Preview Code Provided by Epic Games
The strategic real-time strategy (RTS) typing game has reached its open beta and it has promise but also has improving to do. Developers Pumpernickel Studio and publisher Epic Games are on the right track for Touch Type Tale to be a unique experience once some issues are worked out.
Gameplay
The gameplay seems simplistic at first but does a few things to keep it from being your average typing game. You are looking at a screen with words all over the screen over each of the different available actions. You type to start a building being built; you type to farm; you type to train your soldiers. After you have an army, you can command soldiers to move to different areas of the map to take over new buildings or new spots to build.
The tutorial in the campaign teaches you how it implements typing into RTS, but expects the player to already have experience in RTS games. It moves slowly and seems to leave parts out. I spent the first level figuring it out on my own, not realizing you have to leave your troops in an area for a while before claiming it.
During the game, there are a few ways to gain gold to train more soldiers or build buildings. You can have farms that grow over time and you sell the crops, or there is the gold mine which happens to be the most interactive part of the game. You have a mine cart that you control the speed by typing a letter for a speed boost. As you check your speed, the gold deposits in the background have words to type to gain gold.
The combat is not exactly anything out of the ordinary for an RTS game. You command your army by typing the word on the path in the direction you want them to go. There are four different basic troop types that you can train each with their own advantages, but there isn’t enough advantage between each of the types other than ranged and melee. There are also special troops you can build that are stronger which brings a little more diversity into combat, but other than that it falls a little flat.
Overall, the gameplay itself stays the same through both the single-player and multiplayer modes. Aside from the standard campaign for single-player, you can go into a Skirmish mode to take on the AI or even play online to face off against another player. During the multiplayer modes, your goals are the same, but now the strategy part of the game gets a bit more intricate.
Expectations
They need to teach the player a little bit more about the strategy aspect of the game instead of just the typing part. The tutorial also moves very slowly and stretches out over a few levels of the campaign where it could be more detailed in just one level and adding the more advanced stuff into the second level. Aside from being taught the game slowly, I still found myself having to figure things out on my own, mainly the combat and capturing bases.
The combat also could be added to, it doesn’t give you any sense of reward, nor does it really seem intense at all. There could be things added like upgrading a troop after a victory. Another thing that could be added to make combat better, they could make it interactive by adding a battle mini-game. They could add this to make battles have a more epic feel or just to give you an advantage.
Verdict
Touch Type Tale does show some promise of being a fun game. It has a lot of potential to really stand out among typing games. Before it does that, it has to show a few improvements in a couple of different aspects of the game. It needs to give a more detailed tutorial by including more of the RTS parts along with the typing aspect. The game also needs to add to the combat in the game to make it more intense and rewarding. I am excited to see what they can add to improve the game and really make it stand out.
Touch Type Tale is planned to launch exclusively on PC via Epic Games Store in the early stages of 2023, but before the official release, you can try it out yourself in the open beta! Can you type fast enough to command an army?
