Almost all RTS games that focus too much on real-life military hardware suffer from this issue: Everything looks the same, because real-life armoured vehicles tend to somewhat same-ish. Individual units in AoA can be very interesting (a cool-looking jeep/truck thing with a PHASR! a twin-barrelled mortar! a naval AA gun on a tank chassis! a BMPT Terminator!), but when seen as part of the bigger picture, they just become bland and samey and they don't really stand out in any way. The Overlord, by contrast, can get a battle bunker or a propaganda speaker or a full-on gattling cannon mounted on top. And when you upgrade it, you apply a real-world TUSK package to it, just adding another machine gun or two and making it look cluttered and indistinct.

Compare that to AoA the majority of the US' vehicles are Strykers with different stuff on top, and their 'super unit' is the M1 Abrams, a serious contender for the blandest tank ever. The Overlord is iconic and unmistakeable, they basically become the centrepiece of any battle they take part in, and even if you can take them out easily, they still force the enemy to deal with them first or suffer the consequences.

The Tomahawk and Scud Launcher and Nuke Cannon (which is the best artillery unit in any C&C game and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise :V) are all heavy artillery, but they look and feel completely different. Sure, the Crusader, Paladin, Battlemaster, and Scorpion all functioned pretty much the same (stat differences notwithstanding), they've all got their own style and they all look unique. Because all the units are actual real-world military hardware (or variants thereof) a majority of them are basically some variation on the theme of 'box with gun', there's no trace of the unique and flavourful style of C&C Generals, where all units were very distinct and immediately identifiable. Battles are unimpressive to watch because everything happens so fast and the washed-out visuals mean that it just kind of turns into a blur.Īlso, while I like a lot of the faction design, like I said above, the way it works out in practice also works against the game.

Units can kill each other in the blink of an eye, not giving you enough feedback to figure out what does and doesn't work, or even what happened in the first place. The visuals are technically competent, but bland as all fuck, which can make it difficult to see what's going on, some things are just fiddly as hell (the POW system comes to mind), and this may just be me but it just feels too fast-paced. I wanted to like it, I really dig the resource system and a lot of the basic mechanics and faction design, but on the whole, it just lacks that je ne sais quoi.

Act of aggression mods