Planetary Annihilation

 PC
User Score
5.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 418 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 188 out of 418
  2. Mixed: 64 out of 418
  3. Negative: 166 out of 418
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  1. ce111
    Sep 12, 2014
    4
    The game itself is pretty awesome. It has all the best bits of Supreme Commander with an interesting concept thrown in. Unfortunately this is seriously under minded by its horrendous performance issues. The game eats up RAM like its going out of style which leads to crashes. The devs response to such issues is pretty much "Its probably your fault, not ours." You basically need to jumpThe game itself is pretty awesome. It has all the best bits of Supreme Commander with an interesting concept thrown in. Unfortunately this is seriously under minded by its horrendous performance issues. The game eats up RAM like its going out of style which leads to crashes. The devs response to such issues is pretty much "Its probably your fault, not ours." You basically need to jump through hoops to get this game to perform moderately well. Quite frankly, its not worth the time or the money. So do yourself a favor and just play Supreme Commander if you are craving a massive RTS.… Expand
  2. Viperjed
    Sep 8, 2014
    3
    Purchased this game this summer when it was still in development. It was really fun despite the problems it had and even more fun when I discovered how to create multiple planet systems. The downside is that this game is full of serious bugs and bizarre glitches. Try and snap to a tactical message and get a blank screen. Suddenly lose control of all camera functions for no apparentPurchased this game this summer when it was still in development. It was really fun despite the problems it had and even more fun when I discovered how to create multiple planet systems. The downside is that this game is full of serious bugs and bizarre glitches. Try and snap to a tactical message and get a blank screen. Suddenly lose control of all camera functions for no apparent reason. Play hour after hour only to have the game crash whenever a planetary annihilation is attempted. The last straw was when they released this game last week despite the obvious flaws and broken promises. Should change the name of this game to Improbable Planetary Annihilation!… Expand
  3. heskey30
    Jul 2, 2014
    7
    Well there's been something of an opinion war here, and many of the negative reviews are too negative because of a non-game issue that I won't go into. There are some overly positive reviews as well to counter this, so I will try to write a useful review. First, it must be said: this game is a blast - engaging, intense, and surprisingly well balanced. Fast paced tactics and strategy on aWell there's been something of an opinion war here, and many of the negative reviews are too negative because of a non-game issue that I won't go into. There are some overly positive reviews as well to counter this, so I will try to write a useful review. First, it must be said: this game is a blast - engaging, intense, and surprisingly well balanced. Fast paced tactics and strategy on a huge scale. But it's received a lot of legit positive criticism, so here's why I didn't rate it 10/10:

    First of all, and most detrimental to the game: it has performance issues. Lategame tank armies can slow the game to a crawl. Annihilating a planet can freeze the game for a long time and sometimes even crash it. The client occasionally crashes for no discernible reason (though you can reconnect), and there are other bugs, some of which are at least temporarily game breaking. Internet access is required to play, even singleplayer, though I've heard this will change in the 1.0 release. The game is in early access, so these problems are understandable, but they are still there.

    Secondly, there are balance problems. While most units have their uses and should be used to play optimally, things like tier two bombers are blatantly overpowered in the hands of a skilled micro player (they deliberately out-range all anti-air) and artillery units are a little strong as well. Bots, which are an entire tree of units, are considered very weak because they cannot defeat any of the other trees on their own. Balance is currently in progress, but there have been some worrying balance decisions by the team at Uber. This is the time to experiment with that, though, if there ever is one.

    Lategame can get rather standoffish. This can make for some slow games, especially in large free-for-alls, very especially coupled with the poor lategame performance, which is not only visual but also server-side. (So it slows down the game's actual mechanics.) There also is not much variety in interplanetary combat. It is also very easy early on in the game to get into a situation where winning is nearly impossible, but the game will still drag on for a long time - possibly without the player even knowing that winning is nearly impossible. This really punishes new players.

    Finally, system creator is rather limited. While you can set the general idea, you cannot sculpt your own terrain. This is not really a requirement, as that would be asking a lot, but just don't expect that and be disappointed.

    All that said, this game has already been a worthwhile purchase. Hopefully my rating will improve as the game becomes more finished.    … Expand
  4. System_operator
    Sep 8, 2014
    4
    Not a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination, but one full of missed opportunities.

    While it is stable it can be a lot of fun, especially with friends. PA is probably best surmised (in my opinion) as a dumbed down version of TA/Supreme Commander played across planets instead of flat maps. It does have a few interesting features to draw in the crowds; epic scale, planet    Not a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination, but one full of missed opportunities.

    While it is stable it can be a lot of fun, especially with friends.

    PA is probably best surmised (in my opinion) as a dumbed down version of TA/Supreme Commander played across planets instead of flat maps. It does have a few interesting features to draw in the crowds; epic scale, planet smashing and the metal planet 'anniahlaser' being the three.

    The reason I have only given PA a 4/10 is because of the missed opportunity this game represents. I was an early Alpha backer - paying upwards of £70 for the privilege. I backed after reading the promises made on the kickstarter page and the hope that we were going to get a 'supreme commander killer'. Unfortunately upon release I am disappointed. I feel like the game lacks polish (from wonky unit animations and odd planet smashing textures to poor strategic options when invading planets and the navy STILL feeling like a second class army choice) and has a pretty poor choice of units - none of which feel interesting or innovative!

    To compound matters elements from kickstarter and early development don't feature in the release version: where is the unit cannon?! where are the 40 player games?! where is the DRM free server?!

    I wish Uber had delayed longer, fleshed out the unit roster more thoroughly, really thought about planet invasion (instead of the JUST SPAM ASTREUS tactic) and ensured the promises they made in development were fulfilled.    … Expand
  5. mpmumau
    Sep 7, 2014
    0
    Uber Entertainment should be absolutely appalled by the way they handled the sale of this game from day one. They took complete advantage of the concept of crowd funding, and they have now "released" a largely unfinished, DRM-riddled version of their game to the public in return. If you buy this game, you are essentially telling developers "Please let us give you money so that you canUber Entertainment should be absolutely appalled by the way they handled the sale of this game from day one. They took complete advantage of the concept of crowd funding, and they have now "released" a largely unfinished, DRM-riddled version of their game to the public in return. If you buy this game, you are essentially telling developers "Please let us give you money so that you can half-ass your job for as long as you'd like and crap out whatever garbage you'd like in exchange for the public's showing of good faith." Shame, shame, shame on this company.… Expand
  6. bctwticzdfio
    Sep 7, 2014
    0
    Uber Entertainment really cashed in with this cash cow. There's nothing revolutionary about PA's gameplay, you win by superior micro and spam. The game has no save feature for the anemic singleplayer and every part of it is DRM'd. No private server hosting, no LAN (how can you have this kind of game without LAN?). Performance is just as bad as the pre-release. I'm shaking my head that IUber Entertainment really cashed in with this cash cow. There's nothing revolutionary about PA's gameplay, you win by superior micro and spam. The game has no save feature for the anemic singleplayer and every part of it is DRM'd. No private server hosting, no LAN (how can you have this kind of game without LAN?). Performance is just as bad as the pre-release. I'm shaking my head that I spent $60 on this turd. This company's practices aren't far off from publishers like EA. They edited things out of their KS campaign and Steam page about the release being DRM-free and coming with ACTUTAL LAN. Game doesn't support multiple GPUs properly, not like it matters because it's unoptimized. A bloody paid store for cosmetics in a retail game. Developers are drag queens that only answer questions about their development process when it benefits them. Would not recommend any Uber products.… Expand
  7. werrs
    Sep 7, 2014
    0
    Next-gen RTS without a save support? Are you kidding me?

