Zero-K
When I came to Zero-K a few years back, I thought it was just another TA clone with improved graphics. It turns out that I have a weird taste for RTS graphics and Zero-K’s graphics supposedly suck. Either way, this game is about depth if anything. I’ve played over 5000 matches, yet there are still strategies and tricks to explore.
I’m mostly a fan of competitive play, so this is what this review focuses on.
Comparing ZK to other strategy games, you’ll notice that it has a lot less rules. While there is a very basic economy that needs to be carefully maintained for competitive play, there are hardly any “wrong” openings. In the early game it’s very important to scout your opponent’s opening and react accordingly, as games can be decided very quickly. This phase demands good micro and APM to make the most out of the few units you have.
– Real player with 5537.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy RTS Games.
Completely ripping out my old review on this game for a new one. Into the rabbithole we go!
I would say, as a TL;DR right out the gate, that this is hands-down, the best RTS I have ever played for coop and campaign content.
The amount of content in this singleplayer/coop campaign is MASSIVE. Hours upon hours upon hours of content for most players. While speeding through it is entirely possible, it’s usually not how new players explore the game.
Additionally, the actual tactical diversity, choice, exploration, and creativity of the game’s mechanics is unparalleled by any RTS I have ever played. Easily.
– Real player with 702.8 hrs in game
Bloons Monkey City
Summary: Sim City crossed with tower defense
Multiplayer: Not… exactly?
Completion: 180+ hrs
Cards: No
Cloud: Saves are stored on NinjaKiwi servers
Bloons Monkey City is a hybrid tower defense game and city builder. Bloons have infested the land and the king has ordered you to cleanse them out and reclaim the land.
You start with a randomly generated world and small plot of land under your control with some structures already built. In order to expand, you must conquer territory outside your walls, which will be a tower defense battle. Your army initially only consists of a handful of humble dart monkeys, but as you construct more buildings, you will quickly gain access to a wide variety of monkeys. All the towers in BMC are identical to the ones in Bloons TD5, so if you played that game, you’ll know what to expect here and how to use them. The main difference is that you are limited to how many monkeys you can use based on your structures, and some monkeys can only be unlocked by beating special tiles.
– Real player with 252.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy City Builder Games.
Developer/Publisher: Ninja Kiwi
FREE TO PLAY
There are micro-transactions, but if you are strong of will you can still progress without spending real money. It’s hard to fight the temptation, believe me. There are also 10 DLC packs available ranging in price from $0.99 to 4.99 each. I’ve bought them all.
POSITIVES
Combines the Bloons TD (Tower Defense) games with world building and, in a way, card collecting games. I hope that I’m not being too misleading with that last point. I’ll explain.
THE GAME
– Real player with 209.6 hrs in game
Minion Masters
Let me start by saying that this game is so rigged, manipulative and can be dangerous to people with gambling problems or really bad O. C. D. so, people with less self-control should not be playing this game in my honest opinion.
You can play solo in 1v1, with random people in 2v2 Team Battle, with a friend in a Premade Team Battle, in Guild Premade Battle or create custom matches. You can also purchase Adventures to play against AIs that try too hard to make you feel like the game has a story. You can always Challenge same bots to try out different decks and your new experiments before playing against real players. I must say that this game is not Pay-to-Win in any way as of now, which is great but I did spend a lot of money on it, mostly for cosmetics.
– Real player with 1929.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy Deckbuilding Games.
Early Access V 0.9.1
Before we start I got a game key for free during alpha but since Early access I bought the premium upgrade at the same price as all new players since early access launch because currently premium upgrade includes in all new purchases.
The game revolves in the Forced universe. Betadwarf has made two prior games, Forced and Forced Showdown. I have played extensivly Forced Showdown and had alot of fun with it. WIth that in mind I had very high hopes for betadwarfs third game, Minion Masters.
