5/10.
A late '90's style Real-Time Strategy game, with a simplistic but solid foundation.

What you can expect: Around 15 hours of fun, 90's RTS inspired nostalgia... and a bit of frustration, too. Beware that the variety of units, and some features of gameplay are very simplistic, so you will likely need to adjust to the limitations of such a basic system.

Hints:

• In the campaign, there is often an easy win condition. For example, rush to build a line of turrets at a bottle-neck; or, look for some unguarded enemy power stations; or, rescue the group of neutral units to get a bigger army.
  
• The simulation maps are great ways to pick up a few handy hints on gameplay.

A bit of a rant about the things that frustrated me about this game:
Kudos to this lone developer for making what is essentially the basis for a great game. Unfortunately, the developer made a few gameplay decisions which entirely spoilt this game for me, especially since this is a strategy game. Namely:

• cannot attack while moving (can't even begin to list the strategic consequences of this)
  
• too few micromanagement options (such as no patrol option, no defend-this-building button, no action/movement queuing)
  
• Units sometimes wouldn't auto-acquire enemies that came in range.
  
• "attack towards" would first move my units forwards a few meters before attacking anything
  
• too few units and buildings (exaggerates hard counters, eg 2 rocket-launcher light tanks beats a whole army of troopers. What's worse is that because there are so few unit types theres a very good chance that this would happen. You end up needing to build 2 of everything which is just fiddly and annoying)
  
• Finally, I stopped playing this game after a Campaign map where the enemy has somehow amassed an army of around 100 units, and had 6 unit-producing buildings surrounded by turrets. It was an impenetrable wall of units that just kept regenerating.

An example of how a fight would play out:
You have a squadron of aerial fighters with high-ranged armor-piercing weapons. The enemy has a rag-tag mix of every conceivable vehicle/infanty and weapon variant. In all likelihood you'll win this one. However, you need to retreat in order to prevent the AI from focus firing your units down. You spend a few seconds moving away (taking damage the whole time and unable to damage them while doing so) they finally catch up, but their high-range tanks reached you first and they start shooting (out of field of vision range) you use the attack-towards command to save the few seconds it takes to manually target them once they come into your view. Your units fly a bit farther than was necessary due to ♥♥♥♥♥♥ auto targetting; putting their whole army in range of yours. Very soon your whole army is getting flanked and shot down one-by-one with no focus fire. You cannot do the retreat strategy because that means more time taking damaging whilst dealing no damage. You decide to manually focus fire. That's all good an fine, but you're losing damage efficiency in the seconds between then your manual target dies and when you manually target the next enemy. Don't even think about using the attack-towards function to lessen this down time, though, because we've already established that it's not viable. .. in a last desperate attempt to win the fight you retreat slightly and attack-towards just in front of where the remaining enemy army will emerge. This time, a close-ranged scouting vehicle comes into sight on its own (slightly ahead of the rest of their army) your unit's auto-acquire this target; quickly killing it before any other enemies come into sight. You move a few meters forwards; (unbeknowst to you) you reach the spot where you'd originally anticipated they would appear... HOWEVER! The attack-towards command has finished executing. Now, due to ♥♥♥♥♥♥ auto-targetting your units dont even attack the rest of the enemy army as it comes into sight. You get picked off in the following few seconds. You escape with 3 units left on 5% health each. You use AoE heal, but somehow despite your units being within the displayed grid only one of them gets healed at all.

This game had so much potential but it just falls very short of what it could have become. The biggest problem i have with this (even though alot might not agree with me) is that in skirmish the AI does not realy fight amongst themselfs unless they happen to meet each other along the way to your base. As the player you HAVE to rush and build an army ASAP to defend yourself, leaving alot to be desired of the base itself. It also seems that the AI cheats like hell, even on lower difficulty's. It's a shame but im not going to recommend this game.

I haven't an affection for a real time strategy game like this since playing the first two Warcrafts
and Red Alert 1. The interface is intuitive and clearly arranged. The game has an old-school vibe,
from the look and feel, but with beautiful modern graphics. I could never get warm with the
latest Earth titles, after Earth 2140. Base building isn't tedious and commanding of troops
is plain and simple.

I'm not far in, but I like Meridian very much already, like I've fallen in love with Red Alert
once upon a time. The look and feel, the graphics, the interface, the voice acting, the dialouge,
it all comes together. It may not be be the RTS game to end all RTS games, but it's a lovely
game, where you can do a mission or two and return later on, without the danger of it eating
all your time. Boy, would I have loved Supreme Commander when I was still had school. But I
had Total Annihilition, so all's well.

If you like old-school RTS, there's a good chance you may like Meridian too.
But read the other reviews, look for yourself, if this is the game for you.

