Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

I'm only downvoting because this was recommended as a great RTS *Single Player* game. The campaigns took about six hours to go through. I'm sure it's all kinds of fun for multiplayer, but six hours of single player throughout four campaigns (one of which if basically a tutorial) makes the "single player" tag false advertising.

There is no game out there in this genre that can beat this game.

The game is missing human touch. It is all robots vs robots. All units have bep boop voice reactions. It all feels empty and pointless.

I've read some positive reviews and can't say that I share the same enthusiasm. I like stratagies and had some background there (starting from C&C, WC2, SC 1-2, TA, Supreme Commander 1-2, PA, World in Conflict, GC, Home World - deserts and so on). And I found nothing exceptional here. Yes, 11 hours may be not enough to feel it all, but what I felt is enough. I played first compain on hard. And haven't finished it. Had one rage quite and second attampt. Some points (details below). + Graphics is not bad, even on my hardware that is far form the top = Three tiers of units and even the lowest tier is partially useful = Maps. They provide several routes but that dodn't make much = Armies. Adds some little usability but could bring more = Quanta. Add additional layer of stratagy but demands macro = Defenses. A tough defense can be built, that's true. But AI builds more - UI and management. There are some problems with it General problem Some reviewers prized this game for old-style gameplay, where you have nothing to hurry for, no APM (action-per-minute) is needed, no cyber-sports. But I can't say so. This game is about controlling regions so it is much about macro. And where is macro there is micro and APM is also needed. As a result I'll analyze some game specifics regarging it. Unit tiers There are three tier of units (that can be seen on any screenshot by the typical unit sizes). But small-size ones are needed for... I don't know what they are needed for. They will vanish in any more-or-less serious buttle where crusers are presented. They do too little damage even in big numbers compared to crusers. They can be used for some manuvers and side attacks on non-fortified regions but that is again about macro. AI usually don't have much unfortified regions. The scout has too small view distance. Only healers make sense since I faced no other mobile healing source. Crusers and dreadnoughts are more-or-less ok, they have their purpose. Armies The mechanic of uniting units into an army could be really promissing. But I found the single advantage - you can add a new unit into it rather simply and it will move to align with the others by itself. It provides no advantages in the scope of arrangement - long-range units can easily got in front line during moves and attacks. Quanta An idea of an additional resource that can be used for some non-productional purposes is not new. And it looks promising except one detail - it is generated by a building. As a result: the more those building you build the more resource you have. This again points us at macro, resource an building control. When I played VS AI I always had much less quanta - the building costs radiation which is the rare resource and thus can't be spent freely. And what is really bad here - it is used for units upgrade and army maximum capacity. It can boost health and damage more then twice! And that costs a lot but if you are an AI it is not a problem for you. But was problem for me. Defenses Spending considerable amount of resources you can build a tough defense. But again, resources in region-based game - see macro. AI or macro-skilled player will be always ahead. And yes, AI builds very tough. Taking into account that advanced turrets are build only by engineers that are deployed using quanta... UI UI is poor in several points. First, I sometimes had troubles selecting one unit or selecting several units of the same time with a double-click. Sometimes I couldn't select a unit that is hovering above a selectable point of map like generator. Also if you pressed a command shortcut (like Ctrl+A), you can't select another numbered group - you need first to cancel the command with ESC, that is really ennoying. Not all units can gather into armies. And that is not obious and can lead to suddent problems. Also it is not simple to distinguish some buildings and additional time is spent to check which one is built. If two production buildings are gathered into a group they will build the same unit on selecting it, one more problem for groups management while they are really crusial. Also some plot replics were not sounded. Other problems Units are rather slow. And they move sometimes strangely and ineffective. The attack command (Ctrl+A) often ends with the long-range units moving into the grinder - they don't stop when an enemy is in their firing range, they fire and move. Simpe move command works better but it should be precise. Dreadnought are moving badly when there are several of them. With narrow passeges on maps that is really upsetting. Artillery units have relatively short range. And even that range is diminished when you try to have them behing front lines. And again, when you click on a target they move to it closer then the range allows. Why... The only effective ground-based mobile anti-air I saw were support crusers. But they are relatively weak and advanced aircrafts can tear appart even considerable amount of them. The intercepters are quite effective AA, but, again, one more group to control and if you are close to enemy defence they will fly too far behind the enemy line and die. So you need to produce again, add to groups, macro, macro, macro... And micro - try to double-click on them on the map-scale (if zoomed in you won't select all of them). Conclusion This game was issues in 2016. In the same year the Homeworld Desers of Kharak originated (BTW, 8 GB vs 30, while also with cinematics and with full dialog voices). I really like the Deserts more while both games have some commong things: three tiers (in Deserts the low tier is more useful), additional resource (quanta VS base energy), two types of main resources where the second one limits the technology. I liked the Totall Commander series (starting from TA till PA) more - it had real artillery, there was one main resource - metal (also there was energy - like quanta here, but it didn't provide those crucial benefits). As a result - by the year 2016 nothing interesing is suggested here. If you really like macro - you are welcome. The game has something... Something. But not more than that. Proposals - Some at least simple templates for army arrangement, including air - Ability to specify army content so that factories build and link units automatically - Engineers can build all gathering structure for a region with one click or like that - Advanced engineers can be produced in factories - On the attack command units always attack at their longest range (at least artillery and anti-cruiser) - Resource like quanta should be generated with the same and stable speed for every player - acting in limits, taking decisions, not spamming buildings The idea is - more preparation and automation can reduce the macro dependency. That could be something new.

Game plays like CnC with old CnC graphics. Crashes all of the time and doesn't allow you to just rejoin match.

It sucks to not recommend this game, as the gameplay itself is awesome. The scale, the units, the art style, it's all brilliant. But crashes, network issues and the like make it difficult to recommend. It crashes or disconnects too frequently for me to recommend, but if that doesn't phase you, this is a damned good game.

i have no idea why but the game ran just fine until i hit the fourth campaign mission then all the sudden i started getting a glitched black screen that lasts 2-10 seconds at a time but the game keeps progressing with a black screen making it unplayable mind you i have a very nice computer setup and updated the graphics and still black screen during this game id advise against getting this game and wasting your time with it