First Impressions: Bad North

Bad North is a small, procedurally generated, minimalistic real time tactics and turn based strategy game. Yes, a real time tactics game. Let me explain.

What makes it different from normal RTS games is notable.

There is no group select, or rather, each unit is a squad, and you can only select one squad at a time. Time slows down if you select a squad to order them considerably.

Battle maps are small, even bite-sized. You can see everything in one glance, except for the parts hidden by cliffs, which makes the camera rotation mechanic vital and replaces the fog of war concept.

The rock-paper-scissors balance is also very apparent and significant, and will punish you if you aren't careful. Archers beat pikemen and swordsmen without shields, until they are close enough to damage the archers. Pikemen beat any melee units, like swordsmen with shields, except when they are moving, so they must be prepared and grounded in a position to be effective. Swordsmen with shields beat archers by shrugging off their arrows. Swordsmen, the "weakest" unit in the game, wins through overwhelming and outnumbering numbers, and also used to rush archers and moving pikemen. You can upgrade swordsmen's class to archers, pikemen, or swordsmen with shields.

The strategy layer is turn based. Here, you can choose which next location to defend. Then you can also choose your commanders, which command your squads, and upgrade them to different unit classes. You can also further equip them with skills and items.

You only start with two commanders/squads, however, and you must pick up new commanders along the way. There is a limit of four squads per island.

There is permadeath, so if you make a mistake, your squads die, all with its upgrades. You can replenish your units in battle through the houses you defend in the midst of the skirmish, though this takes considerable amount of time.

Once al your commanders are dead, it is game over.

One of my problems with the game is that the interface when selecting units is farther down the screen, and it is not really that noticeable. So to replenish or flee, you must go all the way to the bottom.

Other than that, Bad North is enjoyable. I really like the "time slows down when giving orders" mechanic. It seems to hearken to my previous post's point about orders having a pause: Possible Solutions For Preventing A "Clickfest" RTS

First Impressions: Forged Battalion (Early Access)

Forged Battalion is a game in Early Access from the Westwood offshoot Petroglyph games, makers of Universe At War, Star Wars Empire At War, Grey Goo, and 8-Bit RTS series, and in Westwood days, makers of the Command and Conquer series. I am a fan of their work and would at least try, if not outrightly buy a game they come out with.

At its basics, Forged Battalion is a Command and Conquer-style RTS with a faction creator mechanic, with hints of 8-Bit in it. There's a tech tree players can buy technology to use in the faction creator with research points gained in single player or multiplayer. Units come as infantry in mech suits, light vehicles, heavy vehicles, and aircraft. Units have one weapon and may have different passive support abilities or movement, all customizable from the faction editor. Each faction has a superweapon, unlocked from the tech tree. With some differences, it is simply a barely improved Command and Conquer.

Which is not a bad thing, but there are still things to be desired.

This is a "review" of its Early Access stage. Many things could have changed after this review, which was conducted on the date on this article.

Thoughts and Recommendations

Faction Creation 
This is the main selling point and gimmick of Forged Battalion, hence we will cover it. Not that it's bad, it could be a lot better.

While the Faction creator tool is admittedly cool and reminds me of Warzone 2100 RTS unit creator, it makes units and factions as a whole look generic. There are no cosmetic differences and thus gives no personality to the factions or units.

The Faction creator tool works in conjunction with the Tech Tree to customize units. Units come as as infantry in mech suits, light vehicles, heavy vehicles, and aircraft as previously stated. There are also right now five tiers in the tech tree with different levels of tech in it. You may create four units for each type in different tiers to fill a slot. You use research points gained from gameplay to unlock technology.  

I recommend adding more cosmetic options, even if upended with microtransactions, just for differentiation's sake. Things like different unit skins and different chassis designs. Have an option for different voices for units.

I would also love more customizable buildings, not just turrets and headquarter upgrades. In fact, an ability to have more specialized buildings would be really cool and more in line with the create your own faction gimmick.

No customization options for harvesters? Anyone remember the Chrono Miners, War Miners, and Slave Miners of Red Alert 2 days? More personality is often better than lesser personality.

