Age of Darkness: Final Stand
This game is simply a amazing and addictive game for RTS and tactical RTS gamers. By default, there is a pause feature allows you to queue unit actions, building construction, and tech research. You start with a small group of units and a hero. From there, you need to explore, expand, and exploit the land in order to survive waves of nightmares that attack from large dark crystals during death night at which you will suffer a malice during the night. If you survive, you may choose a blessing that will be with you the rest of the match. There are five death nights, and a final stand. The final stand on the highest difficulty is 80k enemies that attack from all the dark crystals. You have ranged, melee, and siege units at your disposal, as well as ballista towers, and flame bellow towers. Your economy management consists of farms to produce food for villagers, which in turn are used for housing income, and resource collection building, as well as units. Your units have a tech tree you can utilize to offers advancement as well. A green fog encroaches the land on death nights, which cannot be removed without building vision, or you survive the death night. Enemies vary from crawlers, slow, weak, but can be a challenge in number, to giant hulking crushers with massive hp and damage.
– Real player with 336.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best RTS Dark Fantasy Games.
The Gameplay
Picture this scenario:
The days go by while you’re out exploring the map and expanding your base while those blue dots turn into red dots… one… by… one… And on the last day now with only 4 minutes on the clock you realize that the enemies are attacking from the worst possible spot.
You scramble together some defenses and you’re happy with the towers, their placement but you’re a bit short on the wall department but you’ve got 15 units guarding in front so it’s gonna be fine… Right?
– Real player with 72.8 hrs in game
Gord
Lead the people of the Tribe of the Dawn as they venture deep into forbidden lands. Complete quests that shape their personalities, impact their wellbeing, and decide the fate of their community. Ensure the survival of your populace in a grim fantasy world inspired by Slavic folklore.
Erect palisades, develop structures, and grow your gord from a humble settlement to a formidable fortress. However, expansion won’t be easy! Your population is constantly at risk from enemy tribes, gruesome monsters, and mysterious powers that lurk in the surrounding woods.
Venture outside the walls of your settlement with Gord’s AI-driven quest system, ensuring a huge variety of challenges to take on. The Scenario’s main objectives will guide your gameplay, while versatile side quests and random encounters will send you off into the wilderness to hunt down legendary creatures, uncover secrets about the Ancients, or vanquish a nasty scourge. Expect the unexpected.
Set the stage by choosing from a wide range of Scenario options, and try to emerge victorious. Take it easy or set an impossible challenge; almost anything can be adjusted! Choose from a variety of primary objectives, select the level size, the intensity of raids, the environment you’ll play in, the types of enemies you’ll face, starting resources, and even the severity of weather. Of course, don’t forget the Horrors.
A healthy populace is the key to survival in Gord. Every aspect of your settlers’ lives - from illness and hunger to the death of their kin - can impact each subject’s Sanity and Burden levels. Keep a close eye on them, as once they reach a critical point your subject will suffer from a breakdown or even flee your rule.
Please the Gods with your prayers and they may give you access to their spellcasting abilities. Incantations vary in nature - some are offensive while others are defensive - but they all help to tip the battlefield in your favor. Conceal areas from your enemies, gain control over threatening beasts, or turn an unholy rage against all who dare to oppose you.
The Chronicle explains the history of the Gord universe that blends real-world Slavic mythology with dark fantasy. Pages torn from The Chronicle will be scattered throughout the game’s landscapes, giving dedicated players an additional challenge of discovery. Collecting as many pages as possible will provide insight into the origins of the Gods, ancient factions, and the mystical Whisperers.
Read More: Best RTS Colony Sim Games.
Magnery Reign
Magnery Reign gives you the opportunity to feel like a city manager, and subsequently create your own country. This is not an easy task, because it will not be a calm walk in the park: bandits, soldiers of other countries and even enemy robots will prevent you from calmly going about your business.
At first, you will have a small village at the end of the world, which is part of one of the countries, few people and nothing at all resources.
However, even such a small and poor settlement will still try to rob the bandits greedy for profit.
You will need to show strategic thinking and not only create a variety of weapons for your people, but also build defensive structures or even send armored vehicles, under the control of your fighters, to strengthen the bandits and the capitals of countries that imagine themselves to be the kings of this world.
When your settlement gets the right to be called a city, then political games will be added to the problems that were before, because your settlement is not the only one on the map. Someone wants to trade with you, and someone wants to get your wealth by force.
Therefore, it will be vital not only to strengthen defensive positions, but also to develop relations with countries and other settlements.
