Kellerkind

Greetings, First and foremost: The game itself is decent. It lacks soul and has no Singleplayer content, but the Skirmish and Multiplayer battles are good. The gameplay has been improved over Planetary annihilation. However, the Developers decision to try and circumvent review system by pulling PA from stores and re-releasing it as a standalone "Expansion" was a hamfisted approach. They actively took a DUMP on ALL buyers of the game that were not kick starters, totally ignoring the fact that The Game went to steam with a 90 dollar price tag, and more when you consider the "DLC" commander skins. They just went a said "You are second class citizens now, please pay us more money and g f+ck yourself!". They threw the PA buyers under the bus, and that gives reason to expect they will be throwing Titans buyers under the bus too. Do not support this company. Do not buy the game. Wait a few month, then snatch it up for cheap from a third party key retailer. Do not support the sort of anti customer behavior that UBER entertainment just displayed.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This is the single most fun wargame i have played since the times of peoples general. Wargame EUA manages to bring the scale of old school hex strategy into play in a real time environment. The strategic implications of the terrain will haunt your nightmares, the detailed units will give you wet dreams (if you're into military hardware, that is). The game looks and FEELS fantastic, when full on combat gets going, you will see and hear WAR raging. I first thought this to ruse in cold war skin, but no, eugen systems really sat down on this one and made it a unique experience. The campaigns are challenging and teach you the gameplay, then multiplayer awaits, and a veritable host of humans to challenge your skill against. This is not starcraft, apm and split second decisions do not win you a cup here. This is about strategy.

Quick Info: If all you like to do is playing skirmish and single player, then Achron is a very clear NO BUY for you. The Campaign, while actually having an interesting story, is heinously and VERY effectively murdering any fun you might have had. The skirmish AI is incapable of dealing with any player on a pure rts level, add in time travel and it goes under like the titanic. However, if you like to play with friends this game makes for wonderful evening of cursing, laughter, mind-screws and many WTF moments. Achron is a multi player game. Its only truly fun when you have a human opponent to screw over via time travel. Its very enjoyable to see your scams create successful outcomes. Many a Doctor Evil lolathons ensued when i played Achron 4 vs 4 with friends. However be warned that due to the, lackluster rest of the game, the population of people to play with ad hock via On-line match-ups might be close to non existent, making matchmaking on the Achron forums a necessity. However, if you have even one friend willing to play with you, you can experience some insane moments of fun and laughter as the two of you try to reconstruct just what the hell happened right now and how to profit from it. I give this game a solid 7 because while graphics and single player are seriously lacking, the core game play which is manipulation of events and time travel works surprisingly well. Yes it requires work to get into and the developers at Hazardous Software have their work cut out upgrading the UI and the infos you get on your units (like.. what orders did i gave when?) - not to mention path finding. Achron clearly shows a possible direction for future rts and strategy games in general. Achron will not be a huge hit, but it may very well be the granddaddy of a new breed of time travel games where time travel is not a scripted mess (singularity, we look at you) and does not take the form of a simple rewind. Portal + time travel anyone?