Diplomacy is Not an Option

I absolutely love this game so far. When I read the negative reviews for this game most of them were that this game was too difficult. As a person whose typical criticism of these types of games is that there is no real challenge seeing these types of comments was a massive positive for me since I like a challenge. This for me is one of the best games in it's genre full stop. I am very positive on this game, with a few criticisms, and a few things I hope they add. The Positives -This game is truly difficult. As someone who is typically very good at these types of games I am actively struggling to get through levels and when I do it feels like I achieved something. -The cut scenes for this game are oddly very appealing and though Scott is entertaining you will learn to dislike his existence. -There is a very good balance of resource extraction in this game where there is an active risk reward to going out building far away to extract. -Moving units though simple is very satisfying and works extremely well. With my right click I can actively have a formation of frontline, archers, and seige weaponry in one spot. -The game balances out your time of attacking, defending, city management, and decision making extremely well. There in most cases is always something you can be doing in the game whether it be microing units, building, upgrading, planning defenses. -The asthetics in this game are both extremely simple but work extremely well. It reminds me very well of the difference between factorio and satisficatory. Satisfactory sacrifices good in depth gameplay for the world to visually look good but even in looking good it feels empty. Where as factorio is lower graphically but the world feels full, the gameplay is immaculate, and it feels better to move/build. This is more on the factorio end. -The enemies are tough, the waves are difficulty, and you need to be a bit unique in your ways of handling them. -The unit types you use in the game actually matter. Usually in these types of games you will buy one unit and be able to steam roll the game not the case here. I thought this was the case when I struggled on one mission but built like 50-100 horse archers and won with ease. Then I tried it again and simply couldn't do it. I like that it keeps me honest and thinking. The Negatives -Walking corpses and being able to visibly see them or notice them effectively. There is a lot of games I've played so far where I have buildings not operating for significant periods of time because I can't see it. Also there are times where I have a grave digger + cemetery right next to dead bodies so you'd assume they'd be cleaned up. Then you are looking at something else, they turn into walking corpses, kill your grave digger and blow up your cemetery. I've tried using ballistas to long range deal with walking corpses, then a citizen dies under your tower, your ballista can not hit it and it kills your tower. There needs to be some tuning to this mechanic. The challenge of it is fine to have but the challenge shouldn't be whether my eyes can physically see it in the game imo. -Scott and Other characters you need to "keep alive" there should really be a way I can put them in a building. There is too many games where a type of character like that gets accidently selected or aggros into units and I lose because of that. Or simply make that not apart of the mission and at a cut scene at the end where scott gets up off the ground after he fell off his horse. What I hope they add to the game -More traps or unique/creative defensive options, higher tiered defensive structures -Add more citizen or troop buff buildings or capabilities such as a citizen happiness mechanics where they work faster with more entertainment or beautification. Or maybe potentially like statues or something like this that give troop buffs when near it. -Potentially like a moat if it can be done in a way that doesn't break the game -More unique resources to the game -As many building, research, or troop upgrades as possible to add to the game. It would be awesome if there were ten building upgrades each stat wise that you could really invest down one building path to get to a tier 10 building. Even if they didn't make large animation changes it would still be cool to have. Needless to say this game is awesome I was truly surprised by how good it plays, how challenging it is, how different it operates to these types of games typically. In this genre games usually have a critical flaw or major missing game mechanic that is not the case with this one. This is a type of game when I play it from a developer that makes me very interested to see what they are able to do in the future and I'd be highly likely to seek out new games made by them. As a person who plays a ton of these types of games this one is worth the purchase that is if you are looking for a true challenge.

Ok I guess after 400+ hours and a DLC announced I can make a review for this. First of all, kudos to the devs for keeping this game alive, updated, with new content and stuff. Here's my review of DNO I'll try to templatize it a bit (2nd part) since I don't often review games: This game is both the itch and the scratch for a base-building logistics-army strategy-tactical game that is one of my favorite genres. It lands in the ballpark of They are Billions, From Glory to Goo and some older titles. But what this game does for me is actually the crazy part. It's like a time-bending loop where my brain goes into this headspace of thinking tactics and strategy, building layouts, map exploration and within like 30mins 2 hours pass by. I've "beaten" the game several times, once when I bought it, and another time a few months ago. I'm also playing exclusively on the hardest difficulty now since I've already learned the what/how/when/why and the actual challenge that this provided turned into 300+ hours of mastering the game. It's super simple graphics but are really polished, bugs are rare, gameplay loop is fantastic, game is updated and I'm actually hyped for the DLC Yeah if you like this sort of games, just go play it, learn it, have fun with it. It's fantastic value for money. ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☑ Grandma ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☑ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☑ 10 ---{ Author }--- ☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

