M.A.X. 2: Mechanized Assault & Exploration
I’e always liked this game. I’ve played it +1000 hours on a different account.
It’s very simple, easy to learn, a lifetime to master.
5 different types of humans, plus a pod species much like Alien(s). You can choose or do it random. Six different maps. 1-on-1 up to 5-on-1. You can call it a city builder, but then again, you could call Napoleon an adventurer.
Never plays the same way twice.
– Real player with 322.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Isometric Games.
DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. Having played the original M.A.X., which was brilliant, I thought that I would try M.A.X. 2. Game loaded OK and it took a little time to work out what the differences from the original game were. This resulted in me taking about 1 1/2 hours to get to turn number 36 when the game crashed. It had done an automatic save at turn 35 so started the game again and again it crashed. I then checked that my system was compatible with the program, loaded it up again and tried a different scenario. It crashed again around turn 30. After two more scenarios and crashes I had spent 4hours trying to get it to work and thought that a refund was in order. Of course steams rules say so refund after 2 hours. How on earth do they expect people to test a game, that always crashes, in two hours. The game should be taken off their site until the software anomalies have been rectified.
– Real player with 143.6 hrs in game
Net King’s Call
lotta fun, each unit is fun to play and switching up the troops prevents it from getting stale.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Indie Games.
10/10, almost as good as committing tax evasion
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Arcanium: Rise of Akhan
I’ve only played a few runs so far, but this is already my favorite roguelike deckbuilder of all time. It’s the first one I’ve played where you actually, crucially, get to build your deck. Let me explain.
You know how in most of these games, your deck consists of literally every single card you pick up throughout each run, causing the driving force to become finding ways to remove cards from your deck, lest it become a bloated mess with zero synergy? And once you realize that, you’ll usually pass on cool or interesting cards unless they fit 100% seamlessly into your current strategy? Does it ever start to feel a little disappointing when it seems like your entire deck plan for a run is determined by the first few cards you get, because of those design choices? Enter Arcanium.
– Real player with 163.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Deckbuilding Games.
–This is a really good deckbuilding roguelike game.
–They are testing MAJOR rebalancing and mechanics changes. The early game feels prohibitively difficult now, even on easier difficulties. I’m not a fan of the recent stuff. Many, if not most, characters feel helpless early. It feels like players have fewer viable options than they used to. (PS: With major changes, some of this review might be out of date, sorry).
–The max deck size of 12 cards feels too restrictive. Your deck composition doesn’t change much over time. Of the 36 cards you’ll end the game with, 12-18 will be starter cards. Maybe reduce the size of the opening decks?
– Real player with 104.4 hrs in game
Archeo: Shinar
This game has surprised me. At first, it’s a simple economic strategy with very simple mechanics, or at least I thought so. You go on expeditions, pick good explorers and try to match them to events on the expedition. Easy enough. But the game is focused on the other side of archeology. The player spends more time preparing and planning the next expedition than being on that expedition. There’s a lot of hidden stuff and you can get overwhelmed, but it’s probably the early access thing. The more you play the more you learn. There’s a lot of little gameplay secrets like you can find out the consequences of your choices one hour later or even later. It’s a well-made game with a lot going on in the background. At first, it looks simple but behind those visuals, you may find that it’s actually not that simple. It’s definitely not a game for everyone, but if you are into strategy and management, then you will have a lot of fun. And when in tutorial Cuppy says “you should experiment more with the mechanics for yourself” or something like that, it’s actually true. This game won’t give you everything on a plate, you have to figure out some things, like for example the results on the expeditions aren’t RNG, it works in a more subtle way and you will need some time to get familiar with it.
– Real player with 22.0 hrs in game
This game is in early access, this review is based on version 0.75c.
Pros
✓︎ Interesting and complex gameplay, full of unique features.
✓︎ Wonderfully written story, with meaningful random events.
✓︎ Well balanced difficulty levels.
✓︎ Minimalist, playful and clean artstyle.