    It's almost impossible to find any RTS in history which doesn't have the saving possibility, beginning from the very first Command & Conquer in 1995. Now it's 2014 and the caption on Kickstarter tells us that "Planetary Annihilation - A Next Generation RTS". Are you kidding us, seriously? Here is the quote from Kickstarter:    Next-gen RTS without a save support? Are you kidding me?

    It's almost impossible to find any RTS in history which doesn't have the saving possibility, beginning from the very first Command & Conquer in 1995.

    Now it's 2014 and the caption on Kickstarter tells us that "Planetary Annihilation - A Next Generation RTS". Are you kidding us, seriously?

    Here is the quote from Kickstarter:

    "Folks at Uber Entertainment have worked on games like Total Annihilation, Command & Conquer, Supreme Commander and Demigod. We are hugely passionate about Real-Time Strategy and can’t wait to show you our vision for the future of the genre."

    Is it a real future of RTS genre, where even save is not possible in single player campaign? Is it so hard to implement? We have tired from **** console ports on PC recently, but now we have got even worse release of the "PC exclusive". Even the backers who have financed the game production on Kickstarter cannot change anything, because nobody listens to them.

    Should we blame the online-only DRM which prevents game from saving because it's being played on the remote servers instead of local PCs? Previously developers were promising to make the LAN play possible, but what we have got at the release? Nothing except of online DRM.

    During the Kickstarter campaign developers should have warned all the potential backers about what will be the game's state on release. That it will have online-only DRM and no save possibility, etc. I believe that not a single cent would be given to them in this case.

    Honestly, developers should return all the money to the backers. Only in this case they will have the moral right to keep that online DRM without a save possibility and sell the game in its current invalid condition. It's not a next-gen RTS, it's even worse than every current-gen and past-gen strategy games.    … Expand
  8. SeriousMike
    Sep 8, 2014
    0
    I loved SupCom. And hearing about PA was just amazing. I dint buy it in the Early Acess program. I wanted a full game.
    Well I bought it 2-3 days before release. Played just a small bit. But than problems came. I wanted to convert my key to a steam key as their FAQ states, but they disabled it and left for PAX Prime. So no support for me. After a week I got my key. Finally nice.
    I started    I loved SupCom. And hearing about PA was just amazing. I dint buy it in the Early Acess program. I wanted a full game.
    Well I bought it 2-3 days before release. Played just a small bit. But than problems came. I wanted to convert my key to a steam key as their FAQ states, but they disabled it and left for PAX Prime. So no support for me. After a week I got my key. Finally nice.
    I started playing on Steam. Wait a second. WHERE THE **** IS THE SAVE BUTTON ? Yes. You heard me. There is no save button. No where.
    Ok. Well that is really terrible design, but the game runs good I intend to finish it. But the game started crashing. For no reason. After trying to do many stuff I updated my drivers,(which under any circumstances should not be necessary). It worked. NICE.
    In my recent game I got to the point where I can shoot the death star weapon. I had my recording software ready to record it and put on YouTube. I click and CRASH. What the **** ?
    Well I can of course load the game back right ? NOPE. No there is no save button anywhere. So 45 minutes of playing lost. And now after I click play the game crashes.
    Well this surely is not 0/10.
    Than I hover over something called a STORE. Yes a STORE. And that was even in the early access version. You can buy addtional commanders for about 10 DOLLARS ! Not to mention they are already selling DLC on their website.
    Well thats disgusting. But you don't need them.
    You think ? You are right. Yeah **** the commanders. But, the game is ALWAYS ON. No offline mode of any description. As they promised there will be one at the release.
    AVOID THIS LIKE A PLAGUE.    … Expand
  9. EuthaNAZI
    Sep 7, 2014
    1
    The development is slow as hell and in more than 6 months the game almost remains the same. Menus are very incomplete and all the content is barely playable. To avoid quoting the impossibility to save a game, it is literally to impossible to play 15 seconds without encountering a troublesome bug or a difficulty to hand the gameplay, and the IA is retarded.
    This game is all the time on    The development is slow as hell and in more than 6 months the game almost remains the same. Menus are very incomplete and all the content is barely playable. To avoid quoting the impossibility to save a game, it is literally to impossible to play 15 seconds without encountering a troublesome bug or a difficulty to hand the gameplay, and the IA is retarded.
    This game is all the time on sale at reduced price, something like all 2 weeks you can see it on the first page of the humble store, which tends to tell us this is pure scam. In addition there will be an in game cash shop.

    It seems fantastic when you see the videos but this is all but what you think, I never enjoyed playing this game in it's current state and you WON'T, not because the concept is bad but because NOTHING is actually enjoyable. People reviewving 10/10 haven't played the game yet, or are paid by the company to write fake comments.

    In conclusion, this is NOT sellable. It is good on the paper, but actually: unfinished (if not just started), unpleasant to play. All leads us to think that the game will never see the daylight and will be sold cheaper and cheaper until the very moment. So now you can vote my review as negative and stay into your disillusion, go waste your money.    … Expand
  10. Thoth
    Oct 11, 2014
    6
    With offline mode now this game is very good! Nice job! Coudnt you do this at launch Uber? Planetary Annihilation is simply an awesome, "epic scale" Real Time Strategy Game. Notice I said "epic scale," not "large scale." After all, multi planet gameplay, planet smashing, thousands of units, and 40 player matches can be described as nothing less than "epic scale."
  11. elonshadow
    Jul 1, 2014
    9
    Bear in mind this game is still in development, and I do rate this game as such.

    That being said however PA is a really promising RTS, where the emphasis is really on strategy as opposed to micro intensive clicking.. The scale is just gloriously large, and the battles are among the most intense I have ever seen. If you played total annihilation and.or supreme commander, then this    Bear in mind this game is still in development, and I do rate this game as such.

