Old Skool RTS ingredients mixed with suitably difficult missions makes this sometimes frustrating RTS a real challenge.
Being a cheap game from the Steam Store I expected this Indie classic to be pretty typical of other resource based RTS games. I was pleasantly surprised to find the gameplay, although simplistic, very challenging. After completing the tutorial missions (which I recommend you complete), the first mission had me restarting every 10 or 15 minutes. You start with two soldiers on a medium sized map and your objective is to rescue your captive comrades.
Initially I was incredibly frustrated, there's no obvious attack route and you only start with two weak soldiers who are easily wiped out should you alert an enemy vehicle, which I did consistently! You can build bases to generate vehicles and other units and although there is an infrastructure in place for you to do this on the first mission, if you attempt it, the enemy become alerted and wipe you out in a couple of minutes. So it would seem, against the classical RTS approach (build bucket loads of units and hammer the enemy), this strategy would not work here. So after having to restart nearly 10 times I decided a different approach, I would rescue some of my fellow soldiers and then come back and kick bad guy butt, capture the base and then build a bunch of units to complete the mission. Great plan, problem is I was unable to save enough units to build a significant force to take the enemy base and by the time I figured out my next strategy it was 2am!
The Pro's
- Classic game play is challenging and simplistic;
- The old skool approach introduces new challenges;
- The training missions are comprehensive;
- The game play is addictive and although you were likely have to restart over and over, you do learn more about the map which leads to better strategy's;
- It's a real strategy game, in that the usual build and destroy tactics will not work, you must find strategy's that leverage your existing resources until you can secure more.
The Con's
- At the end of a mission or when you die restarting requires a complete application reboot!? This can get annoying when you only survive a couple of minutes and have to reload the entire game.
- You can't skip the sometimes long intro to each mission, restarting requires watching the objectives again;
- The graphics are quite dated, but it does give it a retro feel;
- There is little help to aid you in planning your strategy, but this also forces you to think outside the box.
Overall
In all this is a game I see myself playing at some length and the real measure of any game is the amount of time you spend on it. The other game I recently played to the end (I've been playing games since the PC was released and have completed less then 20 games) was Mass Effect 2 and suspect this may also be another one I will see to the end. For a mere £15 ($20) this game offers plenty of fun and challenges. It is much harder then most RTS games but this is all part of the appeal. Overall I would recommend it if you've run out of games to play and need something to tie you over until the next big PC release.