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Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is a turn-based squad tactics game built around running heists in a cyberpunk future where the ecosystem has collapsed and only 112 cities remain.
The heist loop: planning and execution
A job begins at the safehouse, where you select a crew from your roster of mercenaries — each with their own cyberware, faction ties, and a multiclass build you shape over time. Missions unfold across multiple stages, and grid-free movement lets you position a hacker behind a server stack or set a soldier against environmental cover without snapping to tiles. Stealth pays; a silent approach through a side corridor often avoids triggering the full site alert. When things go loud, the turn-based combat leans on specialised overwatch cones, weapon mods, and the line-of-sight rules of the cover system.
Between missions: the safehouse and the city
Back from a job, you manage contacts and upgrade cyberware — artificial intelligence was created, destroyed, and banned worldwide, so the implants you slot are old-world tech, scavenged and risky. Faction connections open new contract types, and weapon modding lets you tailor a rifle for a quiet infiltrator or a loud street samurai. The game runs in English on macOS 12 and above, and the 2.7.73 update added a content expansion alongside outfits, plus mobile access via Steam Link and cloud gaming.
A heist, start to finish: the data-tap job
Consider a mid-game contract from a minor corp that wants a rival's research stream intercepted. The briefing marks a two-stage insertion: an office tower lobby and a basement server vault. Preparation at the safehouse takes ten minutes. I slot a hacker with a signal-boost implant and a soldier carrying a suppressed rifle modded for short-range punch; the third slot goes to a face with high faction privilege, which unlocks a dialogue bypass at the lobby checkpoint. Talent trees matter here — the hacker's Signal Ghost passive and the soldier's Overwatch Sentinel shape the whole approach.
Stage one opens with grid-free positioning behind a concrete planter. The face talks the crew past the front desk, so the first two turns stay silent. The hacker moves to a terminal near the elevators, starts a remote tap and draws no alarm — the independent AI on the guard patrol calculates line-of-sight, not omniscience. Stage two shifts to the vault. A camera spots the soldier, and the fight begins. Overwatch cones lock down a corridor while the hacker manipulates initiative, delaying an enemy drone's turn long enough for a frag grenade to land. Cover degradation forces a reposition after three rounds; the soldier retreats to a server rack, heals with a cyberware stim, and the crew extracts with the data stream intact. The whole job runs about twenty-five minutes, and the custom story system logs which squad members were present — their traits evolve based on that success.
Two-man contracts: stretch starting funds by leaving that third slot empty
After installing, resist the urge to build a full roster immediately. Run the first two contracts with a pair of mercenaries and let the third slot stay empty; this keeps the early economy comfortable while you learn how initiative manipulation and overwatch interact. Spend your first safehouse upgrade on the armoury workbench — weapon modding opens earlier than the tutorial suggests, and a muzzle brake on a starting rifle changes recoil behaviour in ways that make grid-free cover fights more forgiving.
Pay attention to faction privilege before accepting a job. The reputation panel shows exactly which contacts will sour if you take a given contract, and a first-week mistake that tanks a useful faction closes several multi-stage mission lines. On the technical side, if you use Steam Link on a Mac, bind a two-finger tap to the End Turn command in the controller settings; the mobile overlay defaults to a bare layout, and that one remap saves half a dozen misclicks per session.
Questions before the download
People often ask whether the turn-based pacing feels slow on a first play. The answer depends less on the combat clock and more on the heist loop: between missions you manage contacts, mod weapons, and read short story events that the custom system tailors to your squad. The rhythm is closer to a tabletop session than to a real-time tactics game. If you have played the developer's earlier title Star Traders: Frontiers, the layer of safehouse upgrades and talent multiclassing will feel familiar, though the shift to grid-free cover and independent enemy AI changes the tactical texture considerably.
Another common question concerns the cyberpunk setting — specifically whether the collapse of the ecosystem and the ban on artificial intelligence are just window dressing. They are not. The 112 remaining cities form a closed network of faction territories, and the fact that AI was created, destroyed, and banned worldwide explains why cyberware is scavenged rather than manufactured. You feel that scarcity in every implant choice: a rare heat-sink mod might come with a privilege penalty from a faction that hoards pre-ban tech. Some players hunting the full version of cyber knights flashpoint on Mac wonder about performance; the game runs smoothly on Apple Silicon, and the 2.7.73 build was tested on macOS Tahoe with a 2024 Mac mini M4 without hitches, even during multi-stage missions with heavy environmental cover and overlapping overwatch cones.
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