Sumerian Six (reviewed on PC)
When my esteemed editor asked me to take a look at Sumerian Six on PC way back in September, I checked out the online trailer, liked what I saw and said “Yes, please.”
However … throw in a week-long holiday that same month, a heavy workload and playing too much Portal 2 on my Steam Deck and I forgot about publisher Devolver Digital’s real-time tactical strategy game set during World War 2 completely – until about a three weeks ago (when he reminded me).
Honestly, I wished I hadn’t waited as this isn’t another run-of-the-mill WW2 RTS strategy game. Oh, no, this one has a little twist to it: You control the members of Enigma Squad, a team of scientists come commandoes that have unique abilities that can be used to thwart the plans of the Third Reich in an alternate time line.
Magical strategic mayhem.
After former team member Kammler’s betrays the squad and plots to use a mystical substance called geiststoff and sumerian artifacts to harness the power of the occult in the hope of turning the tide of World War 2, the squad must hunt him down before he succeeds.
Sid, the very first character you control, can possess enemies and allies (called hitchhiking), allowing him to move around environments easily. He is able to move from host to host, too, which comes in handy. Meanwhile, sister Isabella can make herself invisible and can also distract enemies.
Rosa is able to turn humans into bombs and detonate them remotely, taking out several enemies at once, as well as being able to dissolve enemies using her chemicals, meaning not trace is left behind. All extremely useful in the fight against the Nazis, of course, and it adds a twist to the game play that lifts it above its peers.
It’s with these abilities that the real magic in Sumerian Six comes to the fore as you also have the option to pause the action, order your squad mates to perform specific actions, then unpause time and watch the mayhem ensure. This approach is especially helpful when you need the team to take out multiple enemies at the same time.
Suspend your disbelief.
Enigma Squad comes up against Nazi legions and you can click on each one to see their “cone of vision”, which lets you plan your assault much easier . However, the enemy AI is a little questionable at times, with Sid and his team able to take out enemy soldiers that are within a few feet of another one – and they don’t hear a sound (even when their unfortunate colleague cries out in agony as he is dissolved by Rosa’s chemical concotion).
It seems generally the only time an enemy will see you and raise their alert status is if you stay in their line of sight for long enough to trigger an alarm activation. That said, I managed to trigger alarms multiple times as I stayed within line of sight for too long.
The constant banter between siblings can get a bit much at times and from time to time I thought I had selected one team member, only for the original team member I controlled walk straight into the line of sight of an enemy, alerting everyone around them. Small niggles though and not enough to ruin the enjoyment.
I also learned the hard way that disposal methods like Eva’s dissolve attack, although extremely effective, has quite a long animation sequences and if there is a patrolling guard nearby, chances are you’ll still be completing the animation as you come into their field of vision, leading to a few issues.
The sound track is toe-skipping – in fact, it’s bouncing around my head as I write this – and the characters are all extremely well voiced acted. Visually, the game has a very nice asthetic that manages to look realistic but keep a slightly cartoony look to things.
Some Sumerian Six for the Summer?
Priced at $43.99 AUD and $43.99 NZD (on Steam, GOG.com and the Epic Games Store), I recommend Sumerian Six wholeheartedly, especially if you’re looking for a real-time strategy game with an interesting twist – but then what else are we to expect from Devolver Digital and its stable of developers?