Overall most helpful review

Posted on: September 26, 2022

Early Access review

Rufus_Shinra

Games: 210 Reviews: 2

A uniquely good take on an old tale

I had missed the kickstarter a few years ago, and like some others, I've discovered the game through its demo earlier this year. I gave it a shot, and was hooked instantly, enough to join the closed beta for which I have close to four hundred hours logged on Steam, after which I'm still very much hooked. The devs have managed to successfully mix different genres to make a comprehensive experience at a semi-realistic alien First Contact scenario, with an espionage/4X environment on Earth where you're struggling against the other ideologies to influence the masses and redirect Earth's scientific, technological, political and economic assets for your vision on the way to react to the situation. But at the same time, the game becomes a true tactical and strategic space warfare simulator where you have to deal with orbital mechanics, supplies and command&control issues in a way that is very much enjoyable for the player, leading to pitched battles against other human factions or the aliens. In addition to this, the writing is surprisingly managing to deliver a top-notch immersion despite the genre, with the faction leaders' characterization being very well portrayed both for the content and the voice-acting, which adds to the experience. Finally, as part of the closed beta, I can say that the devs are highly reactive to the constructive comments and have improved the gameplay with our returns, showing true dedication to make the game as good as it can be.

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Posted on: September 26, 2022

Early Access review

santoinocente

Games: 12 Reviews: 5

A tedious, repetitive slog.

Steam buyer, backer. Probably the best concept for a game in quite some time executed in the most boring, repetitive and confusing way. It's basically two games in one, you play a game of Risk on Earth with war, diplomacy and espionage, all with very simple mechanics, You use the countries' resources to fund your research and start your space program. In space, you capture mining locations to get resources in order to build bases and fleets to defend the solar system. Both layers are simple, repetitive and very easy to exploit. Both are full of bugs and require micromanaging. And you are forced to interact with both of them every turn because Terra Invicta is one of those games you win by getting minor advantages over hundreds of turns. Adding salt to injury the Risk game requires multiple, constant, repetitive and unskippable RNG rolls to get minor changes like gaining a 5% increase in popular opinion, so then you have a +1% chance in another RNG roll to make a control point vulnerable, so then you can take another RNG roll to see if you get actual control over just one of the multiple control points every country has... Space combat is repetitive, and the AI makes it trivial because it's incapable of managing fleets competently. Some story missions are tied to rare events and require difficult RNG rolls to advance. I could continue, but I think it's enough.

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Posted on: October 10, 2022

Early Access review

selerian

Verified owner

Games: 130 Reviews: 1

Amazing, unique game, needs some polish

I'm obviously part of the intended target - I'm a physicist and IR geek. So take my enthusiasm with a pinch of salt. That said, this game is amazing. It's two games: One is a geopolitics simulater where you fight other shadowy factions, competing for control of countries. The second is an insanely detailed simulation of industrialization and war in the solar system. It's basically Kerbal Space Program, but as a wargame. Both games would be some of the best of their genre. The politics simulator is insanely ambitious, modelling macroeconomy in detail, and you have so many options - you can take control of countries with politicking, you can hunt and kill (or turn to your side!) enemy agents, you can build up strong countries and use them to invade enemies, or you can squeeze a country to ruin for money. It's a very intelligent simulation of the contemporary world: regional integration projects (like the EU) are very important, and countries start in realistic situation. For example, the Russian economy is so bad the country is useless except for the initial space capability, and the US start in a strong position but lack the growth potential of China or India. The space game beats anything in the genre. It accurately models hundred of solar system bodies, and a lot of research went into the ship components - designing your ships is a challenge and a delight if you're into physics. If you aren't, the auto-designer does a decent job! Colonizing and industrializing the solar system is the key effort of the space game, and I love it. (combat needs some SERIOUS interface and balance work). Cons: UI is raw, bordering on terrible, but the game is in EA after all. Some mechanics are micro-intensive, but that could easily be improved with patches. This game is already incredible, if you love the idea grab it this instant. If you're on the fence, or you hate micromanaging and poor UI, wait for full release, I'm sure it will be much more accessible!

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Posted on: October 2, 2022

Early Access review

vampyresix

Verified owner

Games: 63 Reviews: 8

Excellent Grand Strategy Vision

This is probably the best Grand Strategy implementation I've played. If you like games by Paradox Interactive you will feel familiar with some of the genre, but the inspirations from the developers work on things like XCOM's long war mods also comes through as well. This game strikes an amazing balance between the idea of a grand strategy sandbox like HOI and a more character driven game like Crusader Kings. It scratches that 4x Stellaris itch for me in a unique way too, being a genre fusion that really JUST WORKS once you get into it. I should warn that this game has an extremely high learning curve. Reviews talking about how hard the game is are not wrong per se, but having come from the DEMO version released on steam months ago, I knew what I was getting into. I have restarted several games after realizing I was "just playing wrong" and if that bothers you, this might not be the game for you. My biggest complaint with the game would be that if you are someone who is mad about having to abandon a save, then this game's learning curve coupled with the fact that you can "gimp" your progress without realizing it until later, can mean I do not recommend this game to every type of player. There is a tutorial, but making a tutorial that effectively explained every mechanic in this game would probably make the people upset about complexity already, tune out regardless. I do not think a tutorial could adequately cover this game's complexity If you are a player who loves grand strategy, wants to sink a lot of time into the game then this game is already excellent. I have been enjoying it to the exclusion of other gaming for the most part even in development. With more work this game will be even better, and since proper mod support is an intended goal of the developers (they did get their start making the best XCOM mods out there after all) I can only only speculate just how long the tail on this game will be.

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Posted on: October 8, 2022

Early Access review

1926jqg

Verified owner

Games: 58 Reviews: 3

This is THE Game

I'm a big fan of Paradox Grand Strategy games. Between EU4, CK2, Vicky 2, HOI3-4, Stelarris, etc... I have about 3,000 hours. This is the modern Grand Strategy game that Paradox is too scared to make. People keep saying it's 2 games in one, and I think that an understatement. Playing a game of Terra Invicta is more like playing 5 games across a single unified set of systems, each of which add to the depth of the simulation and interact with each other. The first several hours will be filled with new discoveries and systems. You may want to start over, but everything is intuitive enough that eventually you'll find yourself plaing puppet master with the great nations of the world, exploring the solar system, and defending humanity from the greatest existential threat it's ever faced. I cannot recommend this enough.

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