Well this title came out of nowhere for me, but I am very grateful that I did find it!

After watching the trailer I was sold, instantly purchased the game and have had a blast playing it!

What is Age of Undead?

Honestly, it is a mashup of multiple genres; but at it's core, it's an RTS (real time strategy game) in the same vein as macro oriented titles such as Supreme Commander.
Set during a global, undead apocalypse players can take control of the Military or civilian survivors to try to fight back against the undead hordes, or you can play as the undead and overwhelm the remnants of humanity!
Game modes include skirmish/quickmatch and campaigns played out on a large map where you move armies and capture territory in a turn based 4X mode, but battles are fought as closed RTS maps -with everything being extremely customizable.
You can toggle just about everything, from the day/night cycle, weather patterns, difficulty, behaviours of the AI, max population and many more options to create the battle you want to fight.
Battles can be 1v1, or you can wage large scale wars between teams and cover the map in men, tanks and monsters.


Visuals:
Basic, but awesome!
The game has the full range of graphic options, so you can adjust the settings to match your computer, whether it's a monster or a potato.
Watching the game play out is quite a spectacle as hundreds of vehicles, aircraft, soldiers and undead monstrosities all lay waste to eachother.
Explosives, napalm strikes, tracer rounds, it's a visual treat despite the dated graphics.

The factions are each wildly different with impressively sized unit rosters right on release!
Alongside units, resource, defence and production structures, each faction has it's own unique call in abilities that have a long cooldown but can dramatically impact the battle!
These range from summoning a horde of undead, calling in an AC-130 to dominate the battlefield from above or request a particularly brave civilian to drive an oil tanker truck wired with explosives right into the heart of the incoming zombie horde and detonate in a huge explosion which covers the ground in burning fire!

The Military – they have ALL the toys and everything we think is cool.
The most basic unit is geared up fully tacticool wearing a gas mask with red eyes if thats any indication – they have Apaches, A-10 Warthogs, Humvees, Abrams, AC-130 gunships, MLRS systems, howitzers, mortarmen, BTR's, Bradleys, strategic bombers and, everyone's favourite, you can even drop a MOAB on the bad guys!

The Infected – shambling undead horde with impressive unit variety!
Clearly the unit selection has been inspired by games such as Killing Floor and L4D as alongside the regular shuffling zombies there are the full roster of monsters from those games, which in itself is a lot of fun!
But the Infected have everything from zombie nurses to biological artillery to colossal, armoured monstrosities that can destroy an Abrams in a single attack!
My favourite tech line are the parasite hosts – in addition to strong stats and cool appearances (one looks suspiciously like the protagonist from Prototype with his elongated bladed arm), as after they kill a biological enemy, they infect the corpse with their parasite and duplicate themselves!
Which is not only epic and thematic, it can get out of hand when there are hundreds of units!

The Survivors are the third faction – added as an afterthought, this faction is wacky, it's like someone took the Rikers and Cleaners from the Division games, joined them with the people from the Mad Max universe and sent this strange alliance into battle against zombies.

In addition to traditional RTS gameplay, you can elect to play in a support role and backup your allies.
Instead of building a base and producing armies you take a backseat, while your allies do the gruntwork on the ground you can support them in 1 out of 3 different ways;
Air support: You have a pair of airfields in one of your allies bases, and gain a trickle of resources throughout the match which you use to purchase aircraft and carry out bombing runs and launch strike craft to help your allies defeat the enemy.
Tactical Support: You gain a constant trickle of strategic points and interact with the match via your factions strategic abilities, which have much shorter cooldowns.
First Person Support: My favourite, you have aircraft that you can call in and personally control, similar to Call of Duty killstreaks, including the awesome AC-130 gunship!

The developers are extremely active in engaging with the community, onboarding ideas, suggestions and fixes and have already released patches resolving the most pressing of issues.
The team are passionate about their game and value community input.

Overall, I love the idea of the game, and I love the gameplay so I do not hesitate in giving it a big thumbs up.

As much as I want to leave a positive review, (especially if the devs are actually attempting to make the game better) I have to leave it negative. At its current state, $30 for this is honestly a slap in the face. Im not even trying to be mean or toxic. I understand somewhat if the team of devs are a small group, but still. Feels like I went to a restaurant and bought a pizza and they give me a half cooked pizza. ESPECIALLY FOR $30. This game at its current state has no strategy, the pathfinding is extremely painful to watch and there is barely any feel good about winning a match in the campaign/skirmish. All you have to do is start the match building 2 of every resource producer, build 10 builders from HQ then build 3 of every unit building and begin to spam everythin. I will keep my eye on this game to see if the devs improve this game or not

After reading through the positive reviews it seems I've been transported to a parallel dimension or something. I honestly cannot tell which game they played, but it wasn't this one. First off, let me say I love the idea and the setting. Massive RTS where you can use infantry, vehicles, and aircraft to bomb huge zombie armies? Obviously I want to play that.

