Don't get me wrong. I had fun with this game. But when it comes to whether I'd recommend it, hard no. It is buggy to all hell. This game is more strategic than the first, but the first is actually properly made for the most part

Minor nitpick, no volume slider

The things that scream unfinished: Melee units in this game are almost completely bugged (literally cannot hit anything and just moonwalks back and forth doing nothing) or otherwise just bad. Keep in mind that this game is a mobile port. It will always be a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ mobile game. As all mobile games kinda are. You cannot attack move, and melee units have very short aggro range. So they will always be uselessly sitting in a corner doing nothing until you manually move them.

Now for balance. Unlike in the first game, this game has multiple squads you can pick from. This is pretty cool and actually has strategic depth compared to the first, but theres overlap between roles so there is infact a better choice, this unit deals bonus damage against buildings, but this other unit also deals bonus damage against buildings and is so much more versatile that you will never use the former again. and because again, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ mobile port, the overpoweredness of a unit almost always scales with its range as there is no attack move, many a squad were completely forgotten because they had ♥♥♥♥ range. Except weirdly enough for Kathros which are melee units, they are bugged to all hell and sometimes naruto run back and forth doing nothing and refuse to follow move orders at times, but damn do they just move fast, somersault into the air, and eviscerate everything.

I had fun completing the game on Impossible, not as difficult as the first game. Really hate that they removed spec ops missions from this game and replaced them with procedural generated ♥♥♥♥♥♥ repetitive quests. Its also really hard to level heroes in this game as they all start at level 2 for some reason. unlike like in the first game where hero level scales with when you unlock them in the game.

Iron Marines Invasion is a polished RTS game that can use some more polishing. Its adorable graphics, uncomplicated story, and relatively unintimidating learning curve make it a must-have for RTS veterans who wish to get back in the saddle. I feel it would be perfect for newcomers to RTS as well.

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Disclaimer: I don't get compensated for any reviews I write. This is my honest opinion of the game.

[Updated after playing for 29 more hours]
Time played so far: 3 32 hours
Missions completed: 4 27/27 campaign, 2 100+/Infinite Spec Ops
Achievements unlocked: 4 27/34
Heroes maxed: 4/9
Allied races unlocked: All of them

To be absolutely honest, I've been hyped about this one for a while! I checked my Steam library page often to see when it becomes available to install and as soon as it was, I immediately downloaded it and started having fun! Let me tell you, Iron Marines Invasion was worth the wait!

The nostalgia factor is insanely high for me. As soon as I selected my units with left-click and started moving them with right-click, I was regressed back to a simpler and much happier time in my gaming life!!
When I encountered my first enemy squad, my smile grew bigger and I could hear Tanya's voice from Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge for some inexplicable reason!

Being set in space, Iron Marines Invasion's vibes and also voice acting are reminiscent of the beloved original StarCraft.

• There are 27 missions in the story campaign.
  There are numerous Spec Ops missions scattered around the galaxy map. Three are always available between story missions.
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3070918595
  
  
• The player is encouraged to replay any of these missions in order to (a) beat the challenge in each mission, which unlocks both an in-game and Steam achievement and (b) accumulate enough resources to upgrade your tech tree and your heroes.
  The replayability value is there.
  
  
• The difficulty options are Casual, Normal and Veteran. I played on Normal and I was almost invincible. The mission challenge does require some finesse to get done on Normal but not too much. I haven't tried Veteran yet.
  UPDATE: Starting from story mission #6, the difficulty increases. In order to successfully beat the missions, you need to be familiar with the tools at your disposal as a commander (different types of heroes, units, defense towers for different purposes) and understand the game mechanics. Doing so will make adapting your own tactical play style easier and guarantee your success. Again, this is all still on Normal difficulty.
  
  
• Impossible is a fourth difficulty mode that unlocks only once you complete the campaign on any of the aforementioned difficulties.
  Hmmmm I wonder if the game allows us to use our upgraded heroes as in a NG+ by then or no.

You control your

• hero - Each has three ultimate abilities that can change the course of a gunfight. There are 8 you unlock throughout the campaign.
  https://steamcommunity.com/id/VolcanicPM/screenshot/2171358109179194761/
  
  
  
• a few squads per mission - which you choose and train in each mission.
  There are plenty of races you meet and unlock in the campaign. This opens up your tactical options when it comes to your squads for new missions.
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3071452668
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3071451698
  
  
• very few essential buildings - which you construct simply by capturing the immediate zone they're located at.
  Examples: refinery, barracks, defense towers.
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3071452969

Each map is relatively small with a single objective to accomplish, making the missions done and dusted in 10-20 minutes or less each.

