My review of Order Automatica was going to be a lot harsher before I saw the price. That’s not to say it’s a bad game at all, but, I didn’t really feel it brought much to the table, but, yeah. Then I saw the price.
Order Automatica calls itself a dark tactical roguelite. Those words in that order technically describe what’s happening here, but they do all feel a little grand when you face the reality. So, let me break it down for you.
Before you there are two 9×9 grids. Each tile within is numbered. One is yours, one is your opponent’s. You spend coins to place units on your grid, or place items on those units. The shop refreshes after each round (we will get to it, don’t worry) and you can do some holding and selling, but that is your basic preparation phase. When you’re happy, you start the battle.
Battle takes place by resolving any pre-battle effects, and then working through your grid. A cursor goes from space one to space nine, and any unit in those spaces will attack the unit in your opponent’s grid on the lowest space (one to nine again, not physically lowest). Once your grid has cycled, your opponents units get their turn. If at the end of this, one grid is totally devoid of units, that player loses a life. Each player has three lives (though technically the opponent has multiple phases, where you can gain life back inbetween), once those are gone, game over.
When the round has been decided (someone has lost a life) you and your opponent are taken back to your prep grids, with all your units restored to life, the shop restocked, and you do it all again. If you “match three” of the same unit (diagonally, vertically or horizontally) they fuse into a levelled up version of that unit. Thus, over time, your grids get stronger and stronger. Plus, when you finish a match, you’ll unlock new potential units and items, as well as a new difficulty if you did well enough.
This is literally it. I know the title literally has “Automatic” in it, but I wasn’t quite prepared for how much my brain would turn off during this. There’s technically some strategy here – abilities and items care about units in the same row or column, or only activate in certain numbered squares. Some only activate on damage or death, so the order in which units attack is also important. It doesn’t always feel like you can really do anything about this though.
Early on I got totally stonewalled by an enemy unit that got stronger when it took damage, when prior to its introduction it’d been building a board that focused on spamming low damage attacks and replacing dead attackers with fish. I didn’t really have a choice as to the strategy I used because those were the only units I was given in the shop. Sure, the more units I unlock for finishing games, the more options I have. That doesn’t stop me feeling helpless when the random selection locks me out like that.
However, circling back to my original point, right now Order Automatica is under £5. In this day and age, getting even a couple of hours of enjoyment from something for that price (I’m looking at you, cinema ticket prices) is an absolute steal. If you like making numbers go up (or building engines, as I guess it’s technically called), you could do worse than this!
Order Automatica was reviewed on Xbox Series X, but is also available on Playstation 4/5, Nintendo Switch, Mobile Devices, and PC.