我会说这游戏很好玩，很有自己的特色，很多人说他像《亿万僵尸》，但除了敌人数量和人口补充机制外我没有觉得他和亿万僵尸有类似的地方。而其中最大的不同，也可以说是本作让我玩起来感觉到很不舒服的一个地方——它没有一种有效的，大范围的，低成本的清除小兵手段。在《亿万僵尸》中这个生态位被震荡波塔占据了，而在《要战便战》中——没有这个生态位，可能有人看到会说，大投石机不是范围aoe吗，但玩下来就会发现，大投石机对怪群的压制作用有限，特别是在《要战便战》本来作为特色的能真实阻挡弹道的城墙阻挡下，而对于那些已经冲到城墙下死角的敌人，基本上就只有菜刀队和站在塔楼上的远程才能解决了，可问题是——远程的对群能力其实不怎么样，这几乎迫使玩家养着好几队菜刀队用来防止破墙。 写到这里，终于讲到了我认为的一个核心问题：其实多养几队菜刀队没什么，多搞几个大投石机也没什么，我可以当游戏特色，现在暂时的兵种多样性缺少没什么，我相信制作组会补上，可问题是现在的经济系统突出了一个最大化操作，我每一次移动树厂范围和拍新的仓库时，都在怀念那个物质虚空传输的《亿万僵尸》，我迫切的想要把精力放在军事上，特别是《要战便战》的前线是必须要看着的，投石机是要手操的，科技要点，工厂要换地方，就连收尸也得画范围。要点的东西如此之多，让我不禁在想，是不是有时候做点减法会好很多。 或者能不能加强一下远程。

I've been an RTS fan for my entire life and have played countless RTS games. This is the most annoying game on the planet. It would be fun if it weren't for the hyper micromanaging. I even love games like cities skylines where micromanaging is at its peak, but here, it could not be more annoying. Absolutely ruins the game. Idk why they showcase these massive battles, to even get to that point, you would need 15 hours to build up to an army like that, and the recourses are so scarce on every single map its nearly impossible. Even on the easiest difficult. I tried so hard to like it but this game is terrible.

整体好玩，但城墙太弱导致与其造城墙不如直接造兵升本，这与购买该游戏的初衷相悖。 我只是想造个布局合理漂亮城市防御攻击，而不是想乱造一气基建直接攀本暴兵去撵敌人。

Diplomacy is Not an Option might be all right as a sandbox game if you just casually want to build some stuff and watch your army fight invading enemies. I hoped it would be somewhat similar to They Are Billions, but this game seems very shallow in comparison. Every scenario feels the same and you can just repeat the same build order over and over. I wish the layout of the map would matter in some way, but you don't even have to care about factors like chokepoints, building placements or where various resources are located. Playing the campaign felt like repeatedly playing the same level over and over again. It seems they added a lot of different units and buildings just for the sake of it, but they often overlap or lack a specific role. When should I build archers instead of crossbowmen? Why should I build a level 2 platform/tower instead of level 1 platform/tower? There is also a tech tree which has very little impact, with techs like "builder +10% movement seed" or "+10% build and repair speed". You can just ignore the whole tech tree and would probably not notice any difference. If you're just looking for some cool battles, you might get a few hours of fun.

The developers seem afraid that allowing the player to become genuinely powerful would remove the challenge. But becoming powerful through competent leadership is one of the core rewards an RTS should provide. Diplomacy Is Not an Option has the foundations of a great strategy game: satisfying construction, strong defensive mechanics, large scale battles, and a campaign with personality. Unfortunately, the campaign often prevents the player from fully enjoying those strengths. Many missions feel designed around narrow, hidden win conditions that can only be discovered through trial and error. The problem is that these lessons often arrive far too late. You can spend hours building your economy, army, and defenses before realizing that the mission was already effectively doomed because you expanded too slowly, triggered an event too early, chose the wrong army composition, or failed to anticipate an enormous scripted wave. In a real battle, there is no restart. A commander must recognize a mistake, adapt, recover, and continue with what remains. That ability to adjust is also what makes strategy games dynamic and satisfying. Here, a misstep often does not create an interesting setback. It forces you to repeat a long mission from the beginning using knowledge you could not reasonably have had during the first attempt. This damages the feeling of victory. Winning does not always feel like overcoming the enemy through strategy. It can feel like finally discovering the specific sequence the scenario expected. Defeat is often exhausting rather than educational because it takes too long to reveal that the run is unrecoverable. By that point, the thought of repeating the entire buildup can kill any enthusiasm to continue. The asymmetry also feels excessive. The player must carefully manage food, workers, housing, resources, and limited soldiers, while the enemy appears able to replace thousands of casualties with increasingly larger and stronger waves. Successful defenses rarely seem to weaken the enemy’s actual capacity. Their losses are spectacle. Yours have consequences. I am leaving this review because the game has enormous potential, and I hope the developers consider the player experience alongside difficulty. Players have finite time. We want to be challenged, but we also want room to adapt, become stronger, and enjoy the systems the game was built around. A difficult game can still respect the player’s time. It should feel demanding, not like work. God bless

Great game! Love the performance, gameplay, maps, and most of all campaign!