It comes close to being great but falls short.

PROS:
>Smooth networking
>Graphics are immersing
>Audio is decent
>Faction art is interesting
>Game play takes the stream lined combat 4x game play of Gladius and builds on it.

CONS:
>All factions can use all units, just a miss honestly, factions don't feel special, even with bonus to encourage using types.
>Only three sets of playable unit types (would be like only three factions in Gladius)
>End game is always the same scenario, would be better to have a random scenario from several.
>Overall lack of different units to play.
>Diplomacy is lackluster, but probably better to stay as is then become something god awful and bloated.

TL:DR
Games become stale and repetitive after a few plays. Even my first play through got repetitive. The game does have a lot of potential however if the devs would add a few entirely new factions with their own units.

5.5/10

Review is BASED SOLELY OFF PLAYING THE INTRODUCTION, which took nigh 4 hours and failed to explain much.

From the onset, I will admit i had some expectations. This is 2025 and the game is not the first of its kind. Its a 4X game, and there are just some levels of complexity that you would expect with Sid Meyers Civ being what it is, Humankind, any of the ENDLESS series, Stellaris.

TECH
- Research is shallow, quick, bloated, and unclear. Theres no clear progression in tech trees, its just research 3 and move on to the next tier. There is some back and forth requirements for certain troop types, but it isnt something you need to progress every step of the way. You can research anything from tech tiers 1 2 3 and 4 to get to 5, research 1 thing in tier 1 to unlock a troop in tier 5. It doesnt really make much sense and doesnt set a clear progression. Toward the beginning of the intro I had a quest line pop up that told me to make 3 Cr'la disciple troops that Id never heard of, was never told what that was, where to find them, and hidden in "Voice" tech which was never explained what it was supposed to be, or how to make it until i googled what it was 50 turns later
- There are multiple types of tech for the human faction you play in the intro but its very unclear about the 2 that are not immediately shown to you in the research blocks, that they should even be available? They seem like other faction techs that suddenly you can have access to for whatever reason
- You cannot queue research, your research progress is lost if you switch it accidentally and there is no warning that you are doing so

SCENERY
+ The map has hex-grid lines that aren't prominent and easy to see, which is something I do actually like as a design choice because it doesnt ruin the detail of the map that you can tell a lot of effort went into making, however the map contains tons of very dark and hard to see details that kind of muddle together in some places which is just counter to something like not having prominent grid lines
+ The digital artwork for this game is great. On par with something like ENDLESS Space 2
- Unfortunately, this type of game is not one where youd play zoomed 95% of the way in so that you can focus on the small and intricate details throughout the map. So, not being able to zoom out and see the entirety of my revealed map is like playing this game with tunnel vision/blinders and being sensory overloaded at the same time. It's frustrating. No one plays a 4X game zoomed in that close to the tiles and troops. Maybe it was just the intro map was really small?
-+ There are like hundreds of modifiers in this game on the terrain and units. Not a single one is explained to you. Thankfully, there is a compendium in the top right of your screen that lets you look through them all. But gfys if you want to use a search function. Get to scrolling. B**ch.
- The Commander. For real? HE LOOKS LIKE A ROBOT CHICKEN VERSION OF THE SMALL SOLDIERS MOVIE COMMANDO. Why do you put all this nice detail in the game and make the guy look like that? It's a tragedy

BASE BUILDING
+ Simple base construction slaps down in the middle of a 7 hex tile section and shows the bonus you will receive on the surrounding tiles when you expand onto them
- Not one thing about your resources or what the symbols are or mean is explained to you in the intro. Thankfully, you can hover them to figure out what they are. They carry no real meaningful weight in the game however as the number of districts you can build and further expand is pretty plentiful and done quickly, and as long as you make sure to build as you need it, your resource stockpile will just freakin grow. It is really hard to outpace your resource production, if it is even possible without doing it on purpose
- The game slogs. You cant build a new base or expand until you get engineers in the 3rd tech tier, then build one and send it off. Don't know if there's a benefit to building bases close together or far apart but close together seems better to me if you set them just far apart enough to not overlap when you expand
- Isn't explained but the base just kinda has it's own defense system. Doesn't seem like you can improve it or anything outside of leveling it up by killing passersby with it, and enemies standing on YOUR CITY, get a city buff bonus, which kind of makes sense but at the same time kind of stupid. It's YOUR city. They're the ones attacking. Why are they allowed to stand on my districts and get the city buff? Make the districts attackable and impassable instead of having enemy troops stand on them because they have to hit the center

INTRO STORY
- No real objective given. Not short. What happened to K.I.S.S? You slog out moving the troops across the map and endlessly fighting and making war and peace with 3 other factions and you finally deal with them all and you go. Now What? After 100 painstaking turns of not knowing wtf is going on, it happens. Two PREVIOUSLY DEFEATED FACTIONS suddenly are "back" except not really, and they've just been given titanic units who show up to clap your cheeks, unexpectedly, having a freaking rave dance party on your base, throwing gang signs and units around left and right, endlessly healing, eating your people, bombarding you, and making out with each other. I'm glad that nuke i got from the mostly inconsequential story pop-ups throughout the intro was able to tickle their sacks ever so gently. It was a great time for everyone involved. Shorten this sh*t. I almost don't even wanna play anymore after this

MECHANICS
- Troops dont have the ability to set and forget paths without confirming every turn. This isnt an RTS like Starcraft where I should care every second what theyre doing unless something happens along the way, THEN I may want to readjust my plan after the troop was fired on or ran into something. Don't make me confirm movement every turn. Especially if it doesn't matter because its going to stop when it gets shot and I cant see things where it is going anyway. It is not like I can make an informed decision on whether I want to move there or not because there's any enemy units
-+ Troops do not merge, but you can increase their "unit size" through tech as a way of making them a little stronger outside of leveling them up. However, this makes moving mass amounts of troops a logistics nightmare. There is no highlighting them or selecting all types and having them move to a point on the map
- GET RID OF THE VERTICAL COORDINATE. It is pointless. Theres a highlight for ledges already that lets you know that you cant go that way. What do i care if the difference is 2 or 3. Does it ever come into play for any reason? Pointless and confusing information on the map
- Items on the commander are not well explained, and most of the items in the shop seem to have exclusively negative effects? I barely learned to use them by the end of the intro, and had multiples of some that I'm not entirely sure where they all came from. Some came from lights on the map and some from outposts? Also you lose them if that commander dies


TLDR Im still going to play this game. But dont expect me to be happy about it. I paid like 70 for it and another 40 for the gf to play with me and i'd almost rather play farm together or shell out another 10 to go on subscription for Stellaris and play that for a month instead. I still like the art. The concept. The grimdark. But between inconsistent and unclear naming of units factions and leaders, unclear tech and story, and what feels like a pointless repetitive slog after 50 turns this game needs work. Solid 4/10. For the art and concept

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