I initially did not buy this game due to Friggleswitz's review. I couldn't find much data about Halfway; not from reviews online, not from videos on YouTube. After he revised his review to be more positive, I decided to buy it. I'm really glad I did.

The "complaints" about this game are doing it a grave injustice. For 11 dollars, I have zero complaints. The storyline is interesting, the characters each have their own personality and abilities, and I love the music. Thematically, it reminds me of System Shock 2 or Dead Space. What irritated me most was the complaint about characters not leveling up. Every game nowadays seems to include xp and leveling simply to have that mechanic in the game. It doesn't matter if it adds anything, gameplay-wise; it's just a matter of having numbers that get higher.

The way Halfway handles progression is by giving you better weapons -- plasma rifles and flak shotguns -- and it works well. I don't feel a lack of game without experience points.

If you're on the fence and NOT expecting an AAA title, but rather a solid and fun game from an indie developer, then I strongly recommend Halfway.

I really wanted to like Halfway, I really did. The game has amazing pixel art and a great soundtrack - my favorite since Dustforce's! However, let me bullet point why I feel Halfway is just a "Halfway" done game.

1- The storyline starts off with a cool half-life type premise. Aliens invading from another dimension. And it happens when the ship jumps, its a cool concept. But the game does not tell you anything for 5 hours of play about why this is happening. For me this was just too much investment to learn so little.

2- Combat starts off neat with each character you control having a passive ability and a unique ability to them. The way you increase your power is by equipping better weapons and using stims to increase stats permanently. The problem is that there is a serious lack of variety in weapons...the only thing different between the guns is their range and damage output. This gets boring very quickly as you find out that sniper rifles are the best in every situation due to their long range, ultra high damage, and mid-range magazine. There is no real reason to equip any other gun you get. The same can be said about the armors as well. The game trivializes its own item choices and hampers you with a very small inventory system so that you do not want to keep any other guns around.

3- Repetition of design. This game is a linear story with static level design. There is no randomness about this. Now this is not a flaw by itself, but it becomes a flaw whenever each level is the same as the last for five hours. There is very little character interaction, story developments, and interesting combat challenges that make the levels fun. I had fun for the first two hours as I learned the game. My last three hours have been boring and repetitious. Combat is not very interesting as there is not a lot of elements to engage you to move your troops around. You basically shoot until you hit, not needing to get to better cover or use a weapon at the right time. This made me cry as a tactical gamer.

4- Itembase. After each mission you get to go to the store to buy goods but you can never buy anything worthwhile, just ammo, shield, medikit, and grenade refills. This sucks! The store gives you nothing to look forward to and should be a reward mechanism in the game. This makes the store feel like an after thought...why not just cram extra refills of stuff in each mission and skip the damn store.

TL DR - The storyline, combat, items, and character interaction all suffer from a lot of repetition. I love xcom, the ufo series, jagged alliance, and a lot of other story driven/tactical based games like mass effect..and even indie games that bear a lot of repetition of combat like risk of rain...but this game never does anything interesting with the game foundation it sets up.

Halfway is a pretty looking sci-fi turn-based strategy RPG, otherwise known as an instant purchase for me. The game looks, runs, and sounds great, with its pixel style retro look and low key, mood setting sci-fi soundtrack. Without even playing, I could tell this would be something I would enjoy on principle alone, but then I played it.

The game flow is par the course for the genre. You move, they move until one side is dead. However, in Halfway, the mechanics are the first stumble. People who've played in the genre can guess the nuances: there's cover bonuses for you and the enemy, certain weapon types perform better up close or far away, and each squad member even has unique statistics and abilities. Some can cover more ground, others can take more hits. Very quickly, however, I realized that while all the pieces and formulas for a great game are there, Halfway seems to have skewed the numbers diastrously. Spot an enemy out of cover down a hall, well within your weapon's given effective range? Expect a base 25-30% chance to hit: that's all. You can, fortunately, give up your squaddie's move for that turn in exchange for increased accuracy, but wait, it merely climbs to 50-55%, if that. Expect several turns where neither side will land a hit. Then you need to spend AP to reload, which makes firing without that accuracy bonus pointless. Oh, and now the enemy's shields are back up. Whoops, now you're out of ammo. Yes, in a game where you're at the mercy of 10-50% chances to hit, you are stuck with limited ammunition. In one mission, I spent fifteen minutes chasing two enemy units around a circular room. They couldn't hit me, but I had run out of ammo from missing my own attacks as well, so I had to resort to punching them to death.

