AI War 2
The most devious and acclaimed artificial intelligence in strategy gaming returns… with a host of mutual enemies. AI War II is a grand strategy/RTS hybrid against an overwhelming, inhuman enemy who has conquered the galaxy. Face off against a more advanced version of the original AI, who once again has captured the entire galaxy leaving you only a tiny planet to yourself. Then strike out and find a way to cleverly outwit it nonetheless. All the new capturables, larger fleets, and hacking abilities are sure to help. (You're going to need it.) Or immerse yourself in a far more complicated galactic struggle involving the nanocaust, macrophages, dyson spheres, and more. Other factions each have their own goals, rules, units, and entirely unique economies. Make the scenario complicated enough and it can become "World War XV is in progress, you're in a tiny farm in the middle of it, nobody likes you, but if you can just kill that one giant angry enemy leader this will all be over." If that sounds over the top — and frankly that bit is wearying to us to imagine even though some people seek it out — then take a break and maybe hack the all-consuming computer virus to be your ally, and convince the star-sized alien hives to watch your back as you take on a suddenly-less-arrogant AI.
Game Discussion
Steam User 41
Like a game of Rock Paper Scissors, where the AI first breaks your finger and then chooses Gun.
Steam User 28
This is the Finnegans Wake of video games. Absolute masterpiece, and impenetrable without a disapproving professor to explain it to you. (Hi Strategic Sage)
The UI in this game tries very hard, and does a few things well, but does a HORRIBLE job of showing you what might be important and informing your decisions when it comes to ship types, turret types, and technologies, which unfortunately are some of the most critical decisions in the game. There are mods that sort of mitigate this a little, but you need to know about them in order to enable them (speaking here of DpsHud). They got the UI to a place where they could technically fit all the facts, but really needed to go the extra mile to adding new visualizations, tables, and other stuff to help the player see what's happening.
Some games get around their own obtuseness by allowing for experimentation, but experimentation in a game with 3+ hour start-to-finish times is just asking too much. (How did I figure out Spire city builds in the first DLC? Got some advice in Discord. Not sure what else I would have done, probably just never tried them again.)
That said, I did it, I got over the hump, I'm in love forever. I will probably play this game for 20 years. I have fun even though I don't really know why I'm doing well or poorly a lot of the time. I feel like I'm burrowing inside some mad genius's head and becoming a bit mad myself.
I have no idea how this team justified all this work to themselves. If they had put half their budget toward UI design for normies instead of super intense gameplay nuances, they'd have made 10x as much money. If I won the lottery, I'd pay a team of 4 to just work on the UI for a year and release a remaster. But until I win the lottery...I'll be playing this game on the weekends.
Steam User 18
Quite possibly the quintessential space macro-RTS game with excellent computer opposition. It has several player faction flavors, continued ongoing post-release support, highly moddable, highly customizable, supports multiplayer.
Future-proofed in the sense that it will happily let you overload your PC without crashing. When we upgrade to more powerful systems in the future, it appears to be capable of taking full advantage of the increase processing power to load even more optional features or factions at one time in a campaign. I appreciate that.
Steam User 18
As with most Arcen games I've played, the UI and tutorial can occasionally fail a new player, but there's a rich sense of strategic and tactical depth that very few 4k or RTS games come close to.
It's truly rare that I get to the lategame of one and spare a single thought for how I'm going to win; in this game, I have to think for the entire game - which is only around 2-6 hours for a campaign, depending on your playstyle, skill, and settings. I like slow, grinding beatdowns, myself, which pisses off the AI enough to match just about anything I can throw at it.
While I do recommend all the DLC to vastly widen the game, the vanilla experience is still excellent, with a huge variety of things to do and heavy randomization to ensure no two campaigns play the exact same.
I do in good faith have to note that the game can be a bit unstable; there are a LOT of error messages (which can be ignored and toggled off), multiplayer has occasional desync issues, and the whole simulator slows to a chug very lategame if you have a large empire with fleets to match. But those are more annoyances than dealbreakers, and I don't think any are a reason to pass up on the game.
Steam User 12
I hesitate to call this the Dwarf Fortress of RTS, but that's the most apt comparison I can make.
AI War II is extremely dense in information presented to the player, as well as strategies and mechanics available to both the player and the AI. It is not a game someone can just turn on willy-nilly and break the AI in five minutes. It is a commitment, and I find this to be both its greatest strength and its biggest flaw.
AI War II does not shy away from giving the player a consistent challenge no matter the difficulty level. The AI is always stronger than you and can destroy you whenever it feels like it. The idea is to pick your battles and strategically weaken the AI so that you can win before the AI decides it doesn't want you to. This adds vast strategic depth, but can easily instill a crippling case of analysis paralysis in new players. It will also likely turn off any players that try coming into the game looking for an easy victory. You should look elsewhere, for it shall not be found here.
However, if you are willing to commit and learn the games secrets, you will find a richly rewarding strategic experience rarely seen today. This is a genuine labor of love, and it shows. If you so choose to accept this mission, then start a campaign, learn a mechanic or two, take your lumps, and repeat the Dwarf Fortress creed:
LOSING IS FUN!
Steam User 9
Im mad that how looking at art and everything about this game and the first one made me go "i can't read this shit nor understand it so im not going to play it."
finally said lets at least try it. And i found out that "Oh. OH! This is my jam." it fits great with my turtle/snowball play style for rts games
Steam User 10
I did it. I won. Finally.
This game is very addicting, but you will lose. A lot.