    That being said however PA is a really promising RTS, where the emphasis is really on strategy as opposed to micro intensive clicking.. The scale is just gloriously large, and the battles are among the most intense I have ever seen.

    If you played total annihilation and.or supreme commander, then this game would probably be something you massively enjoy. Hell if you want an RTS that breaks away from the star craft or age of empire way of doing things you'll probably enjoy this.

    The game still needs work though, orbital combat is clunky at best, UI bugs do occur, and other issues can arise. But in all fairness this is a game in development, and every new patch that comes out brings either more content, better performance, or gets rid of some bugs. So I can't really begrudge this.

    With regards to the pricepoint, PA has been on sale for $17 recently although it should soon go back to its regular price of $40. So bear this in mind while buying. While I heartily recommend picking it up when on sale, if you don't want to actively be involved with the game while it's being developed, you might want to wait until the full release.    … Expand
  12. ThiagoF
    Sep 9, 2014
    0
    Uber made us invest on their promisses and now at the "Release" they lied to everyone.

    The game is full of bugs, have an Always Online DRM, no Offilne Mode, no Save Game Option. They said in their FAQS, and i quote: "Is there Offline Mode? During Beta, an internet connection is required to play PA. When the game releases, offline play will be allowed, as well as LAN" Uber    Uber made us invest on their promisses and now at the "Release" they lied to everyone.

    The game is full of bugs, have an Always Online DRM, no Offilne Mode, no Save Game Option.

    They said in their FAQS, and i quote:

    "Is there Offline Mode?
    During Beta, an internet connection is required to play PA. When the game releases, offline play will be allowed, as well as LAN"

    Uber solution to the problem ? They take down the FAQ lol.

    They lied to everyone and made us support something we all hate, this Always Online DRM Crap.

    And guess what, there will be no refunds from valve.

    Stay Way from this. This guys don't deserve been called Developers.    … Expand
  13. BSlGuru
    Jun 27, 2014
    10
    This is a lovely game. As it comes not finished, it's still in development yet, but its good to play. Some little bugs, but great gameplay sessions. With the galactic war update you can conquer the galaxy.

    Build up the base, protect by towers, walls, build units expand and fight. This game isn't limited by its environment. You can build up strong forces an than start the "total    This is a lovely game. As it comes not finished, it's still in development yet, but its good to play. Some little bugs, but great gameplay sessions. With the galactic war update you can conquer the galaxy.

    Build up the base, protect by towers, walls, build units expand and fight. This game isn't limited by its environment. You can build up strong forces an than start the "total annihilation" :-)
    The best is the Multiplayer. I love it!    … Expand
  14. Moke
    May 21, 2014
    9
    This is one of my favorite up and coming real time strategy's. It is in early access but there is enough there to get some good play time in.
    You can create the solar system you want to battle in. Change the orbits of the planet or planets. Each type of planet has many options to play with. All in all decent customization. Minor drawback is you can create too much in the solar system    This is one of my favorite up and coming real time strategy's. It is in early access but there is enough there to get some good play time in.
    You can create the solar system you want to battle in. Change the orbits of the planet or planets. Each type of planet has many options to play with. All in all decent customization. Minor drawback is you can create too much in the solar system making it take forever to load. This will impact the load on you computer as well as impact how long it will take you to win or lose the match. There are also pre-made solar systems to battle in.
    As of right now there is no story mode but you can fight against the AI or go online to battle players. Free for all or team battles.
    The building and units have tiers to them so you have to build up to have the best. If you've ever wanted to play command and conquer across a solar system i highly recommend this game.    … Expand
  15. brianpurkiss
    Jul 1, 2014
    10
    Planetary Annihilation is simply an awesome, "epic scale" Real Time Strategy Game. Notice I said "epic scale," not "large scale." After all, multi planet gameplay, planet smashing, thousands of units, and 40 player matches can be described as nothing less than "epic scale."

    Planetary Annihilation introduces a number of genre changing mechanics. Primarily, the randomly generated    Planetary Annihilation is simply an awesome, "epic scale" Real Time Strategy Game. Notice I said "epic scale," not "large scale." After all, multi planet gameplay, planet smashing, thousands of units, and 40 player matches can be described as nothing less than "epic scale."

    Planetary Annihilation introduces a number of genre changing mechanics. Primarily, the randomly generated spherical planets and the ability to fight on multiple planets simply hasn't been done before. Not to mention features like Planet Smashing, Galactic War (randomized campaign), and the ChronoCam. The ChronoCam allows players to rewind and fastforward gameplay in the middle of a match to watch events that they may have missed.

    On top of that, Planetary Annihilation's gameplay is fast paced, exciting, and strategy intensive. It's very possible for players to out maneuver their larger opponents, or exploit weaknesses and beat someone with a much larger army.

    If you are a fan of RTS games, I highly recommend Planetary Annihilation.    … Expand
  16. TAG_MaximuS
    Jul 2, 2014
    0
    Can or might say this is a game to ipads or androids games only,PA its too plastic cartoonish, and really really the worst rts i saw play since 2007 poor design ,and worst idea make a rts on a Sphere for a rts on 2014....

    So Taking some other words since, i rts lover (Starcraft ,the amazing Nr1 best rts ever FAForever(http://www.faforever.com/?page_id=2) and soon Etherium) and some    Can or might say this is a game to ipads or androids games only,PA its too plastic cartoonish, and really really the worst rts i saw play since 2007 poor design ,and worst idea make a rts on a Sphere for a rts on 2014....

    So Taking some other words since, i rts lover (Starcraft ,the amazing Nr1 best rts ever FAForever(http://www.faforever.com/?page_id=2) and soon Etherium) and some others...

    Rediculously Overpriced, on Track to FAIL Miserably.

    When I saw the listing at $90 for a game in early alpha, that quite frankly looks pretty lame I was shocked and worst my sister bought the game and I can see why her displeasure .
    Graphics look below average, the idea is completely unoriginal, and quite honestly I wouldn't even pay $60 for this game. I'm just quite honestly confused as to who thought they could justify a $90 price tag. Anybody else think thisthis a good rts ?

    Then you guys never try a real RTS ,Planetary Anhilation will and is already a fail, almost 2 years build and still the same .

    Im totaly disappointed with Uber team ,Lot Rts gamers hope Chris Taylor bring again the epic rts like Supreeme commander.....And FAForever...    … Expand
  17. Cyliann
    Jul 4, 2014
    0
    An utter disappointment. Where the game Isn't absolutely smacking It's face down to 2-5 FPS on high-end machines with even the most modest of firefights at lowest graphics, Its instead delivering an overwhelming mainstreamed RTS experience whereas you simply spam, spam and spam to win. And I mean it. You can literally hunk up to thousands of queues to produce units in singular factoriesAn utter disappointment. Where the game Isn't absolutely smacking It's face down to 2-5 FPS on high-end machines with even the most modest of firefights at lowest graphics, Its instead delivering an overwhelming mainstreamed RTS experience whereas you simply spam, spam and spam to win. And I mean it. You can literally hunk up to thousands of queues to produce units in singular factories and have them run there, at the end of time with a nigh infinite amount of resources. And those factories? Why, they go up in mere seconds and can spout out workers even quicker which can also build more factories..