As for units themselves, what would be really cool is to add an option for higher tier units to have two weapons, instead of just one. I want to be able to recreate Mammoth Tanks. Or have multiple barrels of the same weapon.

Really, please add more personality and more uniqueness for faction creation, Petroglyph. Your 8-Bit RTS series was oozing with personality. It doesn't feel individual enough that I can own my factions.

Tech Tree
This is related to Faction Creation, but is a major enough segment to include a different set of recommendations for it.

More tiers. Please. If you want truly special factions, Forged Battalion does not provide. Please look at your past games, especially Red Alert, Generals Zero Hour, 8-Bit, and Universe At War to understand how to differentiate factions. There is so previous material much you can lift from.

I would love more superweapons. How about an option to put epic units to replace superweapons like what was done in 8-Bit Invaders? A mind control superweapon like the one from Yuri's Revenge would be cool.

I understand the last tier is locked, and thus can't guess what they are about, so if my suggestions are already in that last tier, ignore.

Tentatively, I would want to see a Deploy type technology ala Red Alert for added armor and a different type of weapon. Other Command and Conquer technology tropes are already included such as Stealth and Nuclear weaponry and even an Ion Cannon.

Non-lethal weaponry such as freezing/cryo technology and mind control technology would be awesome to have and would add in more to the personality argument I am making. Of course, mind control and such would have its own balancing issues, but it would be so cool.

In fact, more non-lethal support abilities would be needed. There are no medics or engineers or any repair types of buildings or units can be found or any buffs at all. Or even transports. I can do without transports, but no support units? Maybe I haven't dug into the tech tree enough but I didn't find them.

Graphics
I don't care about graphics that much. I particularly liked 8-bit voxel style for instance. In fact, I do think this new style is an improvement over that. Not too blocky and minimalistic, but detailed enough to strike a balance.

That said, I can barely make out the different units on the battlefield, for again, a lack of cosmetic options. I just need a bit of a color difference other than the faction colors! The Artillery units are different enough to be able to tell them apart from the others. Other ones, not that great to tell them apart.

Also love how Infantry units are in mech suits like GDI Wolverines are. It reminds me of End of Nations as well.

The Barracks could look a bit more different to the other War Factories on the map... I couldn't tell them apart immediately. The Hand of Nod and even the GDI Barracks were clearly Barracks. Just please use a totally different style without the garage door thing in the front. That is a bit confusing, and especially if you want to do an e-sport of this, seeing differentiation is key.

Gameplay
Gameplay is standard/classic RTS warfare. Or read, Command and Conquer style warfare. Only can build one structure and so on. Mine only one resource and manage the power.

Strategy so far seems to be spamming units repeatedly. Simple and effective. However, lack of different RTS tropes, such as the lack of walls to funnel units, makes the execution of combat have something yet to be desired.

A big difference is, there are no more MCVs. Infantry must find an Outpost to capture and expand. I am ambivalent about this change.

I'm not sure if it's because it is Early Access, but destroying an enemy's Headquarters does not prevent the enemy from constructing(!?). It frustrated my large attack against the AI base in the first mission. Please do not do this regenerating AI thing.

Not a big thing, as it also wasn't present in 8-Bit, but there is a lack of walls construction. I think walls would at least help in some strategizing by funneling enemy units to a spot.

What I liked about Command and Conquer 3 is the ability to queue more than one building by constructing Cranes. I think it would be an option to consider.

I would like to see more than one resource type on the map. Or rather, like in Command and Conquer, where there was different types and colors of Tiberium, I think it would be nice to have something like that. I just think gold is overused. And don't even really have to do much, just change colors for the types of resources, or even throwback to Command and Conquer by having radioactive resources again. Not too important to me, but I think it will increase player options.

I don't do multiplayer too much, so please have a great campaign for us single only players.

Sound
Great Frank Klepancki music. I would like more unit voices, tied to my argument for Faction Creation personality up there. It isn't a priority for me though.

Story
The story itself is a rehash of the End of Nations backstory, except with changed names to suit the stripped down game: a man taking over the world with new technology to save the Earth from climate change and disaster.

It's fine for its purpose, but it needs more meat.

