Nuclear Union Preview

RPGWatch’s Joost “Myrthos” Mans has penned a preview for the post-apocalyptic action-RPG Nuclear Union, based on the pre-alpha build that was shown at Gamescom. Here’s an excerpt:

The game does not have an open world, but uses zones that allow you to move from one area to the next, which takes only a short time. On the world map all these areas that can be visited will be visible. The amount of visited and to visit areas will grow as you progress in the games. You can always go back to any area you visited before, so none of them will be locked. In some cases it is even a requirement to visit areas again to solve quests.

Nuclear Union allows you to have companions that follow and assist you. You cannot control these companions and they will use their own AI to assist you in combat. In the demo there was only one companion, but they did mention that the maximum amount of companions will probably be something like two, depending on further balancing. The companions can be selected from a larger group of potential companions you will encounter during your travels.

The game has a pause option that can be used during combat. Once triggered it is possible to aim more precisely to an area of the body of the opponent and do more damage. However to use this pause mode special action points are needed. These action points will slowly regenerate over time, making sure you cannot use this option too often and make the game too easy.

The combat in the game for the most part looked rather straightforward and is for the main part about aiming and shooting and making sure you are not hit too often. The tactical element in the game that was shown was related to the pause option and knowing what the weak spots are of the monster or opponent you are fighting against. As the demo always had a full amount of action points, it was possible to use the pause option very often, so most fights were not that challenging. I do think that the fights will be much more difficult with the pause option working as intended, but that was not made clear in this demo.