The shortcomings of Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation (Along with gameplay footage)
0Ashes of Singularity: Escalation is probably the best looking RTS game from Stardock. While the visuals are amazing and AI performs pretty well even at beginner difficulty, the game seems a bit unfinished to me. Since I have played a lot of post modern RTS games in the past, I feel that it lacks some of the crucial features that could have made the game much more engaging. Let’s look at them one by one:
1. Tech tree: The game doesn’t have a proper research upgrade system. While upgrades like health boost, damage boost etc. are categorised, it doesn’t feel as unique as some of the older ones did. You don’t really need to upgrade tech, in order to get, let’s say, newer guns or turrets. Now that would have made the game much more interesting. In fact, you could strategise your entire gameplay based on the kind of tech that you research.
2. More factions: This game only has two factions: namely post human coalition and substrate and certainly calls for more factions. That’s really the essence of such games, to have as many different play styles as possible. For me, this simply isn’t enough.
3. Design system: In many of the similar RTS games that I have played, they have a design system, where you can select individual parts, like body types, locomotion system like wheels, tracks or even anti-gravity hovers, and turrets to create a custom unit. This allows players to have many more strategic options according to the cost and time of manufacturing, hit points, speed and damage dealt. This is one of features missing from this game that could have made it much more interesting.
4. Miscellaneous systems: There are a few other systems like diplomacy and spy system, that can make the game a bit more immersive. Although not necessary, it certainly adds some more value to the game. If you get bored you can try to win an entire game through, let’s say, espionage by fueling mutiny in enemy race.
Having said all that, the game does allow for multiple kinds of victories, like military conquest and gathering a required amount of turinium, which is nice. At INR 306, this game does feel unfinished, but that isn’t a dealbreaker. Although there are much more complete games out there. The only problem with those is that most of them have an aging AI that might not live up to your expectations.
Finally, I’ll leave you with the entire gameplay if you want to look at it. As you might have already noticed, the game is running at twice the speed, because otherwise, it would have been really boring to watch an hour long video.
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