Punk Wars is basically what you would get if Civilization was a post-apocalyptic title with the various civs being based on various types of techpunk. That said Punk Wars is much faster paced as the cities, industry, tech, and units are made much faster. In addition there is no diplomacy meaning you can't form even temporary alliances to crush a faction. All of that said, the game does use it's unique setting well and I believe it is worth the asking price. I have made a video with gameplay footage for those curious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYmNAvKi1fg
Punk Wars is generally going in the same direction as Gladius: Relics of War - with a simplified economy, no diplomacy and focused on the military aspect. This is not a bad thing, depending on your preferences.
Since I'm a fan of TBS focused on combat, I enjoyed Punk Wars a lot. Despite the fact, that all factions have some units/technologies similar, there are still some differences giving a bit of variety. Tech tree, despite its simplicity, is also giving (for every faction) some minor choices in terms of developing your faction.
What about combat? Every unit has some distinctive abilities and despite fighting on a "strategic map", you need to make good use of free space to be as efficient as possible. This is great! I don't like though the fact that numerous maps are built in the way favouring the defence and making offensive manoeuvres harder.
A nice idea is various "random events", where we're making various decisions. Sometimes we have to sacrifice some goods in favour of others, sometimes it will influence bonuses for our units or economy. A small thing, but a pleasant one - plus it gives more info about the game's universe.
Sadly, AI is not very impressive. On normal difficulty, it tends to have many support units (like medics) who are getting in the way of military units controlled by AI. On the other hand, it defends itself very hard and it costs a lot to break through AI's units.
I'm surprised that there is no multiplayer mode (the game seems like a perfect title to have it), however, developers have announced on their development map including "multiplayer DLC", depending on the popularity of the game.
I know that Punk Wars has some major and minor lacks (like a necessity to "confirm" end of action for all units/buildings before ending the turn). But I still have fun with this game. Have hope that in future, with added multiplayer, more units, maps and some patches, it will be a great game.
I do have quite decent computer with modern graphics card. I had to lower down every single graphics feature and even dumb down my screen resolution, and it was still lagging. I can play on medium to high settings in many FPP shooters, but this title is turn-based-strategy. It is ridiculous that it is so extremaly bad programmed, to be so much unoptimized.
Game as a game is fine. Nothing too special, nothing too bad. It brings some joy. The only little thing I can complain about are not always meaningful descriptions and as a player I do have to guess what some of them means.
I have played it for about 10 hours which means it is not bad. Usually I stop playing any new game after 2 to 4 hours as I am quickly bored by modern titles (of course with such exceptions like "The Witcher"/Wiedźmin or Stellaris).
similar to Stars In Shadow, most of the creative energy here seems to have gone into the design aesthetic and writing, and not so much into the gameplay, which is tedious, difficult and ultimately kind of bland. there's just better choices out there for this kind of tactics game.
No Campaign, just single game against all, very short game, fell short of expectations, the graphics and game mechanics could be better but are good enough. Could be a much greater and promissing game just isnt there yet.
