Diplomacy is Not an Option
Last updated: 2025-03-15
- Engaging campaign with choices and consequences.
- Large-scale battles and sieges provide epic feel.
- Balanced, adjustable difficulty suits different players.
- Classic RTS gameplay with a modern twist.
- Repetitive gameplay and mission design.
- Unit AI and pathfinding issues present.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 79% · Negative 21%. Score: 21 / 100
Positives:
- The game features a well-designed campaign mode with varied missions, branching paths, and multiple endings. The story is often humorous and engaging, with choices that impact the gameplay and narrative. This enhances replayability and provides a unique experience with each playthrough.
- The game features large-scale battles with numerous units, siege weaponry, and fortifications. Players must manage resources, expand their base, and defend against waves of enemies. The combination of RTS and tower defense elements creates engaging and chaotic gameplay.
- The game offers a balanced and adjustable difficulty curve, with multiple settings to cater to different skill levels. Higher difficulties require strategic thinking and adaptation, while lower difficulties provide a more accessible experience. The game also avoids punishing players too harshly for minor mistakes.
- The game successfully blends elements from classic RTS titles like Stronghold, Age of Empires, and Warcraft, offering a nostalgic yet modern experience. It combines city-building, resource management, and army command with a focus on strategic defense and large-scale battles.
- The game features a distinct and appealing art style, often described as cartoonish or low-poly. This visual style contributes to the game's charm and helps to maintain good performance even with large numbers of units on screen.
Negatives:
- Many reviewers found the gameplay loop repetitive, involving base building, wave defense, and resource gathering. Campaign missions often feel similar, lacking variety and meaningful progression. This leads to tedium and a lack of long-term engagement.
- The game is criticized for lacking depth and variety in units, buildings, and strategic options. The absence of multiplayer, mod support, and meta-progression further limits the game's replayability and long-term appeal.
- Reviewers frequently mention issues with unit AI and pathfinding. Units often get stuck, fail to react to threats, or make poor targeting decisions, requiring constant micromanagement and hindering strategic play.
- The game suffers from unit imbalance, with some units being significantly more effective than others. This limits strategic diversity and encourages players to rely on a small subset of units, making combat less engaging.
- Resource management is often frustrating due to scarcity, depletion, and inefficient gathering mechanics. The game requires excessive optimization and micromanagement to maintain a stable economy.
Gameplay:
- The core gameplay loop involves a blend of RTS, tower defense, and city-building elements. Players must manage resources, construct bases, develop economies, and train armies to defend against increasingly challenging waves of enemies. The game emphasizes strategic base design and resource management to survive.
- Defense relies on strategic placement of walls, towers, and units to create strong defensive lines. Players can upgrade fortifications and unlock advanced units through research. The game balances unit production with defensive structure construction.
- The game requires proactive and strategic play, emphasizing offensive actions and map control alongside base defense. Players must expand territory, clear enemy encampments, and adapt strategies to varied map parameters and enemy attack routes. Effective strategies involve massing units and utilizing siege weaponry.
- Resource management is crucial, requiring players to balance food production, material gathering (wood, stone, iron), and population growth. Resources are often finite, demanding efficient allocation and expansion to secure new sources. Players must also manage worker assignments and building placement for optimal production.
- The game shares similarities with titles like "They Are Billions", "Age of Empires", and "Stronghold", blending elements from each. It combines PvE RTS gameplay with base management and city-building mechanics. The game also features elements reminiscent of Kingdom and Cities series.
Performance:
- The game's performance is inconsistent. Some players report smooth gameplay even with thousands of units, while others experience lag and crashes, especially in later stages or with many enemies. Optimization may vary depending on hardware and game settings.
- Initial loading times have been significantly improved. An earlier version had very long loading times, but now it loads much faster.
- Changing video settings does not significantly impact performance. Adjusting shadows, textures, or using FSR has little effect on frame rates.
- Many players have not encountered any bugs during their gameplay experience. This suggests a relatively stable and polished game.
- The game's stability is affected by the quality of the player's internet connection. Unstable connections can lead to issues during gameplay.
Recommendations:
- Several reviewers suggest waiting for a sale before purchasing the game, citing balance issues, lack of QoL features, or the need for further development. Some reviewers feel the game is worth the full price, while others consider it overpriced for the content offered.
- Some reviewers indicate they will adjust their review score based on future updates and balance changes. This shows that the game's perception is subject to change based on ongoing development.
- Some reviewers suggest specific balance adjustments, such as adjusting enemy health, unit damage, attack intervals, and wave density. Others propose adding more unit types, powerful technologies, or a veterancy system.
- Some reviewers recommend practicing in sandbox mode or starting on easy difficulty to learn the game mechanics before tackling the campaign. A prologue campaign or extended tutorial is suggested to help new players understand economy building.
- Some reviewers recommend specific difficulty settings based on player experience and desired challenge. Starting on easier settings to learn the game is a common suggestion.
Miscellaneous:
- The game offers a challenging campaign with randomly generated maps, an endless mode, and scenarios, providing a decent amount of content. The integrated humor and simple cartoon style add to the fun, with the overall playtime being less than 30 hours. The reviewer also appreciates the developer's passion and attention to detail.
- The game, set in a Medieval fantasy world, features a unique art style and a comedic tone, with humor similar to Monty Python. The story revolves around managing peasant revolts, and the game is advertised as an RTS with epic sieges. However, the title is a misnomer, as there is a 'Diplomacy' option in the settings.
- Reviewers express a desire for multiplayer functionality, improved pathfinding, and more naval units. They also hope for extensive mod support via the Steam Workshop, including new buildings, unit types, and turrets. There is also a desire for 1 vs 1 or team-based Napoleon-style maps with macro management.
- Achievement statistics suggest a high level of difficulty, with a significant portion of players not progressing far into the game. This is evidenced by the low percentage of players who have unlocked basic achievements, indicating that many players may not be completing even the early stages of the campaign.
- The game's trailers and screenshots are not representative of actual gameplay, showing unrealistic amounts of structures and abilities being used. The trailers heavily feature combat with millions of units, which may not accurately reflect the player experience.
