Nightmare Frontier: A Wild West Tactical Game.

Developed by Ice Cold Games and published by Slitherine Ltd. Nightmare frontier has a good pedigree when it comes to tactical and turn based strategy games, and has just left a period of early access and entered it’s full release.

The premise of Nightmare frontier is an interesting one, set in an alternate and truly horrific version of a fictional American city in the 1900’s, it sees you leading a team of survivors deep into the nightmare infested city on ‘Raids’ in order to recover loot and resources. That being said, while there is a narrative to follow, it does not seem to be the main focus of the game, and serves mainly as a tool to give you a reason to throw yourself into the hellish landscape where mistakes will often be punished with a full party wipe.

The gameplay loop is a simple one, you lead your team on ‘raids’ which takes you to a branching map with various paths you can follow, these paths lead to encounters with enemies, tiles which will give your party a temporary buff, or even the chance to recruit another survivor and add them to your team. Loot which is collected during the course of the raid is only kept in the event that you are able to safely extract, with defeat often leading to you losing all of the loot you have collected, this leads to a system where you need to constantly keep an eye on the status of your team members and decide if you should continue or retreat back to the safety of your base.

Nightmare Frontier is a game based around fears, and each unit you recruit will have their own fear that causes coming up against those enemies and either attacking or being attacked by them to raise the ‘pressure level’, this will cause various effects as it rises and introduce a new level of challenge to each encounter. On the subject of units, the different classes in Nightmare Frontier are somewhat of a blank slate, with abilities being tied more to the equipment you choose to give them rather than the classes themselves, for example, you may find an accessory that allows you to weald an additional melee weapon or firearm, or carry an extra support item.

After a few early stage missions, you will also unlock the ability to upgrade your base of operations, allowing you to unlock perks such as more team member slots and the ability to see more steps ahead on the map, allowing you to better plan your journey, or to unlock better crafting benches that allow you to further upgrade your equipment.

Combat in Nightmare Frontier is fairly standard for a tactical turn based game, and if you have played any of the developers previous titles, or even games like X-com or Marvel’s Midnight Suns, then you will find yourself somewhat familiar with how this game works. Nightmare Frontier does include a collision system, whereby causing an enemy to collide with an object, enemy or team member will do additional damage, and defeating an enemy will enable that unit to take an additional action.

Overall, I mostly enjoyed my time with Nightmare Frontier, the art style is a standout positive for me with the nightmare creatures looking especially good. The core gameplay loop is also something that many people will find extremely addictive, with an endless quest to push that little bit further and collect more resources, although some people may find this a little too repetitive or grindy and may be turned off by it. Those looking for a tactical challenge will find something to love here, with the difficulty of encounters raising steeply as you venture further into the city, you really need to plan a few steps, (or even encounters) ahead to ensure that you are able to extract with that sweet sweet loot.

WildStarGaming Score: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆     70-79%

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