    These wouldn't be big problems if it was applied correctly with sufficient amounts of variation but anything can wipe out anything else.. If in a sufficient quantity. Which It will be, because everything has an astonishingly long range and the concept of "walls" in this game is perhaps the biggest laughable thing. Does it block flamers? Nope. It goes through. Does it block tanks? Nope, they do splash damage on say, turrets behind the wall. Do they block artillery? Nope. Do they block airplanes? Go guess. As of right now, literally any base defense is to counter "singlar scout" harassment ordeals and nothing else so sadly, It's a massive gimmick instead of being an integrated feature of the game.

    The same goes for alot of the units as well. Take, the flamer for example. Incredibly slow moving and stubby-ranged flamethrower on wheels, boasting "alot of armor" while being 2-3 shot by sniping semi-automatic tanks which do not only boast impressive HP themselves but can also more while firing. I mean, what were they thinking? "Oh, yeah this unit will be great to crawl into enemy bases If they're 95% defenseless, oh man It's gonna wreck so much havoc with that cool fire lol" The resource system is a pathetic collection of endless money pocket pants which can only be expanded upon by increasing your max storage cap with warehouses, the combat is an unitellgible, imbalanced and poorly implemented mess and the "universe seemless combat" ordeal is a gimmck, and nothing more as literally all conflict enders are either planet collisions or uber spaceship ra!p

    The fact that the devs were trying to sell this rubbish at first for about 90€ Is enough proof for me of their narrow-sighted child mentalities but playing the game really seals the deal on just how poorly made this game is right now, and how It will almost guaranteed be in the future. Stay away,    … Expand
  18. Phry
    May 13, 2015
    3
    Not often will I go to metacritic to voice displeasure. However, this game is special in that regard. Not only did they originally charge an absurd amount for alpha access (70£ or so, a scummy move and a I sorely mourn the loss of money for anyone who paid that price), but upon 'releasing' the game, it's still, in the eyes of myself and many other RTS fans, not complete. This game doesn'tNot often will I go to metacritic to voice displeasure. However, this game is special in that regard. Not only did they originally charge an absurd amount for alpha access (70£ or so, a scummy move and a I sorely mourn the loss of money for anyone who paid that price), but upon 'releasing' the game, it's still, in the eyes of myself and many other RTS fans, not complete. This game doesn't even have co-op campaign mode. Well, it doesn't even have a campaign mode, simply a galactic war clone that 2005 titles like Star Wars Battlefront II could provide. Pathetic. In terms of innovation, the planetary aspect of this game is cool, it's just not done or fleshed out enough to warrant it's price at the moment. And what's more, there are other games that are similar, are better supported, provide a better singleplayer and multiplayer experience, and are cheaper (e.g. Supreme commander). Mostly unfufilled promises that taint what could have been a standout for its genre.

    It's also disheartening to hear the devs have already moved on to their next game. I'd suggest you don't support their new endeavor nor this one.    … Expand
  19. vomov
    Aug 15, 2015
    8
    It is awesome. Simple as that. Building a MASSIVE army that swoops over a planet, then rolls through a stargate-like structure on to the next planet, only to be annihilated in a rain of nukes. Then use the the ultimate overkill to destroy the enemy stronghold; drop a moon on his planet. Awesome.

    However, then the downside: the camera rolls with every move, navigating between planets is    It is awesome. Simple as that. Building a MASSIVE army that swoops over a planet, then rolls through a stargate-like structure on to the next planet, only to be annihilated in a rain of nukes. Then use the the ultimate overkill to destroy the enemy stronghold; drop a moon on his planet. Awesome.

    However, then the downside: the camera rolls with every move, navigating between planets is difficult, if not impossible, units are frequently 'lost' (meaning I can't find them), and the speed of construction and destruction is such that the gameplay becomes a chaos of little icons. It's impossible to play the larger maps with this game.    … Expand
  20. theirrelephants
    Mar 7, 2016
    3
    Take Supreme Commander one. Now make the graphics a hundred times worse, remove most of the interesting units, and add one mildly entertaining gimmick and a whole load of bugs and framerate issues, lots of them. There, now you know what planetary annihilation is like. Oh, and I hope you have 60 gigs of ram as well.

    Worth picking up for an hour or two of fun if you can get it for a    Take Supreme Commander one. Now make the graphics a hundred times worse, remove most of the interesting units, and add one mildly entertaining gimmick and a whole load of bugs and framerate issues, lots of them. There, now you know what planetary annihilation is like. Oh, and I hope you have 60 gigs of ram as well.

