Ashes of the Singularity (2016)

Technically, it might be an impressive game, but in my opinion simply putting a lot of objects on screen is not sufficient to create an enjoyable experience. The combat is slow enough that you might want to spend some time base buildings. However, that part of the game is not engaging. Then, you might want to return to combat and play with your set of toys, but that part isn't very engaging either.

Even the dreadnoughts are not particularly fun to use, or look at. Weapons, in general, like a satisfying "oomph," so Instead of looking forward to them unleashing their terrible power - like the experimental units of Supreme Commander - I find myself passing the time until they finally reach their destination, and then hoping they won't fail to destroy an already beaten enemy, because then I'd have to wait again.

Add some annoying issues, like unarmed medic units rushing to their doom at the head of your forces, and the game not responding to mouse clicks sometimes - which is somehow related to the common attack-move command - and I have to rate the entire experience as average.

Intro

AotS is a modern-day Total Annihilation clone. It's also bad.

The Good

n/a

The Bad

• It requires the Stardock launcher. You can't just boot the game, you have to wait for it to open than select it with the mouse.
• Ugly landscapes that are really really low resolution. Zooming in is just painful.
• You can't select a unit and than select an army to add it to, only the other way around.
• The story and dialogue are bad. Something about post-humans. I barely know what's going on because...
• Cutscenes between missions suddenly cut off. No idea why.
• In the first mission you have to spend about 5 minutes looking at AI-controlled units throwing bombs next to a building to blow it up. I honestly thought this was a bug. It's not.
• If you group Engineers you can't select them individually anymore... for some reason.
• Units are impossible to tell apart. Which is made worse by...
• Army/group view doesn't show what units are in it. No names or icons, just dots indicating total quantity.
• The campaign has the worst pacing ever. First three missions there is no threat, the fourth one a very powerful force attacks you. I got stomped the first time and i have no idea how i won the second time (something insta-killed the whale at 50% HP).
• The game doesn't pause during campaign messages that take away your control. This is part of the reason i lost.
• It's boring as hell. There's no substance to anything going on, it just kinda happens

Conclusion

I didn't like Supreme Commander 1/2 but they were far better than this. You're just watching a bunch of samey-looking units fight other samey-looking units across incredibly bland, featureless brown or green landscapes.