However, Army of Undead in its current state is more of a sandbox than a strategy game.
It would need multiple changes to go from sandbox to game. Where to begin?

1) Base building technically exists but only to make buildings that can spam units. You also have buildings that automatically generate resources instead of harvesters or workers. Imagine C&C, for example, but take away refineries, tech buildings, and super weapons. It's important to understand the mechanics and purpose behind base building in RTS games.

2) Units and buildings are created very quickly which turns every battle into a tug-of-war. The AI essentially gathers a certain number of units and then sends them against you in a stream. If you want to move the frontline towards the enemy base, you just have to shoot your way through this endless stream of mutants. This can work in games like Infested Planet, for example, or the Castle Fight mod for WC3. However, your military hardware gets just as easily shredded as the zombies and mutants, so you're always trading blows 1-for-1.

3) All units are unlocked right from the start, which means battles don't escalate over time. There are no upgrades or a tech tree so you can't really tech up or improve your units. Again, imagine C&C, but with mammoth tanks available as soon as you have your war factory. There's no real structure to the battles and I'm not even sure if there's different damage and armor types.

4) The campaign, just like base building, technically exists but it comes down to a series of skirmishes. Without any upgrades or territory bonuses or special resources or techs, there's no real point to moving your armies via the hex view. You are fighting a series of skirmishes and they all play out as described above. Again, it's important to understand the mechanics and purpose behind a "campaign mode" and what it offers the player.

5) AoU features additional "modes", like only controlling support powers, or air units, or controlling certain units from a first-person shooter perspective and leaving the base building and unit control to the AI. This is a great idea and a good fir for the game. However, my excitement wore off when the dev describes these modes in the tutorials as being totally new to the strategy genre and "yet another novelty". This shows a lack of background knowledge about the genre, because these modes have been around since the 90s and were popular during the 2000s in one variation or another.

6) When I read through the steam forum for AoU I saw that the dev actively responds to many threads (good) but I mainly saw responses like "no you are wrong, this game is very good" or "don't worry it will get patched later" etc... There's even a comment where the dev asks what exactly an "attack move" is or why the player requested it. This is not a good sign for customers, because it gives off the impression that the dev is someone who a) is absolutely convinced that this game offers a 20€ value to players and b) seems to lack basic understanding of strategy games. There might a need for some introspection.

I hope my feedback makes sense and can help both players/buyers and the dev. It would simply be wrong and dishonest to write "wow great game" and give a thumbs up. Taking feedback is part of any career or professional endeavor and sometimes it needs to be harsh.

Imagine the kind of game this could be only 1-2 years from now! Solo dev is hard, so be proud and go all in.

Do I recommend this game? Yes, absolutely, and let me tell you why. At first glance, it might seem cheap and badly made with sub-par graphics. FOOLS! How many AAA games have you been sold by disreputable individuals that played like @ss and had the depth of a rain puddle? They sure looked nice in the trailer though, but they ALWAYS look nice in the trailer! That's the point of trailers.

No, I recommend this game because the developer has something that has been lost in the gaming industry lately: Creativity. He has a mind to do something off the beaten path, and the stones to put his labor and time into something with no real guarantee of success, as opposed to the current gaming industry who only seems keen on investing in products assured to bring in the millions, thus perpetuating the same old lowest common denominator homogenized mush we've become accustomed to.

But how does it PLAY? Well, let me tell you, this is something I haven't seen in a decade, and even when the likes of the Walking Dead, Dead Rising, and Killing Floor were doing it, they didn't do it this well. You start off building up your base, command and conquer style (RTS will never die), creating a few troops and then seeking out and engaging the enemy. As you progress, building up more resource generation structures (which are NOT dependent upon map control, thank god), you get better units and defenses. Riflemen give way to jeeps with .50 cals, who give way to tanks, aircraft and artillery, and that last word is the name of the game when facing an enemy army that is larger than yours. Which, the armies of the undead are almost always larger than yours unless you are winning. In the immortal words of the great Markiplier, you are going to kill a LOT of zombies.

However... that isn't the only way to play. At the match set-up, you can opt not to control a faction, but to command support powers, air forces, or only play in first person. What is available in that mode? I'm so glad you asked. Would you like to mow down the swarms of the undead on board an AC-130 gunship, Timmy? Yes, you would. Hop aboard, little guy.

Say the AC-130 isn't quite your speed. You are pickier than a wine snob, but don't worry. We've got you covered. How about an old B-17 with plenty of bombs on board to turn that infested hamlet into a walmart parking lot? How about an old Spanish galleon suspended by a helium blimp, and has a full broadside of cannons raring to take that old run down zombie horde, and refurbish it into a violent spray of meat confetti? It's a good thing :) It's the perfect thing for if you had to spend the last 10 hours around your boss, who has the personality of a jalapeno suppository, and you just want to shoot some dead guys. Clearly, Insane Dreamers knows its audience.

