Taur Review – A testament to how great indie games can be

Taur from one person indie studio Echo Entertainment is a testament to how great indie games can be. It’s an action-strategy sci-fi game that does what it sets out to do and does it really well by combining multiple gameplay genres into one neat package.

In Taur, players will take on the role of a military commander on planet Taurea. The Tauron are under attack by an aggressive robotic force known as the Imperion and it’s up to you to save the day, one battlefield, or “War Zone” at a time.

Players will take control of the Prime Cannon, a powerful Tauron weapon that is deployed to battlefields across the globe. The Prime Cannon is what you’ll be controlling directly on the battlefield and makes up the core shooting gameplay of Taur. Players will control the direction the Prime Cannon aims and can fire powerful primary and secondary weapons from it. Players can also zoom in for more precise shots and more importantly, can build autonomous defences around the Prime Cannon.

Taur successfully combines tower defence and real time strategy gameplay with arcade-esque shooting in an easy-to-understand manner. Players will be able to take on enemy forces single-handedly with the Prime Cannon for the first few levels but will soon learn that building up defences around the main structure is key to victory. This is where Taur starts to get a bit more complicated since the defences are permanent and carry through to future battles unless they are destroyed. This also makes the game harder since rebuilding is a costly affair.

After successful completion of a level, players will be rewarded with various resources. There’s a multitude of these resources and a certain amount is required to research new structures and weapons. These resources are also required to build the structures on the battlefield so careful resource management is required to get further into the game. The game introduces these mechanics to you by means of some tutorial text boxes but effectively lets you figure things out for yourself in the first few battles you fight. Once you get the hang of things, it’s fairly straightforward and being able to change weapons and use special abilities is fun.

With all that said however, later on battles start escalating rather quickly. There are a few types of battles available and the game randomly assigns battlefields which you can choose from. Picking one over another generally comes down to the type of battle you’ll be fighting as well as the rewards and enemy presence. Some battles for example feature heavy or extreme enemy resistance but the rewards are well worth the struggle. Other battles may feature only air units or waves of enemy tanks so players will need to carefully pick missions based on their defensive structures built around their Prime Cannon. Winning battles contributes to a meter that displays the Tauron forces hold against the Imperion but it should be noted that filling this meter doesn’t end the game until an Imperion Overlord is summoned and defeated. Losing all control against the Imperion though will result in a game over so players should avoid losing too many battles.

Taur has a research tech tree that’s quite large and will take a couple of hours to complete before everything is available. Progressing through the game and unlocking new structures and commander abilities is rewarding. This keeps you coming back for more, even in the face of crushing defeat as you watch your entire tower defence crumble. Players can also reforge their weapons for added efficiency and this adds some additional longevity to the game.

Graphically, Taur is visually pleasing in all aspects. Everything from enemy units to flashy particle effects and the environment is “minimalist clean” so to speak. The game’s great visuals speak for themselves. It’s gorgeous throughout but there are only a limited number of maps available and the repetition does sink in after playing for a few hours. The soundtrack used in Taur isn’t bad with great sound effects and good battle music to boot.

Overall, Taur is a great indie title. It’s priced really well on Steam and it delivers a tonne of great content that will keep you busy for at least 5 hours or more depending on how much time you’re willing to sink into the game. It does get repetitive eventually but the same can be said for a lot of games that feature tower defence elements. Ultimately, Taur is a game we definitely recommend picking up.

Taur is available on PC and can be purchased here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227780/Taur/ for £19.49

Taur is Published and Developed by Echo Entertainment

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