Empires Shall Fall Review Summary

Similar to Advance Wars: The game is heavily inspired by Advance Wars, emulating its core gameplay mechanics and feel. Many reviewers highlight this similarity as a positive, noting that it successfully captures the essence of the classic turn-based strategy game. Some reviewers feel that it is better than an official remake of Advance Wars.

Enjoyable, polished, and well-designed: Reviewers found the game to be generally enjoyable, well-designed, and polished. The game's difficulty is well-balanced, and the soundtrack and art style enhance the overall experience. Many reviewers enjoyed playing and completing the entire game.

Strategic upgrade/perk system: The game features an interesting upgrade and perk system that adds a strategic layer, allowing players to customize their approach. Players can select perks before starting a mission, and upgraded units can improve combat capabilities.

Simple, streamlined mouse controls: The game features streamlined and simple controls, with full mouse support. This makes the game easy to pick up and play, simplifying gameplay and eliminating complex steps.

Features a map editor: The game includes a map editor that allows players to create, share, and play custom levels. This feature is seen as a significant addition, extending the game's replayability beyond the official campaign.

Game lacks challenge, AI flawed: The game is criticized for being too easy, with predictable AI and exploitable tactics. This lack of challenge makes the gameplay repetitive and boring, diminishing the overall experience. Some reviewers found the game too simple, unfair, and boring.

Inferior to Advance Wars: Many reviewers feel the game imitates Advance Wars but fails to surpass or even match its quality. It lacks innovation, depth, and charisma compared to its inspiration, with some considering it a weaker copy.

Desire for more content: Several reviewers expressed a desire for more content, including additional units, maps, and factions. The game's length is considered short, and the overall scope feels limited.

Skewed unit balance: Unit balance is a recurring concern, with some units being overpowered or underutilized. This imbalance diminishes strategic depth and leads to repetitive gameplay.

Weak, unengaging narrative: The game's narrative is frequently described as weak, unengaging, and poorly written. Reviewers found the story and characters to be bland, with some noting issues with translation quality.

Diverse units, tactical combat: The game features diverse units with strengths and weaknesses, and unit merging. Unit types include infantry, vehicles and aircraft, each produced in dedicated buildings. There are multiple attack types effective against different armor.

Grid-based, turn-based strategy: The game uses turn-based, grid-based combat on varied maps with terrain that impacts unit movement and defense. It shares similarities with games like Advanced Wars and Famicom Wars, focusing on strategic unit deployment and map control rather than base building.

Capture buildings for resources: Capturing buildings and resource points is crucial for generating income and producing units. Unit health affects capture rates, and occupying captured buildings provides health recovery at a cost. This creates a strategic layer of resource management and territorial control.

Classic turn-based mechanics: The game uses classic turn-based strategy rules and elements. The attacking side has a significant advantage due to the first-strike mechanic.

Temporary unit upgrades/perks: The game includes temporary customization points and a talent tree-style promotion system for troops, granting unique abilities or stat changes before each mission. However, the talent tree feature is limited by troop selection and map setup, making it sometimes pointless.

Smooth performance; no bugs: The game exhibits good performance, running smoothly on both high-end desktops and the Steam Deck. Multiple reviews specifically mention the absence of bugs and a stable framerate, indicating a polished technical experience.

Simple, functional graphics: The game's graphics are described as simple but not distracting. This suggests a functional art style that doesn't detract from the gameplay experience, though it may not be a visual highlight.

Good for Advance Wars fans: Many reviewers recommend the game to fans of turn-based strategy games, especially those who enjoy the Advance Wars formula. Some suggest it's a good way to scratch that Advance Wars itch, while others directly compare it to similar titles like Fire Emblem and Wargroove. However, some reviewers suggest that the game doesn't quite live up to the standard set by Advance Wars.

Worth the price, especially on sale: A common sentiment is that the game is worth its price, especially when on sale. Reviewers often mention the reasonable cost as a factor in their recommendation, highlighting that the game delivers a worthwhile experience for the investment. Some reviewers recommend buying the game to support the developer.

Potential for future development: Several reviewers express hope for future development and content updates. They suggest that the game has potential and could be even more impressive with additional features, such as more factions, map objects, and landscape variety. A sequel could be really impressive if it finds its own voice.

Not recommended by some: One reviewer explicitly states that they do not recommend the game. Another reviewer recommends supporting Russian game development, but this point is not related to the game's quality.

Air unit balance issues: One reviewer points out a balance issue with air units. They suggest that if the machine gunner's anti-air attack isn't changed, air units need an upgrade to allow them to continue moving after attacking, otherwise their only use is to kite enemy units.

Unique dieselpunk aesthetic and lore: The game features a distinct dieselpunk aesthetic, characterized by a unique art style, lore, and factions (the Black Abyss Empire and the Azure Sky Alliance) fighting for the Promised Land. The visual style blends dieselpunk elements with an American comic book aesthetic, creating a retro feel reminiscent of handheld consoles.

Includes map editor and multiplayer: The game offers a map editor and hot-seat multiplayer, enhancing replayability and customization. There are a dozen skirmish maps available at launch, with the developers planning to add more content in the future.

Simple, underdeveloped story: The game's story is considered simple and underdeveloped, with some reviewers feeling it was added as an afterthought. This suggests the narrative may not be a strong focus or particularly engaging aspect of the game.

Features non-human alien enemies: In addition to the two main factions, the game features non-human alien enemies like the Immortals and Destroyers. These alien factions add variety to the battlefield and provide additional challenges for players.

Two-grid battle view: During battles, the game switches to a two-grid view, with the battlefield background changing based on the terrain. This visual change adds depth to the combat and reflects the environment in which battles take place.