Silica

So far I've really enjoyed playing this game even in it's unfinished state it is obvious how much work and attention to detail has been put into this, on both the RTS and the FPS levels. It has even been great for getting my siblings and I to all play one game together as they are FPS focused gamers and I'm more of an RTS player so its been able to get us all playing the same game and we've gone through 4 or 5 matches. The RTS feels challenging but not a down right slog there is a nice selection of units and they each have their own unique feel the research is simple but i don't know if i like that its straight forward or if it feels like it's too simple. The FPS side is fast-paced and straight forward, but isn't just boring point, shoot, kill, repeat and still requires some forethought and skill especially if your cooperating with a Human commander who needs you to lead the charge and ask for reinforcements when you need them. The Combined play is something out of a dream, there's nothing like the feeling when you have a squad of players trying to make a push and begging for reinforcements, right as you send your first battalion of hover tanks and a railgun tank to the front. One particular match stood out in where my siblings had decided to go and capture the small compound on the eastern side of the southern bridge on the i think the 'crystal chasm' map, we didn't really know if it would benefit us in anyway or if there were even any bunkers there for capture for them to capture and hold, but anyway, they went with a heavy striker, a few light quads and a platoon transport with a small squad consisting of 3 riflemen a sniper and a heavy i believe they were playing as 2 riflemen, a heavy and a sniper. things were pretty empty when they got there and started exploring but after about 10 minutes of exploring the compound both the alien and the Centauri faction sent decent sized armies in that direction so now they're fighting two enemy armies, surrounded and heavily outnumbered, that is until i send 2 drop ships loaded with troops and half a dozen gunships to bail them out and extract them, was it more or less pointless to do so? Yes, did i lose more troops and resources doing so than letting them die and respawn? Also Yes, but it was fun as hell. now onto the other half of the review which I hope will be taken as just a few things we noticed and felt are missing, we understand it is early access and unfinished and that the developer may already have plans to fill these gaps but ill mention them here in case they read this. 1. The game really needs some type of medic and mechanic unit and/or a med bay and a repair bay. so far there is no way to heal or repair units when they are damaged.(at least not that I've been able to find, either by playing myself or by searching the internet/forums) 2. The FPS play is enjoyable but a bit flat as you are given a main weapon and that's it, no side arm or secondary weapon no grenades or equipment. you can switch to any troop type you want as they are researched so that helps but maybe having a few specialized units that can only be obtained by people playing as a unit that are kind of hybrids of the other units or allow them to pick a primary weapon and a secondary? Again the FPS play is enjoyable but there is no nuance(as of writing this). 3. in my humble opinion I feel the turrets especially the heavy turrets need to be a bit more accurate and a bit more durable. having to constantly repair them because a single little bug was able to get get close enough to crawl all over it and nearly destroy it is ridiculous especially when there are like 7 of them(both heavy and normal) all in a line and none of them was accurate enough to kill that one little bug? Really?!?! Oh and the AA rocket turrets need to fire sooner they will start tracking pretty far out from what I can see but don't fire until the enemy airship is within spitting distance. 4. the unit commands are a bit lacking ATM I feel there needs to be a patrol command, a repeat command(I.E. if you tell the command to repeat the unit will repeat the sequence of commands over and over or just constantly redo one{I think this would be useful outside of they making a patrol route in the because I've noticed that the hovering tanks when they fire are pushed back quite a bit and they do not resume their former position after this so trying to form a battle line and keeping it orderly becomes lots of micro managing}) also formation spread when you order a group of units to go to a single position they will spread out in a square rank and file, but it needs a bit more like the click and hold then drag in a direction to change the width/depth of the rank and file as well as the direction they're facing and also infantry in front, light armor center, heavy armor back etc. 5. now this one is just personal preference and taste but I feel like there is a lack of Artillery units or at least an artillery turret or something Yes i know there is a rocket artillery unit but the one for the Sol faction rarely hits anything and when it does if it isn't an infantry unit it does little to no damage, and while the rocket artillery for the Centauri faction solves the problem of the damage it still doesn't hit often unless you're aiming at a larger tank or a harvester. I propose a that something similar in size to the Sol rail gun tank or Centauri Heavy tank with a long range indirect fire gun that is relatively accurate and does decent damage about as much as the rail gun tank or maybe a little less and more splash?