Cool idea, execution is a mixed bag...
User Rating: 6.9 | Darwinia PC
When I initially finished the demo for this I loved the game...so much so that I immediately bought it. The quasi-retro feel to the music and graphics makes the world very immersive and unique. It is a cool twist on the RTS formula, in that you control a small squad of troops and only control your 'peons' indirectly. After getting further into the game however its shortcomings become apparent. As many have stated, the path finding is terrible. It could be argued that it is intentionally so, but you'd think at least your troops would be able to not get stuck on mountains/water when directing them to reasonably close targets. This wasn't an issue initially, but as the battles get bigger and more complex it really becomes annoying. It is also impossible to select larger groups of varied units, so unless you're handy with the hotkey's movements of more than 5 units is cumbersome. Finally, the weapons are difficult to target at times, and eliminating larger groups of enemies or some of the tougher ones gets to be a tedious and repetitive 'trial and error' exercise while aiming grenades and rockets.
For the money it's not a bad game, but when compared to the likes of Warcraft it's hard not to be bothered by the lack of polish. Sure, Blizzard is a large studio who obsesses for years on each title they release, but even the original Warcraft had decent pathfinding and MUCH less bugs. Once you get past the initial WOW factor at the cool graphics, the shortcomings eclipse any of the positive aspects of the game. Honestly I would have happily paid twice the amount for a more polished version of the game, as the concept and style is excellent. It's just too bad the final product is marred by significant gameplay issues.
