I actually liked the game better than the one it's mechanics are inspired by: "They Are Billions". Mostly because having one unit get through your defenses doesn't cause an inevitable game over (which often happens in T.A.B.). Also if you fail a campaign mission you just re-try it, it doesn't put a permanent demerit on your score because you don't have the galaxy brain needed to do succeed at every mission on your first try (a T.A.B. "feature" that I always disliked). >>> (I found They Are Billions very frustrating, so apologies for the mini rant). On it's own merits, this game is mostly about building up a town/fortress, researching new technologies (to unlock new units/defenses), building a perimeter of walls/towers (sometimes using choke-points, other times defending more wide open areas), and fighting off hordes of enemies that come from different sides of the map. (And eventually from all sides on the harder missions at the later stages). I kinda wish the hordes showed up a bit less frequently, as often you only have a minute or two to build up a bit of your economy before another wave shows up. >>> (There's a feature to delay the next wave by 30 seconds, and I often found that to be pretty critical to get a few extra moments to put out fires and get my guys in position). >>>>> (Doing that lowers your score multiplier, but even with the lower multiplier I usually end up with a higher total score when more time is added, as it gives me more time to build my base/forces and kill the outer guardians). *(Like with T.A.B. you can pause the game to place buildings and issue orders if things get hectic, but most missions I didn't need to use it more than a handful of times). The fire mechanic is probably my least favorite feature, certain enemies can light buildings (and units) on fire, and it will spread and do damage over time (including to stone buildings, frustratingly enough). >>> (It takes your units a bit to put out the fires and sometimes it seems to spread faster than you can deal with it. I wish that the repair button would just take care of the fire when there are no enemies nearby, or there should be some kinda building/unit that can put out fires faster than the others). Overall though, I liked being able to build up layered walls with towers and defenses, and level up my troops by having them move from area to area during the waves (at least until the later waves on the harder levels where you'll need troops everywhere), and aside from the fire/disease mechanic I don't think anything was too frustrating. I also liked that the Tier 2 units (that you have to research to get) were a lot tougher, hit harder, and usually had either area of effect attacks or longer range to justify the increased resource cost. Though any of the units/buildings that used "Star Metal" I tended to only use very sparingly, since there's hardly any of those resource nodes on the map. I also liked that the main hero can level up several times, eventually becoming a "one man army" that can usually hold one of your choke-points nearly by themselves. There were some missed opportunities. There's a comic in game that's quite well illustrated and well written, but it's a side feature that you read outside the main game. I think with some work they could have inserted pages of it in-between missions and made things more immersive. I also think that the Market place not auto selling your excess resources is a bit of a no brainier, and something that causes you to have to do extra micro-management from time to time. (This is something T.A.B. did better, as their market frequently did auto sell extra resources). It's also odd that pausing the game makes it far easier to upgrade your buildings, as without it you have to click on them and find the upgrade button. >>> (I kinda wish you could just select multiple buildings then upgrade all of them. Or have it so that the upgrade overlay from the pause menu could be turned on/off without pausing). As mentioned before, I wish you could put out fires (when no enemies are nearby) with the repair button. Either that or have some building/unit that can put them out more effectively. >>> (The fire mechanic often requires unit micro-management, making it frustrating to deal with as you're often already pressed for time in-between waves as is). Also this game has Co-Op, I've tried it once or twice and it can be pretty fun; though it uses shared resources, so sometimes you can interfere with the other players expansion plans by accident if you're not careful. - - Overall, even though I like this game better than "They Are Billions" (as I found that T.A.B. too frustrating to enjoy), I'd say this game could use a bit more polish and balancing to go from good to great. I'd give it a solid 7/10, I could see myself playing this for another 20-30 hours, and it was well worth the purchase price. So if you want something kinda like T.A.B. (but not as ridiculously difficult), give this game a shot.
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