Just an opening remark: alot of the negative reviews you will see for this game seem to be from 2016 when 8-Bit Armies only had one to two factions and very limited content. Very recently, a multiplayer stand-alone for this game was released called 8-Bit Armies: Arena, which costs $5 and gets you all 6 factions that have been released as of the writing of this review, though multiplayer-only, so I suggest you check that out: http://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/586040

8-Bit Armies is the latest throwback to the "golden-age of Real-Time Strategy" in the 90's and early 00's, back before Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas like League of Legends were a thing. The gameplay is fairly simple: you build a base, gather resources, mass up units, and throw them at the enemy until one of you are dead. The graphics are designed to be fairly simple to reduce the strain of the game on your PC, particularly with the army sizes the game can reach. Since its initial launch, two other standalone games have been released, 8-Bit Hordes and 8-Bit Invaders, which are cross-compatible (meaning you can play the factions against each other), so if you care about single player you might as well get those two as well.

The main thing that makes the gameplay unique is that building additional buildings provide a multiplier bonus that stacks infinitely, so while one Barracks will train an infantry unit 100% fast, five Barracks train infantry 500% quickly, ten train 1000% quickly, and so on, allowing you to grow armies to ludicrous sizes quickly. As a consequence, though, even larger games tend to last no more than 10-15 minutes, especially as you get lots of harvesters and resources on the map run out. In addition, random crates spawn when you destroy neutral buildings and objects, giving you effects that range from free units to healing to damaging the unit that collect it, adding a factor of randomness to your games.

8-Bit Armies has a single-player campaign of 25 missions in one campaign and 15 missions in another. The missions take place on skirmish maps though, and are essentially just skirmish battles with restricted tech trees or extra starting units/buildings. There are a couple of stealth missions, but the majority of the campaign consists of "destroy all enemy buildings". The campaigns are not scripted and there are no cutscenes, in fact the only shred of story comes from the mission briefing. There are side objectives which provide bonus starting units as a reward, and help to spice up the otherwise monotonous campaign, but I do not recommend you get this solely for the campaign.

The skirmish mode is pretty good with a decent selection of maps (and much more if you decide to get the expansions). 8-Bit supports up to eight player gameplay, and the AI is pretty good too. Finally, with the launch of 8-Bit Armies: Arena, multiplayer is much more livelier and it's fairly easy to find someone to play with. Replays and observer mode have also been implemented for more competitive players.



The two factions you get with 8-Bit Armies are the "Renegades" and "Guardians", based loosely on the Global Defense Initiative and Brotherhood of Nod from Command and Conquer respectively (and I'll explaining the benefits of the two later). Both factions use the power system from Command and Conquer: buildings cost power which require Power Plants to maintain: if your power requirements exceed output some buildings like defenses will stop working and others will work less efficiently. In addition, both factions have heavy harvesters that crush enemy infantry, a radar which reveals enemies around a large radius and an offensive, powerful superweapon.

-Renegades are a very direct faction (akin to GDI) that uses heavy tanks, attack helicopters, and other fairly straightforward units to steamroll the enemy. Their units are easy to use and they have a powerful superweapon: the Tactical Nuke which destroys enemy units in a large area. Overall, a very balanced faction that is well suited for new players.

-Guardians are a sneaky, mobile faction (akin to NOD) with more specialized units such as flame tanks, stealth tanks, and suicide drones. Their units deal area damage and are effective against clumps of units, but are weak against individual units. Their superweapon is the Orbital Cannon, a superweapon that targets a pinpoint location and can be moved around like the USA Particle Cannon in Command and Conquer Generals. A hard to use, but very fun faction that tends to win with a mix of finesse and swarming.

In general 8-Bit Armies factions are well-suited for swarming, as their units are weaker but cheaper and faster to build. They are also the simplest factions to learn out of the six launched (as of now).


Final impressions? 8-Bit Armies is a great game if you're new to Real Time Strategy in general, as it's simple to learn but hard to master. It's low price and quick games make it very accessible if you don't have a lot of time on your hands, and can only play a few games now and then. I highly recommend it for both fans of older RTS games (particularly Command and Conquer) and newer gamers interested in getting into the genre.

