Particle Fleet: Emergence

I killed all the coronavirus in this game :D (Pro tips below too)
Honestly, I prefer Creeper World 3 over this for a better value, replayability and fun. That isn't to say Particle Fleet isn't worthy, it's a much shorter game (albeit I didn't spend time on custom ships or community maps) that brings refreshing mechanics and ways to play the game in the same engine - controlling limited ships instead of towers.
The game focuses a lot more on strategic positioning than being able to rush, with a sense of capture the flag for expanding energy production (e.g. there's no reactors building, only terrain mining). Technically speaking, it works, but in practice I found myself having less fun than ❤️❤️❤️❤️ing around and finding out, pushing the game to its limits.
Some later missions are kinda hard: the ships have weak spots in their back (losing thrusters is almost guarantee death), enemy emitters are unforgiving fighting you back aggressively when damaging them, and it's easy to get overwhelmed on micro-managing good positions for 6+ ships. Wouldn't say it's stuff to avoid, there's a nice challenge in this.
All achievements are easily obtainable in ~4-5 hours of gameplay, by finishing the campaing.
Pro tips:
• Use all your EMP points in tech, especially range, defensive cannons. Ship upgrades aren't that much worth it,
• Spamming and moving collectors in the enemy terrain is very effective to capture land, let the cannons do the job.
• If you're stuck in level 15 and 16 with that Big Bertha cannon eating you (like a lot of reviews lol), just hide your main ship behind the top left terrain and add one or two decoy ships in front (can be a hammer), keep cover in the terrain always. You'll lose ships often, but rebuilding them is not an issue on safe terrain.
Worth on a sale, definitely not full price unless you have a history of sinking hours and hours in community maps!

So, if you liked CW1 and 2, you can play with confidence. Read other reviews for gameplay pros and cons; personally I didn't have much trouble with the user interface, but your mileage may vary. Also I found the game easier to beat than CW1 or 2. Note! -- don't try to beat the game using a fleet of your own design, the story won't advance. (But you can go back and replay the story using your own fleet and crush the game speedily.)
If you've read reviews complaining about the story being some kind of hopeless timeloop, I won't spoil the details but I'll give a brief explanation.
1.) The "prologue" is actually an "epilogue" to the epilogue. The final mission explains what's happening in the "prologue".
2.) The game timeline is linear, and for game story purposes starts in the "naivety" first mission.
3.) The story is a sequel to CW2 and 1. But not an immediate sequel. Plot has happened since CW2 and eventually you'll uncover the plot which will also (sort of) explain the "particulate" "emergence".
4.) The game does end with a hopeful hook into CW3, which I haven't played yet so I don't know how well it will really fold into the ongoing plot. (So I may remember to update this review once done. I've read indications the plots don't fold well, and this game does just flat ignore some plot details developed in CW2 while recontextualizing what was supposedly going on there.)

Best game in the creeper world universe! Navigation and controls are intuitive. Story is compelling and adds to the overall universe lore. Would love to see a more expanded story campaigns and long term I think this would make some great multiplayer.

This is in my opinion the absolute best game in the Creeper World franchise. The fact that ships get partially destroyed so that you can maneuver them to preserve the guns you want is so cool and makes for a very fun experience.

Got thrown this way after finding creeper world 4, then 3, then IXE, THEN being forced by the community to go try this instead.
It's one of the absolute top 10s on steam to me now.
This is probably the most glad I've ever been that I tried out a recommendation, because I like this a little more than any other tower defense I've ever played and feel like I won't come across this quality in gameplay ever again. Specially seeing as IXE is missing the ship builder and was basically supposed to be the "decade later" version of this developed by seemingly the only humans that can pull this off... particle fleet emergence and a remaster of it one day might literally be the only top quality ship based tower defenses that humanity will ever see.

Loved the game. the story is fun and the player made maps are great as well. I wish I could make bigger ships in the editor but that's not a big issue

genuinely one of my favorite comfort games. easy to learn and get into with lots of room to learn and become more efficient. Basic graphics that make whats on the screen very clear and understandable. Damage done and taken is very visually pleasing while making sense. Campaign is replayable as well as a seemingly inifinte amounts of player made maps allows for the ability to play for many hours w/o getting stale.

One of my favorite games and will forever with for a sequel