Overall
All in all, I like Forged Battalion and its potential. But at its current state, I would probably forget about it once I get to play with all the unlocked technologies. So please further improve and polish the game, Petroglyph.

Video: What Makes RTS Games Fun: Base Defenses in RTS

First Impressions: 8-Bit Armies

At first, 8-Bit Armies do not look at all that much. But once you get into it, it feels a lot like the classic Command and Conquer. And for a good reason, too, the game was made by Petroglyph Studios, which is a descendant of the Westwood Studios.

You have two factions, the Renegades and the Guardians. Both factions are a mix of GDI and Nod units and powers. For example, the Renegades have nukes but also the military GDI-esque hardware, while the Renegades have a Nod vibe, yet with an ion cannon satellite.

Campaigns play and look like mobile missions, with a 3 star rating for completing objectives. With each mission, you unlock more units and structures for a loadout, which is surprisingly addictive.

Just Interesting: Failure RTS

Failure promises to be a original cyberpunk RTS with some MOBA elements and other hybridization. I like how the units show what territories they get on a hex board, and also clear terrain manipulation.

Check out their website.

Game Design: A Soulslike RTS?

Anyone play Dark Souls?

So DS has a reputation of tight but deliberate combat gameplay.

And there has been a crop of games called Soulslike (as a genre) trying to emulate the tightness and deliberate combat.

For those who haven't played Dark Souls:
1. DS has a stamina bar, which limits your combat actions until it refills
2. Each combat action cannot be stopped midair, if you commit to an attack, you can't cancel it.
3. Each enemy has a distinct and non-randomized pattern in combat.

Is there an RTS equivalent? 

Starcraft is the first to come to mind. It is said to be the tightest RTS gameplay there is.

Dune 2's limitation of being able to select only one unit and attack brings it to mind. It felt deliberate, even though limiting.

But if there's no RTS equivalent, what if a Soulslike RTS would play as follows:
1. It would have a sort of stamina bar for the player to limit his actions of selection and combat? Basically, you get only a few actions per minute.

2. If you send out a unit/squad to move or attack or whatever, you can't immediately micromanage it out of the way to avoid an attack or whatever, so then you must commit to whatever action you put forth.

3. More experimentally, in a squad, you are able to command the units directly and instantly like a character with hotkeys along with mouse. Switch formations on the fly, use the WASD to "guide" the flow of attack. Right clicking is instantly responsive despite distance, for example, clicking for an archer squad will immediately fire a volley of arrows at the mouse location (without doing that hotkey then click or click button then click). Kinda like a MOBA style control.

Thoughts?

First Impressions: 0 AD

0 AD is a free, open source RTS.

As an RTS, 0 AD reminds me most of a cross between Age of Empires 3 and Age of Mythology. They have almost the same resources and seeming economic focus. I tried the Athenians, which were the first in alphabetical order for the historical factions.

The most obvious difference is that soldiers also have all worker/builder abilities. There are no male "villagers", all are soldiers. There are female villagers who actually speed up male unit work. I like that dynamic.

The game is incomplete and unfinished so far.

I would love an Israel/Hebrew civilization mod for it.

Download and play 0 AD here.

Meta General: Why I Love To Play RTS Games

Okay, I figured out a big reason why I love (slower paced) RTSes, and only like, say RTTs (real time tactics) like Dawn of War 2 or why I don't play multiplayer Starcraft that much (and again, 3/4s of Starcraft players don't play multiplayer). This might help some RTS designers in the group.

I like that you build the economy. I like that you fight and command in combat.

But what I love about it is that you keep on unlocking new stuff as you build your base and survive so you can finally have the epic toys of superweapons and OP units, or the end game.

*That* gives me a feeling of truly earned power and at the same time captures my imagination.

It's not base building that is important, it is the clear progression from weak to strong. Base building is just the expression of that progression. Removing base building is removing the expression of progression. If one removes base building, it must be replaced with a better sort of progression.

With fast paced multiplayer like Starcraft, I can't ever build a truly epic army with cool units before getting destroyed. Either I strike hard early with a bunch of low level units (ie Marines or Zerglings) and I win, or more likely than not, I get annihilated with a bunch of low level units while I tried to get to the Battlecruisers.