    Worth picking up for an hour or two of fun if you can get it for a couple bucks. Otherwise, don't bother.    … Expand
  21. zwedizhfizh
    Oct 16, 2014
    6
    I paid way too much for this game, but I did have some fun. The overall experience is flawed with crappy UI and AI, but the multiplayer is expansive and worth trying. I loved the original Total Annihilation game and this wasn't like that, it was something different entirely. I just wanted to smash stuff together, and in this game I get to do that albeit very slowly.
  22. bluesmoke97
    Jan 12, 2015
    10
    With all the RTS games I have purchased this ranks #1 in my book age of empires coming in second.
    Why this game is getting such a bad rep is beyond me most people are rating it bad because there computer cant handle it or they cant micro enough once they have units on multiple planets, which honestly to rate a game like that isn't fair to the game at all its infact slightly ignorant of    With all the RTS games I have purchased this ranks #1 in my book age of empires coming in second.
    Why this game is getting such a bad rep is beyond me most people are rating it bad because there computer cant handle it or they cant micro enough once they have units on multiple planets, which honestly to rate a game like that isn't fair to the game at all its infact slightly ignorant of you. I can tell you right now microing in this game is actually easy once you get the hang of it but hey some people are ♥♥♥♥♥ who cant do 2 things at once.
    Enough of my ♥♥♥♥♥ing as to why this game is getting bad ratings lets talk about why the game is good.
    Now One of the big complaints i have been seeing on review websites such as meta critic and ign is that they are saying the game is unfinished now these reviews i have been reading are several months old and in my opion i think need to be removed.This game has so many units and so many methods of strategy and depth its insane and all i have been seeing is its unfinished and its gliching and there aren't enough units, And i cant understand why, this game has more means of combat then any other strat game i have played and to list some i have played age of empires all three of them Ruse, company of hero's, stronghold the complete collection, supreme commander, battle of empires, civ and several others. To list some means of strat you can do land air sea orbital you can freaking launch bots to another damn planet out of a cannon that is freaking badass, you can nuke them use cannons that have massive range or just straight up shoot there planet with a damn laser. This game is balanced i have also seen people rating it bad because it has one faction and that i don't understand as well most games have 1 or 2 factions and even with that they have issues staying balanced that is why age of empires is such a great game but with all the unit diversity this game has it might as well be all the civs in age. NOT to mention how big your army can get from what i have played thus far there is no limit to size its insane and with no lag as well and you can control of them even in age you cant select all of your military units over 60. SO I BEG YOU STOP RATING THIS GAME BECAUSE YOU ARE BAD AT IT OR CAUSE IT DOESNT RUN RATE THIS GAME FOR WHAT IT IS AND IF YOU WROTE A REVIEW AWHILE BACK PLAY THE GAME AND REWRITE IT. People need to rate this game on what it does good and bad and the bads are a minimal but lets talk about some.
    SO what does this game do bad not much actually i have encounter one screen glitch but it was most likely my computer instead of the game, sometimes all my units wont move up when the frontlines attack but that is easy to fix.
    So to end this i would give this game a a 9/10 and honestly from what i have played so far it deserves it. its the most innovative rts i have ever played and highly recommend you pick it up for 30$ and if it goes on sale buy it while you can.    … Expand
  23. SantoWare
    Oct 7, 2015
    10
    Planetary Annihilation: Best RTS ever, but not easy to play as a Hunter to get up in ranking games. Just learn to be fast to make a big army and every time you play you ll love PA more and more. PA must be Olimpic Sport.
  24. UnDeAdOvErLoRd
    Sep 28, 2014
    3
    If you are a fan of RTS's and strategy games in general stay away from this it will leave a bad taste in your mouth. I Backed this on kick-starter and was extremely exited for it. The betas had promise to them and im unsure how the release got worse than the betas however it did and im very sad i invested 90$ into this game let alone a few hours of my life. I highly encourage and RTS fanIf you are a fan of RTS's and strategy games in general stay away from this it will leave a bad taste in your mouth. I Backed this on kick-starter and was extremely exited for it. The betas had promise to them and im unsure how the release got worse than the betas however it did and im very sad i invested 90$ into this game let alone a few hours of my life. I highly encourage and RTS fan that is looking for a new game to get Supreme Commander Forged Alliance still the best IMO.

    Like other reviews have said single player is a joke as long as you spawn more units and are lucky with the tech you find its a guarantee win no strategy involved. I am not a huge multi-player on these games so I cant really comment on that aspect of the game however from reading other reviews not good. We were promised an RTS just as good as SC and TA and were given something that should be on the APP STORE for 5$.    … Expand
  25. James009
    Sep 28, 2014
    3
    This game was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Supreme Commander but I have no idea how they ruined this game so badly. Firstly, the interface is lacking for a modern RTS, this is especially blatant when you have multiple planets and areas of operations. I feel that, given the scope, it is just too difficult to control everything as a solitary human.
  26. BrotherAlpha
    Sep 11, 2014
    4
    Summary: An incredible vision marred by poor execution. The battles are epic but the interface and campaign bugs are overtly frustrating.

    Planetary Annihilation is a real time strategy game aimed to achieve epic battles over entire solar systems. It can almost be termed a 4E's game (that's explore, expand, exploit and exterminate) presented in the fashion of RTS. Unlike traditional    Summary: An incredible vision marred by poor execution. The battles are epic but the interface and campaign bugs are overtly frustrating.

    Planetary Annihilation is a real time strategy game aimed to achieve epic battles over entire solar systems. It can almost be termed a 4E's game (that's explore, expand, exploit and exterminate) presented in the fashion of RTS. Unlike traditional RTS games, battles are forged across a the spherical landscape of planets and between one planet and the next.

    The goal is simple - eliminate your competition. The game provides many means to achieve your goal, from standard land battles, to transporting units to other planets and even by exploiting moons to crash into your opponent's planet.

    It all sounds well and good. Epic struggles with a host of weapons at your disposal. The problems start to occur with the rather clunky interface which (somewhat understandably) has failed to evolve effectively with the scale of the battles. Navigating your solar system is unnecessarily time consuming and transporting units is painful at the best of times.

    There is a chronic lack of information on how to control your units effectively which may leave you hunting through Google for information repeatedly. The tutorial also did not work for this user. Key binding options are there, but there are no options to re-bind mouse controls.

    The Galactic War (campaign) is fraught with strife. Often battles will end in a stalemate because you don't have the technology to find the enemy commander (eg. they're in an transport unit over lava and the game hasn't yet provided the necessary technology for you to produce aircraft to shoot them down).

    The AI is both cunning and annoying. It is well aware of how to play guerrilla warfare tactics and will launch full scale attacks where you least expect it. The AI will make full use of resources it can find and use them to see to your demise.

    Planetary Annihilation is a game with huge potential, but the clunky interface and inherent problems in the campaign will soon lead to frustration. If you are the kind of player who can overlook these issues, you may find a true gem under the somewhat grimy surface.

    About myself: I am an avid RTS player originating from the Dune 2 era. I have played heavily Command & Conquer, Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander but never fell fond of the Starcraft/Warcraft series.    … Expand
  27. hw75
    Dec 1, 2014
    0
    The game is now down to 5 bucks but still not worth buying. Completely unfinished, many promises were made when it was still at a whopping 90 euros (!) in alpha stage. Without doubt this title was just aimed to make profit with early access rip off. The publishers even tried to create another kickstarter project while this one still had lots of work, plenty of bugs and lack of basic RTSThe game is now down to 5 bucks but still not worth buying. Completely unfinished, many promises were made when it was still at a whopping 90 euros (!) in alpha stage. Without doubt this title was just aimed to make profit with early access rip off. The publishers even tried to create another kickstarter project while this one still had lots of work, plenty of bugs and lack of basic RTS elements and simple game features like saving. People who wrote bad critics in Steam forums simply got banned.

    The concept and idea of planetary warfare was pretty nice, but the final result is just a joke. I wouldn't be surprised if the company dissolves and they come up with another name because their reputation is completely down the drain now.    … Expand
  28. GiantJunkBox
    Sep 11, 2014
    4
    Just picked up this game a few days ago with the hopes of a Supreme Commander like experience. No such luck ;(.

    The system requirements state that the game requires 4GB of memory and that 8GB is recommended. I have 8GB of memory, and even in small solar systems, the game quickly consumes the entire 8GB then crashes to the desktop - talk about a buzz kill... But between the crashes I    Just picked up this game a few days ago with the hopes of a Supreme Commander like experience. No such luck ;(.

