Ace of Spades: Battle Builder
4 years.
I remember when I first bought this game. I was so happy and excited about it.
I remember when I first met “pros”. I wanted to play more and reach their level.
I remember when I actually reached 300 hours and thought myself to be the best player of all times. (Classical 300hrs syndrome (Everyone reaching 300hrs has it))
I remember huge amount of players playing this game.
I remember when devs actually supported (or pretended to support) the game.
I remember nice community, lots of interesting events and tons of fun.
– Real player with 2010.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Building Action Games.
UPDATE: Holy shiat this dead game got a new update. Oh wait, most of it is locked away behind a paywall! Hahahahahahahahaha-gasp-hahahahhaahaha.
Long read ahead, but worth it!
As someone who has played Ace of Spades for way too long, let me introduce the history of it to you first:
In April 2011, somebody called Ben Aksoy released a pretty decent and free FPS with voxel mechanics called Ace of Spades. This was a game that people mostly played on a randomly-generated map similar to Minecraft’s randomly-generated maps (only without the trees, only grass, some rivers and more hills). The default and only gamemode at the time was Capture The Flag. All of these in combination allowed for some fun gameplay that required some strategy. Dig tunnels to capture the enemy’s intel, or build a fort to defend your own intel. Every man only had a rifle, spade, grenades and some blocks (unlike most FPSes there were no newby spray-and-pray weapons).
– Real player with 1108.3 hrs in game
Block N Load
Please do not think of Ace of Spades, Minecraft, or Team Fortress coming in to this, treat it as it’s own game, because it is. All gameplay elements are well balanced, and tie together incredibly well. In the context of pure gameplay, there is little you can say against it. It is the best game I’ve ever played, and that likely won’t change for a long time, I’m certainly a candidate for being the #1 fan.
Currently the biggest problem is the playerbase. It is quite low, and slowly diminishing. I’m sure the developers will be looking at ways to pick this back up. If you’d use a USA, or UK server, you shall be okay, but otherwise I’d suggest not purchasing the game. Queues may take a little longer than other games due to the low playerbase. However, if you’re in a long queue, please do not leave, it creates a perpetuating issue that is only solved by players being patient.
– Real player with 4357.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Building Action Games.
First of, dont get me wrong, I love this game, I wouldnt have played it for 2000+ hours if I didnt. I made quite a lot of friends through this game in the last three years and learning to play each hero is fun.
The gameplay is one of a kind, it’s a unique mix of building and class based objective gameplay, however, there are some serious issues with this game:
Tutorials
There are none. The practice ground can give you a few pointers about movement and the tutorial video provides tips about basic game mechanics, but the base setups shown in the videos are absolutely useless. Your best bet would be to search some gameplay footage on youtube and study the defenses and tactics of some high level matches.
– Real player with 2474.0 hrs in game
Outsourcing - IT company simulator
Unfortunately the build menus hide some options that are necessary for completing rooms and designating some rooms as well because the window is not scroll-able sideways/too small. This means that you cannot build the features required for the game to progress. It’s really frustrating and disappointing because it otherwise could be fun and engaging. Hopefully this will be remedied in a future update but I’m doubtful as this hasn’t been updated since release.
– Real player with 18.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Building Simulation Games.
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Should be an early access game not full game.
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no tutorial or explanation about what you should do.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Exogate Initiative
Exogate Initiative is a management/base-building game that puts you in charge of mankind’s first worlds exploration program. In the near future, a new technology will allow us to travel instantly anywhere in the universe, via portals known as Exogates. An international initiative is created to develop this technology and start the first exploration program.
You will lead mankind into the vast unknown, where we never before dreamt to tread.
In the depth of a mountain plan, excavate and build your base using a variety of specialized rooms and equipment.
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Complete freedom to dig anywhere on the map.
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Plan and build specialized rooms, explorers will need barracks to rest, a training field to prepare for their missions or a laboratory to study samples they brought back from other worlds.
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Place equipment in these rooms, each one of them will have a dedicated purpose.
Recruit, train and manage specialists from all around the world.
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You will unlock 6 different classes of explorers, the scientist will study flora and fauna on other worlds, the scholar will decipher alien culture and languages and the soldier will ensure everyone is safe.
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Explorers are called gaters, they are completely autonomous.
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Each gater is unique. They come from different countries, have different ages, look different.
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Take care of their needs and ensure their well-being, both physical and psychological, as they are constantly facing the unknown.
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They will develop relationships between each other, and losing a friend on a mission will not have the same impact as losing someone you hate.
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Provide them with the tools and suits needed for their journey
Assemble teams and send them exploring new worlds through the Exogate.
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Gaters will perform missions on their own but will request your help from time to time.
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These contacts are micro interactive stories that will constantly try to surprise you, and where you will sometimes have to make difficult decisions.
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They may discover new flora, fauna or even intelligent beings. There are more than 10 different kinds of encounters
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After each mission, teams will return with more experience and interesting things to study. This will allow you to unlock new technologies and earn money to keep the initiative running.
Don’t forget to wishlist and follow!
MONOLISK
I’ve been playing this game for over a year on mobile.
