Volcanoids

Volcanoids

It’s a bit more objective oriented than the usual craft/survival game I’m familiar with, especially with the cyclic nature of needing to dive underground with your mobile base during the frequent disasters. Having it as a mobile base was rather refreshing compared to other settings where the base is in one location and that tends to make resources convenient or not. The version I played was a while ago, and at the time battle was rather simple, and there didn’t seem to be too much benefit to use any weapon aside the hand mortar and grenades but I have to emphasize that was during the version I played.

Real player with 35.0 hrs in game


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Gun play is fun, and it’s exciting to see your ship being built bigger and bigger. The hot keys were a little weird at first but not unacceptable. Overall, I like it.

Real player with 29.0 hrs in game

Volcanoids on Steam

Steampunk Tower 2

Steampunk Tower 2

Interesting and unique take on the tower defence genre, but a lack of explanation along with a clumsily devised game, confusing campaign and poor gameplay mechanics hamper this game and make it a chore to play as it progresses.

PROS:

I quite like the concept of a tower with customizeable turrets being dropped in the battlefield. I also like the design of the stick figures operating the turrets while you see a variety of enemy AI on the battlefield.

CONS:

Customizing your turrets is downright confusing. It consists of mixing an array of scrap you receive at the end of each battle and then choosing the results that arise out of the combination of different scrap materials. Um ok? Some of the parts require for the upgrades are specialized and can only be found in cities that you have conquered. So you’re forced to basically wait as you send out the train with one agent on it until you can upgrade it. And if you don’t own the territory that houses that upgrade part, then forget it. You’re stuck. Either way, customizing and upgrading parts is dependent upon too many options.

Real player with 49.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best Base Building Tower Defense Games.


Review - Steampunk Tower 2

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RATING: 8.0 / 10 - Of Men and Steam-powered Monsters

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Overview

Steampunk Tower 2 is a strategy / tower defense game hybrid with some twists to the formula. In an alternative, mid-800esque steampunk European continent, a great war is raging between the forces of The Cult and the other free nations, and is not going well for the latter. The cult, using technological superiority and military might, has subdued most of the Free Nations and its total dominance is imminent. Not everything is lost though, as there is still someone fighting: Lord Bertram Bingham, a powerful noble, is on a quest to gather the best scientists, soldiers and tacticians of the Free Nations to mount a counter-offensive against the Cult, using as a trump card the powerful Steampunk Tower, a technologically advanced battlestation deployable anywhere in brief times. And so the war against the Cult begins again.

Real player with 28.1 hrs in game

Steampunk Tower 2 on Steam

They Are Billions

They Are Billions

I have finish playing the campaign and its a learning process. This game is like a soul like RTS game, one zombie gets in or penetrate your defenses and the whole thing could get out of control. I understand on why some gamers gave a negative review of these game, you could have invested 2 to 4 hours in your campaign or survival building your city and thenone zombie sneaks in or overwhelm your defenses and the whole thing is game over. It has no backward save, so there is no second opportunity on your mistake. I know because it did happen to me several times, but I think its unfair to immediately give a negative review, because of being defeated. The hero mission on the campaign is actually good, but it takes patience and planning, also paying attention, so you can find all the treasure. Overall, I find the game very challenging, but in a reasonable matter. Its just you have to get good in playing this game.

Real player with 214.8 hrs in game


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Tedious and frustrating don’t even begin to describe this game.

I’ve tried playing this game several times. Each time I have, I find that my hours of investment are promptly wasted when I make one mistake that leads to an inevitable game over. This game is very very difficult, even on the more “accessible” levels; you have to balance manpower, energy, food, and material resources all while slowly expanding, and clearing out areas of zombies. The problem is that if even one zombie slips past your defenses they can infect your entire base in seconds.

Real player with 127.6 hrs in game

They Are Billions on Steam

Outpost Engineer

Outpost Engineer

Its a lot like Evospace..

Mine and cook ore into metal bars then use it to make components for more advanced products after you researched the blueprints. The game is mostly about building structures to place your machines and organize the logistic of your factory.

Sounds are awful

Graphics too

I still had fun playing it

Real player with 26.5 hrs in game

This is awesome, way better than I thought, the factory of this game is so fun!

Real player with 26.2 hrs in game

Outpost Engineer on Steam

Iron Harvest

Iron Harvest

Reminds me a lot of Company of Heros except not as many unit options or customizable skills.