Cheers,
Jayne

This game is an RTS developed on a competitive formula and created mostly by a single person. The graphics are on par with many modern RTS titles and the gameplay is, for the most part, slick and elegant. As an RTS, its only pitfall in my opinion is a lack of factions and the ability to have team battles. The game currently lacks multiplayer, but the developer has stated that he plans on adding it in later. The campaign is a very interesting take on the RTS formula with interesting and varied missions that are actually quite challenging. It's a nice throwback to the quality of RTS that we used to see back during their inception, a la C&C and Red Alert. This is a fun game that you should support as much on principle as in practice- one guy made this game, and it's nearly as good as strong titles like Starcraft and Company of Heroes.

Simply put, this game is awful to actually play. If that's all you need from a review, you can stop here. If you want to know WHY this game is awful, keep reading.

1. Storyline
The story is pretty uninspired. It's not completely terrible, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. Maybe it gets better, but I couldn't get too far due to numerous frustrations before I dropped the game. The voice acting is at best, average. WIth woodenly delivered lines, and dialogue that could have been written by a chat-bot.

2. Gameplay
This is the main problem. An average to below average plot/voice acting can often be made up for in gameplay. Unfortunately these developers seem to have forgotten how RTS' work.

Problem 1: The perspective and selection of units.
The angle of the game, and the awful awful unit boxes make it very difficult to get all your units, or select individual units, or really do basic things quickly and efficiently. Did you miss on of your units when trying to select it? Well screw you player! Because now you have NOTHING selected. Isn't that great? There are several abilities in the game that you are to use on a singular unit. This is difficult and can cause issues. Anyone who is used to a well made RTS, and want's to micro and control army effectively is in for a bad time. This however, is not the only contributor to that bad time.

Problem 2: The (lack of) pathfinding
You know when you play a game, and sometimes your unit happens to go a weird way around the map to the location you sent it to? Usually doesn't happen that often, and usually isn't a big deal. That's not the case In Meridian: forgotten mechanics. Do you want to move somewhere specific? They will eventually get there. Not together, not in a timely manner, but eventually. Just hope there are no enemies to fight.

What happens when there are enemies? Well I'm glad you asked! See, if you run in to an enemy, while moving around the map, chances are everyone in your dumb as hell army has separated into squads of 1. Thankfully, the enemy AI will just put them out of their misery. Now, it is possible you'll actually have your army together and want to attack. One of the basic moves in an RTS is to Attack move. In almost every RTS ever made, as soon as an enemy is in sight and range, the guns start blazing. In "Meridian: What LSD trip made us think we knew how to make a game", you will find, at almost every occasion, your units running directly at the enemy without firing. Without realizing that they are NOT some sort of kamikaze unit. Without deigning to obey your commands in a remotely satisfactory manner.

Thanks to these amazing mechanics, you often need to retreat to try to herd your dumb struck army in to a semblance of a group so you can actually play the game. In most RTS' retreat is a viable strategy. In "Meridian: Oh my GOD does anyone know how to walk?" this is nigh impossible. Retreating involves attempting to move away from the enemy. In the unlikely event your units actually manage to walk away from the enemy, you will find them immediately attempting to engage the enemy. The worst part is, the terrible pathing and AI means that they will have half trying to get back somewhere, half who are going the other way and get stuck on eachother, and no one actually firing on the enemy OR retreating. The target acquisition range is just absolutely nuts. It doesn't make sense. I've had units react to hostiles WHO WEREN"T VISIBLE YET. I'm pretty sure Chewbacca lives on Endor, because it just doesn't, make, sense.

Bonus problem:
Hotkeys. I get having your own hotkeys for your game so you can be "different" so all the cool kids will like you. But changing fundamentals like moving the hold position command from 'H' to 'E' is just plain stupid. There's many similar changes in this game. "Meridian: who even needs hotkeys anyway" decided to reinvent their hotkeys from the refined version most games have settled with, to a new pile of crap that no one wants to be in.

3. Graphics
This is the only area where Meridian: Really Shiny gets any sort of credit. I'm not saying it's a visually stunning masterpiece. But it is nice. It's vibrant. Also really shiny. Nothing to write home about, but nothing particularly bad either.

Final Thoughts: There are lots of RTS games out there. There is a reason that Command and Conquer, Warcraft 1, 2 AND 3, Starcraft 1 AND 2 are all timeless classics. There is a reason that most RTS games have similar if not identical base mechanics to each other. It's because they WORK, and they work WELL. They allow strategy, micro and macro. Meridian: Barely a functional game decided that's not necessary in their RTS. They wanted to be different, to be cool, instead everyone should be making fun of them and ignoring them.

