Astro Wars

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Great concept. Sadly is was completely broken/unplayable for me. The economy didn't work, resources weren't gathering, and the UI scrolling was bugged so I couldn't even read the game's help menus/manual. And the tutorial takes HOURS to complete, with you mostly waiting on timers twiddling your thumbs. I can't recommend it, even if it genuinely did appear to be a non-P2W game.

Here is the deal. The game is challenging and a slow burn, but very rewarding to learn and grow into. The game shines brightest the deeper you get and the more involved you become with the community. I played this game when it was strictly a text based browser game back in like 2008. I fondly look back to the time I had in the game and was very happy to see it return. The thing about the game is it has a lot of interlocking puzzle pieces to how you grow your conquest. You have to jump into the game understanding its a work in progress early access stage that has a very small team if not just a singular developer busting his butt to make it great. Its a labor of love for sure. He has basically crafted a graphical interface for us to engage with the raw mechanics of the old game and made it accessible across mobile, steam, and browser. How to get started and how to figure out what to do is a bit daunting. You will need to ask questions and read things carefully. Learning how things work piece by piece is part of the fun. This is not a game that is forgiving to those that want a clear path and everything handed to them. It takes time and energy and a willingness to ask questions and experiment. Its a game that constantly is cycling through one season to the next as a player fights to claim victory after holding onto their ascended rank for 7 full days. Mean while the community will work together to try to bring down those in the lead and create plans for their own domination. At first the game can feel quite slow as you build your starting structures and work your way out to capture more territory. Its a time based game where things can take hours or days to accomplish. You manage your resources and time over the course of entire days. Its not a ton of work, just a periodic login to maintain your forces, and building and research cues. But its constantly a serotonin boost as you increase values across population, science, culture, military strength, production value etc. For those that like to figure out how to do things efficiently and play around with simple math its very satisfying. Everything plays into something else and its a balancing act and planning into the future. Be willing to look past things that are less than perfect visually or functionally speaking. The core of the game is all there. Making it pretty and comfortable to navigate is being worked on piece by piece. Be apart of the change you want to see and speak up to the very active developer who is all ears to come to aid. I have gotten my small group of friends in and am already addicted again. I can't wait to see it gain some traction with a fan base. I hope folks give it a chance and let themselves see the qualities it brings to the gaming arena.