Infested Planet - Planetary Campaign DLC

Think this is pretty much a perfect dlc. It really put out a large enough challenge to be the culmination of your time playing the game. You can turn that difficulty up high enough to really test your knowledge of every system of the game. Just feels right. If you've played this game without playing this your only playing half a game.

Disclaimer: I love the base game. It has things it is missing, but it also has a lot to give. TLDR: I like it. It has some things I really like, some things I find ok, and some things that could be better. This DLC creates a progression-like map (sort of like the story in the base game, but not really) where you fight for control of the world map. You do one move and action, and the enemy does one move and action. The action might involve fighting enemies or building defenses in your local area. The enemy adapts to your tactics and will change a "world mutator" based on your most used tactics. This means they will try to counter your most effective tactics in a rock-paper-scissors-like ability mutation game. You will need to adapt your tactics to overcome the new mutation. I wish there were a bigger universe connecting the worlds, giving them a bit more meaning. It would be your own personal universe-war. All in all, I like this. It is well worth the asking price if you like the base game. I honestly wish there were more games like this. Perhaps even one with less strategy and more 1 player = 1 unit multiplayer kind of thing with RPG elements. But that is just me seeing interesting twists on what is already here.

I have played this game and i loved it however i felt that if i complete the campaign there wont be much to do however this made the game so much better giving tons of variety and also thinking about the tricksters arsenal which in the story you could use willy nilly here you have to unlock it and everything to do with it the new classes are interesting however the guardsman seems to be just a beefed up marine (kind of like a weaker minigunner(and without the slow))also i really like how he went back to an original design and brought back the medic Love this dlc edit: this dlc is still great however the game does still become repetitive at times you usually dont feel much pressure just slightly tedious at times because of the nature of the hives being same-ish either and invader here or an elite here there isnt much to stop progress as apart from loss of morale and an army there isnt much negative in loss as you can regain lost morale pretty easily

I LOVE the base game, and was hoping to get basically "just more of the same". But I have to say I'm disappointed by the design changes in this new mode. I don't like the metagame or the morale mechanic. The base game felt like an extremely fair but challenging RTS where "the only way is forward" more or less, now everything feels 10 times more random, and the mechanics have introduce the kind of feedback loops that throw the balancing of xcom-like games out of whack too. E.g. I had no access to snipers or flak turrets, the aliens gained the assassins mutations with enemy snipers hunting my own marines, I didn't have anything to outrange their snipers, and every time a marine dies it drains morale, which you can't gain back during the mission, and once it's drained you lose the mission. Didn't feel fair. I don't like that so much of the techtree is gated, and the difficulty of the missions (playing on hard) was either waaay too easy, where I could cut through them like a hot knife through butter, or impossible for me due to the un-counterable drain on morale. I don't think it makes it a bad game per se, I'm sure some will like this, but personally, I do not and I'm quite disappointed by the direction this is deviating from the main game. For comparison: on the main game I had the patience to try for ~2 hours (fighting for the whole time, no restarts) a single mission on expert, and wasn't even mad after I had to give up because it wasn't possible for me to beat it. The core gameplay there is so rewarding and low on frustration that it was still fun. In the planetary campaign I started a campaign on expert, restarted soon on hard because it didn't seem beatable on expert, then all regular missions seemed way too easy and the first stronghold mission that I tried I got wrecked through the morale system and I ragequit. Not sure I'm going back to this one. It's just way too frustrating of a set of added mechanics to motivate me to bash my head against that wall. It's not that I think I wouldn't be able to beat it in time, it's that I no longer enjoy the core experience under the modified "rules". Hope this feedback is helpful for the dev and I'm still looking forward to what they'll do in the future!

Well worth it, about once a year I pull this out and play through a planetary campaign. The randomized tech tree it gives you forces to you rethink. In my 2 story mode playthroughs I probably only used about 30% of the available techs, but I've used a lot more of them with this (including some of the Tricksters Arsenal stuff I didn't even really know was there. It's just such a shame that you have to go through so many steps to access your save file. Front-end UI in this game is pretty bad. Everything could be on the one screen, including access to save files, but instead the game really punishes you if you want to leave the game and come back later.

I geuss it is good value. Completed it. It was a challenge but it felt empty as there was no new lore or character dialogue. Also no ending screen, just back to the main menu after seeing some stats (Played on huge mode). I was really looking forward to this and feel a little emptier inside now :P

One of the best DLC's ever. One dude complained that some missions are impossible. That guy is missing the point. AS IN A REAL WAR, YOU SHOULDN'T EXPECT TO WIN EVERY BATTLE (unless you're playing on easy/normal mode). In fact, this is one of the few games where tactical retreat becomes a real option, because: 1) If you kill 6/7 hives. and then retreat, the enemy territory will then only have 1 hive. 2) If you pick up an upgrade and then retreat, you keep the upgrade. 3) You can attack a single territory with a second army in a single turn if you retreat after the first battle (and have not used up both of your actions). 4) Two armies can occupy the same friendly territory. Keep in mind that a retreat costs 1 lost moral point for the retreating army, and disables it for 1 turn. I hope that with the knowledge of these rules it wil enrich the tactical experience of the game when it gets hard. Because when it's hard, and you still beat it, it's that much more rewarding.

It does exactly what it claims to do. Adds a simple campaign where your choices matter and you are fighting for control of territory. The gameplay is extremeley enjoyable. The mechanics are solid. It is hard and unforgiving but in a way that makes sense. You can always overcome with good planning and knowledge. As ussual Rocket Bear shows his attention to detail and mechanical perfection that makes his games enjoyable the first time or the millionth play thru. Its not just RNG that -makes this game shine like some rogue-like games. Its the smooth, enjoyable, gameplay, that is never the same. Its always challenging. Games like this require you to think fast and assess your situation quickly or be punished. Thats what makes Infested planet as a whole highly enjoyable.

I played this game a while ago and got so far with the story before losing interest and moving on but the idea of a Campaign Mode piqued my interest sufficiently to go back to it and the price point, especially with the bundle discount made it even more attractive as an impulse buy. Overall, I think the Campaign is a strong addition to the game and really increases replayability. Only played a 7-8 rounds/missions so far but decent variety, need to conserve resources, protect captured regions from counterattack and even a defensive mission when the aliens launches their own "invasion" unit. If you didn't like this game originally, not sure it will convert you but for those who were fans originally already know that this is a really good game, the exapnsion is very reasonably priced and the Campaign mode does breathe some new life into the game. Can be played relatively casually and picked up again in short bursts as the maps so far have been neatly packaged for size/time. Haven't tried a stronghold yet so these may be longer but overall, really quite pleased to plunge once more into this game. Recommended.

Eh, I guess my expectations were too high. I can recommend this if you've played infested planet, but it doesn't really add as much to the game as I had hoped. It's really just a map overlay to give a less than deep sense of progression. After a few play throughs I thought maybe I was missing something, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's not great, but it's not terrible, nothing seems broken, no crashes. Overall, infested planet is a pretty decent game, albiet a bit shallow as far as games go. This addon could have been much greater.