Recent reviews by morrokain10587

TLDR: I just beat the campaign on easy and I have to say that this little RTS is a gem that is well worth the low asking price.

I would love to see more factions added at a later date (I'd pay for them too) but as it currently stands the AI is good and there is a skirmish mode for some replay-ability. Unit designs are relatively solid and though I haven't mathed out balance much it at least feels good from a first pass. Its the little things really. For instance, the artillery walker is definitely a better investment for straight up engagements, but tanks can move while firing and so they have a solid niche when microed. Early forts can be placed without wasting the structure later - because after a certain tech is reached they can hover and be moved around. The resource system works very well and is unique to the RTS genre whilst somehow simultaneously feeling right at home for anyone who has played classics like Starcraft. The game is well thought out and I've not run into any bugs. Its amazing that this was done by one person (his sister and mom both helped with the game which is just adorable).

The music is also fantastic and the story is enough to generate some interest in the missions. Mission design is straight from Sc1/Sc2's playbook and it works. Each mission is different so you don't feel like you are doing the same thing over and over again.

As I've mentioned, the biggest con of the game is the lack of faction variety and it could also stand to have a couple of additional "caster" units added in. For the price, however, it really doesn't matter.

I hope to see more from this developer in the future!

TLDR: I'm really sad that I cannot recommend this game. It's a good game that I would pay more money for more missions, but the dev team is incredibly terrible at community management as well as understanding the game they are making. They are clearly either under contract and limited in what they can actually do, or fundamentally inept at managing a game development company or, even, developing a competent video game. Their mistakes are both amateur and even sometimes appear to be deliberately mean spirited.

I have played 65 hours and beaten the campaign on standard and I've also completed a couple of the missions on intense.

The good: For some detail on the game, the art/graphics and atmosphere is really good - especially the first and last chapters. Aliens (AKA Xenomorphs) are going to come from every direction and from the walls and ceiling and really sell the original tense vibe of the movies - of which I'm a big fan. The unique aliens are interesting and require different tactics to overcome. I genuinely enjoy the feel of it all. Though enemy pathing becomes a little too predictable as you redo missions, the difficulty is still there regardless and in a few instances enemies are randomized (more of that sort of thing is essential to the games overall health). Combat is fun even running with bots if you just want to do standard difficulty - though you better be really good at shooters if you want to attempt anything above standard. The perk system is interesting and provides a solid sense of power progression. Consumables were a great decision as well and there is a lot of fun satisfaction to be had planting a bunch of Sentry Guns to fend off a massive wave of Xenos. Most of the classes are interesting as well, and the abilities are fairly unique and create a tactical role that synergizes with other roles fairly well.

The bad:
Balance between classes and weapons is certainly off and you can tell that the devs balanced around standard and not around the harder difficulties. This seems like a really strange decision as difficulty increases exponentially and some classes and weapons fall behind the curve very quickly. Like most shooters, the shotgun/pistol meta still exists here. AOE weapons other than the shotgun become almost useless once friendly fire comes into play. I'm not sure why sniper rifles are in the game. Maybe they are good against armored units?? Still seems like a liability to me. Don't get me wrong, with friends you could definitely manage just about any weapon or class, but bot AI is bad enough that they seem like they are fighting you and not the Xenos. They often run directly into your line of sight - taking damage and even causing mission failure if you just fired a rocket or grenade. They are also locked into a single class with weakened or missing abilities and will refuse to fire on enemies after a few seconds of inactivity. When playing with friends, you might be surprised to learn that the only way to communicate with players will be emotes unless you run the game alongside a discord server or something similar.

The really, really, ridiculously ugly:
Aaannd now we come to the main reason why I can't recommend the game. The devs themselves seem like they have no clue as to what they are doing. The don't listen to the community at all, refuse to acknowledge negative feedback even when constructive, have been dismissive at best or condescending at worst to genuine attempts to improve the game, delete discussion threads that they don't like, and stick to their road map with the religious fervor of a crusader despite the fact that the road map quite literally doesn't make sense for the game in almost every way.

There are only 12 missions and two very limited game modes for 40 dollars. Want more missions? Not going to happen any time soon it seems and most certainly will cost more money - likely with a similar price tag of 5 bucks a mission I'd imagine. Just for reference, a mission takes roughly 15-25 minutes to complete once you know what you are doing. If it weren't for the fact that the design emphasizes speed, this might be ok for players wanting to explore the limited railroad of the map design and soak in the atmosphere. Alas, this is not the case.

Instead, the devs focus on new weapons that obsolete old weapons and only further exacerbate the existing balance issues, or add new classes that are so poorly conceived that you'd think it was drawn up by a 13 year old on acid. I'm not really exaggerating that much... the new class is honestly that bad and the very concept itself doesn't make sense. It's essentially a "chokepoint defense" class that not only fails to defend against the majority of attacks with its main defense ability, but there are very few chokepoints to begin with in the game... you know, because the Xenos climb walls and stuff? What were they thinking?

