RIOT - Civil Unrest

After playing for some hours, I can't deny the game is fun. People may have expected a bit more leading to some dissappointment. But with a bit of work, this could end up being a pretty solid and fun albeit limited experience. It's not the Total War of rioting and it won't be. But there is some definite "there" there, and as you play a bit more and get used to the somewhat clunky controls you can probably find it. As I said, after my initial dissappointment I got a taste for the game as I played more. At the core is story mode, which leads you through a series of protests and confrontations with police in different settings (like Indignados in Spain, Arab Spring in Egypt). Players can play as both protesters and police and have a range of attributes at their disposal to help combat each other, either through peaceful, not so peaceful, or downright violent means. The game requires a little bit of experimenting to understand best practices here, but there are definitely some interesting strategies to use in combination with them. Gameplay itself can be a bit clunky, and the game can use some finetuning in that department. Often when trying to attack units onscreen, you inadvertently select your own units, and it can be difficult as police to really come to some sort of synchronous action, although even here it seems that you definitely reap some of the chaos you sow - treading lightly can seem counterintuitive, but can make the difference between ultimately getting the job done with just the right amount of violence or things spinning out of control and you being at the short end of it in the numbers game that unfolds. Also, this game really NEEDS a replay option. Some of the events that develop onscreen are rather interesting (especially when playing police IMO) and it would be nice and helpful to be able to watch the action afterwards. All in all, this game is interesting enough and has enough content to warrant it's price as is. But it can be better still.

The game has interesting, unheard of theme which in itself deserves 1 star. However, it has no tutorial (at least it's not obviously exposed to the user) and very steep learning curve. The UI and gameplay needs to be discovered by trial and error, and since both are unusual and don't copy any established conventions, playing Riot is more like fighting the game itself rather than opponent.

the worst pathfinding I've ever seen in such a polished game, your units will randomly destroy their perfect formation and ruin the time you spent gaining ground. there's no tutorial for me to skip. you can only select your unit by clicking on the single member of that unit that the game considers the leader, no way to tell when they're in any formation except he's somewhere near the middle, you try to keep things tight and prevent gaps in your formations but the movement of your units is hamfisted and hard to predict EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING

Like any indie game it is not without its problems, however, this was a fantastic little time waster game, the idiots trying to push political agendas in the comments or complaining about an indie dev not giving AAA treatment on a $15 game are simply giving 1 stars for plenty of reasons that have nothing to do with this game and everything to do with their personal insecurities. Feel free to ignore these unwarranted and unfair reviews, give the game a shot, and remember, its just a video game. support small businesses, support indie artists. big thanks to the devs for dropping this little gem in my lap.