Punk Wars

Ah, the good old dollar bin. Oldies, corporate shovelware, student projects, offhand exercises, vaporware. Even rare glints of charm are barely visible through the dross.

$20_UNFINISHED_GAME

If you catch Punk Wars for no more than two dollars, it's worth the two bits for a gander. It seems to have started as an offhand joke about "punk" fads, pitting as opposing 4X TBS factions Atom/Diesel/Steel/Steampunk factions. Each collects a different special resource from the landscape in addition to basic food/water. Each sports some minor differences in its three combat units giving it a slightly different tactical approach, more or less aggressive, DoT vs. focused fire, etc. Each pops up a few events with some minimal choices to make.

 

On one hand, like Spacecom it shows you can do quite a bit with very simple elements. In terms of resource management and battle lines it works surprisingly well for such a bare-bones project, and some of the event texts can read cute enough.

On the other hand, if Punk Wars was meant to mock people buying anything with a shallow aesthetic of cogs or antennas, it does so by embodying that rip-off padded with interface timesinks and randomized loss conditions.

Linear tech tree, and padded to boot.

The base expansion mechanic making you plop new town halls down everywhere makes an interesting change at first, but soon becomes just one more form of redundancy.

Maps with awkwardly small choke points and low move speed making basic movement a chore.

Inability to end turn without cycling through all your remaining units or buildings.

An obfuscated happiness meter which is both impossible to please (forcing some fake difficulty) and spawns enemy units on top of your main base for an unwelcome dose of old-fashioned whack-a-mole.

A neutral faction preprogrammed to harrass you early on, again artificially forcing difficulty.

Strict opening move sequences for each faction resulting in guaranteed loss if not followed.

 

All in all, it demonstrates more that nitpicky nerds with a good idea or two can't necessarily deliver on the gestalt in which those ideas would fit.

(Which is why I haven't written the great lycanpunk novel.)