First Impressions

The first world of the game includes 8 missions along with 6 Spec Ops giving you a total of 14 stages to play with, multiplied by 4 different difficulty options for each of the stages (the 4th and hardest mode, “impossible”, is unlocked when you complete the campaign/world), will give you 56 varied challenges for the first world alone.

For the most part of the game, it is a full-fledged RTS game. The missions are pre-disposed with action triggers that make the game feel like it is actively adapting to your efforts. For instance, when you close in to an alien base, a certain proximity to their base will get them crunching their re-spawn/production number. Enemies also tend to learn which route you are more susceptible. It is either that or the enemy AI just randomize its pattern of attack and back that with numbers. You can clearly see the evidence of this as you reach Stage 04 in the game (regardless which refinery you start to re-colonize).

It is also fun to be engaged into something that is not terribly easy to beat, even from the earlier parts of the game. Especially when the different elements are introduced in the game like different types of recruits and mechs – there is an instance in the 3rd stage where after you have been introduced to the fire-throwing mech suit, you’d easily think that you’d easily finish the level with by procuring 3 of these and your hero in the enemy base – only to find out that they’d easily be wiped off over there.

There are instances too were you’ll be challenged as to how you’ll divide your forces, or if it will even be a good idea to divide them at all. Every stage is laid out beautifully with varied challenges to make you come up with different strategies to put into place.

If by any means you find your current difficulty mode a little bit too easy for you, you can always amp up the difficulty to put your skills to the test (you can change the difficulty mode in SETTINGS at the main hub). Otherwise, there are also the Spec OPS to thrown in some rather unusual challenge with some sort of handicap or special conditions to be met in order to clear them.

The sheer volume of units, mechs, and towers available in the game are great too. Even during the first 30 minutes playing the game, you’ll get a feel of what is to come with all the locked-up options on every single unit/structure you point into while playing. It would be great to see if delving into other worlds would mean that you’ll get to play with new units and structures as well.

Another good thing about this game is that it has the option to reset the passive upgrade skill tree as well – something that one may find of no significant importance, but in reality, if the succession of the challenges is laid out in contrast to the need of specific passive skills, it easily adds in as a variable to heighten the difficulty and complexity of the game. More so, if you happen to scroll on the skill tree page (swipe from right to left), you’ll see that there will be a lot of passive skills to unlock while playing this game.

Although there are a lot of good things to say about this game, it is not one without flaws. For one thing, the loading screen takes a bit too long than most games. And though we have yet to try it in the (supposedly) faster iOS version of the game, our bet is that they will still take longer than most games available in the same platform.

There are funny quirks about how the computer AI moves too. There are instances where their matter of priority becomes quite screwed up (I guess this is for the player’s benefit though). During the first Spec Ops for example, you are tasked to defend a teleport machine and prevent the enemies from teleporting from it. Given the situation, you’ll come to an understanding that their priority is to reach the teleport device. It is funny that despite you mistakenly or how late you positioned your hero to the spot it should protect, they (the enemies) can be quite forgiving and even move back towards engaging your hero instead of running straight to the teleport device. It is understandable, but it just is funny to see them like that.

Taking money for having built a good game is fine too. For one thing, they are the same developers that brought us the highly esteemed Kingdom Rush series. Not too cheap for its price, but hey, it really is a good game with plenty of re-play value so we’re good. Uhmmm no, not really. It is good in terms of gameplay and re-playability but why in the world would they ask for more money with IAPs when in fact you already bought the game? In the game, all of the heroes are sold, and so are the premium credits and power items. Not that there are no other means to earn these items, or credits, or the heroes, but the business model of the game is just really not that cool. To boot, you’ll be even given the option to watch a video ad for a measly 60 credits in return. It gets you thinking like: “Do I really need to thank them for giving such option? I paid for this!”.

For the most part though, you’ll still have plenty on your hands enjoying the unique challenge the game has to offer. After Completing Sagan-1 (the first world), you’ll unlock the concluding world Ascendaar which we have yet to unlock, and it would be interesting to see if the “coming soon” world (after Ascendaar) would be a free DLC or something that you’ll have to purchase yet again. Until then, we hope to share with you our strategies for every stage in the game, how to unlock its contents, and some relatively helpful tips along the way to help you progress in the game.