The Lamplighters League Blends Stealth, XCOM Combat, and a Ritzy 1930’s Aesthetic

ign.com:

After Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Marvel’s Midnight Suns last year, I’m champing at the bit for more of the fantastic and challenging turn-based tactics that not enough games offer. So when I recently went hands-on with Shadowrun developer Hairbrained Schemes’ The Lamplighters League, it was like stepping into a warm bath. The alternate-history 1930’s setting evokes an Indiana Jones-like adventurer’s charm filled with fedoras and tommy guns, and that felt like the perfect backdrop for the mix of diabolical stealth and strategic combat I overwhelmingly enjoyed in this admittedly small taste.

The Lamplighters League’s killer feature is how it blends realtime stealth hijinks with turn-based combat in the same vein as XCOM. Before fists and lead start flying, characters can move freely to gather recon, collect items, and take out enemies undetected, but once I was inevitably spotted, the action switched to the cover-based tactical combat you’d find in the likes of Gears Tactics. The advantage of this hybrid model is that I was allowed to sneak around, feeling like a roguish ne’er-do-well as I scouted ahead and set myself up for success in the upcoming bout. Then, by the time the turn-based shenanigans began, I was armed with the knowledge and tools I needed to win the day.

Another advantage of Lamplighters League’s realtime/turn-based hybrid model is that, because I was returned to infiltration mode after each fight, it gave me a chance to catch my breath before the next section, which meant levels were longer than your typical tactics game. It’s always bothered me that the levels in tactics games are far too short, and just when I’m getting into it I suddenly find myself back at base, customizing my squad to prepare