– Real player with 1339.9 hrs in game
Dingletopia: Nation Under Siege (by Orcs)
If you are a fan of Strategy games, there isn’t a game I can recommend more than Dingletopia. Not only is it absolutely free, but every aspect of this game is perfect in my opinion. The humor is admittedly a bit niche, so it’s understandable if that kind of steers you away, but if you can get past the humor for a moment, you’ll start to realize how beautiful this game is. The graphical style is charming to say the least, and is very expressive no matter what you’re looking at. The soundtrack is great, putting the player into the feeling that they really are leading the most powerful military, with one of my personal favorites being the Orc Raid theme (you can find a lot of the soundtrack online, though some of the songs seem to be missing). I have gotten (and still get) chills up my spine playing this game, and I honestly can’t say that this would be the case if not for all of the love and attention put into the soundtrack. Gameplay itself is what you’d expect on the surface, you can try to improve relations with other countries, scout for treasures in allied territory and move units as you please. Shortly after poking around, you’ll find the upgrades tab, which adds a lot of depth to the game, as the player will begin to experiment with new playstyles and uncover new strategies over the course of their playthroughs. There are unique troops, including a secret one, interesting encounters and predicaments that you’ll have to overcome, and it’s your job to figure out how to resolve them to best serve your nation’s goals. The artifacts you can scout for add another massive layer of depth, but by far the most interesting aspect of this game’s gameplay would be the activatable combat items. Because of the way the game’s combat works, the player can’t directly lead their units, but they can turn the tides of battle with a mighty volley of stones, throw the dice by calling lightning, or infiltrate enemy lines by summoning ancient guardians, and that’s only scratching the surface of what the player can do. Regardless of whether it’s your first Strategy game or if you’re a tactical genius, the game is able to set forth a fair challenge to players of most any skill level, and as long as you keep pushing forward, you’ll take down the first stronghold, then the second, and the feeling of satisfaction you’ll feel when you kill the last remaining member of the Orc army will be immeasurable. The only thing that I dislike about this game is that there isn’t enough of a community around it, because frankly this masterpiece deserves so much better. Everyone I’ve recommended the game to in person (or on Discord because of COVID-19, but you know what I mean) has loved it, and I honestly believe that it is game that everyone can enjoy.
– Real player with 12.0 hrs in game
First off… it’s an enjoyable strategy game and it costs literally nothing. Give it a go and make your own impression!
That said, my two playthroughs have put me in two minds.
On my first playthrough, I had a lot of fun exploring the quirkiness of the world and getting to grips with the mechanics. The game has great pacing, meaning a decent period to build and learn the ropes before slowly becoming overwhelmed by every larger invasion forces. It’s very easy to learn and has a solid gameplay loop of rebuilding, pushing troops around the continent and throwing yourself between offensive and defensive planning.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Warzone 2100
Old school RTS. Somewhat limited due to the old UI, archaic controls, and limited mission parameters (that were sometimes in place to keep the game within the performance capacity available at the time). BUT! despite all that. This is the game that kept me into RTS games during a helluva long dry spell LOL. Dune on Genesis caught me first. Then this and the Command and Conquer games. I’ve played so much Stellaris it isn’t even a game anymore. it’s an empire simulator. But i still love this game. a lot!
– Real player with 31.3 hrs in game
For a game more then 20 years old it is still awesome. I first played this on Play Station 1 and after a few years I found a pirated copy online and still play it. Because it is 20 years old there are some AI issues with pathing but nothing that cant be remidied by changing your click and forget playstyle.
My biggest selling point on this game is something that ALL RTS games should have… a “seemless campane” meaning the defences AND units you build are used for ALL future missions. There are a number of customization options and stratagies you can choose from even in single player matches vs the PC.
– Real player with 24.8 hrs in game
GWENT: The Witcher Card Game
The best Card game on Steam!
This review does not contain any spoilers for any Witcher Games
Gameplay
When it comes to card games the most important thing is without a doubt gameplay and balancing. The gameplay of Gwent is quite simple and very familiar to anyone who has played Gwent in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Each player must play one card each turn from a deck of at least twenty-five cards. Each deck belongs to a faction that offers different play styles. Each faction has different “leaders” who each have individual abilities. As Gwent does not use a mana system like most traditional collectible card games, card advantage is often what wins the game.
– Real player with 3570.2 hrs in game
An incredibly unique, and fundamentally great card game, ruined by months of incompetence lasting since the release of the Way of the Witcher expansion.
A list of issues plaguing the game right now:
-The game was struggling with balance before, but the meta was never as annoying as it is right now. Ever since the release of WotW, even though diverse, the meta is incredibly binary in the sense that some decks just beat others on paper if luck of the draw doesn’t incredibly favor you. This makes for a really bad “rock-paper-scissors” kind of feel to the game’s matchups.
– Real player with 694.9 hrs in game
Istrolid
After 1000hrs of gameplay, It is time to review istrolid.
If you enjoy any kind of Real Time Strategy game, this game is perfect for you. Easy gameplay, an ever evolving meta, and helpful community make this game a great game to play when you need to become absorbed by a game. Servers are mostly stable and when issues arise they are resolved quickly by developers. I Highly recommend this game.
However, Developers are moving in a direction of quick action strategy instead of long thoughtful strategy. Nuke ships and cloaked nuke ships, along with bomber style ships tend to force play and deminish the actual strategy of this game irregardless of the meta.
– Real player with 1173.8 hrs in game
Istrolid is a game about designing a fleet of spaceships from scratch and taking them into battle. Having played strategy games for as long as I’ve had a PC, there have been countless times when I thought “I wish I had a unit that could do x.” In Istrolid, I can.
