8-Bit Invaders! is the third entry in
Petroglyph Games' current
8-Bit real time strategy game series. The gameplay style of the series resembles the classic
Command & Conquer games, modernized and slightly simplified, and anyone familiar with those will feel right at home, down to the UI button placement. Each title offers two factions, with
Invaders! adding space marines (
Galactic Marines Corps) and a clichéd alien race that draws upon the likes of
Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! and
The War of the Worlds, the aptly-named
Cranioids. Owners of
8-Bit Armies and
8-Bit Hordes can pick the units from those games in all game modes but the campaign levels.
Armies use the classic refineries, their buildings require sufficient power plants, and they have the expected super weapons (ion cannon & nuke). The
Warcraft-inspired
Hordes take the population cap system from that series, necessitating the construction of farms, and instead of super weapons there are magic spells to gain vision or do damage. The
Invaders! continue this mixing and matching of gameplay systems both from this series as well as from other classic RTS titles. Both sides have harvesters that occupy resource spots until they are depleted; however the marines need power for their buildings and all their units and buildings have self-recharging shields akin to
Starcraft's Protoss, while the aliens have a population cap and the ability to temporarily have all freshly constructed units materialize at a location of choice. Both new sides furthermore field a massive
Supreme Commander-style walker unit, which are – like the previously mentioned super weapons / spells – rebuilt periodically at no cost beyond their production buildings.
Balancing between the different games' units is achieved via different types of attacks, armor, and most infantry being crushable by the more imposing vehicles. Only the space marine faction is entirely immune to their units being crushed.
CAMPAIGN
The gold standard for a campaign in a real time strategy game no doubt was set by
Blizzard and
Westwood classics, with professionally animated or live action cutscenes in between missions. For many players, the high quality of those interludes was the primary motivation to play the campaign of
Warcraft III or
Red Alert II in the first place. Even
The Bitmap Brothers' 1996 low-budget RTS
Z employed rendered cutscenes featuring banter between the game's robots. In-engine cutscenes are the minimum one would expect from a story mode. Unfortunately, the only story found here lies in the mission descriptions. Otherwise it boils down to "you're shooting things because there are things to be shot".
The 24 missions (split evenly) have simple, preset objectives, with nothing dynamic about them. Unit / technology progression is achieved by having the player unlock better technology and more starting units for completed missions and bonus objectives, and the game explicitly encourages returning to previous missions with more powerful later-game forces, in order to both complete the missions with all their bonus objectives as well as on hard difficulty (for Steam Achievements, personal satisfaction or merely to obtain those extra units).
Overall, the campaign is decent, but by itself it only justifies a purchase for players who don't require engrossing cutscenes in their RTS. Completionists might like that there's good reasons to play all the levels multiple times instead of just breezing through them once. For some other players, there will only be the hope of
Petroglyph including a fleshed out story and more dynamic levels in a future
8-Bit title.
COOP CAMPAIGN
Ten cooperative missions offer two players the challenge of completing all bonus objectives, however without difficulty settings or persistent progression beyond '3-starring' each level.
The coop campaign is very fun for me as a fan of cooperative strategy games, but lacks the replay value to play through it more than once or twice.
METAVERSE
Conquer the Metaverse is a new game mode in
Invaders! that was also backported to the previous two games in February 2017. It resembles the world map seen in
Westwood titles like
Dune II and
Emperor: Battle for Dune as well as
Command & Conquer: Kane's Wrath where each territory is a map to fight over in a real time battle. Owned territories can be upgraded with buildings that can build the same units they would produce in the RTS mode. Capturing a new territory for the first time awards research points, and said research points unlock more advanced buildings and thus also units – simultaneously for the world map and for the RTS battles in this mode. Neutral armies from the other
8-Bit titles also make an appearance here, making for varied AI opposition.
MULTIPLAYER / SKIRMISH
Up to eight players or AIs can compete on official or user-created maps, with the latter being offered via a convenient Steam Workshop system. Multiplayer is available using unranked matchmaking, custom lobbies, as well as LAN. The multiplayer mode is shared between all the
8-Bit games, including the free but feature-limited version of
8-Bit Armies: Arena, making for a very cost-efficient way to enjoy this game with old friends and jolly strangers alike.
PROS / CONS (SUMMARY)
+ smooth, fast-paced gameplay
+ variety of game modes and user maps
+ successfully includes different gameplay styles in one game, making for asymmetric gameplay
+ nicely detailed unit graphics, and some fun Easter eggs to be found
+ Frank Klepacki score, 8-bit themed
+ free multiplayer option to get friends into the game without them committing to a purchase
- a few pathing and unit selection issues, especially with harvesters getting themselves killed
- campaign itself is not worth the price; no cutscenes and no real storytelling
(-) neither the rank system nor the perfect balancing needed to be a 'competitive' RTS
(-) doesn't lend itself to turtling
