This game was reviewed using Version 0.121r. Your experience on other versions may vary.

A challenging competitive RTS with an old-school aesthetic and a simple premise that hides the potential for a much deeper metagame just beneath the surface. Perfectly fine to play singleplayer (perhaps with some tweaking of the brutally-hard AI's settings), but far better if you can play with friends.

Missile Wars is a competitive RTS about protecting your asteroid base from wave after wave of enemy missiles, all while building up your own arsenal to respond to the enemy in kind. There are two primary game modes: Versus, a direct battle against an opponent; and Survival, where you tackle endless waves of meteors or missiles in pursuit of a high score. Both have the option to play 1v1 or 2v2 (with Survival also offering solo play), and you can choose to either battle AI or other players in every mode. Admittedly, RTS games usually aren't my cup of tea, but I've been finding this one to be pretty fun.

Of the two modes, I'd say that Versus is the more robust. It's a balancing act of building up defenses to ward off the enemy's ever-strengthening attacks, acquiring and setting up your own arsenal to strike back at the opponent, and managing your resources so that you can actually afford to do all of that. Attacking the enemy just means queueing up missiles into your silos and launching them when you've got the resources to afford it, but defense is a more hands-on system that involves firing at missiles coming in from the top of the screen before they hit the ground. As the match goes on, random events will occur that can either help or harm you, such doubling your current money/fuel or a dust storm that obstructs your vision; but even the bad events can be used to your advantage if you're clever, like timing your attack with an incoming meteor shower so your opponent has to deal with both at the same time. During all of this, you'll have to spend your limited resources on upgrades like buildings that improve resource output, turrets that'll fend off incoming attacks automatically, silos to let you fire off more missiles at once, and stronger missiles that are studier and can have unique effects like evading enemy fire or splitting off into multiple smaller missiles.

Survival works similar to Versus, but strips away the offensive upgrades like missiles and silos since there's no opponent for you to attack. All you need to focus on is building up your defenses, though this is harder than it sounds since you're bound by an even more limited resource output to balance out the reduction in stuff to buy. If I'm being honest, I find Survival to be less engaging than Versus since you lose out on the extra layer of strategy that comes with juggling your offense and defense. Survival isn't a bad mode by any means, but it's going to get old pretty quickly if you're not the type to be motivated purely by high scores. It is a good mode to play with friends, however, since you can either work alongside them or go head-to-head and see which one of you can survive for longer; so don't write it off entirely.

That's one of the bigger takeaways I've gotten from my time playing so far: while singleplayer is absolutely an option, it's a game that's far better suited for multiplayer. Since there's not much of an online community to allow for always-available public lobbies at the moment, this means that you'll want to have a friend or two lined up and ready to grab it alongside you to get the full experience. It can still be fun playing solo against AI, which is how I've most of my time, though that comes with a small disclaimer. By default, selecting Quick 1v1 or 2v2 in the main menu pits you against AI that has flawless aim against your missiles and prioritizes a fast offense so that you'll be overwhelmed very quickly, especially if you're still learning how to play the game. If you're fine with an unforgiving difficulty, then don't worry about it; but if not, use the "Game Setup" option in the main menu instead and you can adjust the AI's accuracy and play style to something that gives you more of a fighting chance.

I've only got a couple hours into it so far, but I wanted to give my early impressions now that I feel like I'm really getting a handle on things. Missile Wars is deceptively simple at first, but it's not long before the deeper strategy and metagame potential starts to show itself; and I really hope it catches on so we can see the community make the most of it.

For more game reviews, check out my Curator page!

[b][u]This game was reviewed using Version 0.121r. Your experience on other versions may vary.[/u][/b] [h3][b][u]Short Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] A challenging competitive RTS with an old-school aesthetic and a simple premise that hides the potential for a much deeper metagame just beneath the surface. Perfectly fine to play singleplayer (perhaps with some tweaking of the brutally-hard AI's settings), but far better if you can play with friends. [h3][b][u]Long Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] [i]Missile Wars[/i] is a competitive RTS about protecting your asteroid base from wave after wave of enemy missiles, all while building up your own arsenal to respond to the enemy in kind. There are two primary game modes: Versus, a direct battle against an opponent; and Survival, where you tackle endless waves of meteors or missiles in pursuit of a high score. Both have the option to play 1v1 or 2v2 (with Survival also offering solo play), and you can choose to either battle AI or other players in every mode. Admittedly, RTS games usually aren't my cup of tea, but I've been finding this one to be pretty fun. Of the two modes, I'd say that Versus is the more robust. It's a balancing act of building up defenses to ward off the enemy's ever-strengthening attacks, acquiring and setting up your own arsenal to strike back at the opponent, and managing your resources so that you can actually afford to do all of that. Attacking the enemy just means queueing up missiles into your silos and launching them when you've got the resources to afford it, but defense is a more hands-on system that involves firing at missiles coming in from the top of the screen before they hit the ground. As the match goes on, random events will occur that can either help or harm you, such doubling your current money/fuel or a dust storm that obstructs your vision; but even the bad events can be used to your advantage if you're clever, like timing your attack with an incoming meteor shower so your opponent has to deal with both at the same time. During all of this, you'll have to spend your limited resources on upgrades like buildings that improve resource output, turrets that'll fend off incoming attacks automatically, silos to let you fire off more missiles at once, and stronger missiles that are studier and can have unique effects like evading enemy fire or splitting off into multiple smaller missiles. Survival works similar to Versus, but strips away the offensive upgrades like missiles and silos since there's no opponent for you to attack. All you need to focus on is building up your defenses, though this is harder than it sounds since you're bound by an even more limited resource output to balance out the reduction in stuff to buy. If I'm being honest, I find Survival to be less engaging than Versus since you lose out on the extra layer of strategy that comes with juggling your offense and defense. Survival isn't a bad mode by any means, but it's going to get old pretty quickly if you're not the type to be motivated purely by high scores. It [i]is[/i] a good mode to play with friends, however, since you can either work alongside them or go head-to-head and see which one of you can survive for longer; so don't write it off entirely. That's one of the bigger takeaways I've gotten from my time playing so far: while singleplayer is absolutely an option, it's a game that's far better suited for multiplayer. Since there's not much of an online community to allow for always-available public lobbies at the moment, this means that you'll want to have a friend or two lined up and ready to grab it alongside you to get the full experience. It can still be fun playing solo against AI, which is how I've most of my time, though that comes with a small disclaimer. By default, selecting Quick 1v1 or 2v2 in the main menu pits you against AI that has flawless aim against your missiles and prioritizes a fast offense so that you'll be overwhelmed very quickly, especially if you're still learning how to play the game. If you're fine with an unforgiving difficulty, then don't worry about it; but if not, use the "Game Setup" option in the main menu instead and you can adjust the AI's accuracy and play style to something that gives you more of a fighting chance. I've only got a couple hours into it so far, but I wanted to give my early impressions now that I feel like I'm really getting a handle on things. [b][u][i]Missile Wars[/i] is deceptively simple at first, but it's not long before the deeper strategy and metagame potential starts to show itself; and I really hope it catches on so we can see the community make the most of it.[/u][/b] [quote]For more game reviews, check out my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42524563/]Curator page[/url]![/quote]