I’m not a fan of Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games in my “older age”. My reflexes are slowing, my time has become more limited, as has my attention span, and frankly, I simply enjoy slower games more now. AI War 2 is an RTS game and by all of my own personal standards, I shouldn’t have enjoyed myself. Not only is it an RTS, but it’s also on a scale much larger than your average game in the genre. Was I able to overcome my inherent dislike for the genre enough to enjoy AI War 2?
That answer is easy. Hell yes, I was.
Power Overwhelming
Easily one of the most unique aspects of AI War 1 & 2 is the concept. In both games, a malevolent AI has conquered the galaxy and now controls every system but one: yours. You and your upstart rebellion will face incredible odds as you decided to fight back against the AI. This level of asymmetry in power is very seldom seen and provides quite the challenge, once you figure out how you’re meant to fight back.
Thankfully, Chris Park and Arcen Games have learned a thing or two from the massively-successful AI War 1 (hereafter referred to as “1”) and have made that learning part much easier. We’ll get into that a bit later.
Because both AI Wars provides this unique premise, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed at first as you first look at the game map. You start with a (relatively small) fleet and you’re tasked with taking back the galaxy, but the enemy AI is EVERYWHERE. It can certainly feel daunting, but that’s part of the fun. You’ll need to think on a much more grand level than most RTS fans are probably used to and the scale of it all is something I genuinely like very much. AI War 2 (hereafter referred to as “2”) isn’t a game of individual units, but much rather a game of grand strategy and how the whole of your fleets can be used to accomplish your goal.
It’s truly epic.
Overwhelming Start Made Easier
Yes, there are options upon options and gameplay elements upon gameplay elements, but Arcen Games has made them rather digestible. Admittedly, I did not make it far in the first AI War, as the game felt overly complex and very difficult to wrap my head around, despite reading and watching various tutorials.
In 2, Arcen Games has pared down some gameplay elements – like the elimination of a build queue – and replaced others, like developing a borderline-genius fleet system to replace 1’s control groups, and as a result, has left what was clearly the fun parts of 1, i.e. the scale, asymmetry, and difficulty, while making it much more accessible to the average player.
That’s not to say that just any person could pick up 2 and be able to start reconquering the galaxy right away. However, it does mean that after a rather quick tutorial – or even a quick viewing of MY VERY BASIC TUTORIAL VIDEO HERE *HINT HINT* – you’ll know enough of the basics to start getting stuff done and figure out the rest of the game by yourself. It’s simply more intuitive and player-friendly as a result of these changes and I’m finally able to grasp why AI War 1 was so beloved.
An AI Who Talks Trash
Ha, I know, not what you’d expect to be a positive aspect of the game, but I love the added touch of the AI taunting me when I take its systems and when it enters my systems to invade what’s rightfully mine. While clearly an inhuman and artificial douchebag, it’s still pretty neat to feel a bit of personality coming from this faceless enemy. It almost encourages me to continue chipping away at it, as not only do I want to piss it off further, but I also feel a mixture of fear and excitement from angering the AI and that’s great? I’m pretty sure it’s great.
Poking the Bear
AI War 2’s gameplay revolves around taking systems methodically, so as to not significantly increase what’s called AIP, or “AI Progress”. The higher the AIP, the more attention that the AI gives you, and despite possibly possessing a number of systems, you are not ready for the full force of the AI’s fleets, so don’t even think about running this number up quickly. There are ways to reduce the AIP, but once it reaches certain thresholds, you can’t go below them. So managing that AIP is very, very important.
I had a lot of fun managing this number by deep striking certain systems to lower the AIP by eliminating certain targets and then hauling ass out of there before the bear caught me. It meant for some really exhilarating missions and some nail-biting deep pushes in order to keep this number at bay. I love this dynamic a lot.
A Game of Chess
In AI War 2, you’ll utilize your fleets of ships to efficiently take systems with various strategic value. Some of the systems will house a dormant attack fleet just waiting for you to reclaim, while others will be the resting place of science stations that need your direction. As Chris Park said very eloquently in our recent podcast interview, these fleets act very much like customizable chess pieces. You can add different “lines” of ships, basically large squadrons, to each of these fleet centerpieces, effectively adapting your chess pieces to a general jack-of-all-trades role or a very specific combat or support role.
Moving these chess pieces around the board that is the galaxy of AI War 2 is perhaps the biggest strategic decision you’ll make. However, setting up defenses in each of the systems you claim will be significantly important, too. The AI will try to take those back, with varying degrees of intensity. As the AIP increases, you bet your bottom dollar that the AI’s ability to reclaim those lost systems will increase, too.
Passable Production Values
While AI War 2 is absolutely pushing the higher end of indie-capable technical quality, the fact remains that the planetary systems, UI, and voice-over work still look and sound a bit outdated. While all of it works well enough to feel like a rather significant upgrade over AI War 1 (as it should, 1 is over ten years old now), there is still an unmistakable lower-budget feel to the game. It’s not bad at all. It’s simply just not fantastic, either.
In particular, I believe that the UI and menus could feel a bit more modern, though I can’t really articulate how. They just feel a bit like they’re out of the last decade and not this one. And while the ship models look pretty damn decent up close, I almost never zoom in to look at them outside of the rare slow moment in gameplay.
Conclusion
As someone who wasn’t exactly sure what I was Kickstarting when I contributed to AI War 2’s Kickstarter many moons ago, I feel pretty vindicated right now. I guess it was a mixture of altruism and blind faith that caused me to put down my hard-earned money towards this project, but I am very glad I did.
Admittedly, even after AI War 2 reached the 1.0 milestone and through the first two or three hours, I wasn’t sure if I could, or even if I wanted to, grok the final product. However, it soon hit me and I found myself not only comprehending it but enjoying the ever-loving crap out of AI War 2’s mix of grand strategy and RTS. Hell, I haven’t even begun to mess with some of the other factions that have been added, which I’m sure will tack on even more pandemonium and enjoyment to the game. I foresee a deep love affair with AI War 2 and with how I know Arcen Games goes about supporting their games, it might be quite the lengthy one, too.
Bravo, Arcen Games. You knocked this one out of the park!
TL;DR: AI War 2 is a return to form for Arcen Games and easily one of the best RTS games I’ve ever played. Not only does it provide the grand strategy elements that a 4Xer like me wants, but it will also provide the more micro-focused elements for RTS fans to enjoy, too. The pacing, difficulty, and barrier to entry are all significantly improved over AI War 2’s predecessor, with very little in the way of concessions. AI War 2 is easily wholeheartedly recommended for anyone who values great gameplay and unique gameplay elements, full stop.
You Might Like This Game If:
- You like thinking big and prefer a macro approach to RTS games
- You enjoy a challenge against what seems like insurmountable odds
- You appreciate unique gameplay mechanics that are impossibly balanced well
You Might NOT Like This Game If:
- You are allergic to RTS games, even if this doesn’t necessarily play like one
- You’re old and frail and don’t like “them games with all of them real-time things”, like Nate Nasarog
- You don’t like any degree of difficulty
- You don’t like having a bunch of options
Rob Kickstarted AI War 2 and subsequently played it for over 35 hours on his MSI Trident-X with an i7-9770 CPU, GTX 2060 GPU, and 16BG of DDR4 RAM on a 32″ 1440p LG monitor before writing this review.
