It Stares Back

What you got here is a narrative driven strategy game. Its not pure rts even though there is resource gathering cause once gathered, every spawn points acts a fix node, thus giving the entire thing more of a... moba(?) feeling. In essence what it reminds me of is Eufloria. You get your hands on spawning nodes and do your best to keep them under your thumb. The more nodes you control the more it snowballs in your favor, or if you lose them: That of your opponent's. If you'd ask me on it, i'd say the strategy part of the game is simplistic at best (as it stands now with its 4 units 4 upgrades and half of its development) but its still a very unique experience thanks to the mind screwing of how it handles its narrative. As far as i have seen the story itself is not too deep either (not claiming i have seen the entire extent of it, which is probably not the case and also not gonna spoil anything), but the way its presented, the symbolism overload, the voicing, the art and how it moves. Its an experience. If i had to describe it, its a journey in how we interpret things as we age from a personal standpoint. I have seen most tropes, most films, most clichés, most symbolism and narratives. Been around long enough for it. However what happens when you crank the entire thing to 11 and you lose your footing, no longer being able to relate things to their obvious places in reality? Much like how you cannot hear anything about the world while sitting in front of a 100db boom box, this game made me feel unsure about what im seeing. Its an overload. And it was interesting even thought its still in development.

[h1] The LSD of RTS [/h1] Hello. I am just a normal, everyday, real-time strategy fan, and what the hell is this. Not so many games like this out there. We nowadays have short attention spans, and lots of content to choose from. We go through our "backlog" of games, on to the next one, barely remembering most of it. Not this game! It Stares Back has provided me with a memorable experience that, honestly, I didn't expect. For strategy games, it has made to me the lasting impression that Blasphemous did for arcades. Man, the dialogues are sometimes so brilliant, that I want to start clapping. Let this be a shining example of a small studio's creativity and freedom, proving how much can be achieved with so little. Excellent storytelling, simple and addictive gameplay, engulfing atmosphere... hand-drawn characters. It reminds me a bit of the original Dune game (Dune 1), which wasn't real-time strategy but had a visual novel element to it. The basics of the RTS genre are covered: zoom-out to your heart's content. Fast action, with possibility to speed up 2x and 4x for even faster action. Campaign editor for the really adventurous. May this trend continue, and may this be a lesson for other studios. Downside: not much content. I finished the campaign currently available (Towercall) in roughly 11 hours. So, before I leave, a recommendation of another strategy game: if you enjoyed the overall ambient of grim, SCI-FI games with really cool electronic music, give W40K: Mechanicus a try.

Im certainly excited for the full release. I found it completely by random and its quite good. I love the visuals the most, story also seems interesting. With the gameplay I thinks its good but this is the only RTS ive ever played so I cant really compare it. Theres also full voice acting which is very surprising. Content-wise it took me around 7 hours to finish whats available. The only thing negative about this game is the pace of the updates, but its probably a small team so I dont blame them.

