Preview – WILD Tactics

I’d still like to call myself a fan of The Wild Gentlemen’s World of Wilderness. I like the concept behind it and a lot of the worldbuilding has been enjoyable. There’s a certain amount of enthusiasm behind it that is infectious. It’s too bad I didn’t feel any of it in the demo for WILD Tactics.

I’m still feeling the disappointment from Chicken Police: Into the Hive. Chicken Police: Paint it Red and the interim prologue, Zipp’s Café, were solid, and so was, like, two thirds of Into the Hive, and then the wheels came off, and I’m still reeling. It is, quite possibly, the most disappointed I have been in a game… ever. Which speaks to how much I loved Paint it Red, as well as what a gutpunch the last act of Into the Hive was. Oof.

So, I’m still tentatively excited for what’s to come from the series, but, as I mentioned, WILD Tactics doesn’t paint a great picture.

EVERYTHING IS XCOM

WILD Tactics takes place in the World of Wilderness, same as Chicken Police. It centres around a mostly new cast, includes characters from previous games, and even features locations from the Chicken Police games. It’s also a completely different genre, replacing the narrative focused visual novel from turn-based tactics.

And I hate to compare it to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but every turn-based tactics game is XCOM now. I’m not sure that it even innovated that much, but XCOM has eclipsed everything in my mind. I know Tactics Ogre didn’t have high and low cover.

Anyway, the story centres around a group of vigilantes who are sanctioned by the monarchy. But not officially, so they have to be careful, even though I shot up the place in every mission. Not exactly low-key. It’s not my fault, though. I think there’s maybe a stealth system, but it wasn’t clear, and I saw little opportunity for it. Although, it might just be an aggro system, allowing the scouts to position themselves without being shot at. Not entirely sure. Not well explained.

Doesn’t matter, either. I invariably shot the first dude I saw and then killed everyone as they ran at my squad. It’s a problem.

EAT LED!

There’s a lot of reason to be concerned for WILD Tactics. One core issue is that the combat is not very dynamic. The demo shows off a few types of thugs, and they all seem pretty interchangeable. There’s no verticality, whatsoever. The environments are not destructible. And the gunfights are weak. I think the inclusion of the Wilhelm Scream is hilarious, but grenades go off with a pop instead of a bang. It’s so dry.

I know it’s a small studio, and they, like most small studios these days, probably aren’t working with a solid budget. But I look back at the recent Shadowrun games (Shadowrun: Hong Kong was over 10 years ago!?), and the team at Harebrained Schemes made up for its deficiencies with smart mission design, diverse enemies, and a solid narrative hub. I’m not sure what WILD Tactics has anything to offer that would elevate it above the bare minimum.

Between missions you unlock the ability to improve your characters in various ways, including building friendships between them, but it’s very impersonal and menu-driven. There’s no creative edge.

TEAM-LIKE BEHAVIOUR

It’s dragged further down by the fact that writing is extremely limp. It largely picks up after Into the Hive, with the monarchy hanging onto power by a thread. Except the monarchy is maybe the good guys? The overarching narrative seems to imply that different factions would benefit from Clawville falling into chaos, but also things suck as it is, but maybe things suck the least under the monarchy.

As much as I dig the passion, I get the feeling that The Wild Gentlemen are so in love with their own setting that they don’t feel the need to explain it in a satisfying way. It’s like they set up this political situation that they think is really compelling, but have difficulty explaining why it’s compelling. Like, if I can play all the games and still not have a clear idea what the fuck is going on, there’s a problem.

I can paint you a portrait of the political issues in Morrowind, including competing noble houses, an ineffectual monarchy that is under the thumb of a foreign empire, living gods, and include two more competing religious systems, but I can’t tell you why you should care about the king of a city in a game about animal people.

That may be lingering frustration from Into the Hive, but the point is: the narrative is not convincingly established in the demo for WILD Tactics.

WHAM!

But the more pressing issue is that the characters in WILD Tactics aren’t very good. They’re not particularly interesting from a backstory perspective, but they’re extremely uninteresting in terms of dialogue. The dialogue just kind of sucks. It always seems to be variations of:

Bosco: This mission will require subtlety.
Team Member 1: Yeah! Let’s blow everything up.
Team Member 2: Oh no, here we go again.
Bosco: It’s going to be dangerous. You could die.
Team Member 1: That’s what we’re here for! Go team!
Team Member 2: You’re so dumb!

There’s very little to go on in terms of interplay. There’s no friction between squad mates who don’t get along, there’s very little camaraderie from the ones that do. There’s no reason for them to express it, because it’s always:

Bosco: Here’s your job.
Team: Let’s do it.

But then you throw in one of their shallow character traits. Like the violinist will say something about playing a song, and someone will say, “My freakin’ ears!” And that’s it. One of the more prominent personalities is essentially just Scrappy Doo.

In all fairness, it’s difficult to juggle so many characters in a single conversation. Maybe, if they’re given a chance to have more intimate one-on-one conversations their personalities will come out more. As it stands, I’m not convinced.

A ONCE EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT

The art is somewhat odd. There’s a striking art style for the 2D portrait sprites and animated cutscenes, but the 3D characters look more realistic. Possibly to allow the team to pull assets from other sources and still have some level of unified art style. However, the animations are just horrendous. Even basic things like the walk/run animation is extremely rough. It’s another facet of the game that sucks the energy out of it, leaving it feeling limp.

A lot of stuff in the demo could still be placeholders. Gosh, I hope so. There’s no confirmed launch date, as far as I know.

Right now, WILD Tactics just feels like a game. The gameplay itself is functional but flat. If the narrative and characters are supposed to elevate the experience, they’re not well-leveraged. And, boy, I hope the animation is addressed. At least the music and 2D art are fab. I’ll probably keep an eye on it because of my history with the series, but, otherwise, I see no reason to get excited.

You can try out the demo for WILD Tactics right now as part of the February 2026 Steam Next Fest.