Forum Overview :: What Are You Playing Right Now? :: Yes, at release. Before all the DLC bloat. This is better.

[quote name="Mischief Maker"]I don't dislike 40K, but it is MASSIVELY overrated, and the license worked to Gladius' detriment IMO. Hot take: Gladius on release was a better game than it is now, with each faction using a specific selection of units to fit defined roles for a specific playstyle. But the 40K nerds went all snotbubbles because their favorite unit model wasn't in the roster, so there were a zillion DLCs bloating up the tech trees and ultimately making all the factions way more samey than in the original release. Did Space Marines really need a special DLC to add Primaris units to their already overstuffed roster? Zephon uses its original IP to slice off massive hunks of fat from post-DLC Gladius and keep all the good parts of its gameplay. Want an army with Necron-style passive regeneration on all units? Play the Fallen Soldier. Want a Space Marine-style singular megacity that gets extra bonuses from captured outposts? Play the emulated mind. Want Tyranid-style ability to recycle obsolete units and recover their resources? Play the Romantic. Etc... I think a lot of people shitting on this had just started the game and saw the (partially) shared tech tree then theorycrafted in their minds that all the factions were identical. "You can unlock every unit in the game." Yeah, theoretically. But anyone with experience in Gladius knows that research in these games is a mad rush to leapfrog up the tiers and nab all those necessary techs like homes and colonizers and building contruction. If you choose to wallow in low tech tiers for too long so you can get <I>everything</I> you'll be stomped by high-tier units your fully boosted tier-1s can't handle. Think of it more like you picking a cyber-oriented faction, spawning in a map surrounded by Cthulhu resource, and adapting by teching into Cthulhu units instead. And it's so much prettier than Gladius. The maps are more alive with supernatural weather phenomenons forcing you to rearrange your forces or suffer the consequences. And the unit models are so much nicer because their design wasn't bound by the limitations of plastic figurine mold technology from the late 80s. So happy this game is DRM-free on Steam.[/quote]