Corruption 2029 is a game that combines the stealth and tactical RPG genre into a package that can be brutally difficult to play and requires a lot of patience to enjoy, but there is a great feeling of satisfaction awaiting the players who are willing to engage with the game and play methodically, rather than going in guns blazing.

Corruption 2029 is the latest game by The Bearded Ladies, the same studio behind Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. The similarities between both games are striking and the player would be forgiven for thinking Corruption 2029 is a reskin that replaces the animal characters of Mutant Year Zero with robots. The story of Corruption 2029 is set in a dystopian future where America was devastated by a second civil war. The player controls three elite soldiers who belong to the UPA (United Peoples of America) faction, whose dropship is gunned down during the intro and they are trapped behind enemy lines. The squad must complete missions using their limited resources and without the hope of backup.

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The gameplay of Corruption 2029 is a mixture of the excellent tactical strategy elements of the XCOM series with the sneaking around of the Metal Gear Solid series. The player is given free control over their squad of soldiers when they are outside of combat, allowing them to sneak around the map and explore. The second that they are discovered (or launch an attack) is when combat begins and everything switches to a turn-based mode that allows characters a finite number of actions and movement before the enemy can respond. The game is broken up into missions, ranging from killing all of the enemies within an area to extracting a VIP and making sure they survive on the way to an evacuation point.

Corruption 2099 Minigun

The people who go in guns blazing will soon find themselves decimated by enemy gunfire. The player is hopelessly outmatched in a fair fight in almost every mission, due to being outnumbered and often outgunned by the enemy. This is where the stealth element of the game comes into play, as the only way to secure a victory is to whittle down the enemy forces and prepare the most advantageous position for your squad before starting a battle. This is done by picking off enemy units who wander away from their allies, as the rest of their squad won't be alerted if they are disposed of with silenced weapons. It's in this regard that Corruption 2029 is more strategic and more difficult than XCOM, as the player cannot overpower the enemy with explosives or special abilities alone. The squad needs to scout out each map before they think about pulling the trigger, and this level of planning isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, especially as a single missed shot can result in an enemy calling reinforcements and making the mission a lot more difficult.

Corruption 2029 can have a brutal learning curve, with the first few missions feeling unfairly difficult due to the high health of enemy units. This is a game that demands the player to learn its systems and use every advantage they can to secure a victory, which leads to some extremely satisfying moments when the small squad is able to pull off a victory. As the game progresses, the player will unlock more special abilities and weapons that will give them different approaches to combat, which helps keep the missions feeling fresh. This is a necessary step, as Corruption 2029 is particularly bad when it comes to reusing maps for missions. The fact that map exploration is such a big part of the game also compounds this issue.

Corruption 2099 Missed Shot

Corruption 2029 has a number of minor technical flaws at launch, but the biggest issue is that the game sometimes has very odd ideas of what constitutes line of sight. The screenshot above is a perfect example of this. In the image, the player-controlled soldier (the one standing by the white car at the bottom of the picture) has moved into position to try and hit the enemy soldier (the one with the red health bar above its head), yet the game ruled this as being unable to see the enemy. It sometimes feels as if the game is tilting the balance in the enemy's favor when it comes to range & line of sight, but this could be the result of a technical issue. On the plus side, the cursor will state the percentages of hitting nearby enemies when it's moved to an empty space, so the player is at least aware of their chances before they commit to an action.

Corruption 2029 lacks the grand strategy of something like the XCOM series, as the game is composed of missions and the customization options are limited compared to other titles. It should also be pointed out that Corruption 2029 is a budget title and the game offers a lot of content for its price tag, even when compared to Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. 

Corruption 2029 is definitely not for everyone. It can be extremely challenging and feel unfair when the tide turns against the player. The game expects a lot from the player, especially when it comes to being patient with their approach to the game. It's because of this challenge that the game feels so satisfying when the player's actions go as planned and they take down superior forces using strategy, rather than an itchy trigger finger. Corruption 2029 is a great squad-based strategy game, but it's not for the gamers who love to shoot first and ask questions later.

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Corruption 2029 is available now on the Epic Games Store. A digital code for the game was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.