By developing further, gaining experience and strengthening your position in the political arena, you will be able to declare your independence and become the head of your own country.
You will be able not only to reach a new level of relations with other countries, but also to a new level of destruction, because now you have access to the resources of not only your city and its regions, but also the resources of your entire country.
And how you dispose of them depends only on you!
Read More: Best RTS Colony Sim Games.
SORALAND
Soraland is good little game. Developer actively developing it at the time of this review. Currently game has two modes: Main game, let’s say “Campaign” mode, and mini games. Campaign mode is a very enjoyable source management simulation. You collect sources to build your little town, fight monsters and overthrow the enemy castles. After you expand enough you go for the enemy castle. I think there will be more castles in the future, menu has different objectives but they are locked at the time being.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
The game looks and feels nice, par the clunky mouse movement (Dev said they would add mouse sensitivity option soon). I had to use a controller to play.
However the major downfall for this game is how short it is.. It can be completed in just over 1 hour. Personally speaking, for the price it currently is the game is way too short.
(Which is why currently I can’t recommend the game sorry) If the price is adjusted to reflect the amount of content, and/or their is enough content added to justify the price then I will update my review accordingly)
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
Cartel Tycoon
First of all, don’t mind the playtime. I am one of the early supporters of the game and have some 280 hours on my profile for the “Earliest Uncut” version of the game. I provided extensive feedback for the game and used to be one of the community playtesters for early builds in the past.
By concept, Cartel Tycoon is a great game. The recipe for this addictive drug is “Tropico meets Frostpunk meets Narcos series”. Visuals, narrative, characters, music - all that is done well and does a lot for the immersion in the setting.
– Real player with 116.1 hrs in game
For the person reading this hoping it’s the cartel management game they’ve always dreamed would be released… here it is baby.
Nothing quite as satisfying as watching a convoy of trucks carrying 100 kilos of cocaine stuffed inside a chicken drive right past the Federales convoy on their way to t1tty f*** your cocoa farms.
Or burning down a warehouse stacked to the ceiling with cash rather than letting the DEA seize it.
So much potential for this game. I played the demo months ago and literally called out sick the day it dropped.
– Real player with 47.3 hrs in game
Dice Legacy
I picked this up on a whim, purely because I am a sucker for these hybrid dice games. While I do recommend this game, it still is a very flawed game and your appreciation of it will surely come down to your flexibility to cope with said flaws. A lot of games exist that are imperfect and this is one of them.
What is fun?
The core system of building up a unique dice pool, in real-time, with stamina and special powers is pretty fun. It feels at odds with itself at first but it definitely caters to it’s real-time gameplay mechanics unapologetically which I think is a good thing. You can tell from others' reviews that others do not like the RTS elements and wanted something slower, methodical, and more tactical). That isn’t this game which I think is going to just be a matter of taste.
– Real player with 61.8 hrs in game
I’m more of a turn-based and tabletop gamer myself. This game seems to draw heavily on the mechanics of some very good tabletop dice games like Roll for the Galaxy and Dice Forge, but with real-time pacing. If you’re like me, the RTS pacing of Dice Legacy might be a bit much for you. In that case, I have some advice for a more laid-back gaming experience:
1. Start a new game on pacifist difficulty. It effectively disables the biggest source of real-time pressure, the hostile raiders, and lets you think through your moves at your leisure. The game far, far less stressful as a result, largely becoming self-paced. The economy of the game is still involved enough to get many hours of fun even with the raider threat removed. And you can always bump up the difficulty later if you find yourself mastering the rest of the game, and want more of a real-time challenge.
– Real player with 25.6 hrs in game
Dawn of War II: Retribution – The Last Stand
Strategic and chaotic 3 player co-op survival with RTS controls. You have one unit and can customize it however you want, building with strategy in mind to make the best unit for your team. You then take this unit and throw it together with your two allies, and try to survive wave after wave of enemy hordes.
Each character has a set number of slots to equip items, and each time you level up you get another item. You can pick whatever combination of items you want, but some definitely go better together than others. Just when you think you’ve got your build completely figured out, you get something new to try out, which keeps you playing (often long after you wanted to go to bed). Every character also has one or two pieces of equipment that can be unlocked by completing certain achievements.
Ok so what i said before about the D.O.W 2 series still stands but releasing only the last stand mode for 10$ was a brilliant move! Take the most popular aspect of the game and say “1/3 the game 1/3 the price”
Another winner move by THQ that makes me think that this company is just doing things right. Hopefully in the near future they will be able to contend with (and eventually knock over) companies like EA and Activision that frequently spits in the face of P.C gamers.