Real player with 61.7 hrs in game

I would recommend Iron Harvest. the campaign is good for an RTS (not starcraft 2 level of story) but compared with more recent RTS' it’s up there and not just a tutorial for multiplayer. gameplay is similar to the Company of Heroes if you like that style, there are four factions (1 dlc faction) to play as, with the mechs I think being a game highlight with unique designs, styles and gameplay for their factions. voice work is good with an option for a ‘native’ language rather than overriding polish, russian and german characters under one language.

Real player with 49.7 hrs in game

Iron Harvest on Steam

Frostpunk

Frostpunk

Dear God, yes I recommend. I’m fucking obsessed with this game. It dominates my every goddamn thought nowadays. I don’t think I’ve ever been so obsessed with a game before in my life. If you’re reading this, buy the game. Buy the DLC’s. And somehow contain your excitement for Frostpunk 2.

Real player with 329.4 hrs in game

The Good:

  • Special and creative gameplay will make just enough to enjoy the game in Easy and Normal mode but also very very difficult and hardcore in Hard, Extreme, Survival mode.

  • Detailed images, map design make you really feel the “frost” of the game

  • Each map has its own story and gameplay.

  • Nice background music.

The Bad:

  • The gameplay is hard to get used to for newbies (I gave up 3 times because I couldn’t understand the game, but it wasn’t until the 4th time that I felt the fun of it because I believe 11 bit studios can always make a good one).

Real player with 152.1 hrs in game

Frostpunk on Steam

Merchant of the Skies

Merchant of the Skies

First of all, let me say that this game is a great-looking interesting bite-sized experience. If you are looking for TTD in clouds, this is not that game. It’s a “tycoon” in a very shallow sense of the word. In fact, it’s incredibly hard to describe this game with nowadays expectations other than a “trading game”.

It will not have you coming back to replay again and again, but it will captivate you for a session or two. It’s like a great meal at that new place you are trying out. You wouldn’t necessarily keep ordering it again, but you do not regret the experience. I bring up a lot of mixed points below, but keep in mind that it’s all still held together impressively solidly and does not break apart.

Real player with 44.5 hrs in game

A niche merchant game with the challenges of completing tasks and finishing five ultimate goals to complete the game. The story is about a you, a merchant who follows requests from an uncle and various other characters, using a airship. Different to the usual games I regularly play, but I love it for the fantasy elements and challenges.

The story is odd in a way where it has five main goals, the last one is the restoration of the botanical garden, while the rest are more like side-quests in this adventure world. How you adventure is by flying an airship across to floating islands, you examine the different tasks, refuel, and can buy or sell items. I really like this due to my obsession with steampunk themes, the fantasy world which is floating while working, as though it is a job. Additionally, you get to know the world a little, like the uncle and a couple of characters that want to go to tourist places, but not as in depth in the case of getting to know your crew. It is a single player game, but it is how you want to play, making profit and buying islands in order to fulfil requests and keep your business a float. As for the art, I love it, pixel art can be simple but make so much detail, and with that sort of colour palate, it is up my street. The little wacky details like the singing carrot, the octopus that has a rapper hat on, all of it adds to the personality of the game. You can upgrade your ship too, making it easier to travel and transport cargo, which is helpful to complete more side-quests to bring in the profit. If you cannot gain profit because of your output on workers and fuel, then the bank will pay you off once, then you are in dept, you will need to pay off the bank or go bankrupt. An interesting way of teaching people about the real world and dept, but it forces you to do some unplanned action by juggling the main story to side-quests, making it challenging.

Real player with 24.1 hrs in game

Merchant of the Skies on Steam

Wrath of Anna

Wrath of Anna

The only reason I have 7.3 hours of Wrath of Anna logged (woefully making it impossible to try to get a refund..) is that I left the game alt-tabbed after it failed to boot up an online match (but seemed to freeze and never loaded the main menu again) and I left to go do something else, forgetting about it.

Look closely at the footage in this game’s trailer. No interaction is shown with any enemy, object, or NPCs, instead the player character is mindlessly meandering through the environments, occassionally ducking and staring at something in the distance. You will get all of this and nothing more if you choose to spend your money on Wrath of Anna. Wrath of Anna is perhaps best summarized by one of the screenshots the dev has selected in the preview images, a stairway to nowhere, shrouded in fog. This game has a cool setting but is completely devoid of anything of substance.

Real player with 7.3 hrs in game

I was given this game for free very early on in its development. Every once in a while I will reinstall it to see what is going on with it, and so far it seems like the DEV can’t quite make up their mind on what they want this game to be. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since it might show their willingness to move away from their initial plans for this game.