    The system requirements state that the game requires 4GB of memory and that 8GB is recommended. I have 8GB of memory, and even in small solar systems, the game quickly consumes the entire 8GB then crashes to the desktop - talk about a buzz kill...

    But between the crashes I have a chance to play, what appears to be, a completely unfinished game. There is a very limited number of units, weapons, and strategies. Many of the game play mechanics are underdeveloped. Also I appreciate the idea of a plant down sphere view instead of the typical flat map. I can see how it could be really cool - but it isn't. It's hard to use and just awkward.

    I think if they actually finished this game it could have been and '8', but as they get a '4'.    … Expand
  29. Gamma117
    Sep 14, 2014
    3
    Planetary Annihilation is not a game that deserve the time or money it asks from you, especially when its predecessors will considerably over-deliver in every regard. The concept of the game is certainly unique but unfortunately it is to its own detriment as the game-play feels forcibly wrapped around the idea of fighting across different bodies in space. The game's existence is so focusedPlanetary Annihilation is not a game that deserve the time or money it asks from you, especially when its predecessors will considerably over-deliver in every regard. The concept of the game is certainly unique but unfortunately it is to its own detriment as the game-play feels forcibly wrapped around the idea of fighting across different bodies in space. The game's existence is so focused around this one idea yet it isn't particularly well executed nor is it actually rewarding to the player in any meaningful way. You will play PA wanting to love the ability of playing a real time strategy across a solar system but the experience is unfortunately severely hindered by many shortcomings in features and design. Here are my thoughts as to where Uber's game goes wrong:

    At its core PA is a basic RTS. Battle for resources, use those resources for development of stronger armies and then destroy your opponent's commander. You're most engaged when you can keep track of those tasks at the most basic technology level. The game shines when things are kept simple but that's not saying much because it doesn't feel like there's much of a strategy beyond building a mob of units of the same type and hurling them at your enemy's weakest point of entry. In order to win you'll have to travel to other planets and build more advanced units, this is where the game quickly breaks down. The game becomes frustratingly unforgiving when you're expected to always be making the best decision as to what to do over multiple planets, across the orbital layer, the air layer and the ground layer. Focus is a resource in its own right and it just becomes unreasonable to pay attention to so many things going on. It can be better to play on a system with one or two planets, which defeats the premise of the game entirely.

    Nothing makes planets particularly interesting beyond there being multiple planets. Each body in space is created through procedural generation by an algorithm which in turn means there's no level design to speak of. Literally most of the planets you come across are simply more-or-less smooth spheres which makes them devoid of interesting game-play situations created by map design. Earth-like and lava planets do have some features such as ravines and mountains but these aren't placed with any purpose. You can create your own planets but there's no way to place features or paint tools to increase height or draw water. Map balance goes out the window which might of helped to relieve some of the pressure of having to defend your every outpost and every base from all angles.

    The sense of scale is surprisingly poor. Whilst you fight in a solar system there's no way to immediately get a good idea of what's happening all at once. At any given point you can only see, at best, half the face of a single planet or less. You'll have to awkwardly navigate around the entire solar system to understand what's going on or deal with problems as they arise, further draining your attention.

    The single player component is pathetic. You're essentially briefed that robots of other colors are bad and that you need to kill them. That's it. You then navigate a procedural generated map of the galaxy made up of 30-50 star systems. You start with almost no tech and gain it from exploring systems. You're given 5-13 freebie pieces of tech, most of which will be useless, then expected to fight on every other star system with an AI to the point of completing the map. The game's AI is brutal, it can micro every unit everywhere which makes it almost impossible to beat after a certain point. Your best bet is to bum rush it soon after the match begins in hopes that you cripple it long enough for you to gain an economic lead. If you win, you gain a new technology (which will likely be useless) and move onto the next fight. I've always hoped there was a chance you find a pocket of empty star systems where you can find upgrades but you're denied this reward and expected to jump straight back into another fight. The galactic war is essentially a skirmish match but you're gimped in a randomly given way. There's no balance to this. You'll often be missing advanced tech in the early stages which disadvantages you considerably. This entire mode is a waste of time.

    The game is nowhere close to what could be considered a finished release, it's as if the game is still in alpha but has been pushed out to retail. There's no offline mode, so you can't even play the single player component without internet access. There's no laddering system, so you're frequently go up against better players who will considerably outperform you which is very disheartening. There's no documentation to speak of, you're expected to figure everything out yourself. Lots of promised features are missing. Naval is useless. The game performs extremely poorly, bringing even the most powerful computers to their knees. The list goes on.

    I can't recommend PA to anyone.    … Expand
  30. psyfox22
    Sep 12, 2014
    4
    This game was a beautiful concept, and it still has the chance to be great, but it is currently just not ready to move beyond beta. I've logged over 50 hours playing the beta. I'm a single player kind of gamer. It's what I like. The campaign map is great, though you can easily end up with an extremely underwhelming load out if you get a bad luck of the draw, to the point even the easiestThis game was a beautiful concept, and it still has the chance to be great, but it is currently just not ready to move beyond beta. I've logged over 50 hours playing the beta. I'm a single player kind of gamer. It's what I like. The campaign map is great, though you can easily end up with an extremely underwhelming load out if you get a bad luck of the draw, to the point even the easiest game play setting would be impossible to beat. Water units are next to pointless. Most of the planets with water are covered by more than 90% land anyhow. Also the game requires that single player missions occur on a remote server. It is not unusual for the server to freeze up and lag out on you. I had a great example of this today. I beat a campaign and it froze out. I still could move around the map and select units, they just didn't do anything because the remote server was locked up. I decided to test to see how long it would take the explosion for the enemy commander. I was done with the computer for a while anyhow. In the end it took over 4 hours for the final enemy commander to complete his nuclear blast and me to get credit for beating the map. I wasn't at the computer for most of it, I just walked off and would check on it occasionally.… Expand
  31. TheGaffer
    Oct 11, 2014
    5
    Distinctly average, unfortunately.

    I feel disappointed that I ended up buying this game on the pretence it would be somewhere near as good as Total Annihilation or Supreme Commander. When there is an existing formula that works for an incredible RTS. Add to it, don't re-design it! The main points that bother me are the lack of interesting units, it really is a rock paper scissor    Distinctly average, unfortunately.

    I feel disappointed that I ended up buying this game on the pretence it would be somewhere near as good as Total Annihilation or Supreme Commander. When there is an existing formula that works for an incredible RTS. Add to it, don't re-design it!

    The main points that bother me are the lack of interesting units, it really is a rock paper scissor scenario which in theory seems good for competitive play but ends up falling short in terms of keeping combat unique and varied. Tech 3 wars on TA were incredible fun to watch, let alone be part of.

