Dead State, but needs a bit more development time, although the core is actually quite good.

Old school TBS. Post-apocalyptic survival. RPG. These are the buzzwords used by White Pond Games and MicroProse to describe Urban Strife - and in that context it feels like Jagged Alliance 2, but with zombies, or Dead State. Rescued from a car crash by the kind people of Urban Shelter, the protagonist brings them news of a huge zombie horde heading their way from Atlanta. To survive, the protagonist must organise the local militia, secure essential resources and rebuild the base - not in an open world, but on a series of hand-crafted isometric maps linked by a world map, with the Early Access version containing only a fraction of the planned scope. As well as the zombie hordes, players will also have to deal with warlords and choose between three different factions (army rebels, a zombie-loving cult and a biker gang), each with their own unique elements depending on the choices they make. This is where the RPG elements come in, especially as the morality of your companions also plays an important role. However, story, writing and dialogue are not exactly the game's strong points.

The survival elements and combat are way better. Out on the maps, the protagonist and fellow party members search for useful resources to survive on the one hand, and to acquire weapons and equipment on the other. This is also necessary to expand and upgrade the shelter, which starts in a dilapidated state. This aspect of the game is surprisingly comprehensive, even (later) with NPCs to work with, but could use more QOL features and a more accessible interface. And there is plenty of combat, played in a turn-based mode based on a classic action-point system, with consecutive turns and interruptions based on skills. However, as the zombies appear in hordes, the horde moves at the same time, so there is less time to wait for the enemy's turn. During combat, characters can hide behind cover, while the different categories of firearms come with simulated ballistics, giving them special advantages and disadvantages. There is also body part targeting and, to a certain extent, multi-body penetration - and, of course, there is a surprisingly high rate of misses, despite the high probability of hitting the target - which is also very old school.

Urban Strife is the first game from White Pond Games from Romania. It was founded by Razvan Radu and Alex Trutescu, both former Ubisoft game developers. "(...) And since we're fans of the TBS RPG genre and we love the Walking Dead TV series, we've decided to combine turn-based, role-playing and zombie apocalypse survival in a game like none other: Urban Strife. With advanced AI programming, quality level and asset design, rich story and wide support for community modding, we hope USG will tick a lot of boxes for a lot of people that have been waiting for a good game on this niche," said Razvan Radu and Alex Trutescu. In 2020, they signed a publishing deal with MicroProse for their debut game. By that time, however, the game had already been in development for several years. Regarding the use of generative AI, they write on Steam: "We are a small indie team and as our game includes close to 200 characters you can interact with, we have used Midjourney to produce their portraits for the Early Access release of the game. Depending on feedback we may revisit this at a later stage."

MicroProse is a name with a long history. The company was founded in 1982 by Bill Stealey and Sid Meier. The American developer and publisher is known for its (vehicle) simulations and strategy games, including Falcon, B-17, F15 Strike Eagle, Silent Service, Highfleet and the first XCOM and Civilization games. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte, with key personnel leaving before it was acquired by Hasbro Interactive. In 2001, MicroProse ceased to exist and Hasbro sold the IP to Infogrames Entertainment. Attempts to revive the brand have since been made, but without success, and it has changed hands again. In 2018, Australian David Lagettie (a former developer at Bohemia Interactive) bought the brand from the Cybergun Group. In February 2019, the publisher returned with simulations (including military vehicles) and strategy games such as Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age, Carrier Command 2, HighFleet and MechEngineer. With this focus, MicroProse is primarily competing with Slitherine aka Matrix Games. The company's publishing portfolio is aimed specifically at small studios.

Urban Strife went into Early Access for PC on 10 December for €33.99. It is expected to stay in Early Access for six to twelve months, which seems a bit short given the current status.

Conclusion

Urban Strife has been in development for a long time and is particularly convincing when it comes to combat and survival. However, UI/UX could still be improved and the content currently available is somewhat limited. The Early Access launch is therefore a good step.