TABS and the allure of a chemistry set Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. TABS and the allure of a chemistry set And a bit about Peggle. Feature by Christian Donlan Features Editor Updated on 22 May 2019 Something brilliant happened in TABS the other day. TABS stands for Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, and it's a complete joy. You hover above a landscape, whack down a bunch of units, and then watch as your units smash into the enemy's units. Hilarity, as they say, ensues. I was on the city-ish map. Streets and buildings, a Greek vibe, domes and sunbleached plaster. I had decided to splurge on a bunch of very cheap melee units and one bigger, more expensive melee unit to bring up the rear. I think it was a knight. The knight has a sword and shield, and as I sat back and watched the chaos unfold, I realised something was missing. Where was my sword-and-shield guy? Where was the guy I'd spent all my money on? This picture tells the story: There are two reasons this moment worked so well, I think. TABS is a game that encourages glitches and surprising physics fails. Its characters are sometimes alarmingly human in their animation, but with that comes the sort of pratfalls that the alarmingly human are wont to perform. So that's the first reason: this sort of malarkey is encouraged. The second reason has to do with timing, or perhaps the player's role. In TABS you set things going. You design the parameters of an encounter, or at least the parameters of your side of the encounter. And then? Then you watch. You watch it unfold. TABS is a game about watching. This is probably why it's so brilliantly suited to those reaction videos people do on YouTube. This has made me think. Games about watching! Games in which the fun comes from setting things up and then watching how they play out. Domino-run games: preparation and then, Whoa! Look what happened. Edge magazine back in the day suggested that open-world games, a genre that, back in the day, had no name yet, might be called "chemistry set games". This was clearly never going to happen, but I loved the gumption of the idea anyway. But now, here we are and TABS is very much a chemistry set game. You design your experiment and then you sit back and watch. (I still don't think the term "chemistry set game" is going to stick.) The more you look for them, the more these games are everywhere. We had a conversation in the office the other day in which I discovered that several members of the editorial team had never played Peggle. First things first: don't buy it on Steam if you're running Windows 10 because it flat out doesn't work and that's a travesty. Anyway, we got it running on the Xbox and then we were all lost in Peggle for an afternoon. Man, it holds up. What a classic. And low and behold: aim, fire, and then watch. Watch as the ball bounces beyond the moment in which you could have foreseen what it was going to do. Marvel as the chemistry set starts to bubble and fizz. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. 14 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 34 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Sennheiser's legendary HD 599 open-back headphones are just £70 at Amazon in the Prime Early Access Sale Comfortable with neutral sound and a wide sound stage. Preview Football Manager's new Console edition is the best you'll get without a PC Getting Touch-right. 1 Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 61 Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store