What if you are an especially disturbed individual and have some of the more creative mental disorders? Well, you can play AS the zombies. How many games actually let you do that? How many games actually do it well instead of just as an afterthought? Not many, let me tell you. Believe me, I've looked. The zombies are a mix of resident evil, Killing Floor, Left 4 Dead and The Thing with plenty of unit variety. You've got your groupie crowd shambling their way toward the humans by the thousands, runners, Hunters that leap like freaks, several different variety of tanks, cybernetically augmented zombies like the FleshPound, and even ones whose flesh has mutated into solid stone. Some units can even spread the zombie virus to enemy units and when they die, they swap teams to come to work for you.

If neither the Undead or the Army rub you the right way, there's also the survivors faction, or the “fun faction” as the game lists it so, but I prefer to call it the “Redneck” faction. They're big on fire, can raise an infantry army on a budget, enlist psychopaths and convicted felons to help out with our zombie problem, and have brought up a number of old WW2 aircraft, which still work.

Is it going to challenge Starcraft 2 for the throne of RTS games? Well... no, but dammit man, they are trying something new here in an industry that has become completely paralyzed by greed and indecision, and that is worth the price of admission. There is a demo available to try before you buy, which harkens me back to the time when you could rent video games for $5 instead of paying $60 for cleveland steamer stuck on your chest because you played a game for 2 hours and 42 seconds and steam is showing you which of their fingers is the longest, so go ahead and give it a shot. If you like what you see, give the developer some scratch and support his work. In my humble opinion, he has earned it, and honestly, the way he handles the myriad forum whiners of the internet is absolutely hilarious. Dude is 110% savage and has my respect. Now, I'm gonna go shoot some more dead people. Y'all excuse me.

Poorly balanced to the point of being unplayable. Every time you set up a defensive point, the enemy spawns 25+ high level enemies directly in the middle of your base, rendering 90% of defenses and 100% of your artillery useless. I honestly can't even tell if it's just a bug, it's that bad.

Seems like a good game otherwise but unfortunately cannot recommend, especially given the price.

Finally a classic RTS game. A little rough around the edges and the graphics are not triple A but you don't need that. The game in itself is damn fun to play and from what I can see I have to commend the developers for fixing the thing with the AI on the first day. That is how you should do it.

I have no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue how this game has a very positive rating. I suspect they are bought views. The Ai in the game is broken and they will not attack units near them unless you tell them to. The game is a great concept but horribly executed.
Dont be scammed and buy this game like I did.

A unique RTS where you play as either the Military, a motley group of survivors or the infected in either RTS-style battles or on a risk-style turn based campaign, every time your armies (or say, one of your allies goes into battle and you have air support on standby nearby) you can fight the enemy in real time.

Its quite rough around the edges, but the dynamic campaign mode which you can customise is going to keep bringing me back for more.

Just needs a little bit of bug fixing here and there, but overall this is a solid and one-of-a-kind strategy war game.

Who doesn't want to play as the military and carpet bomb entire cities whilst your tanks, helicopters and artillery unleash hell on the infected hordes?

For the first few hours, I found this game really engrossing and addictive.
The scale of combat is great and so are the support powers. The visuals are surprisingly good all things considered. There's lots of units on all sides, a 4 resource economy and a few interesting options for unit behaviour. As a bonus, the tutorials are good and the flavour text is amusing.

I started playing the campaign mode after learning the game, which itself also has many cool features. The problem came when the enemy was able to throw a huge number of armies (around 15-20) toward me, which when it's the enemy turn, means I get to choose between a manual battle and losing my army from each attack. Herein lies the problem, because after a few battles (1 enemy campaign turn resulting in at least 8 with my position), things become a repetitive, laborious slog.

There a few modes, but because of the way the AI plays, you can almost always find success by hording units up and pushing against their main base. What is more, the enemy usually throws the same randomised horde of monsters at you, so you don't even really have to think too hard about army composition. Just some light and heavy tanks, with some air support and you are good. Games lack enough variety for there to be much replay-ability.

Another big issue is the AI. I wasn't expecting the AI to perfect and I think it has decent pathing on the whole, but you do run into the ridiculous conga line frequently and the occasional stuck unit(s). Having maps made of urban grids does not gel well with this either. The real problem though, is the inability to work effectively with the AI allies, which can be very helpful, or about as much use as a chocolate teapot. This is also the unfortunate bane of the support, air support and FPS modes, as you have to leave the most important parts of the game (unit production and army manoeuvres) to the AI while you focus on killing a fraction of the enemies you're up against with air power and watch the AI army pull most of the weight.

Further issues include tanks struggling to shoot while executing a move command and units not having target priority options.

All of that said, I bought this game because I love the concept and the gameplay can be really fun. If they find a way to make campaign battles faster and/or more interesting then this game would be a great singleplayer experience.

While very rough around the edges for a solo dev this is one of the better RTS games out there. It's a good blend of everything. Defiantly worth a buy at it's current price.