All of boring features of an old tile based RTS, but with fancy graphics. Pathfinding is awful, no zoom out, no queuing movements or build orders, units block other unit's movement, etc. If you're moving units away from battle you have to send the move command over and over otherwise they'll turn around and fight a losing fight.

Unit art work is pretty cool. The cinematic has decent resolution but everything else in the game are very crude.

There's a basic RPG element inbetween missions where you get to move around in a ship. There are marked locations on the ground if you move there you get the option to activate some function or talk to some one. you have a few choices in the dialogues as well. But dont think it alters the story.

The user interface and menu look very poor. The unit movement speed doesnt feel realistic, the map scroll feels sluggish, and army groups hot keys dont zone in the largest army which makes it a bit annoying.

The game feels like something you would play 10-15 years ago. At least the game is sci-fi and has cool units I suppose. You dont see this kind of game very much at all.

The game is a decent one-man effort, but suffers from a lot of flaws.

At one point in the campaign, instead of playing an RTS, I have to play through a Tower Defense that drags on for 25 waves. Often I feel like the majority of the game is gimmicks, and not enough actual RTS.

Pathing is done on a totally local perspective, meaning if there's a tight choke, units will legitimately get confused and seek alternative, extremely long paths.

There's also a levelling grind to unlock abilities, which I found pretty pointless as a design decision and annoying (although use of these abilities is necessary!)

The Human vs AI skirmish is fine (at least on 1v1), and the enemy AI is ok, but it's not worth buying the game for.

I will honestly say I had some fun, but I could have had more fun just playing a free RTS on Spring.

It's been a long time since I enjoyed a game that reminded me of the old and amazing C&C games.
It has it's differences, like building units with different types of weapons, a storyline different than the usual, where depending on the answers you give, the game follows a different story line, among other things.
The only aspect I "missed" was the fact that there was no zoom in/out function, but after a couple of missions, I realized the default zoom setting was very good.
Got the game on a 70% sale, so it was more than worth the 4,99€ it costed :)

This game is very jerky when you or enemy have many units! The story is very bad, nothing spectacular. It seems the plot designers watch movies too much. All units are the same, nothing exciting. The AI also very poor. You do not need a plan to defeat the enemy. Those maps look no difference, trees, soil, snow, and sand, everything is bad. This game should not be RTS.

Not amazing, definitely not bad. Though the soundtrack? AMAZING! REALLY GOOD STUFF. Don't take this as negative, and don't take this as positive, I'm edgy on Yes, recomended or Not reccomended.

Alright, So after playing 3 missions and doing about 5 Challenges. I have to say the game is Good... It's not great, but it's good for what it is.

It's just to easy of a game. If you actually try your hardest, you can win each mission without losing any units. You just have to micro manage and heal your troops with the special "Healing Ability" that you get. I don't recall having to choose a difficulty level which kinda sucks.

They introduce the technology if only you capture it from the enemy which is somewhat annoying. It's like the nation your playing can't develope its own technology instead, they have to steal it.

If I have to rate it out of 5. I would give it a simple 3/5. Best to get the game when its on sale for less then $5.00

A mostly solid RTS from a small team, it has a nice plot and some rpg mechanics. The unit weapon customisation was good but it was hard to tell at a glance which unit had which weapon.

The varied missions are another plus to me, though instant failure stealth sections (thankfully rare) are a bit annoying.

It's all marred by the unit pathing (causing chokepoints to often become a nightmare.) But that's not too bad in most cases.

Still had fun with it, and the music was great.

It's beautiful crafted game with early C&C feel. The setback is about the campaign which is too short.

I went into the shop thinking i was going to buy grey goo the RTS C&C like game but realising it is only available via steam i bought this game thinking there would be not that much difference, i thought its a RTS C&C like game why not only £15.99 why not, I get home install this game, start playing not even 5 mins into my first game I thought "why did I spend my money on this unfinished game" here is the point i am trying to make

This game has
1 faction
Poor AI
Exteamly simple maps i could create in 5 mins by fingerpainting
poor detail
the only correlation to this and C&C is that it is an RTS.
The only team seperation is via colour eg :blue,red,green ect

So here is my advice to sombody who is thinking of buying this game:

DONT BUY IT, IT IS UNFINISHED, EXTREAMLY BADLY MADE, JUST SAVE YOUR MONEY AND BUY A REAL RTS JUST DONT BUY THIS

Hey everybody! I work for Grab The Games website and I have done a first look of what this game is all about. So come check it out and let me know what you guys think about the game and my review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHHPAfarvq0

Best RTS for the money {Must Buy}

Oh goodness where do I begin with this game? At first I was a bit worried that another indie RTS was being pushed out on Steam as, well I know I can speak for most of the people looking at this game, we've been burnt out and screwed over by developers that spend a whopping two months and call it a game then charge an arm and a leg... Well let me be the first one to tell you that this isn't one of those games at all!