While that may be fun for some, winning early, that just feels... unsatisfying to me. It feels rushed and also you don't get to experience much of the content because of early winning and losses.

With Dawn of War 2 (just talking about early campaigns), yes, I like the combat is better inherently, but you just get a squad(s). While a powerful squad, it's just the same squad(s) the whole game! You get new weapons, but nothing spectacular to write home about. Dawn of War 1 had much more toys to play with like tanks and aircraft and titans. Combat may be better, but at the expense of the sandboxy variety.

So, tl;dr
Unlocking (not just having, as unlocking is earning) powerful units and commander powers like superweapons to use against my enemies is why I love RTSes.

It is not (always) satisfying for people (me, at least) to win a match with just weak units in the early game because it didn't give me (or my enemy even) a chance to use cool stuff!

I don't know if that helped you, but I just had to put it into words.

Just Interesting: RULE

A recently Kickstarter funded MMORTS that is simple in concept and execution: the world is your battlefield. There is a demo on their website.

Just Interesting: Kravall

Kravall is an RTS set in the future where there is societal rioting. It seems to be a halted student project in a college. Their blog details what kind of technical specifications they were up to.

Game Design: Making RTS More Strategic Or Tactical

Tactical:
A pausable RTS game. Can be auto-paused when encountering an enemy unit. Orders can be given in pause.

Pre-set plans for dealing with different units. Like designing AI for each squad.
Plans would include:
Rough formations of the unit in the squad.
Orders in sequence: throw a grenade, hide in cover, etc.
This is all done either before the game or during. Like a planning session.

A focus on micro skills that can quickly turn the battle.


Strategic:
More political decisions and less total war.
More other macro decisions
Ability to set AI governors and automation to focus on micromanaging the mos fun parts (subjective to the player)

Just Interesting: Korix

I came across this game trying to improve this blog's SEO. It seems to be a Tower Defense RTS hybrid for Playstation VR. Neat.

First Impressions: Achron, The Time Travel RTS

Achron is a 4D RTS that uses time travel mechanics. I've always wanted to play this RTS as I love the concept time travel. So I got the demo from Steam to play around with.

The tutorial is a bit confusing, as expected. I get what the game wants me to do, but I just got lost after the timeline manipulator was introduced and the enemy started to attack me in the past. Information overload led me to quitting the tutorial early.

It might take awhile for me to figure the intricacy of the game. I have created a similar game before, just with simpler controls and smaller scale.

Upcoming: Halo War 2

I don't own any consoles, but I have always been interested in trying out Halo Wars. It is set for release in February.

First Impressions: Tom Clancy's EndWar

Tom Clancy's EndWar is unique in that one can use voice commands to lead units into battle. There are three modern factions going for a world war caused by terrorist attacks on an anti-nuclear shield: America, Europe, and Russia.

The voice command interface actually works a lot better than I expected it to. That said, there are some things that I felt were missing and had to correct with the mouse. Things like having no voice command to get your units, especially infantry, into nearby cover or to garrison buildings. However, those are minor grievances. Everything else seems to work well so far.

Check it out here for Steam (Tom Clancy's EndWar) and support this blog!

What Never Was: End of Nations

End of Nations promised a truly massively multiplayer online RTS game. It was a game I was excited for, even though I knew my PC at the time couldn't run it.

The backstory and setting of the world had some undertones of Biblical Antichrist world government end time shenanigans. You played as one of the many groups trying to take it out.

Unfortunately, it was first turned into a MOBA game and then got totally canceled after some layoffs.

This is one game, both in concept and in essence, I hope someone resurrects.

First Impressions: Prison Architect

Prison Architect is more of a simulator than a traditional real time strategy, but it is still a ton of fun. You play as someone who owns a for-profit prison. It sounds a bit bleak, but the visuals give a somewhat cheery tone.

Things are confusing at first on what to actually do. The to-do list and CEO letter helps a little but not much. I had to go to a video tutorial on YouTube to actually help me get started on how the workflow actually works.

The game speed changers on the top right are a lot of help stopping, slowing, and speeding things up. Once you get going, it is addictive.