Well, perhaps my two scrubs would grow up to be gunslinging badasses. I was wrong. I pushed on, and soon my squad jumped up to five. While they all had various, interesting specializations, the game was still taking far longer than it needed too, and not just for the mechanical failings stated above. Halfway is also lacking in several minor mechanics that, when paired with its skewed mechanics, it all build up to an annoyance I can't deal with. No auto-ending turns, no auto-switching after a squaddie uses up his turn, no access to options unless you're at the title screen, very little explanation for the statistics.

Halfway would be a spectacular addition to the genre. It almost seems silly to not recommend it solely because hit chances are too low, but while playing, this creates such a maddening environment that I cannot stomach playing for more than a mission at a time. Guns are useless, and cover and tactics doesn't matter when you're chasing mutants up and down hallways to beat them to death. Playing like that shatters the mood of the game and the point of the genre, and as far as I'm concerned, that is inexcuseable.

First impressions of this game were; wow, a retroish 2d strategic scifi rpg. Very nice graphics, sounds and music! The game starts and for a while everything is great... but then the plot is getting boring, some seriously unbalanced battle elements are introduced, boring enemies, very stereotypical characters and the whole game is already well over the halfpoint. You can't predict what kind of stragey/team/equipment you need for each mission, and the whole play is mostly guess-and-fail; trying something little different and failing again... at the beginning the enemies are almost too easy and after some missions they are way too numerous. Using time to plan missions over and over again is not worth the empty plot. The first game that comes in comparison is Shadowrun Returns, which is actually the same game in principle but with different engine/story/characters/etc. Actually this game made me hope Shadowrun Returns would have been made with this game's engine, and with dragonfall story/characters/gameplay balance. That would have been perfect.

Halfway starts with a lot of potential but in the end fails by about 1/3 of the way into the game.

The game relies on too many enemies and a lack of supplies to make the game "challenging". Before the halfway point of the game I found that the combats were simply too unbalanced to make the game enjoyable. You are often found needing to use half your team or more to kill one base level opponent when the team is typically out-numbered 3 to 1 while the opponents inflict an equal or greater amount of damge to your team.

The designers probably intended creative use of terrain to be an equalizer except the cleverly programed AI uses the exact same tactics and seems to have much better "luck" when it comes to hitting their targets. I lost track of the number of times that the heroes missed with a 70-80% to hit chance.

In the end the game ends up a series of combats that degrade into cycle of constant take damage-heal-take damge without the ability to inflict sufficient injury on your opponents in return before being overwhelmed.

Having just finished Halfway, I can say this is an incredible game. From the soundtrack, to the unique enemies and battlefields, this game always leaves me guessing. I soon choose favorites among my squad, which was a mistake. The new types made it very difficult to roll out with the same squad every battle and expect to come out ahead. Although this 8-bit game doesn't reinvent the turn-based strategy wheel, it does change things i feel are for the better. Unlike X-com, your squad doesn't level up based on combat experience. There are stims which increase attributes and weapons to be found on almost every map. No one dies, they are rendered unconscious until combat ends, (which doesn't always mean ending the level)

Recently there was the addition of a map editor, which i have yet to try, but I'm very excited to dive into. I've been told that there will be a place where you can upload your own maps, and be able to play on other's.

All in all, this game was exciting (and freakin difficult) until the very end. If a second Halfway happens, you can be sure I'll be picking it up.

81/100

The current (v1.04) version of the game i cannot recommend.

The whole game has the feeling of an open beta. The art work and game principals a very nice, but
the game balance and dynamics are completely off.

Battles, and take up more than 90% of game time are no fun. As reviewed by another user, the only
suitable tactic is to load a characters shields, and knock down enemies in close combat. Dont bother with
the weapons, they seem completely useless. Enemies will hit you from other side of the screen where u can hardly
see them, and you own characters will miss enemies standing a few feeds away from them.

All characters must have had very strong martial arts training :)

I guess the developers had no time to test the game and rushed for a early release.

There is more heart crammed into Halfway's beautiful pixels and wonderful game design than I've seen in most AAA titles. I'm super happy to recommend this game, which is really what indie gaming is all about. Somehow on a team of three people they've managed to provide a rich and engrossing experience.

I really hope they consider expansions, or using the very nice game engine here to create new worlds.

My only gripe is the lack of a feature to automatically switch to the last available action or auto-end turns, which is really pretty standard in turn-based games and gets a little irritating to handle yourself after a while. It can screw up the pacing. But ultimately this is a rather small complaint.

Okay, this game is heavily XCOM inspired. Which is something I like - turn based tactical strategy is something I dig. And this game is pretty neat and simple.

But there is something funky about how percentages are calculated. I played a LOT of XCOM on Ironman Impossible. A. LOT. I know what it means to roll on numbers. But Halfway is seriously overcalculating my shot percentages before the shot actually goes out.