The gameplay feels like bare-bones RTS, which is good in the sense that I, for one, am done with base building and resource gathering and the time both waste.
That being said, the game can be improved in more than a single aspect, which leads me to the Quality of Life part.


The game has a lovely cartoonish vibe to it. The graphic style together with the short, simple dialogues, all contribute to making it successfully cartoonish in a positive way. Even the lore is a bit on the comical side. For example, check out the name of this planet and its history!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3070929559
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3071452737

The music score is action-oriented with some suspenseful tones. It fits the overall feel very well.

The heroes and units verbally respond to your commands, which is awesome.
The cut scenes, however, are texts in speech bubbles only.

• Adding camera rotation.
  It isn't available. Trying to order my marines to target an enemy unit standing behind a Refinery (one of the in-game buildings) proves fickle to do.
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3070912735
  
• Showing a small banner or some sort of icon for each group the player assigns to a hot key (via CTRL+1, +2, etc). It's been done in Age of Empires ages ago. (No pun intended but it's not a bad one!)
  
• Explaining the Command Points mechanic better.
  As far as I can tell, the player explores the map and gathers these points then spends them on training more units back in the base. Is that it or is there more to it?
  
• Enlarging the font size.
  The unit and building descriptions are helpful and the planet lore bits are amusing. Please don't make reading them a torturous ordeal. The font size as it is now is really too small.
  
• Make the Click to Continue actually click only.
  As it is now, any keyboard hit means progressing. When I try to take an in-game screenshot of (with my hotkey with Steam overlay active) of a slideshow, the game considers this a Continue button being pressed and moves on. Awesome but I end up with a blank screenshot!
  
• The cutscenes, however, substitute texts in speech bubbles for spoken dialogues. I hope the devs do what their fellows did with Disco Elysium and added the full audio for conversations at a later date.
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3070913790
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3070893496

[Added this after playing for 5 more hours]
There's this bug where you cannot click on any of your buildings.
After a few tries, I found a simple workaround.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2187920/discussions/0/3943524980061054849/

Recommended!
Keep in mind that this is distilled RTS, intentionally simplified to make for a bite-sized, fun time.
Update after completing the campaign and spending 32 hours in game:
Iron Marines Invasion got me back into RTS after I had lost interest in it years ago. I wanted to play other games besides this but I literally couldn't stop until I finished this first. Enough said.

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I played and loved the original Iron Marines. This one felt lackluster in comparison.
The campaign in the original kept me engaged. This one felt repetitive at times.
The Spec-ops in the original were unique and interesting. The ones here are generic fetch and defend quests.
And heros leveling is sooooo slooooow I gave up on maxing them out.
It is clear this one was not focused on, and probably low budget, so keep expectations low when playing it.

Let me just say that I have played the first iron marines game and have gotten all the achivments for it. This is a pretty fun game and I haven't had any issues, until I got the the last mission. The mission starts as normal, I fight the first and second phase, but when I'm done with the second phase my game goes into a forever loop and I can't keep playing. This is a bug that had has been there for months and the devs haven't done anything. So I can't recommend you play this until they fix it.

I'd rather give this game a 'mixed' review.
Iron Marines is one of my favourite Ironhide games made, so I was really exited for this this sequel.
Sadly this game was quite the disappointment for me, if I have to rank it, it will be my least favourite Ironhide game today.

This game felt more like an update for the Iron Marines than a sequel, where they introduced a daily mode. The levels a very short and to easy (I completed every level first try in veteran difficulty with only sniper units). The reason why the levels felt so short is because the areas are not as big as before and most of the time you can just rush to the end objective without any consequences. This game is also half as long as the first Iron Marines (for me that is).

