An enjoyable but excessively difficult turn-based strategy game.
During your turn, you start out by moving your units in any order, choosing their destinations from the grid, as highlighted by little glowing circles. After the movement part is over, you can direct your units to fire at the enemy (adding a flair of strategy is the fact that only certain units can fire over friendly forces) if they're in range. After all this is done, you press a button, sit back and let the AI take over. Be warned though, the AI is extremely aggressive, relentless, savvy, ruthless and cunning, all in one package. This is both the game's greatest asset and greatest flaw. While it's certainly great to get a good challenge out of the AI for once in an RTS, the game quickly bogs down and infuriates the player by handing him his ass for the umpteenth time. Defeat is the best teacher they say, but no enjoys a losing streak after losing streak after losing streak...
The game has a number of cool additions that certainly add flair to the proceedings. For example, you always have a set of secret allies that appear neutral to the enemy until you decide to reveal their true colors. This makes the game somewhat paranoid, but in a good way. You never know when a previously neutral country turns from an easy source of revenue to a bitter battlefield. Also, since your units move at wildly varying speeds and can't traverse occupied space, strategic planning and execution really plays a part.
Adding to the game's allure is it's intuitive and user-friendly interface. Before you end your turn the game always asks for confirmation, just in case there was something you overlooked. Even better, the game also features a handy undo-button that basically rewinds everything. Destroyed units are brought back to life, lost resources are accumulated again and bonehead moves are undone just like that. While it may seem a bit cheap to hardcore players, even they will learn to appreciate the feature when the AI really ramps up the difficulty. This way you can experiment different tactics with different units without having to have to worry about losing the match because of miscalculation.
Graphically Massive Assault is definitely pretty for a turn-based hex strategy game. While that may not be saying much, you'll come to appreciate the smooth animations, detailed units and vibrant worlds. But on the flipside, the game feels very generic. Even though units are detailed, they lack any true variety, even between factions. The same applies for the setting.
Continuing on this path of mediocrity is the game's audio. While not bad, everything from massive battleships firing to stealthy bombers streaking across the sky sound lackluster and fail to infuse the game with any sense of uniqueness. Adding insult to injury, the game has one of the most horrible voice-overs I've ever heard. You essentially get one voice-over artist for the entire game. Too bad then that it's a woman with a very heavy Eastern European accent, who lacks any emotion or depth. Add to this a cheesy dialogue and you just may want to unplug your speakers when playing Massive Assault.
Massive Assault is a mixed bag really. On one hand it offers some genuinely interesting and solid strategy action, but on the other you've got a difficulty level that's way too high even if you set it on Low, some uninspired design and even worse audio. Still, fans of turn-based strategy games will most likely find plenty to like about this game.