74% usually feels like 40% based on my experience. I raged-quit after my dedicated sniper missed 3 of those in a row, followed by a 90% shot that failed.

Protip: Expect anything, ANYTHING, under 100% hit chance to miss. Also, don't assume this same rule applies to enemy. If they can hit you, they will probably hit you. Spec your characters to have a high aim chance, give them heavy weapons, and armor with damage mitigation.

Dodge chance and movement rage are underwhelming as stats. Health stimpacks may not even be worth it. You want all your characters to operate as tanks - just make sure to carry extra medkits.

Now you may be thinking that I'm unlucky, or that I'm a sore loser. I ain't gonna change your mind on that, so feel free to ignore all of this. But I am pretty dang sure there is something off about the numbers I'm being shown - and I'm hoping that it's not something added in for artificial difficulty.

I want to like this game. I really do. But I'm just kinda done with it after getting regularly f----d in this regard. It's beyond frustrating.

Halfway was a tough tactical TBS game (at least the later half was). It still has a long way to go as far as balancing goes but thankfully the devs have been hard at work balancing the game over multiple patches.

Prior to today's balance patch for the final missions, the game somewhat depended on RNG regarding gear drops. I wasn't too thrilled with that after playing the game twice to uncover more secrets and therefore more gear. Fortunately, that same issue has been alleviated with the patch.

I would have liked to see greater variation in the character stats. It would be beneficial in my opinion to work with stats in the hundreds rather than the tens so that you could see a major difference between characters. When working with low stat pools, even with stim packs, the characters tend to become similar. The only thing left to differentiate their usefulness is with their passive and active skills.

Aside from a few random crashes here and there on the first day of playing, the game was good overall. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of the last few missions pre-patch and I'm hoping others can enjoy that too.

If you're the type of gamer that grew up with an SNES or enjoyed the turn-based classics from that era, this may be something you'd be interested in. I read somewhere, somebody had described this as XCOM with a dash of Aliens, and that's not too far off. The gameplay goes fast enough, with gritty, galactic noir throughout. Percentages, a cover system, ranged and melee, even action points. This isn't exactly formuliac, as it's something we'eve never seen before, but it feels familiar to the player, and draws in sci-fi and action fans alike. These indie wonders are true gems in an otherwise graphically-dependent era in gaming. This game deserves to be played.

+ Gorgeous atmospheric graphics
+ Random loot
+ Sidequests
+ Lengthy
+ Satisfying turn-based combat

- Some difficulty spikes (when the game forces you to take a smaller party with you (instead of the usual 4 people)
- No way to revive
- Dying restarts the entire level

[Rating: 83/100]

Hi guys,

If you were ever wandering weather you should get Halfway game or not here is my humble recommendation of it.
I hope it will clear your mind from all kind of hessitation.

I know the graphics is Pixel-ish and my 5y old son calls it " fizzy" but graphics for me is not essential.
The thing that drag me into this game is :story ,music ,and greed for adventure that Halfway promisses.

I absolutelly have dived into this game .From the very beggining I got drag in a story that minute after minute got more excited and unpredictable.
I have played a lot of tactical games but this one is a gem.
Everything about this game is perfect for me ,this is the game I would love to design If I was a game dev.
The action menu as I call it is design very neat ;when you press right button a pop up menu appears around your main character and here you can choose your actions.

The dialogs are good and dont sound shabby ; loot is important and by all means don't skeep any lockers ,boxes or crates cos you may loose a very significant piece of armor or weapon.

If you go further in game you gonna get new members willing to join your group .Every one of them has different attributes that will help you go through rough times.
Your temporary "base" when you get to it will offer you medical center ,shop ,general store room ,and
a map where you can plan your missions.

I am still discovering this game but I have wanted to share with you guys my humble opinion...

Do not hesitate ,Halfway is worth to buy it...


Love it .


Dan.

Really liked this game.
Story is interesting (including the little arcs between the characters), art is really cool, combat is fun.
There are many different squad members to find, varied environments to explore, many different weapons to find.
Sounds are nice.

I think it is mainly the story that kept me playing all the way through to the end.

Good but frustrating.

Game started out great, was challenging, had to manage supplies and decide what role characters will play in missions. The further you get into the game the more often you'll find yourself with unconsious teammates waiting until the battle is over if you win. And Squad Sizes are always no more than 4 to start the mission with, even though you have 8 people to choose from. There is also a 5 level limit to how often you can safetly level up your characters, after that it will either make them stronger or alter another stat entirely for better or worse.