J'ai entendu du bien de ce jeu dans une petite review Youtube (Canard Pc pour pas leur faire de la pub) et du coup j'ai tenté le coup... et j'ai adoré. La direction artistique est foutrement impressionnante, et l'histoire est pleine d'une charmante grandiloquence qui personnellement m'a bien fasciné (j'aime les mégalomanies théocratiques sur fond de matrice déco 01). Le doublage, l'acting vocal (j'avais envie de placer un anglicisme, il en faut toujours un pour donner un peu d'allure à un avis steam) est remarquable, mention spéciale pour le rôle féminin dont la fin m'a ému (oui, le kleenex était à portée de main mais big boys don't cry comme le chante TenCC). Le gameplay est à la fois simple et stimulant, une partie devient rapidement accrocheuse, et pour le coup je me suis même surpris à jouer 3h d'affilée (sans faire une pause pour fixer l'horizon afin de garder mes petits yeux en état - diantre !), finissant un peu, beaucoup, énormément, dans la frustration (j'ai dû virer du jeu avec alt+f4, ce qui m'a laissé un peu perplexe). Depuis, j'angoisse un peu, je constate que la dernière mise à jour remonte au printemps dernier, qu'il était prévu de sortir le jeu l'année dernière, je suis même allé voir le site des éditeurs pour me rassurer un peu. Histoire d'un peu faire le job, vous allez mener un leader à travers une carte où la progression s'effectue en alternant le placement de relais et de bases, afin de créer un réseau interconnecté qui permet la circulation des ressources, ressources qui permettent à leur tour de créer 4 types précis d'unités. Il n'y a un qu'un compteur, celui de pierre, car en résumé c'est la seule chose qui s'épuise. Le reste est infini, donc la création d'unités n'est jamais une angoisse en soi. On traverse les maps, avec un level design à la fois simple mais élégant, et tout l'habillage graphique est à l'avenant. La musique est personnellement un joyau, sublime le tout en conférant à l'ensemble une ambiance entre Tron, 2001 l'OdlE (encore un jeu dans la critique cher lecteur, trouveras-tu le nom de ce film de Kubrick qui permet de vivre un trip sans ingérer de substance illicite ?), et les tonalités propres à toute production vaporwave qui veut faire croire qu'on mangeait du synthé en permanence (alors qu'en fait non, en France on avait Licence 4 et de l'accordéon - si vous ne savez pas ce que c'est, fuyez pauvres fous)... A l'arrivée, la scénographie globale est magistrale, pleine de lyrisme, pleine de folie, pleine d'absurde, et c'est bon. Et même si ça ne devait qu'en rester là, le petit prix en vaut largement la peine... un jeu qui démontre que oui, le jeu vidéo c'est de l'art avec un grand A (et ceci conclus, je dois vous laisser car j'ai Ga (indice : Voltaire). Je recommande et j'attends ! ps : jeu en anglais, mériterait une version française tellement c'est bon.

The artwork and voice acting for this game is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING AND DELICIOUS. It runs super well on my laptop and has been a fun way to spend time and relax in between my classes on campus.

Fan of RTS, crude humor, chivalry & I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream? Look no further.

At first, a strange introduction... an unfathomable series of cryptic monologues, esoteric figures, lovecraftian horrors and subliminal lore. And then, from an abstract hexagonal tapestry emerges the Gameplay. A simple, raw yet effective, real-time strategy game. Very fluid, not too fast, not too slow, 5 to 10 minutes of clever levels, very easy to handle. Some dialogues and beautiful artworks show you a bizarre world, mixing tech and magic, electrical wiring lexicon with medieval horror... That's it, you ask ? Well, at first I believed that. Neat gameplay, fantastic visuals, promising story, an impeccable Voice Over, but quite dull after skimming all the surface. And then the Prologue ends. Enough with the surface. And then you DIVE. AND THEN YOU LOOK UNDER THE SURFACE. AND YOU SEE IT. AND IT STARES BACK. HOW WRONG YOU WERE ! The Prologue ends. The game shows you what it wants to become. And it's glorious, deep and promising. It shows you how abysmal its campaign aims to be. It even lets you play a complete chapter, as the game is not ready yet, which introduces new mechanics, a tech tree, new obsessions, and Eldrift, this proud and lonely mustachio ronin. "It Stares Back" aims NOT to be a good, easy to grasp, but forgetable strategy game. No, it wants to be an demanding one, deep, intricate and flourishing, and which will imprint its mark deep into your brain. It's an experience in itself. The game is highly esoteric, you will not have the answers to all those interrogations that will come. It reminds me of the manga BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei : you don't understand what's happening, you are overwhelmed by the immensity of what lays before you, but you enjoy it, and moreover, you are fascinated by it. Only after overtaking the abstractness and the strangeness of its realms, will you enjoy this game. Give it some time, and appreciate how smooth its tactical elements are. Care to look how effective its gameplay can be. Stare at this beautiful game forming before your eyes. And be vigilant, as it stares back...

This is one wild trip of an RTS game. Fairly simple and straight forward in gameplay, enhanced with a uniquely confusing story and artdesign.

5 hours in I'm through the "tutorial" phase (at least I think so). The gameplay is fun and quick to learn. Challenging but not too overwhelming. The setting is something I would describe as very creative cyber-dystopia. And then there is the atmosphere. Voice acting, art, sound design can rival tripleA games with ease and stomps most of them into the dust. So creative, so detailed, this game is a work of love and worth more than the 8€ I've paid for it. And that's just after 5 hours, can't wait for more. Do yourself a favour and get this game.

What the ♥♥♥♥