There's a problem with the smaller resolutions. As you can see, there are buttons that overlap on the GUI on the bottom of the screenshot. I like to have the game windowed while I multitask on other things.

If you want to try this game out, and support this blog, get it on Steam for a lower price through this link (Prison Architect).

What Never Was: Operation SAND

Indiegogo

imgur

IndieDB

"Operation SAND is a next-gen RTS focusing on tense, realistic and engaging battles between up to 8 players, split into 2 distinct factions with their own approach to warfare. Concentration is key when battling against human opponents, and with a next-gen approach to interaction and immersion, Operation SAND puts you in the hot seat of humanity’s final battle for resources, domination and survival." (from the Indiegogo campaign)

List: Obscure RTS Games

This is a list of RTS games either no one or very few have ever heard about. Obscure games are those are not on Steam or have lesser than 10,000 reviews or are not on a top list anywhere. Not-That-Obscure Games are those that are obscure by the fact they aren't Command and Conquer or Starcraft or from a well-known RTS developer.

Obscure:
Deep Quest
Submarine Titans (All-Time Favorite)
Harpoon series
Pacific Storm series
King Arthur: Role Playing Wargame series
Kohan series
Globulation series (free)
Glest series (free)
Sun Age: Battle for Elysium (Kinguin Steam; starting at $10, usually $15)
Machines At War series
Warrior Kings series
Warlords Battlecry series
Battle Realms
Order of War
Warzone 2100 (free)
Armies of Exigo
Close Combat series
Universe A War: Earth Assault (First Impressions)
Star Wars Galactic Battleground
Tooth and Tail (upcoming)
Northgard
Outpost 2: Divided Destiny (free)
Ultimate General series
Folktale
Infested Planet (Kinguin Steam; starting at $4, usually $15)
Warshift
Drone Swarm (upcoming)
Battleships Forever (free; Game Jolt)
Joint Task Force
Worldshift
Maelstrom: Battle for Earth Begins (Kinguin Steam; starting at less than $1, usually $6)
War Front: Turning Point
Maestros
Ground Control series
Dark Reign series
Original War
Scourge of War
Histwar
Knights of Honor
Star Command Revolution
Highland Warriors
Startopia
Netstorm
The Guild
Battlezone
Kingdom Under Fire

Not-That-Obscure:
DEFCON (Kinguin Steam; starting at $2, usually $9)
Anno series
Banished (Kinguin Steam; starting at $5, usually $20)
Dwarf Fortress
Creeper series
AI War series (Kinguin Steam; starting at $3, usually $10)
Majesty series
RUSE
Impossible Creatures (First Impressions)
The Settlers series
Iron Harvest (upcoming)
Planetary Annihilation (Kinguin Steam; starting at $3, usually $29)
Prison Architect (Kinguin Steam; starting at $4, usually $29)
Achron
Rimworld (Kinguin Steam; starting at $23, usually $30)
World In Conflict
Tom Clancy's EndWar (First Impressions)
Art of War: Red Tides (free to play on Steam)
Men of War: Assault Squad series
Total Annihilation series
Sacrifice

Not-At-All-Obscure:
Paradox games
Eugen System games
Dawn of War series
Company of Heroes series
Sins of a Solar Empire series
Stardock games
Battle for Middle Earth series
Supreme Commander series
Total War series

As usual, any links may be affiliate in nature in use to support the development of this website. Check for sales before buying!

First Impressions: Impossible Creatures

Impossible Creatures is an RTS about creating your own units out of animal hybrids with a genetic combiner of some sort with what seems to be 1930's technology. I've always wanted to play it ever since I saw a copy at a friend's house about 10 years ago. And now I have!

I blazed through the tutorial. It had the usual camera controls, RTS basics of selecting and attacking and building and harvesting and research, and whatnot. The quick animal combining tutorial was cool. It gave me some constraints of just a few animals to use for the tutorial.

The presence of friendly fire surprised me. My artillery, which were ram-ape hybrids throwing rocks, were accidentally killing off my animal army as we bombard the enemy's structures. The enemy buildings also took longer than usual to destroy, which seems a bit annoying.

Check Impossible Creatures RTS out here from Amazon and support Faction Calculus in the process!