I will be talking mostly about multiplayer. The campaign teaches some of the basics, but also encourages bad habits that will result in you getting slaughtered the moment you play multiplayer against even only moderately experienced players. For this reason it is the weakest part of the game and I would advise against taking it seriously past the first few missions that do show the basic controls. In multiplayer, you have access to all ship parts regardless of your place in the campaign.
– Real player with 630.1 hrs in game
Martial Arts Brutality
Firstly, id just have to say, spend a FEW minutes to download the game and just give it a try and form your own conclusion rather than letting a few negative reviews put you off.
Ive spent many hundreds of hours on many other card games, from Hearthstone,Faeria, Magic the Gathering, Duel of Champions, Slay the Spire, Infinity Wars etc.. , and Martial Arts Brutality is my current favourite and the one i have the most fun playing and look forward to playing, i currently have put a pause on playing everything else. its just pure fun and a really unique game.
– Real player with 149.7 hrs in game
The game is quite fun and addictive. The style is wonderful trashy, in resemblance to the old, trashy fighting movies but also offers some depth through constantly working on your fighting decks.
This could be where this review ends but why the negative review then? Well there’s one single aspect that ruins it all: The Pay2Win Spirit boost mechanic. The deeper you get into this game the more you realize how often people use Spirit Boosts to turn a loss into an undeserved victory… which ruins it all.
– Real player with 138.3 hrs in game
Mythgard
The game is more about luck eg. my opponent had 3 cards and me just one , after he kill my card my next drop was a ship card with many soldier cards so i dominated him since i had level and gems and i was able to fill up the table with cards and win:) another game i managed to buff a card from 3 to 10 and the enemy has a spell wich can capture my card and use it on his side , another game i use the spell: i captured the highest card the enemy had and after i got another spell to redraw cards from boneyard so i captured another high card again :) … it is just bs and luck in the first case didn’t win since i wasted to much on that card the enemy got a ultimate card and my next drops were shit in the second scenario i win even against the enemy who ca copy the skill of any card yet another bs card :)) , bs cards that can kill you on their first attack , additional moves that can stack :) Every faction has similar overpowered cards so it’s balanced. Artifacts are again about luck and are way to over powered , basicly you can win just by stacking artifacts and do automatic damage to the enemy , in my opinion only two artifacts at a time should be activeand if you want more you can but you got to burn mana and gems and for auto damage artifacts once you destroy the artifact the enemy should recive a procent of the damage dealt by the artifact so it’s fair and balanced .The durability gain when your constrcts die is way to overpowered , in my opinion the damage should be dealt to all the artifacts not just one , after mid game if you have more then 3 artifacts the game is just stacking contructs and wait for a better cards . The Matryoshka artifact is bs with low mana and gem cost and durability 10 lolz it removes the skill from the game , the same as many artifacts. Played against a dude with 75 cards deck and he beat me only because he was lucky and got artifacts who can attack my minions and reduce their hp/attack so with no artifact remove cards it’s a 100% lose since he spammed constructs and also my artifact didn’t drop all game so this is again about luck and unbalanced.
– Real player with 504.4 hrs in game
as far as imaginary cardgames go, Mythgard hits all the right notes:
- cards are acquired in more different ways than I have ever seen in any CCG: 3 cards/day for playing; 1+ cards for completing each of the~20ish story episodes so far; ~30 packs are available through promo codes; you can uncraft and craft cards into Essence currency, including Wild cards which can be crafted into any card of a certain set, colour, and rarity; Silver currency is awarded for playing matches and completing rerollable missions, I find I can quite easily earn 2 packs a day this way; Maat currency is awarded for GGing opponents in matches; and this technically doesn’t GIVE YOU cards, but there are several play modes where you can “borrow” cards and deck lists to check out what you might enjoy playing. Unlike other CCGs, it seems like Mythgard really wants you to play it!
– Real player with 476.8 hrs in game
Dwarfs - F2P
Dwarfs F2P is the free version of the full game Dwarfs!? in which you take control of dwarfs and need to dig, dig and dig some more. Originally got this to get the achievement for KF1.
Pros:
-Gameplay is rather fun. Controlling various little dwarfs throughout the game digging for gold and overcoming obstacles such as lava, water and large spiders keeps you on your toes while playing.
-The free to play version offers quite a bit of content for being free. The full game can be bought through DLC which aren’t too pricey either.
– Real player with 44.6 hrs in game
Let’s be honest here. We all got this game so that we can unlock that awesome axe in Killing Floor.
Making me play this game so that I can get something in another one- good job Tripwire, you cunning game developers you!
But I must say after I’ve played it for 3 hours (going through all the tutorials, codex tips and actual game playing till I get the achievement for the axe) I found out that I really like this game. It has funny dialogues, interesting premise and overall a good theme to it. Who doesn’t like magical underworld realms, where dwarfs fight gnomes and mine gold?
– Real player with 13.6 hrs in game