    To be fair the game looks lovely and even though it seems to be more intense on the GPU than it should be it's by no means ugly. The planet crashing is a fun idea but it really doesn't lend a huge amount to gameplay. It's a very playable game but it wasn't the game I was hoping for. No chance I'll be helping to crowd fund their next venture. They were already charging silly amounts for an early access to this game...

    I think I'll go back to Spring RTS    … Expand
  32. Faust291
    Dec 10, 2014
    0
    Game isn't finished, despite being 'released.'

    Short list of Pros: Very, very rarely you can crash another planet into a planet. It's awesome. Long list of Cons: Constant glitches make the game unplayable. Game lags because the tech used to run it is garbage. There is ZERO strategy behind this. Zergrush, or die. I'm not joking. Calling this a strategy game is a joke. UI and    Game isn't finished, despite being 'released.'

    Short list of Pros:

    Very, very rarely you can crash another planet into a planet. It's awesome.

    Long list of Cons:

    Constant glitches make the game unplayable.
    Game lags because the tech used to run it is garbage.
    There is ZERO strategy behind this. Zergrush, or die. I'm not joking. Calling this a strategy game is a joke.
    UI and Camera are weird, and due to glitches, may not always show up and don't work right.
    Textures don't always work. I've had the entire game become a series of indistinguishable red blobs, rendering an hours worth of gameplay useless.
    Absolutely NO Unit balance. None. Go Air or Die.

    If you're looking for an awesome strategy game, this isn't the one for you. Believe me, I supported this game when it was in Kickstarter, and I defended it for a long !@#$ing time. Sadly, Uber has a loooong, long history of releasing games well before they are actually finished and claiming that they'll fix it later via patches. This NEVER happens. (Check out Super Monday Night Combat as a very very handy example.) This is one such example. Nothing they promised during the kickstarter was released until AFTER the game launched, and seemingly only because of the huge and negative backlash from the player base. Worse yet, many of those promises have yet to be fulfilled, but the developers suck and this game may never actually see a build where it actually delivers on everything that they've promised.

    This game has a LOT of potential, but unless Uber gets a reality check and gets their act together, it'll just be a game you'll regret buying.    … Expand
  33. lurch
    Nov 7, 2014
    0
    This is the game that made me stop and say "never again" to buying early access. I can't believe I spent $70 on this game only for it to be discounted on steam (still in early access) a mere week later. A huge slap in the face by Uber. The game is terribly bland, unfocused, and boring. It is full of bugs, has little to no documentation and a joke of a tutorial. Uber did very well to hypeThis is the game that made me stop and say "never again" to buying early access. I can't believe I spent $70 on this game only for it to be discounted on steam (still in early access) a mere week later. A huge slap in the face by Uber. The game is terribly bland, unfocused, and boring. It is full of bugs, has little to no documentation and a joke of a tutorial. Uber did very well to hype this game up so much and laughed all the way to the bank releasing a very bad game in the process. The game is worth $10 at absolute best.… Expand
  34. Khalysto
    Sep 12, 2014
    5
    I created an account here *just* to write this review because people need to understand what they're getting into.

    1- Server-side only: If you purchase this title on steam (and you've done no other research), you need to know every match is server-side. You have to have a solid internet connection just to play the single player campaign. There are talks about implementing an offline    I created an account here *just* to write this review because people need to understand what they're getting into.

    1- Server-side only: If you purchase this title on steam (and you've done no other research), you need to know every match is server-side. You have to have a solid internet connection just to play the single player campaign. There are talks about implementing an offline mode but that has NOT happened yet (so talking about it is irrelevant). If your connection is lost mid-skirmish, the battle ends and you have to start it again. Kind of a pain when you're 20 minutes and 1000 units deep.

    2- Graphical Optimisation: I'm not sure why there's such a huge difference between UBER shadows and HIGH shadows, but when set to UBER (and you have multiple planets) everything chops to terribly. Now before you fault my machine, all other graphic settings are at their highest, I'm running a 6-core AMD processor w/ 16 gigs of ram and a 560Ti OC. Yes it's an older card but I can run *every* game at highest graphics with > 40 fps.

    3- Tutorial: I feel the need to call this out specifically. PA is not a simple game, in fact the fast pace can make the initial learning curve steep if you've never played a *Annihilation Style* game before. Never have I seen a dev firm use a Youtube video in lieu of an in-game tutorial that walks you through features and functions. I had to watch a let's play to find out about other aspects of the game I consider basic.

    4- Lack of Strategy: This game is all about how quickly you can spam units in a rock-paper-scissors style. Placement, levering specific unit type abilities, managing resources, none of that exists here. If my opponent is getting the upper hand, build more factories and spam more tanks = GG.

    5- Overall: I really want to like this game. I'm a big fan of Supreme commander and SUPCOM 2 so I was definitely anticipating something worthy to that legacy in PA. This game falls short. Yes it's a platform for modding, but mods should *enhance* the game, not fix its problems or polish it. With that said, I cannot recommend this title at the 29.99 asking price especially when it feels so light on content. If they offered it for 19.99 that'd be a different story.

    6- What do I like: Multi-planet warfare is a very cool concept, just poorly implemented in this title. Though the UI is a tad cumbersome to use I got used to it after the first skirmish. Graphically the game is very attractive with effects that get you immersed in the action.

    7- Final conclusion: This bun left the oven too early... much too early. Considering how much they killed their kickstart goal I would have expected a much more polished and verbose title. All in all I give it a 5/10.    … Expand
  35. sabasNL
    Sep 16, 2014
    6
    Have been an early backer, backed it within 24 hours of hitting Kickstarter. And I regret it.

    Despite these devs apparently having quite the repertoire, their failure to listen to the community, them breaking their promises and making weird design and marketing decisions have let this great concept fall into mediocrity. Although the price is very reasonable (much lower than it was    Have been an early backer, backed it within 24 hours of hitting Kickstarter. And I regret it.

    Despite these devs apparently having quite the repertoire, their failure to listen to the community, them breaking their promises and making weird design and marketing decisions have let this great concept fall into mediocrity.

    Although the price is very reasonable (much lower than it was for backers; An outright backstab to your most loyal fans), the game has been released too early. It's still filled with bugs/glitches/compatability and connection problems, the content is far from what was promised to be in the full package and the game simply doesn't feel right.

