Diplomacy is Not an Option Review Summary

A hilarious RTS with a branching campaign that boosts replayability, though its steep difficulty even on easy, repetitive gameplay, and limited unit variety may wear thin.

Excellent humor throughout: Players consistently praise the game's humor, noting it appears in writing, cutscenes, and character interactions. The comedic tone is described as enjoyable and non-biting, adding to the overall fun.

Overall game is loved: Many players express strong affection for the game, calling it amazing, captivating, and fun. The game is seen as made with care and engaging from start to finish.

Branching campaign increases replayability: The campaign is highlighted for its multiple branching paths and choices that affect the story, leading to high replay value. Players appreciate the variety in mission objectives and multiple endings.

Funny and well-made cutscenes: Cutscenes are praised for being hilarious, well-crafted, and entertaining, often contributing significantly to the game's humor. Players find them a highlight of the experience.

Engaging and humorous story: The story is frequently described as interesting, fun, and funny, with players enjoying the narrative and its presentation. The humor integrated into the story is a standout feature.

Game too hard even on easy: Players consistently report that the game is excessively difficult even on the lowest difficulty settings, making it inaccessible for new players and frustrating for experienced ones. The difficulty curve is steep and punishing, leading to a slog-like experience.

Gameplay becomes repetitive and boring: Many players find the gameplay repetitive, with missions and maps becoming monotonous over time. The lack of variety in strategies and content leads to boredom, especially in endless mode and after the early game.

Lack of unit variety and balance: Players note that there are too few unit types, with little counter-play and many units being useless. The tech tree is messy, and the gap between tiers is too large, limiting strategic diversity and making only a few units viable.

AI is poor and pathfinding broken: Unit AI is often described as terrible, with units missing targets, clumping together, and pathfinding issues that cause them to get stuck or wander into danger. This leads to frustrating combat and requires excessive micro-management to compensate.

Cutscenes are too long and slow: Cutscenes are frequently criticized for being overly long, with slow pacing and long silences that make players want to skip them. This disrupts the flow of the game and detracts from the experience.

Real-time strategy with city building: The game is primarily a real-time strategy title that blends city building, resource management, and tactical battles. It is often compared to classics like Age of Empires and StarCraft.

Branching campaign with multiple paths: The campaign features branching storylines with multiple paths and endings, offering high replayability. Players can make choices that affect the story's direction and outcome.

City building and tower defense mix: The game combines city building, survival, and tactical defense elements, requiring players to manage resources while defending against waves of enemies. This hybrid genre is a core feature.

Multiple factions with distinct playstyles: The game offers several factions, each with unique playstyles and gameplay changes. This variety enhances replayability and strategic depth.

Multiple game modes including endless: The game includes various modes such as Campaign, Endless, Challenge, and Sandbox. The endless mode features increasingly powerful waves, allowing for extended play and fortification building.

Excellent performance with many units: Multiple reviewers report the game runs smoothly even with thousands of units on screen, including on weaker hardware. This indicates strong optimization for large-scale battles.

Runs well on low-end hardware: The game performs well on older or weaker PCs, often exceeding minimum requirements. This makes it accessible to a wide range of players.

Occasional crashes and bugs: Some users report rare crashes, including specific triggers like exploring certain map areas or encountering a massive beetle. Overall, bugs are infrequent but exist.

GPU freezes and stutters: Several users experience periodic GPU freezes lasting 2-3 seconds, which worsen over time and are more severe in DX12 mode. This is a significant performance issue for some players.

Crashes in Endless mode: Endless mode can overwhelm the system, leading to crashes, especially with large enemy waves. This is a common late-game stability problem.

Recommended for RTS and tower defense fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of RTS, base building, and tower defense genres. Players who enjoy games like They Are Billions, Stronghold, and classic RTS titles will find this appealing.

Worth buying, especially on sale: The game is considered worth the money, with some saying it's worth full price while others recommend waiting for a sale. Overall, the value proposition is seen as positive.

Good for strategy and management lovers: The game is recommended for players who enjoy building, planning, resource management, and strategic thinking. It appeals to those who like managing cities and thinking about long-term strategy.

Not for everyone, but worth attention: The game is good but may not appeal to all players or be suitable for every gaming session. It deserves attention from the right audience, particularly those looking for a casual Survival RTS experience.

Technical issues prevent recommendation: Some reviewers cannot recommend the game until GPU freeze and crashing issues are fixed. These technical problems are significant enough to withhold a positive recommendation.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $25.00.

Game completion: 100.0h.

Story completion: 42.0h.

Session length: 2.5h.

The game is enjoyable and addictive from the start, with players reporting immediate engagement despite a learning curve and some later repetitiveness.

Veteran Defense RTS Enthusiast: Plays on high difficulties, optimizes defenses, embraces pressure, and compares mechanics to genre classics. Motivation: To experience a challenging, rewarding defensive RTS that respects their genre expertise. Stance: buy.

Casual Chill Builder: Prefers slow, defensive building, avoids combat, and wants a sandbox-like experience. Motivation: To relax and build a city without constant threat or time pressure. Stance: no buy.

Multiplayer Seeker: Plays the game but focuses on potential social modes, often suggesting improvements. Motivation: To share the experience with friends and extend replayability through multiplayer and additional content. Stance: buy.

Performance is mostly positive across the reported cohorts, with occasional GPU freezes and crashes on higher-VRAM systems and mixed stability on mid-range VRAM.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Mostly runs well, but some users report brief GPU freezes and a crash after extended play.

Windows <8GB VRAM / <16GB RAM: positive. Playable even on low-end hardware, with minor stutter in large battles; overall smooth after adjusting settings.

Windows <8GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: positive. Runs smoothly and is well optimized on this configuration.

Steam Deck: The game exhibits significant stability issues with frequent crashes, and the UI text is too small and low-contrast, making it nearly unreadable on a handheld screen. Performance is also demanding, with low FPS even on medium settings. However, the game has native Linux support and generally works via Proton, which is a positive foundation. Overall, the combination of crashes and poor legibility makes the experience frustrating and unreliable on the Steam Deck.

Linux and Proton: The game has native Linux support and generally runs well via Proton. Isolated reports of DRM-related cutscene issues and long-term stability problems on a specific Proton version exist, but they do not reflect a consensus of brokenness. The overall Linux experience is positive with only minor, non-blocking quirks.

External guides: The user feedback consistently highlights a lack of in-game explanations, pushing players to seek external guides and walkthroughs. This dependency on instructional data is the primary barrier.

Frequently compared to They Are Billions: Many reviewers draw direct comparisons to They Are Billions, noting similar RTS mechanics, wave defense, and base building. Some find this game a worthy alternative, while others prefer the original.

Compared to Age of Empires: The game is often compared to Age of Empires, with some saying it modernizes the formula and others noting it is simpler and easier to learn. The comparison is used to describe the core RTS mechanics and grid-based gameplay.

Constant updates and new content: The developers are praised for consistently updating the game with new features, modes, and content. This ongoing support is seen as a positive sign of the game's longevity and developer commitment.

Compared to Stronghold series: Reviewers compare the game to Stronghold, noting it takes the best features and simplifies them, making it more polished and accessible. The comparison is generally positive, highlighting the game's strategic depth.

Story mode with multiple routes: The game features a story mode with multiple routes and branching storylines, offering high replayability. Reviewers appreciate the variety and depth this adds to the campaign.