But then the unthinkable happened. A boss fight requiring me to play as four set people, with two other squadmates I barely used during the game. So I ended up with one person who could aim decently, two shotgun guys that couldnt get close enough to anything before they died in an open room, and another girl who I was thankful she could just shoot bullets in the enemies direction. Top that off with enemies I had to use my most powerful sniper rifles just to put a dent into and it quickly became disaster. The game throughts you for a loop as at this time your so used to only having four members on the team on mission, but it allows you to play as all eight, the mission may actually be doable now.

The music is excellent, story is decent. My only complaint is a steep challenge, but game is fun playing a couple of missions every day.

When i purchased this game i went in pretty open minded not expecting much. Im a big fan of the Xcom games and Halfway claimed to be the next closest thing, This of course is not the case. The combat system is relatively similar to Xcom, only there are a lot of flaws and can't help but feel that the game is broken.

The accuracy system doesnt seem to be very consistent. Some times when an enemy is round the corner from you, it will let you fire at the enemy with a very low accuaracy rating or will say the target is not visible all together when it clearly is, it is quite temperamentel. Regardless of this minor problem the system still seems flawed. A member of your team could be standing two tiles in front of an enemy with no cover an you will still only have around 30% to 40% chance of hitting them. Although you can upgrade the aim of the character with stimpacks which are rare an dont seem to do much as well as sacrificing a go to improve the accuracy, the accuracy system feels frustratingly flawed.

When it comes to enemes, nine times out of ten they will have the advantage with improved aim, damage and movement. The enemies tend to go head on rather than flank you unless of course you wonder into an ambush. It seems the shots they take barely miss and the amount of tiles they can cover are a lot more than any of your characters regardless of upgrades.

To be fair, for all the faults, the game could have probably redeemed itself with a decent "overwatch" system. But no, disapointment is still upon us. The game uses a crappy "retaliate" system in which a player will only strike an enemy if they are fired upon while the enemy has their turn.

I wanted to like this game, unfortunatley all it is is an extremely watered down Xcom game with all the flaws and none of the perks. 4/10

Top down turn-based tactical fun, well worth the dollars!

Game premise and basic story have all been done before; a soon to retire marine wakes up on-board a space-ship in which the crew have now been turned into zombies. You explore the ship gathering survivors trying to survive and escape!

Graphics are sprite based and a bit basic, but they get the point across well enough, combined with the music to create a decent atmosphere.
Game-play is age old turn based action points. You want to reload, thats an action point. Combining the usual snap shot and aimed shot premise.

Inventory could use some work to make the weapons a bit more interesting rather than shotty mk2 is better than shotty mk1.

Not got time for X-COM, play a few levels of Halfway to get your TBS fix!

Good basic indie game. Basic X-Com/Xenonauts with a decent story and mechanics. Cover system isn't perfect but it works. No overwatch, it's replaced with a counter-intuitive "Retaliate" option that lets you counter attack but not shoot when the alien/zombie walks in front of you.

Enter ends your turn.
1 and 2 switches between squad members.
Tab brings up some sort of troubleshooting log?
WASD moves the map around.
Space bar opens up tactical menu.
R reloads.
X targets and then shoots at nearest enemies.
I is inventory and character panel and should be rebound for easy access. Take some time to read the two first soldiers' special abilities, they're pretty good.
ALT highlights all objects you can interact with. VERY USEFUL.

At 1600x900 on my Razer Blade 14" it looks a bit miniaturized, I suggest playing on a lower resolution for good visuals on a laptop. No bugs so far, and mostly good teaching mechanics to get you on a very gradual learning curve. EDIT: I highly recommend 1366x768 resolution, looks much better and easier to read text on a laptop. Speaking of text, the dialogue is well done, well paced and not at all wordy. This is a combat game/simulator that's reasonably fast paced, welcome relief if you, like I, didn't enjoy the talking talking talking of otherwise very good Divinity:OS.

May be a bit overpriced but if you're a fan of turn-based or squad tactics games or games with decent story then you could do a lot worse than this, so hit up Steamalerts.com and set up an email alert to buy if the price drops to what you're willing to pay. If I wasn't excited about this game then I'd have set it for $10 buy.

Great graphics! Interesting story and sound design. The game itself is great in the beginning, but there is a lot of waiting involved after your turn, while you are waiting for the enemies to move. In the beginning its surmountable but when you start playing with tons of enemies you are can literally be waiting for a full minute for your turn. Even if the enemes are in the "fog of war" You will have to wait around, looking at nothing. Im missing a way to speed things up or skip this.

I liked playing it for a while and would like to complete it but its literally a waiting game. You do a few moves.. and wait for an eternity while the computer does its moves. In fact so much that I couldnt get my self to play anymore and Im sad to say i couldnt even finish the game.

I've never been so genuinely excited at the beginning and so thoroughly disappointed in the end by a game.
Will be back for a visit if it is....fixed.