Packed with action, Future Tactics is a turn-based tactical RPG that looks and feels like an action/platform game. Built around a highly complex turn-based battle engine, the adventure showcases a single-player Story Mode, as well as a two-player Battle Mode.

The plot is set in the not too distant future, when Earth as we know it has succumbed to a race of extra-dimensional creatures. Now the final hope for restoring order to the planet rests on the shoulders of a young boy, his sister and a rag-tag assembly of unlikely warriors.

Future Tactics: The Uprising features: 18 stylized and high-polygon characters interacting in rich, full 3D environments;
Unique, number-free turn-based tactical combat system designed to keep players immersed in the action, not the stats;
19 action-packed, highly intense levels waiting to be conquered;
Massively deformable terrain. Landscape can be permanently destroyed, leaving behind craters and canyons;
Compelling storyline told through fully animated and voiced cut scenes;
Two-player customizable battle mode lets gamers tweak handicaps, power-ups and victory conditions;
Experience point system allows custom building of team members, allocating upgrades as players see fit;
Boot Camp tutorial mode allows novice players to learn good tactics right away.

Visually, the game utilizes a cartoony style for its characters, with bold, simple lines and strong colors. The aliens have more detail and a greater range of expression than their human counterparts, unfortunately, who can be rather wooden. The environments are at their most interesting when peppered with buildings whose walls crumble and smoke and whose glass shatters when they are stuck by weapon fire. Uninhabited outdoor environments tend to be bland, with simple rocks and vegetation and little to catch the eye. The game's graphics are essentially unchanged over all three systems that it appears on; it does not take advantage of any one platform.

Future Tactics: The Uprising is too simple to be truly satisfying to either fans of the tactical or action genres. The deformable environments can be very neat, but there's only so many times you can watch a hole sink into the ground or shatter a small structure into pieces--there's not much else to the game to really involve you. The title is nice at a budget price, but most people will be better off saving those pennies for a game with more to offer.