Arcade Combat

NeX
Feb 3
2 min read

Overview

Arcade Combat is an auto-battler of sorts, the screen is split into two halves, one controlled by you, and the other by an AI opponent. You each summon units from your faction trying to destroy one another.

Gameplay

The gameplay itself is pretty straightforward. Each unit has a cost, which you pay to summon it. You gain money based on the amount of buildings you have (you cannot place more buildings). Units automatically try to attack the enemy and whoever destroys all enemy buildings first wins. You can manually control units but it’s time-consuming and makes little difference.

There are two game modes: the classic one, a standard 1v1 battle, and the tourney, which requires you to beat all 20 factions in a row.

The MAJOR Problems

0 explanations. Literally none. There is nothing. No tutorial, no unit values, no hp, no dmg, no speed, no absolutely anything.

Another issue is that the game is completely unbalanced. I don’t think it’s possible to win anything higher than hard difficulty. While your income decreases when the AI destroys your buildings, apparently theirs do not, so you are stuck there trying to get that last building but you simply cannot overpower the opponent to do so. I spent a good 20 minutes trying before I quit and called it a day.

The good?

The only good thing I have to say is that there is variety, but take it with a grain of salt. It has 21 factions to choose from, and they are different in many ways. While some like the Hockey only have one building and 2 units to choose from, others like the Farm will have a dozen buildings and 6-7 different units.

Why is this not a good thing? Because these buildings are closer to the enemy part of the map and as such they are easier to destroy thus making you earn less money.

Audio & Video

Visuals are good for what they are and trying to be. The game is called Arcade Combat so it has that Arcade or 32bit look to it. However, the only animations are for walking which overall results in a negative grade for aesthetics.

Sounds and Audio exist - Let’s put it that way. The menu has some forgettable music, and the enemies produce sounds when summoned or die but those are generic and do not add much quality.