Desk Chair Generals

Stormgate is out in Early Access now for those that have paid some money (open to everybody from the 13th August). Played the opening 3 campaign missions last night and a couple of 1v1 games.

I only dabbled with the previous preview releases (maybe a 2-3 hours in total), so I'm fairly fresh with the game.

Single player campaign from the intro missions (which are the ones you get for free), was very average. The first mission was pretty poor, being one of those hero missions with no base building, and the second wasn't hugely better. The third mission was better though and I had a good time with that one. All felt very like playing a single player RTS from the 90s/early 00s though. Those games always escalated, so later missions might get more interesting as it goes on, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything very interesting with the formula, like SC2 managed to do. No choices between missions and no missions that are structured around particular unit abilities. There was a dividing path in one mission, but there isn't any indication that would actually effect the story or the later missions.

Storywise, it is very what you expect from Blizzard style campaign, but without the money to make it flashy. It even has the sword that is clearly cursed.

If you were hoping to get this for the campaign, I would suggest not bothering (at least for the moment). Maybe the later missions are much better and perhaps there will be improvements throughout the early access phase, but it isn't a great introduction. At best, it feels like it might be an added bonus to the rest of the game, but far from the highlight.

Over on the competitive side, I enjoyed this much more. I only played 1 quick 1v1 skirmish game and then 2 1v1s against actual people (lost the first, won the second). All these were as the Vanguard (basically Terran). This really does feel like the natural home for this game and I liked what I saw. Both games I didn't get to the top tier units, so can't comment on those. Actually felt like the game was a little slower than SC2 in that regard, but that could just be me not knowing the optimal path to get hose high-end units out.

I liked the creep camp mechanic, were you can clear these and control a tower that provides some kind of benefit (extra sight, healing, income, etc). I can see fights breaking out over these and provides more points on the map to be thinking about, along with expansions.

Other than that, it is mostly just like playing SC. Which isn't terrible to me, as I think there isn't any competition for that game at all and we could do with other options. I can see others wondering what the point in playing this over SC2 is though, particularly when this is still very much a work in progress.

Graphics seem to have annoyed a lot of people. Personally don't bother me much. Can't understand the complaint about it being too cartoony, when most of the comparisons seem to be with SC, which I would say is a fairly cartoony game as well. This maybe is a little more towards a Warcraft style, but I don't really have an issue with that. I would say it lacks anything very distinctive though. It is all a bit bland and obvious. The maps are certainly better than they were when I last played and it does feel a bit more like a wasteland. Units and buildings though are very generic. The look of the characters in cutscenes is also not very interesting and there is some weird thing going on with their proportions that makes them look like action figures.

I would say this is something worth playing and supporting if it is a style of game you like. There is a lot of potential here and they have a fantastic framework in place. I would like to see a few more bits of inventiveness though.

Same. Loved Age of Mythology as a kid. Never really played the other Age of games, but the mix of ancient history and mythology always appealed more than the pure history focus of the other games, as well as giving the devs more freedom. The previous remaster I never got around to picking up, so will be first time playing the game in a very long time.

Don't normally do it, but even tempted to get the premium version. I would assume that it will be the cheapest way to get the DLC it includes (one god pack and two additional sides, at some point) and the early access will be a nice bonus.

Not strictly strategy, but kind of a related genre, I also saw that there will be a new Commandos games coming out, Commandos Origins. Another childhood game series. Even includes co-op, which I have very fond memories of playing over a LAN with a friend. We're still friends, so I expect we will be doing some of that when it releases.

Age of Mythology Retold is out today for everyone. I've been playing it all week (just the campaign, maybe one skirmish game) and having a good time with it. Certainly a game from the pre-SC2 era of making campaigns, with all the faults that comes with it, but I'm still finding huge amounts to enjoy. Nothing beats building up an army of crocodiles with laser beams and zapping everything in your path.

Currently on mission 18 and it seems that there are some balance issues that they hopefully will address with today's launch. Massive difficulty spike here and sounds like I'm not alone, judging by the couple of threads about it on the Steam forum. I have found a couple of other missions being a bit of a slog too, taking almost an hour to really be able to get to grips with and then ending very abruptly.

As I say though, very pre-SC2. That does also mean the missions are mostly more open with what you can do and you aren't forced to use a particular unit to solve the mission's puzzle. Should make them more replayable.

Had hoped to be up to Norse missions before release, so I had a little experience with all sides and could jump into multiplayer. Didn't quite make it though (mission I'm on starts you with a couple of ox carts and couple of Norse units, but still Egyptian bases).