✓︎ Local multiplayer transforms the game into a fun society game.
Cons
✕︎ A long learning curve.
✕︎ As an early access it requires some polishing, including the addition of the “career” mode, yet to implement in the game.
– Real player with 13.0 hrs in game
Close Combat - Gateway to Caen
A more up-to-date version of the CC classics.
I will edit this review later, but first off I want to say something immediately.
I see people claiming to be CC “fans”, give it thumbs down, and post stuff like “you can’t pause the game”.
Guess what, you can.. just hit the “pause” key on your keyboard. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? And if you truly had played any of the predecessors, you’d realize that this version works just in the exact same way.
By the way, you can press spacebar to activate range info (I have command influence range as standard). There’s a comprehensive list of keybindings in the manual.
– Real player with 286.7 hrs in game
TL;DR: Gateway to Caen’s a better version of the older CC games. It’s worth buying, but only if you can get past the many, many irritating problems it has. Finishing the campaign feels like reaching the summit of Everest to find it wrapped in cloud; a great deal of difficulty overcome, an achievement undoubtedly reached, but disappointment souring the pleasure. It’s not worth getting - unless you can live with its numerous, crippling flaws. Read on…
Pros:
- Updated graphics, improved sounds, same intuitive interface, welcome new campaign setting.
– Real player with 187.8 hrs in game
Dark Future: Blood Red States
TL;DR :
Overall, it’s a decent game with great visuals and works well as a “play for a couple hours at a sitting” arcade game. If you pay attention to the developing story, it gets a lot more interesting. Take the time to read everything; it’s worth it, and begs you to stick around for the next chapter. Some of the mission types are a little ugly and grinding, some are great, but in general it’s more fun than not.
Full Review:
I have about 28 hours of playtime during the Beta weekend in addition to the hours playing the release version, so this review takes some of that into account as well.
– Real player with 59.8 hrs in game
Based on a board game from the 80s, Dark Future: Blood Red States is a tactical car combat strategy game set in the near future in an American wasteland ruled by a number of warring factions with armoured cars with big guns. The game consists of multiple seasons, with each season seeing you assume a new role fighting for or against these factions. With each season, you have a choice of missions to undertake, be it Escort missions, where you have to escort a vehicle a certain distance, or to just kill as many opponents as you can.
– Real player with 53.6 hrs in game
Attack at Dawn: North Africa
Attack at Dawn: North Africa is a strategy game set in WW2 North African theatre. In the game you take command of battalions, brigades, divisions and air wings. The game begins with the German troops probing into the Libyan region of Cyrenaica, and finishes either with the total defeat of German-Italian Panzer Armee, or with the British loss of Egypt and their retreat across the Suez Canal.
FAST AND INTENSIVE GAMEPLAY
The game can be played in a Real-Time, or Turn-Based (WeGo) mode. That reflects the speed and chaos of the desert mobile warfare. Combine this with the fog of war, and the experience of being in command vehicle of a Panzer Corps comes to life. The game will immerse you in one of the most intensive and nerve-wrecking experiences of the Second World War.
POLISHED INTERFACE
Game map and the units have been designed to be uncluttered, informative and easy to understand. You can choose how will your units look like: as top-view models or unit counters. With the ability to zoom out and see the entire battlefield with a glance, you will have the best possible situational awareness.
HISTORICAL
The game features campaigns and scenarios - both historical and hypothetical. They have been designed after an in-depth research of the historical orders of battle and battle histories. Special attention was given to the composition of the armies, combat values of individual units and overall authenticity of each scenario. Check out our series of maps and historical articles that were created based on our research: https://www.attackatdawn.com/news/categories/blog
LARGE MAP
The game features a large map, covering a distance of almost 2000 kilometres and you can use the Scenario Editor provided within the game to create your own scenarios anywhere on this large battleground. Starting at the bay of Sirte in Libya and spreading to Suez Canal in Egypt, the terrain varies between sea, desert, mountains, wadis, ports… There is one long asphalt road “Via Balbia” spanning the whole length of the map, and a handful of well-known desert tracks leading towards the deep Sahara.
