So I've been playing a bunch of AotS: Escalation and Battlezone 98 Redux. Both are damn good fun in all honesty. Battlezone is a FPS/RTS hybrid...more on the FPS-side of things but it has enough RTS in it I felt it was fitting to talk about here.
Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation
If you were disappointed in AotS's initial release, hoping for the next coming of SupCom... Escalations looks to somewhat fill that need. Large scope and scale, tactical zoom, more units and strategies, lots to do, and continuing to improve. The drawback right now is that you need a pretty decent system to play it smoothly. My kid's PC, Kid PC2 in my sig, is able to play it at 1080 on Medium with no AA, and it still looks pretty damn amazing and plays quite nicely so clearly they have improved it quite a bit. Their goal is to make AotS and Escalations more usable and enjoyable on lower end systems...but I hope they don't go too far. There's A LOT of RTS that low end systems can play, and if it's going to sacrifice the forward momentum of AotS and it's 64-bit DX12 engine, I'm against it. I can sorta play either title on my Dell 3540 laptop...but it's a huge struggle and the heat it makes is the worst of any game. That actually goes for all of my systems that play this title...it heats the GPU up like no other game out there...and can put a decent load on the CPU too.
I am looking forward to more maps, a better map maker, more races, units, sea units, more terrain types, and just more. This is a damn good game and any RTS fan should have no trouble getting plenty of enjoyment out of it. Escalations has the original game's campaign and 2 more, so plenty to do SP-wise. I also really enjoy going up against AI in skirmishes...the AI in this game I find to be a good challenge. Which it should be considering the CPU resources its allowed.
The gameplay is also much more polished than AotS was a year or more ago, and after patch 1.3 in the original AotS, gamespeed issues were totally resolved for me...the pace wasn't as lethargic or frozen molasses feeling. Those that want fast and furious battles should look at SC2 or PA: Titans IMHO. But the battles in Ashes, either version, are truly epic. Even after what is likely well over 100 hours in both games combined...I still find myself enjoying watching battles play out...watching missles, mortars, lasers, beams, etc...all fire across the battleground into an enemy or narrowly missing.
Knowing that I have several (or more) fronts to build up armies, defenses, and certain arrangements of forces on is also something I enjoy with this title. Depending on the kind of games you play in AotS you can really flesh out some various strategies. I tend to start with a foundation of a certain build order of units that works for my play style...but often I have to change overall build queues to something that will survive against the waves of enemies coming or bases and resources areas I plan to take.
Quanta...now that is the unique thing here. Quanta runs so much of the game...without it you will be left behind and crushed in most cases. Why? Because its your research. It's your armor and weapon boost. Its your maximum army population purchase. There's some strategy here, because you can't build 10 quanta stations at the start...and have an army to utilize said research. And to buy the orbital support facilities for the extra actions you can do isn't possible at the start. That's where the balance of building your armies and building your support research come into play. Different folks pick different times to get into the quanta research. Do you place them all at your main base, or do you place a few in your future proxy bases?
I personally like to build up my armies first, and expand expand expand. Until I can hold 2-3 fronts with numbers I have 1-2 quanta stations at most. I hit up the mid game with a spare engineer only for building quanta stations, usually all over the place...and then ramp up the unit boosts, build some orbital support, and start nuking the enemy. I will also produce a few jammers to prevent my main base and proxy bases from getting hit too hard.
Frankly each game plays a little different, so does the AI...but overall I maintain a couple running strategies that work well for my playstyle. Its a lotta fun to try different things against the AI, and my son and I are able to enjoy this game in MP with ease.
Battlezone 98 Redux
Where to start. I played the original...even had the physical copy until a few years ago. Some remakes aren't as good...some take longer until they're good...but Battlezone 98 Redux is pretty top notch. It's not 100% perfect...but it's very enjoyable and harder than I remember. The controls are solid and smooth, the AI is competent for the SP experience. The campaign is as fun as I remembered...and I get my ass handed to me regularly in good fun! Steamworks support is a huge plus too...I've already deployed a few texture mods and an HD reticle mod. The game plays smooth on my laptop and PC.
If this had the tactical mode from Void Destroyer 2, it would be the best game ever for me right now. There are games that do the tactical zoom, allow you to FPS control a unit (Executive Assault does this too)...and I so wish this game did. But regardless...once you adjust to having to do all your RTS-ing from the FPS view it's not a big deal as the overall mechanics flow really well with it. BZ has a method to its chaos and it works very well. I find myself playing and replaying missions just to see if I can do them better, more efficiently, faster... I never do that in a new game... but as a 90s gamer, I used to do that all the time...it was part of the allure to gaming. This game left that ability fully realized and it's a helluva lotta fun!
The graphics aren't amazing, but they're clean and do a good enough job getting you into the mood to play in "what if" scenario created...me being a Cold War "what if" video game fan...this game was always right up my alley. I should add that having a nice computer now, this game plays great! Back in the day...my cheap PC had major issues. Major.
I didn't expect miracles with this title...and waited for months after release to see how it looked. Overall it is stable, smooth and easy. There's UI clunkiness but that seems more inherent to how it was back in the 90s, moreso than bringing it up to speed. Maybe my nostalgia glasses are so fogged over I'm willing to forgive and forget any glaring issues...but overall I don't have any that really annoy me. The AI is kinda clunky and pathfinding isn't always to your benefit...your guys need micromanaged to an extent... but that also keeps up with the pressured feeling of defending against the enemy and making sure all cylinders of the American War Machine are firing to fend off the enemies. WOOT!
This game is FUN, challenging and rewarding. I wish there was something brand new that was a sequel or more similar with some added depth and a Void Destroyer 2-like tactical RTS view to it...but at the end of the day, this is absolutely worth a few bucks. I've already sunk hours into this and there's no end in sight. I'm planning to load a user created Mod that adds all sorts of extras, notably BattleZone 2 stuff. Having the Steamworks integrated has really done favors to this game...and while it's not uber busy...what is there already is quite good.
I've yet to try MP, and I picked this up on the Steam Fall Sale for around $5 or $10 iirc, but after my experience I'd seriously consider paying $20 for it. The fact that this is so much more entertaining than some games I've paid 3-6 times more for...that are brand new...not almost 20...well that speaks volumes to me.
)...and while I like it I got distracted by other games. Not impressed with the $8 character DLC but its not required. What I do like is the overall experience has been very good and pretty well polished. I like the graphical presentation.
Also they have millions of DLC, but most of them are just cosmetic.