The heroes feel uninspired and underwhelming, I used the second hero until I unlocked the 'Red Dragon' and didn't bother using the others.
They tried something new for the units, unlike the first game you can customize your squad for each level (Kingdom Rush Vengeans style). But the thing with these units is that they also feel underwhelming, the games didn't feel different when I used other squads. Most of the squads felt the same. Only the marine squad and the daikaijjus squad felt worth using.
Normaly each squad has a unique advantage and disadvantage. The tanks have high HP but are low in units, the marines are in a group but have low survival rate... In 'Invasion' most squads exist of one 'tanky' unit with an ability (like sniper, healing, melee...), but if every squad exists of a melee, a ranged and a healing unit why bother choosing if only the race and voicelines feel different.

I would say, try this game if you are intrested, maybe you like (I really hope so), it just wasn't my type of game.

Another 'banger' from Ironhide! I owned all the previous Ironhide steam games, and If you like tower defense style games, this is for you. Progression is great and amping up the difficulty makes it even more challenging. I love the little Easter eggs in the games too. Tons of replay value trying out different troop/tower combos. Personally I like the way the story line is presented in an old school comic book format too. Pew pew!

This game is far from perfect, but the mix of Hero Progression, towerdefense and RTS with its cute art style got me hooked.
The game is very simple but with a surprisingly big campaign with a total of 26 missions.

My life is complicated enough, I was looking for a game like this and it was very worth my time.
More like this please.

Meh, Ironhide has really dropped its standards and quality with each game release. Don't get me wrong, it's still fun but... Sorry not sorry, this game isn't even worth that small price tag. Bonus: It also comes with bugs!

If you enjoyed the original Iron Marines, you’ll surely enjoy Invasion. Don’t expect large changes however, as it’s more of the same. I’d even go as far as saying it’s not up to the standard of other tiles from Ironhide Studios.



🟩 Pros:

+ Simple to understand
+ A lengthy campaign
+ The ability to mix and match unit types
+ Customise your unit types on the fly, with ease

🟥 Cons:

- Movement and targeting did not feel accurate
- The campaign felt repetitive

🏷️ Suggestions:

~ Investigate targeting, as it feels like there is an issue playing without a touch screen


Iron Marines Invasion is a real time strategy (RTS) game which has you commanding heroes and units from several different factions across what feels like quite a lengthy campaign. Unfortunately, both the campaign and units are lacking, and don’t feel fresh or exciting. Don’t get me wrong, Invasion isn’t bad, it just doesn’t offer anything new compared to the original.

You have the option to take up to three different factions to battle, each with their own unique squad designs. However, what feels like a lot of choice initially, proves to be nothing more than a different coat of paint on the same type of units. My main issue was the duplicated roles across factions e.g. 3 different anti air units, or 3 different siege units. On the plus side, you’re able to mix and match units easily, allowing for plenty of experimentation.

Combat is a simple to understand, and there’s a bit of micro management to keep you busy. Often, I’d find myself pulling frontline troops back so they can regenerate health, while maintaining full damage output. While there aren’t any skills or abilities to use (outside your hero unit), you can purchase one time use items to turn the tides of battle on harder difficulties.

Selecting and moving units on the other hand was a chore and didn’t feel as fluid as I expected. Many times, I’d find myself struggling to select squads, or commanding them to attack specific enemies (instead of moving toward them). Iron Marines Invasion is missing that Ironhide polish I’ve grown to love.


Overall, the transition from mobile to PC has been done well in Iron Marines Invasion. Outside some targeting issues, there’s not much I can complain about. The visuals and audio are similar to other Ironhide titles, and the loop is a replica of the first game. Lovers of Ironhide Studios will have fun with Invasion.

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This is a neutral comment: I don't recommend this game, but it's not a bad game. Iron Marine 1 is way better than this sequel.

Pros:
- game doesn't crash
- in-game wiki is added

Cons:
- very bad control on PC -> e.g. select the ultimate ability by left clicking, then you can't cancel it by right clicking or ESC.
- melee units have difficulties to find target
- difficult to select units in order to change shape
- missions are shorter and boring with respect to Iron Marine 1
- Maps are smaller, there are not much to explore in nearly every map.

Features:
- This game is more towards RTS. In Iron Marine 1, it's a creative TD-based game with more maneuvers.
- Units are not balanced. This probably comes from the mobile version in which they sell units separately. Once you get the dinosaur (Monarch), you basically burn down everything easily.

Conclusion:
- Play Iron Marine 1
- Play Kingdom Rush 12345
- If you haven't played any of these games above, don't play Iron Marine 2 Invasion.