One of the other things dev time was spent on? A lifetime stats tracker. Again, for 12 missions with no advertised plans of expanding them. What??! Who thought this was a good idea? Are they following some kind of rigid blueprint contrived by market analysts generalizing shooters as a whole or something? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

And now we come to the absolute worst offense and quite honestly the worst decision I can remember in recent history of the game industry - the game bans all multiplayer modes - including what seems like any and all new content - if the player has any mods installed. This is completely unforgivable and I will not buy another ColdIron game in the future until this decision is reversed or at least implemented in such a way that private sessions allow mods. It makes sense to do this with Quick Play pugs, but private sessions with friends?? It is a slap in the face to the entire gaming community and seriously a horrible business call. All of the other things are forgivable and fixable over time. The game has immense potential but it has been dropped into a sewer of bad decision after bad decision. The devs have likely ended their studio's chance at lasting the next couple of years and I'd imagine that the stigma put on any dev with decision making authority will probably hurt their careers in the future.

As an RTS veteran from back to the original C+C, I reviewed this game on the Vanilla version and recommended it because of its superior A.I in the genre (really adapts and challenges you and is very scalable) and its solid resource/unit mechanics and visuals.

Its faults back then were a slight lack of unit variety, a couple of U.I issues and its lack of complex tactical options like stealth or naval units.

I'm back to say Escalation is a solid step in the right direction and well worth the purchase for new or returning players (only 20 dollars for returning).

It did a great job fixing the slight wonkiness of army management and the strategic zoom really helps considering the games huge map scale that only keeps getting bigger (I will say my computer is not a fan at all of the ever-increasing on-screen army sizes lol)

More importantly, though, Escalation adds new defense options with upgradable turrets, and new ways to break that defense with strategic aircraft. Both were sorely neeed to give some variety to unit choices and strategies, and with the 3+ additional ground units added per faction as well, there is now a very solid tactical foundation for the game with several strategies one could decide on and change on the fly. I am really pleased by how much they added without flooding the game with units. I have completed all but the last mission of the campaign and its well balanced this time around. The devs have certainly learned from their early hiccups and that is a very good sign!

That being said, on to the downsides. Though the Global Abilities (like C+C Generals commander skills) have been given a once over and several new and cool things added to your arsenal there, I can't really say that a new tactical "layer" was added. Warping in units and defenses on the fly was always in Vanilla. Its just better and more thought out here.

There are still not any stealth mechanics, naval units or burrowing units in the game, and it slightly suffers because of this. That does give the sense that there is plenty of places to go from here, but be prepared to invest in that development too, as the devs have shown that paid DLC is their drive for continuing to enhance the game. The stand-alone part was just to get another shot a review scores after those enhancements go live.

I, for one, am completely willing to invest in the game. Its the shot in the arm RTS needs with Starcraft II's bar of entry so high and, so far, the paid content has been well worth it.

As an old fan of RTS games going all the way back to Comand and Conquer, this game does a really good job of getting some key basics right:

- Good A.I that actually responds pretty well to what the player is doing and scales in difficulty in a noticeable way. (An underrated yet soo essential piece of a successful RTS that many recent releases have failed to understand).

- Intuitive and well built UI that really helps with unit management. It could certainly be improved to be sure, but it gets the job done and rarely hinders the fun. I would like to see better hotkey design though. Grey Goo is still the king of that castle.

- No pure turtle in base strategies. Resource mechanics (area control and reinforcement) encourage splitting your army, tactical grouping and selective defensive lines.

- Two ways to win in a generic game, leading to multiple strategies.

- The two factions that feel pretty different to play and have different unit roles in some areas. Visually pretty different as well.

- Nice customization options for skirmishes and custom games. Can even have toggleable creep defenders for neutral capture locations similar to SIns of a Solar Empire.

- A decent campaign (should be noted I'm about half way done) with B+ or better voice acting and a passable story that at the bare minimum gives a reason for the factions to be there and what they are about. I actually enjoy it but I've always valued stories in these games so I am probably biased. Its pretty bare-bones narrative-wise however and more a reason for why you are doing X mission. Also pretty challenging even on normal difficulty. Easy is definitely easy though.


Here are some cons, however, that will hopefully be addressed in the future or at the very least through DLC.

- No replay system as far as I know (this is a big one).

- Could use a third balanced faction for some more variety and some more missions. Some DLC is certainly understandable and I think its a decent game considering the beautiful engine and thoughtful design, but 3 factions is in my mind a genre "standard" that should be maintained considering the pricetag so maybe this could be a free release and DLC could stick to maps and maybe more game-types or special units and unit skins.

- Would like to see more tactical options that have been traditionally used in RTS games in the past. These could include: - Cloaking/detection units - Flying Dreadnaughts/Cruisers - Sea Units/Structures - Nuanced tactical units like teleporters or shield generators

- Cannot set yourself as an Observer in AI games and watch the AI duke it out. I enjoy this sometimes and it can give a new player a few tips and tricks too.


Overall an excellent addition to the RTS genre that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys those games.