Dear lord if you want edge of your seat gameplay, better than normal base building, an interesting campaign with hopes for the future, and units that are wonderfully designed and almost perfectly customizable this game is for you! Campaign plops you down in an interesting mix of a colonization story gone wrong. I won't spoil anything but goodness that's one fine story I'm still crawling through. Loading times? Forget about em! This game has none and in the places where it does have them it's a whole whopping two second wait at the most (might be a little longer for some older computer rigs; not sure but it won't take you long!)

Things that really stick out for this game in my opinion? Probably the graphics and music. You can see the screenshots and while I was skeptical at first that they were just glorified photoshopped images I can gladly say that is not the case at all. The game is literally that beautiful and the music that plays just bolsters the overwhelming beauty of this game. If you have the money for it I would gladly tell you to buy this one! You will not be upset with your purchase at all.

Believe you/me friend, I'm tired of getting the short end of the stick because I love RTS games and will stand by this game as long as it continues to be worked on. Thanks Dark for rekindling my trust in indie RTS games.

Meridian: New World – Review –
Warning: This review is based on a review copy played before the games release so everything could be different and is still subject to change.
Game Background //
Meridian: New World is an Indie Real Time Strategy created by Elder Games and published under Merge Games & Headup Games.

Meridian brings back a feel of the old C&C Westwood days by giving you a unique RTS experience with unit customization and a levelling system with an ability tree for yourself as you command over the battlefield.
The Story //
You play as Commander Daniel Hanson of the first mission to a remote planet known as Meridian. Just as everything seems that it’s going good and you prepare to leave the planet when an unknown distress call is intercepted on the surface. Its origin unknown you set to find out what the cause of the message was. However, everything falls to panic when a mysterious enemy begins an assault on you while you are scouting a power plant on the surface. Who is this enemy and what do they want?
(This is purely based on the first mission alone to avoid spoilers as much as possible.)
Gameplay //
Meridian gives you a Command & Conquer play style with the unit control of earth 2160. This comes together rather well however at points unit pathing can be a problem as it is hard to define what is and isn’t clickable terrain.

The base building is satisfying and refreshing to the RTS genre with the original style of building on a grid layout similar to StarCraft. This makes both building your base and navigating it enjoyable and simple.
The general combat of the game seems pretty simple at first. Just chuck units at each other and see who wins. However the game actually has unit customization and each unit aside from the foot solider can have a weapon set such as the auto-cannon or laser.
This allows units to be countered by weaknesses and really makes you think if you should engage the enemy or not.

The only problem I have with the overall gameplay is that there needs to be some more units. However this is a WIP so more should come hopefully!
Sound //
The sound assets for the game are surprisingly good and flow well with the overall experience of the game. Voice acting is realisc and flows well with the game. It’s really hard to believe that one guy managed to make the game.
Final verdict //
For me, Meridian gave back a good feel of the RTS genre to me and has given me already more hours than I will typically play a game for.
Overall I give the game a 7/10 in its current state, this may go up or down in future versions of the game.
The main benefits of the game are:
Unit Customization –
Good base building –
Story –
The downsides are:
Range of units –
Unnecessary points in the story such as the tower defence segment.


Thanks for reading my review!
Sorry for any spelling or Grammar errors!
Also check out the video version of this review!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wEZhmNh8Qk

If you're a fan of RTS games, ala SC2 this game might just be for you. Is it StarCraft II??...well, no.

But this game puts a few interesting spins on the RTS formula that make it really interesting and fun to play. Instead of producing a standard unit and upgrading offense/defense from an approriate facility (this game has this feature aswell for unit specific upgrades), any weapon upgrades you research for your units can ONLY be applied when they are created. For example, you can Research upgraded cannons, rockets, lasers, railguns etc. that are purchased with the creation of your new unit (varried costs). Cannons are strong vs infantry, Rockets apply area damage, Lasers have increased range and Railguns jump to nearby units.

Also, Commander abilities add alot to gameplay (a SC2 comparison would be hero powers, but they are only usable when you have a hero and only with hero in range). Meridian's 'Commander' abilities are usable anytime and anywhere on the map not affected by fog of war. These powers do come at a cost in the form of an regenerative energy bar and vary from Direct Damage to Healing to Increased build/production rates. These abilities are trained with points you acquire when you level up.

No Multiplayer (yet at least), some pathing issues and at times questionable voice acting are the only minor concerns with this title.

NOTE: This game was for the most part made by ONE MAN in 2 years. Damn impressive.