IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator

非常出色的作品，再次回归了游戏的本质是让人愉悦和接受挑战，而不是疯狂的堆砌多边形和特效。

We need multi-player mode ASAP!!!

I am honestly disappointed that I even feel the need to write this review. But the thing is: This game can become boring and flat so fast. The gameplay loop is just not varied enough for sustained playing. Before I elaborate on my dislike further, first the good: - The aesthetic is amazing, the turret has an extremely good Dieselpunk optic, it's part of what made me buy the game. - The sound effects are a joy to hear, if you can hear them at all after firing multiple shells in quick succession that is. - A few of the level gimmicks are genuinely interesting But with that I already turn to the bad again. The gameplay mostly consists of plopping down markers on a central map table, drawing a few lines or circles, maybe estimating a blast radius with a nice iris-like tool, inputting the measurements into a calculator machine (unless you do the math in your head, which is at one point even asked of you. It’s simple linear scaling no actual ballistic calculations), and then adjusting the two cannons to the resulting degrees. Every now and then you run to and between the teletyper and what can be called a shop for your shells (along some other things), but that's pretty it. Aside from the aforementioned gimmicks of certain levels, this loop can become pretty boring and repetitive pretty damn fast. And it’s not helping, that all that is offered as optional objectives is just more targets, attempting less friendly fire, building a ‘kill streak’ or simply firing less. These optional objectives generally only slow and prolong a given mission in most cases. The most exciting it can become, is when there is a time limit, but those are more on the generous side, often times way too generous if you ask me. Now what about those ‘gimmicks’? I won’t spoil them, but I found them either way to trivial or underused. The game features 15 main missions (plus 2 endless modes), of which I’ve only played 10 thus far, but out of those, there are only 3 I can distinctly remember, the others feel surprisingly similar. I found myself more than once to just wish a mission to be over already, ignoring any optional objectives because I was already bored and found it too tedious. A mission can range anywhere from maybe 10 to like 30 or more minutes. The gameplay is just not varied enough to remain entertaining on the same map for that amount of time. The turret, or as it’s called, the “Iron Nest”, although really good looking, has started to feel rather empty. The lower part is basically completely unused, and you only really move around 30-40% of the accessible space. The geometry is also a tad jank, I’ve repeatedly went through the cannons’ geometry when I took a look around. In addition the UI could be better. There is none, which is great and adds a lot to the style, but the over-reliance on the circular hand crank makes changing anything very cumbersome over time. Moving your mouse in circles adds a great deal of immersion, but is not all that great UX imo. Also, there is basically no tutorial, the most you get is a clipboard with some pictures and text next to the respective station. Although they are great, a tutorial that engages the player more directly might be useful. And my last big problem with the game: The story. [spoiler] What the F am I fighting for?! Or for whom?! The world is not entirely fictional. France and Germany are apparently allies with Castile, the gun uses parts from the German Navy, France provides assistance, meanwhile they seem to be fighting against each other and Britain is also there. We’re taking over Spain (Is Castile just Spain?) and even fought a battle in Gibraltar. What is going on here? I get the newspapers between missions through which the story is mainly delivered is propaganda, but could it not explain a little more, cause I’m questioning in what kind of alternate reality this game even plays. [/spoiler] To summarize: I’ve enjoyed the game enough for the first 2-3 hours, after which it became rather stale rather fast. While certain areas seem really well polished, others felt lackluster, underbaked, or just added on for a single throwaway purpose. It’s very much looks over brains. It feels it might as well be a top-down strategy game focused on the map table, the 3D aspect is just there to facilitate the loading and firing of the cannons, not much more.