The Cold War Era 2
Bored while waiting? Please support our developing by playing The Cold War Era! - https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/10404/The_Cold_War_Era_Bundle/
About the game
There can only be one victory, and it all depends on your skill. Who will win? Us or them? Fight your war on earth, in the sky, and in the offices of the Kremlin and the White House for the promotion of your ideology. The prestige of a power depends only on the best qualities of your character - arrogance, deceit, cunning, guile, the ability to take risks and the thirst for power over the world! Do you deserve to be inscribed in the history of the twentieth century? Will your name be in the history books of the Cold War victory?
Main features :
Total war of ideology
Every citizen on the planet supports some kind of ideology. We must force the people of the world to support our ideology by force of arms, political influence, or prestige of our country. It is the only correct one and brings prosperity to the world. Through propaganda, politics, and diplomacy, we will help them think correctly. Those who continue to dissent will be destroyed by the power of our modern weapons, the best and most effective in the world!
Military unit constructor
Under your command are the best design centers of our power and production. Each military unit has different systems. Improve weapons, engines, armor, radars, countermeasures, stealth, and much more, so that the enemy does not have a chance to win on the battlefield. Improve various military systems and build your own units from these systems. Create your own unique unit that will make the world admire its excellence, and make your enemies shake to their core!
Economy and social development
The world should envy and admire our economic muscle and the level of social development for our happiest citizens on the planet. But to do this, we need to work and completely clear our country of corruption, inflation, and reduce the influence of radical groups. Use the ministers and their influence in the parliament to develop our country in the only right direction.
Political development
The adoption of laws in parliament determines the development of our country for decades to come. Every law can have irreparable consequences. Therefore, the parliament always has a heated discussion of different political ideas and trends for its laws. If the laws are too reformist then a coalition of opposition will gather in Parliament to pass such strong laws. Under your leadership ministers can influence parliament to pass laws that will allow our country to continue to be the most attractive country in the world. Our embassies abroad will do everything possible to influence the parliaments of other states and force them to join our ideological alliance!
Additional game features :
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3D map of the world with more than 70 regions on the planet. Each region is individual and has a huge number of indicators - its GDP, army and Navy, leader, Parliament, radical groups, and more.
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a large number of Embassy missions to help regions or Vice versa, change their regimes through military intervention or revolution.
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real historical global consequences that will irreparably happen, and only depends on the experience of Ministers if they happen in our favor or against us.
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in the budget, we have the opportunity to develop the national or private economy. At the expense of the national economy, we can build much cheaper, but the private economy has its own annual growth without government intervention. The national (planned) economy is growing solely at the expense of public administration.
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participation in proxy wars, where you can transfer your units to certain state regimes or Vice versa, to radical groups during a civil war, or to a revolution. You can initiate your own interventions and if there are military bases in the region, then openly provide your military assistance for the sake of dominating the regions.
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the war is divided into military phases, in which you need to overcome certain phases to start a fight in the next. Winning in battle is possible only from the military qualities of units and their number on the battlefield. The unit Builder allows you to build your own military units, the qualities of which need to be developed to win battles and pass military phases.
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Players control game elements such as their political influence, national and private economy, embassy missions, prestige, national monetary fund (savings), political parties, leaders, ministers, parliament and elections, laws, unit designer and systems for all types and branches of the military, corruption, inflation, science, social development for all regions, intervention and revolution, radicals, military morals, military bases and Maritime zones, elections, historical events and much more
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For players who would like to focus only on a specific gameplay, the game allows you to enable AI mode, in which the game will independently take care of different parts of the game’s micromanagement for the player. AI
auto mode is available in economy, diplomacy, military management, and unit Builder.
Bored while waiting? Please support our developing by playing The Cold War Era! - https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/10404/The_Cold_War_Era_Bundle/