It's definitely a Knuckle Cracker game, with all the elements of the previous games I love. Sort of a Tower Defense and Real-Time strategyIt's definitely a Knuckle Cracker game, with all the elements of the previous games I love. Sort of a Tower Defense and Real-Time strategy game mixed in together. There's an enemy (the particulate, Duh!) with a few variants, such as Stunners, "Struct", which is a static barrier, Emergent which is a mindless moving entity that is derived based on terrain dominance. Then there's an artificial Intelligence - and that, we'll have to wait and see where the game and the map makers take up. Don't be surprised if the Particles can build ships similar to yours and attack you in retaliation.
Not player vs player, but definitely a more variable and mobile opponent than what Creeper were.
Graphics? Well, you've never bought a KC game for it's graphics, unless you are a hard-core fan of retro graphics, in which case nothing has changed.
In Particle Fleet, you can, as in previous games, make your own maps, either using the menu-driven "Simulacrum" (now with 50,000 variables!*), or by hand-crafting them in the map editor. In both cases, if you finally have a mp you like, you can submit it to the community Exchange for other players to play and to tell you how brilliant a map maker you are.
But there's more! You can also make your own ships. If you don't like the weapons choices, simply chose Sandbox mode on any map, include a few ships of your own design, or one from a ship-maker you admire and play to your heart's content. Of course, if you play in Sandbox mode, your time is scored differently that if you play with the same fleet as everyone else. You can, of course upload a map with custom ships and have everyone play with your favorite ships.
* I exaggerated a tad.… Expand