Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Ashes is easily the best looking RTS there is, especially once the lasers start flying between some bigger armies. The game is very much modelled on Supreme Commander, with limited locations to capture and build resource buildings, and the need to continuously build hordes of small units supported by a few much larger and powerful ones. This is where the first issue becomes clear; while the graphics are great, the designs are just boring. While SupCom had giant mechs, laser spiders, and a wide variety of interesting and unique Experimentals, Dreadnoughts in Ashes are just bigger versions of the same generic tanks your smaller units consist of. There's no style or hint of art direction at all, just slick shininess with no substance or character. The same is sadly true for gameplay. Both factions just have a basic selection "good against small units", "good against big units" and "good against air", and you'll need a mix of all to win fights so there's no strategy or thought, just build as much of everything as you can. The only thing that sets the factions apart at all is that one has some more poweful air units. The game is based around large armies fighting, so there is no micromanagement at all; you move an army near some targets and the AI does all the work of actually shooting. Movement is slow, so there's very little chance to maneuver or make surprise raids, steady expansion is the only choice. Sound is as generic as everything else; the music is utterly forgettable, while the units have no voices or personality. The single player campaign is decent. Unfortunately the story is utterly nonsensical; the titular Singularity has you playing one of a group of ascended post-humans projecting their minds across the galaxy to convert entire worlds into big computers to increase their power. So you fight with tiny armies of robot tanks in tiny regions, and a single small skirmish magically has you conquer everything. The claimed scope just doesn't fit the actual game

I wrote an in depth review on the original version of the game, but when they changed the base game into this version they did not take the reviews over. Summary: its a very pretty game with fantastic sound. The story is an interesting concept and it is fun. The problem comes with variety... there are only two factions that are nearly identical. It is fun at first, but quickly wears off after a couple of missions when youve basically seen and experienced everything. If you are an rts fan and it looks interesting, I would recommend it on a deep sale, but never at full price with all the dlc. I would say wait for 60% or more sale

Beware - You cannot adjust the UI scaling unless you have a minimum of 1920x1080 monitor. No matter what you edit or change. The game itself is fun, but because I don't have a 1920x1080 monitor (I own a 1680x1050) I can't read anything so I don't know what anything does and there is no fix unless you buy a bigger monitor.

I was excited when I saw trailers for this game. I bought it when it came out here on GOG. But two factions, bland gameplay, no imagination at all behing the design. Do yourselves a favor and get Supreme Commander if you want futristic gameplay. I've bought all the DLCs and have bought Escalation too hoping the game would get better. It has not. 1 star because honestly, this isn't that good of a game. Can be fun to play once in a while but honestly, not well done at all. I don't see where this game stands at all on it's own merits.