Just an opening remark: alot of the negative reviews you will see for this game seem to be from 2016 when 8-Bit Armies only had one to two factions and very limited content. Very recently, a multiplayer stand-alone for this game was released called 8-Bit Armies: Arena, which costs $5 and gets you all 6 factions that have been released as of the writing of this review, though multiplayer-only, so I suggest you check that out: http://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/586040 8-Bit Armies is the latest throwback to the "golden-age of Real-Time Strategy" in the 90's and early 00's, back before Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas like League of Legends were a thing. The gameplay is fairly simple: you build a base, gather resources, mass up units, and throw them at the enemy until one of you are dead. The graphics are designed to be fairly simple to reduce the strain of the game on your PC, particularly with the army sizes the game can reach. Since its initial launch, two other standalone games have been released, 8-Bit Hordes and 8-Bit Invaders, which are cross-compatible (meaning you can play the factions against each other), so if you care about single player you might as well get those two as well. The main thing that makes the gameplay unique is that building additional buildings provide a multiplier bonus that stacks infinitely, so while one Barracks will train an infantry unit 100% fast, five Barracks train infantry 500% quickly, ten train 1000% quickly, and so on, allowing you to grow armies to ludicrous sizes quickly. As a consequence, though, even larger games tend to last no more than 10-15 minutes, especially as you get lots of harvesters and resources on the map run out. In addition, random crates spawn when you destroy neutral buildings and objects, giving you effects that range from free units to healing to damaging the unit that collect it, adding a factor of randomness to your games. 8-Bit Armies has a single-player campaign of 25 missions in one campaign and 15 missions in another. The missions take place on skirmish maps though, and are essentially just skirmish battles with restricted tech trees or extra starting units/buildings. There are a couple of stealth missions, but the majority of the campaign consists of "destroy all enemy buildings". The campaigns are not scripted and there are no cutscenes, in fact the only shred of story comes from the mission briefing. There are side objectives which provide bonus starting units as a reward, and help to spice up the otherwise monotonous campaign, but I do not recommend you get this solely for the campaign. The skirmish mode is pretty good with a decent selection of maps (and much more if you decide to get the expansions). 8-Bit supports up to eight player gameplay, and the AI is pretty good too. Finally, with the launch of 8-Bit Armies: Arena, multiplayer is much more livelier and it's fairly easy to find someone to play with. Replays and observer mode have also been implemented for more competitive players. The two factions you get with 8-Bit Armies are the "Renegades" and "Guardians", based loosely on the Global Defense Initiative and Brotherhood of Nod from Command and Conquer respectively (and I'll explaining the benefits of the two later). Both factions use the power system from Command and Conquer: buildings cost power which require Power Plants to maintain: if your power requirements exceed output some buildings like defenses will stop working and others will work less efficiently. In addition, both factions have heavy harvesters that crush enemy infantry, a radar which reveals enemies around a large radius and an offensive, powerful superweapon. -Renegades are a very direct faction (akin to GDI) that uses heavy tanks, attack helicopters, and other fairly straightforward units to steamroll the enemy. Their units are easy to use and they have a powerful superweapon: the Tactical Nuke which destroys enemy units in a large area. Overall, a very balanced faction that is well suited for new players. -Guardians are a sneaky, mobile faction (akin to NOD) with more specialized units such as flame tanks, stealth tanks, and suicide drones. Their units deal area damage and are effective against clumps of units, but are weak against individual units. Their superweapon is the Orbital Cannon, a superweapon that targets a pinpoint location and can be moved around like the USA Particle Cannon in Command and Conquer Generals. A hard to use, but very fun faction that tends to win with a mix of finesse and swarming. In general 8-Bit Armies factions are well-suited for swarming, as their units are weaker but cheaper and faster to build. They are also the simplest factions to learn out of the six launched (as of now). Final impressions? 8-Bit Armies is a great game if you're new to Real Time Strategy in general, as it's simple to learn but hard to master. It's low price and quick games make it very accessible if you don't have a lot of time on your hands, and can only play a few games now and then. I highly recommend it for both fans of older RTS games (particularly Command and Conquer) and newer gamers interested in getting into the genre.