63 Days Review Summary

A strong story and demanding strategic gameplay satisfy, yet bugs, excessive trial-and-error difficulty, and clunky controls frustrate.

Demanding Strategic Thinking: Many reviews emphasize that the game requires significant strategic thinking and planning to overcome challenges. The difficulty is seen as a positive aspect that rewards thoughtful gameplay.

Praise for Strategy Genre Excellence: The game is considered one of the best in the strategy genre, with many calling it a very good or excellent game overall. It stands out among its peers.

Challenging Yet Enjoyable Gameplay: The game is often described as difficult but fun, with a balance that keeps players engaged. The challenge is seen as rewarding rather than frustrating.

Strong and Compelling Story: Reviewers consistently highlight the story as a major strength, describing it as good, interesting, engaging, and well-written. The narrative is praised for its quality and ability to immerse players.

Fun and Entertaining Gameplay: Many reviewers find the gameplay fun and entertaining, providing hours of enjoyment. The fun factor is a common positive theme.

Frequent Bugs and Glitches: Many players report a high number of bugs and glitches, some of which make the game partially unplayable or require level restarts. There are also reports of persistent bugs known to developers since October 2024 that remain unfixed.

Inferior to War Mongrels: Numerous reviewers compare the game unfavorably to War Mongrels, citing worse voice acting, less memorable story and characters, and an overall step back. Some even call it half-baked and total crap compared to War Mongrels.

Excessive Difficulty and Trial-and-Error: The game is significantly harder than its predecessor, with poor difficulty balancing and high difficulty even on easy settings. It requires extensive trial and error, save scumming, and countless quicksave-quickload commands.

Clunky and Difficult Controls: Controls are often described as clunky, weird, difficult to grasp initially, and annoying. This leads to frustration and a steep learning curve.

Unintuitive and Poor Gameplay: Gameplay is frequently criticized as lacking, not intuitive, clunky, and not enjoyable. The stealth mechanics are inconsistent and often suffocate the experience.

Real-time tactics stealth hybrid: Players describe the game as a real-time tactics/stealth hybrid reminiscent of Commandos. Cluster 1 and Cluster 2 both emphasize real-time action with a stealth focus, and Cluster 6 adds a strategic layer.

Stealth mechanics with detection: Stealth gameplay involves avoiding enemy vision cones, patrols, and alarms, with tools like throwing stones to distract enemies. Clusters 8, 21, 22, 23, 32, and 33 cover these mechanics.

Diverse character abilities: Players control multiple characters, each with unique skills such as knife throwing, stone throwing, and special combat moves. Clusters 4, 10, 20, and 35 detail these abilities.

Challenging difficulty and puzzles: The game offers a hard difficulty mode and features challenging puzzle-like encounters that require strategic thinking. Clusters 3, 19, 30, and 41 mention difficulty and puzzle elements.

Campaign structure with missions: The campaign consists of 6 long missions or chapters, some with timed choices and multiple phases. Clusters 14, 17, 27, 28, 29, and 40 describe the mission structure.

Numerous technical bugs: Players report a wide range of bugs affecting core gameplay, including AI pathfinding problems and characters getting stuck during interactions. These issues often prevent normal progression.

Excellent optimization praised: Multiple players commend the game's optimization, citing smooth performance on high settings even with modest hardware. Clusters 12, 13, and 14 highlight these positive experiences.

Crashes during save loading: The game frequently crashes when loading saves, particularly in co-op sessions. Cluster 5 and Cluster 11 highlight this as a recurring and disruptive issue.

Save-load state inconsistencies: Loading a save can alter the game state or cause loss of indoor vision, leading to confusion and broken immersion. This issue is noted in Cluster 3 and Cluster 6.

Tutorial progression blocked: Bugs prevent players from completing the tutorial, creating a barrier for new players. Cluster 10 specifically highlights this critical issue.

Recommended for War Mongrels fans: Many reviewers recommend this game to players who enjoyed War Mongrels, often citing it as a must-play for fans of the same developer. This sentiment is strong and specific across multiple clusters.

Strong negative reviews: Several reviewers strongly advise against buying the game, calling it a waste of time or the worst in their library. These negative opinions are intense but less specific.

Appeals to Commandos enthusiasts: Reviewers frequently recommend the game to fans of Commandos and similar real-time tactics titles. It is seen as a must-play for those who enjoy the genre.

General positive recommendation: Some reviewers highly recommend the game to everyone, with a few giving it a 9/10 score and calling it great. However, these are less detailed and less frequent.

War Mongrels preferred over this: Several reviewers explicitly state they do not recommend this game and suggest playing War Mongrels instead, citing better variety and freedom. This comparison is unfavorable and repeated.

Community fair range: $2.99 - $9.99.

Game completion: 20.0h.

Story completion: 20.0h.

Session length: 3.0h.

Review evidence portrays a game dominated by slow, tedious, linear missions, a long frustrating tutorial and prologue, and co-op bugs or desync, with no reported point where fun begins. Positive notes about tactical focus or co-op availability do not identify a time-to-fun transition.

Friction: Clunky controls; Tediously slow pacing; Long, frustrating tutorial and prologue waiting; Tedious patrol groups with no speed-up option; Repetitive, linear, tedious missions; Co-op bugs and desync.

RTT Genre Veteran: Methodical, patient planning, quicksave/quickload, mastering character abilities to solve complex stealth puzzles. Motivation: Love for the Real-Time Tactics genre and its challenging tactical puzzle-solving. Stance: sale.

Newcomer to RTT: Trial and error, frequent quicksaves, struggling with mechanics, often playing on easier difficulties. Motivation: Interest in trying the RTT genre, but seeking a more accessible entry point; some persist for the satisfaction of overcoming challenges. Stance: no buy.

Co-op Campaign Player: Coordinated co-op play with planning markers, but frequently disrupted by synchronization errors and bugs. Motivation: Enjoying the tactical campaign cooperatively with friends or family. Stance: no buy.

Steam Deck: The review set centers on the game's default control scheme, which users repeatedly describe as awkward and slow to learn, with character abilities lacking the immediacy found in peer titles. Stability is a secondary but more severe concern: reports of crashes, save/load breaking the field of view, AI pathfinding failures, and characters getting stuck in interactions point to real technical barriers. Additional friction comes from realism-heavy, imprecise interaction mechanics. As a positive note, the developer includes an RTS-style control variant using number keys. No reviews explicitly reference Steam Deck, Proton, launchers, or UI text size, so the handheld-specific barriers inferred here stem from general control complexity and stability issues rather than device-specific configuration.

Compared to Commandos series: Reviewers frequently compare the game to the classic Commandos series, noting similarities in strategic gameplay. Some see it as an introduction to the Commandos style, while others find it lacking in comparison.

Sequel to War Mongrels: Many reviewers identify the game as a direct sequel or follow-up to War Mongrels, from the same developer. This connection sets expectations for fans of the previous title.

Gameplay differences from War Mongrels: Reviewers note that compared to War Mongrels, this game has higher difficulty, similar bugs at launch, identical controls, and plays the same. Some feel it offers less freedom and variety.

Compared to Commandos and Desperados: The game is often compared unfavorably to both Commandos and Desperados series. Reviewers see it as similar but inferior to these established titles.

Developed by Destructive Creations: Several reviews mention the game is from Destructive Creations, the studio behind War Mongrels. This association is used to contextualize expectations and comparisons.