An RTS, with mechanics similar to the Company of Heroes franchise set in the 1920’s alternate history setting with mechs that is also used for the boardgame Scythe. So, squad-based, smaller scale, cover, territory control from COH and steam powered mechs mixed with older style weapons from the setting. It is a well-designed game, with a meaty campaign of 21 missions (plus another 11 from DLC), many of which are quite lengthy with changing objectives. And the AI does a good job attacking you in waves and sometimes even changing tactics somewhat. There is also a “World” mode which gives you a campaign map where you conquer territories by fighting RTS battles. Beyond that, it has the normal skirmish, multiplayer, etc content. There are 3 factions, basically Russia, Poland and Germany with different names and the DLC adds the Americans. Each has distinct mechs with the infantry mostly being the same just with basic weapons having some small differences.
The strong points are the setting, which is interesting and different with some very cool looking mechs. The setting gets well fleshed out in the lengthy campaign which has a nice story with solid voice acting and does not have the tutorial type feel many RTS campaigns have (except the early missions). Very well done with good challenge and does a good job of mixing up the objectives and mission types. Overall, there is just a lot of content but multiplayer may not have enough people playing to keep people interested in that for very long (but not my thing). The RTS itself is well done with it playing very much like COH. It isn’t quite as polished and has some quirks though. It is a bit slower paced, largely because this is old tech and mechs are mostly very slow (maybe too slow). You are also able to pause and give orders, giving it a more tactical feel for those who don’t like the real time portion as much.
The game does have its downsides too. The campaign is too focused on telling its story and makes the campaign suffer some for it. For instance, the Polish campaign (designed to be the first one) will never fight against the Germans, just Russians and other Polish forces which hurts its variety / fun. I really feel the campaign should have you fighting all opponents and giving you a good feel for each faction’s strengths and weaknesses. Beyond that, the mechs can be very clunky and it isn’t always obvious where they can and cannot move. Some maps have larger mechs struggle to move around. Infantry could also have used more variety, and field weapons are so slow that I never built one the entire game (but I do man abandoned ones as they are good on defense). Probably the biggest problem is related to pausing and giving orders. When you are paused, some things just don’t work properly such as tooltips, double clicking units and some other minor stuff. I use this mode a lot and it gave the game a very unpolished, clunky feel. Guessing it was the result of some limitation of their engine as everything else is well made. Also have some concerns about mech balance, with some mechs just seeming to be better than others even considering price point. Never really saw a need to build melee mechs for instance. Could be wrong about this as I mainly played the campaign or story missions which aren’t great for judging this.
Overall, I did really enjoy my time with the game, even though it had some flaws. None of the flaws were that big a deal, and the rest of the game is really well made and fun. It has great single player content and would probably be good in multiplayer if you have several friends to play with. The multiplayer scene is there but may not be active enough for someone only interested in multiplayer though. Definitely a recommend for those looking for a single player focused RTS that is a bit on the slower, more thoughtful side then the twitchy action side, assuming you like the setting at all.