When I first tried this game it was very rough. It seemed to mainly be an early attempt at a large scale PVP game similiar to CSGO. However, the game was extremely rough and I was never able to actually play with anyone. You had to manually input IP addresses, so no… there was also mentions of a single player story mode. Initially this game page had screenshots of mechs and something that looked like a giant sandworm. Those screenshots have now been replaced with screenshots of what look like the beginning of an attempt to make another survival game.

Real player with 2.9 hrs in game

Wrath of Anna on Steam

Black Skylands

Black Skylands

This is a hearty thumbs up from me- it’s a great adventure game, with a story that fits the purpose well. Includes airship combat, which you can think of pirate-navy stuff- replete with upgrades, various ships, etc. Big open world, and everything you go out to do feels like a grand adventure. I think this one is going to be a home-run when it’s fully finished.

Here’s the caveat- it is modestly buggy right now. Not severe, but you’ll probably hit a few snags. Big open world games are like that, and it’s good that they’re taking an EA period, because at the moment, it’s a very, very cool game- with bugs.

Real player with 24.2 hrs in game

The game concept is good and has a lot of potential. I just list down what I don’t like about this game after 2-hour gameplay and hopefully it will be fixed or improved in the future. Maybe what I mentioned below will be unlocked as I proceed the game.

  • The developer said this game is the mixed of stardew valley and bioshock theme. However, I’m into the game for nearly 2 hours but the farming is no where near Stardew Valley. No season, no watering, just simple click for growing and harvesting crop (?). Maybe it will unlock more features as I proceed.

Real player with 15.3 hrs in game

Black Skylands on Steam

Arcadia: The Crystal Wars

Arcadia: The Crystal Wars

Arcadia: The Crystal Wars is an open-world, squad-based fusion of role playing and strategy, combining traditional RPG elements such as character skills, talents, quests, dungeons, and raids with strategic base-building, farming, and crafting. Explore the world of Arcadia in non-linear fashion as a single character, or recruit up to 20 characters and dive into the rich storyline while taking an active part in shaping the outcome of the Crystal Wars.

Features:

  • Dive into the Quest Driven Story

    Arcadia also offers a rich story that you can dive into at any time. The unique, hand written quests will take you from city to city, meeting unique characters, exploring dungeons and raids to retrieve artifacts, and helping to guide the outcome of the Crystal Wars as you see fit. Will you fight alongside Tech Commander Kyber, to rid the world of the Crystal’s corruption? Or will you seek out the Etir, to understand the Crystal at its' source? The choices you make will decide the fate of Arcadia.

  • Explore an Open World

    Looking for a non-linear experience? Then Arcadia is your sandbox. Just because the factions are engaged in the Crystal War, does not mean that you have to. Would you rather be a lone adventurer, seeking the challenges of dungeons and raids? Or a trader, developing trade routes and settlements and only using combat as a means to defend yourself? You have the freedom to make up your own story.

  • Unlock Powerful Magic or Advanced Technology

    As you explore Arcadia, you will undoubtedly encounter the power of the Crystal. Using special techniques, the power of the Crystal can either be consumed directly by your characters to unlock powerful magic or be harnessed and used as a power source to power advanced technology. Whichever you choose, your characters will gain new abilities as well as physically change. The more power they acquire, the greater the physical transformation.

  • Character Customization

    Each character within your faction has a set of skills related to Combat, Crafting, and Labor. It’s up to you how to train them and what talents they acquire. Do you want a solder, capable of wielding heavy armor into battle during war but also able to craft the finest armor in the game? Or how about a farmer, wearing light armor yet when combat calls wields the most power magic to heal your allies and decimate your enemies? The choice is yours

  • Unique Character Races

    Arcadia offers four unique character races that you can create and recruit into your faction. While each race has strengths and weaknesses in terms of starting skill level and rate of experience gain, the ultimate path of each character you control is completely up to you. Has a powerful Rhingar, who has trained with one handed weapons and shields to defend her allies, offered to join your faction but you need a armorsmith? So be it, recruit her and take advantage of her racial bonus in Armor Crafting, while also being capable of defending your settlements from attack.

  • Develop Settlements

    Whether you control one character or twenty, you’ll want to consider developing settlements to fuel your adventures. Perhaps you only need a single base camp, with a place to rest and to cook food? Or maybe you are ready to take an active role in the Crystal Wars and want multiple strategic base locations where you have farms to feed your troops and forges to craft armor and weapons.

  • Explore Dungeons and Raids

    It’s been said that great riches and power can be found in the most difficult of locations. Arcadia is no exception. Take up to five of your characters as you dive into one of five dungeons, each with unique enemy types and scripted boss fights or brave it all and take up to 10 of your characters to fight in one of five raids.

Arcadia: The Crystal Wars on Steam