Publisher Epic Games and developer Pumpernickel Studio wanted to bring a different spin on Real Time Strategy (RTS) games. They made this attempt in Touch Type Tale , they provided a traditionally nontraditional RTS experience by giving us RTS mechanics along with completely different controls. Let’s see how it turned out…

Story

In Touch Type Tale the story is told in a visual novel style. There are pictures of a scene that are narrated over to combine and give a smooth experience. You follow the character Paul throughout his quest for good. You start in the town of Glenfort where Paul is the apprentice to the local Wizard in town named Adelburt. Paul stumbles upon a mysterious device that Adelburt has kept hidden and it happens to be a magical typewriter or an ancient keyboard for those who may not know. The village of Glenfort is then attacked by raiders and Paul uses the magical typewriter to command troops and save the village of Glenfort. Adelburt leaves when he is summoned by a king and specifically tells you not to use his typewriter anymore, but obviously, Paul doesn’t listen. You assist the mayor of Glenfort once more then Paul decides that he wants to do more good with this typewriter.

Paul goes on his own way toward a city called Noxfort. The city is taken by hunger and poverty and if that wasn’t enough Noxfort is also under siege by Nordman. Paul wanted to do what’s best for the people and uses Adelburt’s typewriter to take back control of the city. Then Paul is asked to assist in escorting some caravan of food and money so that the town can get their poverty under control, but when the Noxfort is showing no signs of improvement he suspects there may be foul play and not wanting to help a greedy king he takes his typewriter and leaves again.

Paul continues going from town to town helping Mayors, Kings, and Queens but seems to be let down everywhere he goes. He eventually travels his way overseas to assist in a building that is under construction and is in need of a very specific set of tools. Upon arrival, Paul quickly notices that the people of this new town aren't acting as they have been previously described. Paul finds out about a malevolent leader and is determined to free these people but in the process gets himself in more trouble. Now time to find your way out Paul.

Gameplay

The gameplay is easily the most unique part of this game. Like any RTS game there you have your basic troop command gameplay. In the campaign, each level has a different layout, starting point, and goal to complete. In the basic RTS levels where you just need to take over the opposing base you just gather troops, collect money, and send troops forward to take over the different map points. There are also different types of levels. There are escort levels where you have to escort a caravan from point A to point B which makes you pay attention to a larger portion of a map. Probably the most different level type that you will play is a performance level, you will perform for a king’s court by typing the keys in a rhythm mini-game.

In your traditional RTS fashion in the normal troop command levels you build buildings like a Farm and different Barracks for your troops. There are a few different types of troops like swordsmen, archers, pikemen, and horse riders. Each with different benefits they will bring to a battle interaction. The farms you build or take over are a way to make a little extra money. You plant fields of wheat and wait for it to grow and when it's done growing you type the words that are above each plot and sell it for a small amount of money. There are also the mines where you will gather most of your money, you take a small cart and type the letter that is on the back to get a boost and as it scrolls along the screen you type the words that come up on the gold deposits in the background to gather gold. Then you go to your castle where you can hire workers to go to the mines and bring back the gold deposits for you to use. Aside from hiring workers in the castle, you can purchase upgrades to your troops and buildings and you can also purchase specialty troops that take a little longer to train but bring extra large bonuses to your battlefield.

The biggest thing that this game does differently than a traditional RTS game is the controls. Instead of highlighting and clicking, dragging, and clicking some more. Everything is done on the keyboard, I'm not even sure you need a mouse to be able to play this game. On your screen when you load up a level you have a castle and your mine, each has a word above it that you type to access it. As the game progresses you will have troops to command and different buildings to access, each with different words above it to access. To command your troops, the same as accessing a building you have to type the word that appears on the trail you wish the troops to take. Now as the game progresses there are more troops with multiple directions to take and multiple buildings to access. The way they differentiate is on the buildings and in the mines or the farms, the words always start with a capital letter, and the troop directionals are all started with a lowercase letter. Even with that to differentiate it's pretty impressive that the words don't jumble up, or get confusing, and how quickly the words are able to generate to keep the gameplay as fluid as possible.

Audio and Visual

The game is visually pleasing, it captures a storybook feel very well. The cutscenes play like a graphic novel where nothing is really moving just still pictures being woven together to tell a story. The drawing style resembles what you would see in a lot of cartoonish medieval characters and backgrounds. The actual gameplay itself comes with small game pieces to represent your troops almost like little Risk pieces.

The audio is played nicely as well. The music is something you would hear at a Renaissance Fair so it’s very fitting in that aspect. My favorite parts of the game are the satisfying ticks from the in-game typewriter as you play. For each letter you type in-game there is a small tick in the background as a confirmation and I thought this would get annoying but it became a satisfying sound to hear. The narration is by Academy and BAFTA award-winning actor Jim Broadbent, you might recognize him from movies such as Iris or Mulin Rouge. His voice is very fitting and southing for the narration he really makes you lean into the story as it’s being told because he really gives it his all by attempting different voices for even the most minute characters.

Replayability

There is actually quite a bit of reason to return to this game after completion! At each major city, there are multiple levels with five different difficulties - the harder the difficulty the more stars you gain for the level. In each city there are bonus levels in which you unlock with stars, so you can replay the levels at harder difficulties to gain stars to play the bonus levels. There is also an online mode where you can engage in battles with friends or the Skirmish mode with a computer.

What It Could Have Done Better

From playing it in the preview phase to now there are already a lot of improvements. I think where it shows some room for improvement still is in individual character combat, I think that there is a missed opportunity there. I think they could add a small bonus from a mini-game that you play during troop combat to aid your troops, maybe healing them or giving a damage boost. It can make the battles feel slow at times when you just have to wait for your troops to finish fighting.

I also really liked the levels that came with a different play style than the normal take over the enemy base. It would have been nice to see a few more of these levels or maybe a mini-game-only game mode.

Verdict

Touch Type Tale is an RTS at its core and it actually does that well. While bringing some new controls to this well-known game style, it’s actually a fun play. When I played the preview I said that I wanted a more in-depth teaching of the RTS aspects, which it seems to do really well the more you play because it puts you into bigger and bigger battles. I also asked for some diversity in gameplay and low and behold they delivered! There are different game modes to play, there are mini-games, and they really shined in keeping the game fresh. But with that being said, all the typing can become too much very quickly. If you’re not used to typing for long periods, or if you type all day, it might not be the game for you. But also on the other side of that blade, if you’re trying to learn how to type faster this might be the perfect way to do it! In the end, for $19.99, if you have the extra cash or catch it on sale I would say it’s a pretty fun game and you should give it a try.

Touch Type Tale is available now as a PC Exclusive available only on Epic Games.