REDCON Reviews

update after 8 years? hell yes, nostalgia trip, here i come

big artillery pieces blowing eachother up :)

good game, simple story but have some depth in it the bad point is that the game is kinda harsh/hard (both description was accurate in this game) since the economy is awful players can not chose playing styles freely

this game comes from an era where PC and mobile games occasionally were the same thing, where even "little games" were absolutely a work of love and effort, and it shows. its fun, has a neat story, and has way more content and gameplay packed in than youd expect.

这游戏有着较好的潜质成为耐玩的好游戏，但却因为（可能故意设置的）某些缺失的功能而让游玩的过程非常不顺畅甚至恼火。作为一个近10年的老游戏打折后也并不便宜的，因此综合考虑后打个差评。 作为一款炮台对轰游戏，在防御机制上有各种主动防御且无法被摧毁的防空炮台，被摧毁后的建筑可以由士兵修复，受伤的士兵可以由医疗室恢复（医疗室本身可以被士兵修复），而且如果对方有雷达室则大概率士兵会得到落点预警并及时躲开爆炸。这些防御机制意味着，只有当己方的攻击能够突破且超过对方某个方面的平衡点后，才能对对方造成有效且可持久增加的伤害，否则就会因为无法突破防御而僵持或失败。同样相对的，己方的防御也需要根据对方的攻击类型、频率等做出相应调整，才能让己方的防御可以长久持续并有余力反击。 上述对于战斗机制的简单描述意味着，这个游戏的每场战斗其实更像是一种解谜或者布阵棋局游戏，战斗的胜利与否80%在布局阶段决定。但游戏在奖励连胜的同时，却不给予侦察预览下场战斗对方布局的选项，在这种情况下往往只能以某种平衡布局进行尝试，不出意料的失败后再针对性的做出布局并尝试获胜，非常浪费时间和心情。 这是战斗层面的信息缺失，不在意连胜奖励和浪费时间的情况下尚且可以每次用投降重开的方式获取所需信息；但在战役层面有着影响更严重且无法挽回的决策，也就是设备的投资。如上所说，针对性布局往往需要部署和强化针对性的设备，然而游戏中的购买是一次性和无法售出的，这也意味着许多价格高昂且用途单一或者容易被敌方某类设备克制的武器有着极高的试错成本。假如在一场战斗投入了太多资金在某类设备，而下一场战斗该设备被完全克制而周转资金不足以转型，那么整场战役都会因此陷入僵局而被动失败。 以上这些都有非常简单而且同类游戏通用的解决方案，比如战斗前预览对方布阵或者至少提供足量的提示信息，比如限制总金额但每局可自由购买搭配并在战斗后重置，这些都可以让玩家能更享受游戏的解谜本身也就是兵来将挡水来土掩。再加上其他一些这儿那儿的不便，如选择不同堡垒类型时不会自动清空设备而需要手动一个个移除，让这个本可以享受简单快乐的游戏耗费大量的不必要精力。 游戏自发售后这么多年，都新出2.0版本了，还存在这些玩家广泛抱怨且非常容易解决的问题和不便，是非常不应该的。而开发者的心思都花在了无用的地方，比如作为一个单机游戏却使用了复杂无比的内存加密手段，抹去了最后能挽救一下游戏的修改器选项。这是差评上额外扣分的部分。

It's true that you can get yourself in a bit of a pickle sometimes due to buying the wrong things at the wrong time. I thought of myself as having gotten myself in such a pickle in Mission 50, where the enemy just throws a billion jillion lasers at you. But through experimentation here and there as I tried and tried again made the challenge memorable and I guess I got lucky that I indeed did not softlock myself (I don't know if you can actually softlock yourself). I got the game at a discount and well, even if I hadn't 17 or however many bucks the usual price is, is well worth the time I've put into it. It's cheaper than a cinema ticket at my place and certainly got me much more than 2h worth of entretainment. As a closing regard, I love the artstyle and animations :) Wish it had some sort of multiplayer element ngl.

There's a lot that I love about this game, so it's a bit hard to narrow everything down without making this review go on for an eternity (others have done the long reviews much better than I have). I've played the game nearing ten years now, first on mobile and the eventually Steam, so my feelings are probably pretty biased. Overall, I think this is an excellent game. It's perfectly stylized and I think fairly unique. What I think works best for the game though is the beauty in its simplicity. The gameplay loop is the same for the whole game, but it develops over time as more weapons, perks, utilities, defenses, etc. become available. This opens the door for many different approaches to missions depending on what you as the player prefers to use and find fun. For example, I like using the small-medium size cannons because I like having a higher volume of fire and keeping the other fort suppressed. However, I know there are people who like using rockets, lasers, EMPs, or larger cannons. It really comes down to what you find fun to use and what works. Fort customization is a lot of fun and you have to manage what weapons, utilities, and defenses you want while also making sure you don't go over your resources (power and ammunition). I don't know what about it, but the art style to me just works. It really just is pleasant to look at and fits with the game so well. I especially love the little details that just elevate the game to me. Like, at the start of a level, any room is in perfect condition and begins to see visible damage as it receives fire. It of course looks destroyed once destroyed, but even after the room is fully repaired, it still looks imperfect. The foundation is cracked and it generally looks scuffed up. Little details like that make it feel more realistic. I challenge anybody to notice other little details too in their own playthrough. Of course, I can't forget to mention the music and sound effects. Both are fantastic and work in conjunction with the other parts of the game really well. The sound effects really give the animations more of a weighty punch, especially for some of the larger cannons. Kubatko's music is great but I will mention that some may find it to get old after a while. You notice the loop of ~5 songs and know what song will play next. Personally, I don't mind the loop of music but you can always opt to turn it off as well (the game feels like it's missing something without the music, though). The story and characters aren't super complex, but I don't the game needed a complex story. Most of the story is given through text communications with the few characters in the game and that works well. It's nice that the story is given to the player but allows them to mostly have their own interpretations of what's going on. A lot of the story is given as tidbits where the player can come up with their own background story of what's happening in other parts of the war. This honestly works in context of the story too because you're just a cog in this war machine, you don't need to know every little detail of the war and you should know most of the things that are mentioned because you "live" in this world. Anyway, the story clearly takes a lot of inspiration from George Orwell's novel 1984 and other dystopian works. I won't get into details about the ending because that's really where the story shines, but I know that moment has stuck a lot with me and lots of other people who've played the game. The game is certainly not perfect and there are couple slightly annoying things (from my perspective). The enemy's AI can be slightly annoying in some missions because they somehow become omniscient and know exactly where your shells are going to land. This happens on levels when they don't even have an early warning system or you've already destroyed it. It's especially annoying when they avoid every shredder bomb and are nearly impossible to kill. Some of the levels give you a particular fort as sort of specialty levels to get you away from your main fort. These can be slightly annoying because some of the levels require a lot of luck and trial and error to complete them. I know how to complete them now but I was forced to look up guides on some of them because you must be very particular with what you do in these missions. They definitely can be fun to do, but I still believe they're the weakest part of the game. All-in-all, I think this is a great game to play if you're a fan of RTS (I think this is an RTS game) games and is definitely worth its price. I think I touched on most of the game but there's definitely other perspectives from other reviews and probably more detailed breakdowns of other elements of the game, which I encourage anyone interested to read. Otherwise, I think this is a great game to hop into and experience on your own!