Netflix has attempted to adapt some of its biggest properties to video game form with mixed results. There have beenStranger Thingsgames,Narcosgames, and now a game based on Jim Henson’sThe Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The dark fantasy setting ofThe Dark Crystal: Age of Resistanceseems like it would lend itself better to a video game than other Netflix game attempts, butThe Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticsfails to take advantage of the IP.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticsis a toothless retelling of the TV show’s story. For those who are unfamiliar withThe Dark CrystalNetflixseries, it is a prequel to a 1980s movie set in the magical world of Thra. Notable for having zero human characters,The Dark Crystalmovie and TV show feature Jim Henson puppets instead of live-action actors, and have a very unique, vibrant, and arguably quite creepy look to them. The story revolves around the evil vulture-like beings called the Skeksis that rule over Thra as dictators, enslaving elf-like creatures called Gelflings and consuming their “essence” to achieve immortality. The Gelflings become wise to the Skesis' evil ways and rise up in rebellion against them, leading to plenty of shockingGame of Thrones-style plot twists and exciting action scenes.
The TV show spends a great deal of time building its world so even though it is completely and utterly bizarre, it all makes sense to the viewer.The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticsvideo game, on the other hand, must assume that players have an intimate knowledge of the TV show’s lore. Someone who has never seenThe Dark CrystalTV show would be lost trying to piece together the plot of the video game. Its narrative structure makes things even worse, starting in the middle of the show’s story, working backwards, and then jumping ahead.
It’s hard to see anyone who isn’t a fan of the TV show trying this game anyway, but even the most diehardDark Crystalfans are bound to be disappointed byAge of Resistance Tactics. Whereas the movie and TV show depict a largely original fantasy world populated by fascinating creatures, the video game depicts a bland world that’s painfully generic. None of the charm of the TV show has translated to the game. The visuals are drab, the music is repetitive, there’s little to no voice acting, and the whole thing just feels lifeless. Considering how visually strikingThe Dark CrystalNetflix seriesis, the presentation of the video game is a huge disappointment.
Dark Crystalfans are likely to come away fromAge of Resistance Tacticsdisappointed because of the presentation, but the gameplay is serviceable, if not also generic and unambitious.Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticsis a turn-based tactical RPG in the vein ofFinal Fantasy Tactics. Players move characters around grid-based maps, fighting enemies and completing various other objectives. The vast majority of the game’s missions boil down to just killing everything on screen, though, so players shouldn’t expect a ton of mission variety.
Sometimes the maps have gimmicks, like rising tides or poisonous swamps. Despite this, every battle feels the same. Players will find themselves using the same characters in every fight, and there’s never really a reason to switch things up. In fact, it’s arguable that players are punished by using other characters, as then they’re just making things harder on themselves when it’s much easier to just level up a very specific group instead.
Battles inThe Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticssoon become monotonous. Later missions are especially tedious, as players will have to contend with more enemies who take longer to kill. This doesn’t really make the game more difficult or require more strategy. It just makes the battles last longer. Thankfully, it’s possible to double the speed of enemy turns, but even that seems too slow near the end of the game.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticslacks excitement, but what’s here is not necessarily “bad.” From a gameplay perspective,The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticsis a completely inoffensive take on theturn-based tactics genre. It lacks ambition and isn’t all that fun to play, but everything works as it should and we didn’t encounter any significant technical issues during our time with the game. Even so, the missions soon blend together, andThe Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticsdoesn’t do much to spice things up.
Besides just fighting, players can engage with a job system similar to what’s in thewell-receivedFinal Fantasy Tactics, but it’s pointless to really experiment with jobs. Players will want everyone in their party to have the Throw Rock move and a way to heal themselves, so they will most likely end up with a team composed of characters with all of the same jobs. And whereas this would put players at a disadvantage in other games,Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticsplayers will still be able to steamroll through most every mission. Despite marketing itself as a tactical strategy game, players don’t really have to put a lot of thought into the missions to be successful if they pick the right jobs.
Beyond the main story missions, there are some extra “encounters” players can partake in as well, which are good ways to get some extra cash or level up characters. The game is balanced in a way that players should be able to bounce from one main story mission to the next and not be at a huge disadvantage, so those who do participate in this side content will soon find that their characters are way overpowered. Having such strong characters without having to put in much effort is another way the game doesn’t really require much in the way of “tactics,” but players can turn up the difficulty to make things a little more interesting.
Someone looking for a playable, reliable turn-based tactics game will find one withThe Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics. It gets the job done, but does so in the most generic, unexciting way imaginable. It completely fails to take advantage of theDark CrystalIP, and is simply not very fun to play. Instead of playing this latestNetflix game adaptation, fans of theDark Crystalfranchise would be better off re-watching the TV series and keeping their fingers crossed for anAge of Resistanceseason 2.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tacticsis out now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Game Rant reviewed the Xbox One version of the game.
