Developer fails to mention it is:

[Malpherian]

Not a strategy game.

It is a Roguelike with a very specific meta which if not followed exactly to the letter you can not win, and have to replay literally 20 to 30 hours of game play.

IN other words this is a cookie cutter swarm game. There is no experimenting or strategy to it. You will never touch most of the heroes, or most of the tech in the tech tree... At least not if you actually want to win and not die.

If I had known this was a roguelike, I would not have purchased it. Which is probably why the devs didn't bother to tell people that's what it was.

[Gomez]

Originally posted by Malpherian:

N
IN other words this is a cookie cutter swarm game. There is no experimenting or strategy to it. You will never touch most of the heroes, or most of the tech in the tech tree... At least not if you actually want to win and not die.

In survival mode you have all the tech tree up to be used and played and you have to be strategic in how you develop your colony, which way do you chose to expand by and several more decitions... so I think you are not totally right in your comment.


Regards

[Andrewbh2003]

even on the highest difficulties you still have some wiggle room in how exacly you play

yes "obviously" you are gonna have less "flexibility" the further you go but every game is like that where in the harder it is the more optimized you have to be

though with TAB on lower difficulties there is plenty of wiggle room for "Off-meta" strategies

[MyUrp1]

There is a bit of lack of variety in what you have available to fight with. Three basic units, two traps, three towers, and three specials. This does lead to some monotony.

That said, you still have a fair number of choices. Do you use shock towers or thanatos for your swarm clearing? Do you take down specials with elite soldiers or common snipers? Do you hide behind walls or do you charge out to take the enemy in the field? How do you lay out your infrastructure to support all this?

I've devoted countless hours to this game. Every (survival) game is different, and it's always a challenge figuring out how to put the pieces together even if there aren't a lot of pieces to begin with. An expansion pack for the game would be fantastic, but the Devs have made clear that they have no interest in further development, which is kind of sad. But for what it is and for the price it's a great game.

[Malpherian]

Originally posted by MyUrp1:

There is a bit of lack of variety in what you have available to fight with. Three basic units, two traps, three towers, and three specials. This does lead to some monotony.

That said, you still have a fair number of choices. Do you use shock towers or thanatos for your swarm clearing? Do you take down specials with elite soldiers or common snipers? Do you hide behind walls or do you charge out to take the enemy in the field? How do you lay out your infrastructure to support all this?

I've devoted countless hours to this game. Every (survival) game is different, and it's always a challenge figuring out how to put the pieces together even if there aren't a lot of pieces to begin with. An expansion pack for the game would be fantastic, but the Devs have made clear that they have no interest in further development, which is kind of sad. But for what it is and for the price it's a great game.

My point was that if I had known it was a Roguelike, i would not have purchased it. It needs to be stated in the description and marked in the Genre Category so people are not mislead to believe like I did this was a 4x.

[Make Shaving Great Again]

I'm not sure how this game could ever be considered a roguelike by a casual definition and it definitely wouldn't fit according to the headache of the Berlin interpretation. Regardless on how anyone decides to classify it the was released a few years ago now. There's plenty of game footage available and countless reviews. Investigating a game before purchase is a great way to avoid buyer's remorse.

[Achi88]

The more I think about (and read about) this game, the more I think that the devs should have been very clear (in-game) with that players should start with the survival-maps to learn the game, and THEN go for the campaign, not the other way around (which feels more natural for new players). Had I done that, maybe I would have liked the game.

[MyUrp1]

Except that the campaign is a very good tutorial and preparation for mastering Survival games, and if you've mastered Survival then you're going to find the campaign excruciatingly boring.

[Explicitly Offensive Cuneiform]

Get good. I am still struggling with survival. It's a hard game with a hard mode.

[SamuraiJones]

I do agree with OP about feeling like you have to find the optimal strategy... there are alot more strategies that don't work than ones that do. And with a permadeath game, that can be a bit discouraging at times, especially towards the endgame. it's frustrating to lose a survival game after sinking that much time in, only to not know what you did wrong. So OP, I totally relate, even if alot of people here seem to be offended at your comments.

However, as I've gotten more into it, I am finding more flexibility. There are more ways to win than one, although it doesn't feel like it at first. This certainly is not a relaxed laid back experience like most 4xs, but after the (admittedly painful) learning curve, alot of these concerns go away.

[Achi88]

Originally posted by MyUrp1:

Except that the campaign is a very good tutorial and preparation for mastering Survival games, and if you've mastered Survival then you're going to find the campaign excruciatingly boring.

But the campaign forces the player to replay the exact same scenarios (which can be hours long) again and again with almost no changes in the gameplay, and you can effectively ♥♥♥♥ yourself completely if you choose the wrong tech-tree-path (which you won't know since you don't know the techs as a new player)

[Sajonji]

Originally posted by Malpherian:

My point was that if I had known it was a Roguelike, i would not have purchased it. It needs to be stated in the description and marked in the Genre Category so people are not mislead to believe like I did this was a 4x.

Bad point.
TAB is not a roguelike by a long shot. Seems like you never played a roguelike before.
And how the f would you assume it is 4x ???? It is nothing like any of the popular 4x games out there. Did you even look at the pictures and videos on the steam page ?

TAB is best described as RTS although you can pause. Stuff like Age of Empires but with a tower defense spin. Just checked the store and the game is very correct categorized. What a clown thread.

[Malpherian]

Originally posted by Sajonji:

Originally posted by Malpherian:

My point was that if I had known it was a Roguelike, i would not have purchased it. It needs to be stated in the description and marked in the Genre Category so people are not mislead to believe like I did this was a 4x.

Bad point.
TAB is not a roguelike by a long shot. Seems like you never played a roguelike before.
And how the f would you assume it is 4x ???? It is nothing like any of the popular 4x games out there. Did you even look at the pictures and videos on the steam page ?

TAB is best described as RTS although you can pause. Stuff like Age of Empires but with a tower defense spin. Just checked the store and the game is very correct categorized. What a clown thread.

"A Roguelike is defined as a game which does not allow you to continue after defeat/death etc with no other option of play. It can be from any genre of game, however all rogue-likes have that feature, and this feature is specifically what makes Roguelike games unique."

SO.. Basically it's a Roguelike RTS. Still a Roguelike.

Maybe you should read some definitions, before making yourself look like an idiot.

[Make Shaving Great Again]

Originally posted by Malpherian:

"A Roguelike is defined as a game which does not allow you to continue after defeat/death etc with no other option of play. It can be from any genre of game, however all rogue-likes have that feature, and this feature is specifically what makes Roguelike games unique."

Permadeath is one of the qualifiers for a roguelike. It isn't the sole defining characteristic- especially since many roguelikes do have an option for non-permadeath play.

[Invader Zim]

Gomez has spoken, get over it.

[Ramonkey]

Ehhh… You’d have to be very creative with interpretations to see this as a Roguelike… The thing that comes closest is the hero missions, but those are only a small part of the whole game