Monolisk is an interesting free to play game, made by a small development team and has great potential.
It’s a fantastic freeware game that gives you the ability to build your own shards (maps) and possibility of combining them in one campaign, moreover, all the maps are created only by the player base. Unfortunately, this is a double-edged sword, but more on that later.
The map editor is very simple, but at the same time it is very functional. To create the shard you begin by selecting one of the realm card (available in 5 colours) which define the appearance and type of blocks available. Then we choose a same colour of shardstone (available in different sizes) that determines the maximum number of monsters, text signs, object and the number of available blocks.
– Real player with 353.0 hrs in game
With this game you can have fun in two ways:
-You can play the maps created by other players:
You will have 5 different types of heroes to choose from, each of which has specific abilities. There are nearly 300 different types of equipment in the game, for now, this translates into infinite possibilities of customizing your hero, so that you can adapt it as you prefer to your playing style.
As for the maps to play, being created by other players, you will find new maps to play every day.
-You can create your own maps to entertain other players:
– Real player with 308.2 hrs in game
Cyber Defense
Changing my review back to positive, as the developer fixed the issue. A lot of levels were unattainable, now they are.
So anyway, basic tower defense game, with some pros and some cons.
The biggest pro is that it works, far too many tower defense games on Steam are broken or incomplete. This one seems to be pretty solid.
The look is also a positive for me, though it will not be to everyone’s tastes. It resembles the old vectrex games, for those who remember that.
The game has an interesting but limited array of foes. According to the developer, the spawner tailors the kind of attackers it generates to counter your defenses, and it does seem to have some effect.
– Real player with 17.1 hrs in game
I left negative reviews in the past because the game originally had quite a few bugs and issues.
But, the developer continues to release patches and address issues that are discovered.
It’s a fun tower defense game, I enjoy it quite a bit for the price.
Hope to see more features and maps come in the future, or for the game to be open for community mods and maps.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
Longphort
Frequently crashes, couldn’t make it past the first raid.
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Idle Armada
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Not a clone like many other idle games.
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Continues to be updated and developer is active on Discord
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Fun and has an ok balance for active and passive play styles
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Enough content and unlocks to justify the price, new jobs have been added in updates since release.
– Real player with 755.8 hrs in game
An humble little clicker that does not promise much but delivers.
Although progression is very slow, it’s very pleasant to just see your fleet cruising in space, casually shredding any and all opposition to your grind.
The gameplay is quite simple, with two upgrade trees + a prestige tree, three base resources and three advanced ones. Grinding is relatively slow, but just enough to make you keep coming back after a few days.
The graphics, ripped from the 90’s classic Tyrian are very nice to the eye and blend well with the retro interface
– Real player with 276.3 hrs in game
Knights Risen
The goal is simple, escape the clutches of wilderness. Knights Risen is a multiplayer VR and PC game. Players will utilize different resources to craft, pillage, and loot their way to fight and escape. In this battle of the fittest, only the mighty survive. One may escape, or all my fall to the wrath of Mother Nature.
Survival:
There is only one rule in Knights Risen, survive. Craft tools and weapons to defend yourself. Battle nature and other players to ensure you are the one who makes it out alive.
Crafting and Scavenging:
Players need to scavenge for resources in a widespread area to craft tools and weapons to help them survive and escape. Players can craft weapons or they may craft tools. It all depends on you, whether you like to escape stealthily or go out axe blazing. Only the smartest survive.
Building:
Player needs to withstand the attacks from both the enemies and wild life. To secure themselves, players can build wooden shelters that can help them bear attacks from the environment and other players.
PVP:
Players will have to brave other players in this multiplayer battle-arena, who are hell-bent to be the one to escape.
PVE:
Players will encounter different challenges like extreme radiation, killer tornadoes, and wild and mutant animals. All these elements lead to the player taking damage and losing health.
Flairs:
All Knights have unique abilities or “Flairs” which aid the player in different aspects. Go invisible, heal quicker and more, to be the one who escapes.
Lost Existence
A fun, more challenging and complex alternative to other games in the voxel genre.
The creators were clearly inspired by Minecraft, but the similarities between the two games are all surface level. In my opinion, Lost Existence is a paradigm shift in the voxel genre, introducing unique combat and movement features such as double jumping, dodging, cling physics, etc.
It has the difficulty of a From Software title, customizable classes similar to World of Warcraft with a talent system and fusions.
– Real player with 25.8 hrs in game
I do recommend this game, but with some strings attached. Read on.
Don’t get this game if you expect a full experience. As of the writing of this review, the game is extremely bare-bones. Obviously this is to be expected from an early access release. What I will say is that this game has a lot of potential. It is stable, and in the 90 minutes I’ve played so far, I haven’t really encountered any serious bugs. There is a unique system of customization; you are able to choose to play up to 2 classes simultaneously, and all classes come with talent trees and perks. The skill systems will almost certainly be more refined over time. I do, however, wish the mouse movements were a little more crisp. Precise movements are essential for aiming in this game. We also need the option to re-bind more controls than simply the action bars (I type Dvorak, and it’s kind of annoying having to switch to the qwerty layout to play properly).
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game