Let’s get the necessary stuff out of the best way first. Taur has nothing to do with bulls. I don’t know what number of of you’ll have thought that, however I figured I’d clear it up anyway. It does have lots to do with towers, which is how I assume the title is meant to be pronounced. I fairly admire the brass of it. It’s like calling your technique game “Bayse” or your FPS “Guhn.”
Taur makes an attempt to refine your typical tower defence situation, borrowing concepts from technique games like Total Annihilation and XCOM and lowering it down so particular person matches final minutes reasonably than hours. It’s a spectacular and surprisingly intelligent little game, though sadly its finest concepts are additionally the least profitable.
Taur’s motion centres round an interstellar battle between two races of alien robots. One race, the Taurans, is on the point of being annihilated by the evil Imperion. Calculating virtually sure defeat, the Taurans determine at hand over their total strategic command to a single human, you. Lending you management of their total navy arsenal (which on the outset quantities to 1 massive gun), you’re tasked with preserving the Imperion at bay lengthy sufficient so they bring about out their mothership, at which level you should destroy it.
For the primary few missions (measured in-game as “days”), Taur retains issues easy. At the outset of a mission, your large gun vegetation itself like a stake into the centre of the battlefield. Moments later, the Imperion’s robotic hordes flood the sector, though at this stage it’s extra of a trickle. Aiming the gun along with your mouse, all it’s a must to do is choose all of them off to win the combat.
Even in its most barebones type, Taur feels satisfying to play. Your beginning railgun has a fierce kick that punts enemy bots midway throughout the battlefield and shreds aside environmental objects like rocks and bushes. But it’s additionally fairly gradual to fireplace, and there’s a delay earlier than rounds hit their goal. Hence, it’s essential to choose your targets rigorously to maximise harm output.
This easy arrange will carry you thru the primary few days, but it surely isn’t lengthy earlier than Taur twists its mechanical knife. The variety of enemies will increase with each battle, and the percentages develop into overwhelming quick. With every battle you lose, the Imperion takes over a higher share of the planet, and in case your share of management reaches zero, the Imperions win and also you’ll be on the primary FTL cruiser again to Earth. Thanks for nothing, flesh-creature.
There is sweet information. You earn assets for every battle you combat no matter whether or not you win or lose. With these, you may construct sturdier defences. Pressing the house bar at any level throughout a battle switches the game to an overhead view, the place you may erect new constructions that encompass your important gun. These vary from automated turrets to artillery platforms and “drone-control” towers. The latter spawn a variety of AI items comparable to robotic hoplites who encircle your tower to defend it or flying drones that present air assist in numerous alternative ways.
Any construction you construct will carry over to the subsequent battle, and whether it is destroyed, the assets you used to construct them are refunded to you, so {that a} single defeat received’t cripple your marketing campaign. Before you may construct a brand new construction, nevertheless, you first must unlock it from the game’s “Research” menu by spending assets. Once you’ve completed this, throughout battle you should unlock a related Hex on the strategic overview, earlier than lastly with the ability to construct your construction on that house.
There are seven totally different assets sorts, the provision of which is randomised for every battle, so it’s essential to consider carefully about what it’s essential to construct. If you’re being battered by enemy plane, for instance, it may be sensible to put money into SAM websites or an anti-air missile attachment on your important gun. Conversely, should you’re being swarmed on the bottom, upgrading your drone management towers to provide extra defensive bots will be the higher plan of action.
Taur complicates this decision-making course of in some fascinating methods. Battles are available in various intensities, and there are a number of various kinds of encounter, together with one which solely entails plane and one other the place Imperion items are dropped randomly at close-quarters. More necessary, although, is the “Abandon” mechanic. On most days there will probably be a number of battles on the planet, however you may solely combat one in all them. For these left unfought, you incur some extent penalty that’ll be deducted from the factors you earn by victory, (or added to the factors you lose should you’re defeated.)
This penalty is often small, however typically it isn’t, so it’s essential to weigh up which battle is finest so that you can combat in the long term. Do it’s essential to maximise your management factors for this spherical, or are you keen to simply accept a slight management penalty since you want these particular assets for the ballistic missile improve?
It’s neat concept. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the impression it ought to as a result of Taur’s inverse issue curve. Once you unlock the energy-shield generator, Taur’s problem drops off a cliff. The power defend makes it method too straightforward to defend your base, particularly should you unlock the handbook capacity that allows you to immediately recharge it. Once you’ve constructed up your different defences that sit behind the defend, you may just about sit-back and watch the sparks fly in all however essentially the most intense of battles.
This has an enchantment of its personal, after all. Part of the enjoyable with tower defence games is setting up fortifications that rip holes in your enemy’s ranks, and Taur delivers such mechanised destruction with aptitude. The display screen is at all times busy with bots exchanging laser-fire, tanks bursting from artillery strikes, and plane trailing smoke and flame as they plummet to the bottom. Better nonetheless, you’re in on this too, raking the enemy’s entrance ranks along with your twin miniguns or dropping mortar bombs into tight clusters of items, scattering them like a flock of pigeons evading an approaching toddler.
The drawback with Taur is your defences lack gradience. Generally, both your artillery and air-defences will flip the Imperion forces into mince, or the Imperion will achieve disabling your defend generator, after which your towers will collapse like a high-street retailer. You might need a number of close to scrapes, shedding most of your defences however managing to manually choose off these previous few enemies, however there’s no alternative for any actual forwards and backwards. In principle, you may construct new towers at any level, however till late within the game you’ll spend most of your assets both unlocking new tools or throughout preliminary set-up.
The improve system compensates for this to a sure extent. Unlocking a turret that freezes enemies or a War Of The Worlds-style dying ray is at all times going to assist hold you engaged. But there are issues right here too. A few assets, comparable to Stellar Crystals, appear to be far much less frequent than others. This makes it troublesome to accumulate some essential upgrades, such because the bigger turret stations required to defeat the mothership. It can be helpful should you might maybe convert assets at a value. That method you aren’t solely beholden to likelihood.
I’m unsure Taur has sufficient depth or selection to justify that £20 price ticket, however it’s good for choosing up in half-hour bouts and understanding you can also make an honest chunk of progress. Like Into the Breach, it’s straightforward to have interaction with with out being senseless, though it lacks the stability and delicate ingenuity of Subset Games’ mini-masterpiece.