Kudos THQ another great move!
Kings Town
I can easily see this game taking off in no time. Lots of good things so far, and there is a lot of potential in it right now. I highly recommend to buy this if you don’t mind the waiting game, currently there isn’t a whole lot in the game, but I’ve enjoyed learning how it works and the best way to build each time for maximum efficiency!
Point is, the game is enjoyable enough for it’s current price, and the devs seem to act fast on community feedback. Which means it’s worth paying a little now compared to however much it will cost when it makes it out of Early Access. Which I do believe this game will get there.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
2 hours into this game since launch. my thoughts so far
great concept, decent execution. many things could be added to make this a fantastic game
couple notes just while playing.
-there needs to be some kind of way to remove aggro from being attacked, i had to restart twice because i couldn’t build any defences before being attacked. some way to defend earlier in game is needed for sure.
-the UI needs some love.
-multiple villagers per resource building?
-maybe a slight buff to the house limit
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Star Exodus
Star Exodus is a single-player, real-time strategy game defined by exploration and player’s choices.
Be ready to wander around the endless space, where you have to fight for resources, manage them and take care of your crew. Star Exodus will take you on a journey through barren space and put your survival skills to the test! Survive wandering through the cold space. Manage your resources, modify your fleet, fight an intelligent race of aliens, and all this to find your place in the universe and learn the truth about your own species.
Extract valuable resources from all over the galaxy! Control and manage them wisely! Don’t run out of food and fuel, and adjust your ships to your and your crew’s needs. Be careful though. If you lose a ship, all resources associated with it are gone!
Your crew is the most important resource you have so take care of your people’s morale if you don’t want to be abandoned. After all, You can’t achieve anything without your fleet. Think carefully before making a decision, because they also affect the crew. Try to be a responsible and conscious leader!
How the game unfolds depends on your moves and choices. You decide on the lives of not only your enemies but also your crew, and each of your decisions brings various consequences. There are no two same games, each time the scenario and the star cluster are different. Discover alternative endings and create your own, personal story!
Even in an endless galaxy, you will often encounter various alien spaceships. And alien usually, though not always, means hostile. It is up to you as the captain to decide whether to protect the crew and escape or to face the enemy fleet. Use elements of the environment to hide or trick the enemy. Send battleships, catch the enemy in ambushes, lurk behind asteroids, and protect the crew. Don’t be too reckless, the aliens may be smarter than you think!
With such a huge crew under your command, there goes a high responsibility. A well-organized fleet supply is a crucial element of survival. At your disposal, You have various utilities and a specific amount of storage space in every ship. Assign the utilities to particular ships and customize your fleet as you develop. Choose the right utilities to upgrade and modify your spaceships according to your needs. Meet and recruit friendly ships. Find out if you are good enough to build a powerful and unstoppable fleet!
Your adventure takes place in the boundless galaxy, where you can find an infinite number of planets, asteroids, and minerals. You will encounter friends and enemies, fight with aliens and protect your crew. You can find, extract, store, and manage valuable resources, explore the star system more and more, and create the whole society within your fleet. You have the possibilities no one on earth could even dream about, so don’t waste them and get on the board!
Steel Fury Kharkov 1942
The game’s geriatric in its graphics and some of its UI, but it still looks and plays enjoyably enough. I try not to negatively judge something because it’s old. I’m in my mid-50’s and I don’t think myself less because my body is aging. Actually quite the opposite, I’m a much better person now than I ever was. Steel Fury Kharkov 1942 is like that. The youthful flesh has wrinkled and aged but underneath is some solid gameplay.
I own IL-2 Tank Crew (I love IL-2:GB) and Steel Fury should be the example of how to make it more enjoyable. Tanks with infantry support, historical missions, sounds of war all around. SF feels like you’re in an important battle to fight in the “Meat Grinder” in and around Kharkov.
– Real player with 16.8 hrs in game
*** Negative Review…..BUT ***
Firstly, as it stands now, bought on Steam by people wishing to jump in and run the sim immediately by clicking play as soon as the game is installed, for modern PC’s - the answer is no, avoid like the plague, unless you are using a PC of similar vintage. The game was developed for an earlier generation of machines and you’ll encounter all of the usual issues :- Screen resolution locked to minimum setting, graphics card not recognised, not enough virtual memory and so on.
– Real player with 6.1 hrs in game