    I see no reason to recommend it. I suggest you wait a year or don't buy it at all.    … Expand
  36. Avadon
    Sep 13, 2014
    0
    I had Planetary Annihilation on my radar, but only just got it because I never buy early access games. Now that it's "released", I decided to give it a shot. I really can't remember the last time I was that disappointed in a game. Most of the stuff that made the older games great are gone. No factions, underwhelming unit variety, no map design. Battle takes place on mini planets that areI had Planetary Annihilation on my radar, but only just got it because I never buy early access games. Now that it's "released", I decided to give it a shot. I really can't remember the last time I was that disappointed in a game. Most of the stuff that made the older games great are gone. No factions, underwhelming unit variety, no map design. Battle takes place on mini planets that are impossible to defend, so everyone zergs everyone else down as fast as possible. The game crashes all the time and performance is pathetic. Everything is always online and you can't save your game. They said they will remove the always online requirement in the future, but that will impact the performance even more. Really? How much worse can it get? I'm on a 4790k, 16g ram and a 780 Ti and the game slows down to a crawl, and we're talking about a game that looks more like Godus rather than having the detailed beautiful graphics of Forged Alliance. To summarize, the game is in such a pathetic state right now that I don't think even 1 more year of active development would make it worth buying. There is no reason to play this over Forged Alliance. None. It does everything worse in every possible way. Absolutely pathetic.… Expand
  37. HAOS57
    Sep 16, 2014
    3
    This game makes me never want to contribute to another Kickstarter game ever again. I contributed to this game since day one on Kickstarter. I was extremely excited of what would come out of this game. When alpha came out, it was bad but I kept saying to myself "it is still being built." Beta was bad still "It was being built." Even now, they fixed a lot of issues but the game isThis game makes me never want to contribute to another Kickstarter game ever again. I contributed to this game since day one on Kickstarter. I was extremely excited of what would come out of this game. When alpha came out, it was bad but I kept saying to myself "it is still being built." Beta was bad still "It was being built." Even now, they fixed a lot of issues but the game is bland as it could be. Just does not have that excitement and fulfillment of a game I was expecting. I REALLY tried to like it, but it was a HUGE disappointment.… Expand
  38. mongojunge
    Sep 23, 2014
    3
    Playing PA since December and today I realized that it has been launched 3 weeks ago. The sad thing is that there are so many things to be improved and so on that it is a shame that this should be the final version. I just could not believe that they are serious. I always liked the game and saw great potential in it.

    But what is actually good: + It is very complex. You fight on land,    Playing PA since December and today I realized that it has been launched 3 weeks ago. The sad thing is that there are so many things to be improved and so on that it is a shame that this should be the final version. I just could not believe that they are serious. I always liked the game and saw great potential in it.

    But what is actually good:
    + It is very complex. You fight on land, water, air and in the orbit
    + Solar systems with many different planets of all sizes and structures to be conquered
    + Powerful weapons like smashing planets and the "Death Star"
    + If your opponents are skilled you can have a very intense fighting that can get very complex and challenging

    What is not so nice:
    - Only one faction
    - Gameplay still a bit laggy when you have to move really a lot of units
    - Game lobby and "social components" very bad
    - Some bugs known for weeks not fixed. E.g. a bug in the lobby or path finding
    - I think the game is not so good balanced. E.g. the Death Star shoots very fast (I would call it rapid fire). Then I think that T1 units outgun T2 unites because they are cheap and fast.
    - The menu UI is ok but a bit boring and quite functional
    - The UI in the game is more or less ok. There are some bugs that should be fixed.

    If this is really what you can expect from your money. Don't buy it.    … Expand
  39. MaGicBush
    Sep 17, 2014
    3
    I really wanted to like this game, but they forced the release way to soon and led us on with some false promises unfortunately. Another EA title that let me down, and the last I will purchase most likely. The gameplay is fun, however the lack of an offline mode(DRM free) and the fact you cannot save your game is ridiculous. Some games can last more than a few hours easily, and I cannotI really wanted to like this game, but they forced the release way to soon and led us on with some false promises unfortunately. Another EA title that let me down, and the last I will purchase most likely. The gameplay is fun, however the lack of an offline mode(DRM free) and the fact you cannot save your game is ridiculous. Some games can last more than a few hours easily, and I cannot remember the last game I was able to finish all the way. The DRM in this game is worse than some Ubisoft games for crying out loud. Do not purchase and stay far away unless this gets removed(which they have stated multiple times it will be removed, but never did remove it and the game is now released).

    Other than that there is also the server instability, as the few times I tried playing with my friend one of us was disconnected randomly and we would have to restart. Again if we could save this would not be as big of an issue.

    And finally a lot of the features promised for single-player were never implemented, and as a result the campaign is repetitive and boring. You are honestly just trying to spam more units than the AI can(and the AI uses no strategy really).    … Expand
  40. Honeybadgers
    Sep 11, 2014
    4
    The game is playable. Mostly. That's the highest praise I can give it. I absolutely adored total annihilation and supcom1 (2 was fun but overly simple) and was looking forward to PA with serious intent. even bought in at $60 when it was "gamma" phase. I was blown away by the terribleness of it. The connectivity issues, the performance, the plastic feel of the units, the visual clusterf**kThe game is playable. Mostly. That's the highest praise I can give it. I absolutely adored total annihilation and supcom1 (2 was fun but overly simple) and was looking forward to PA with serious intent. even bought in at $60 when it was "gamma" phase. I was blown away by the terribleness of it. The connectivity issues, the performance, the plastic feel of the units, the visual clusterf**k that the rounded planet and constantly shifting angle of the camera was, the fact that certain units are blatantly overpowered (annihilation games have never grasped the concept of making ground and naval units actually good) and the mechanics that make the whole planet concept even remotely interesting are impossibly hard to implement smoothly into gameplay.

    overall, the game is just poorly done. I applaud the devs for the idea, but the execution is appalling, and the amount of money they were demanding for alpha access (when the game was absolutely unplayable in that state) was just insulting.

    The game is basically in a very early beta state right now. that's the nicest way I can put it. bring up the balance, make it less of a visual headache, and fix the performance and implement smoother progression of tech and we'll talk. Until then back to starcraft and supcom FA    … Expand
  41. Zillah
    Sep 17, 2014
    3
    Released in a half-baked state, Planetary Annihilation has ambition in spades, and very little follow through. Ostensibly the action takes place on planets, but they're actually just small sphere where curvature is distracting even when fully zoomed in, and remains a hindrance even zoomed all the way out. Gameplay favours speed and logistics over any sort of tactics or strategy, resultingReleased in a half-baked state, Planetary Annihilation has ambition in spades, and very little follow through. Ostensibly the action takes place on planets, but they're actually just small sphere where curvature is distracting even when fully zoomed in, and remains a hindrance even zoomed all the way out. Gameplay favours speed and logistics over any sort of tactics or strategy, resulting in massed waves of units sent to die, unwatched against the enemy, as you spam the next wave ready to go - it turns into a smush of coloured icons making each other blink out of existence.

    Most egregiously of all, the "single player" options require you to actually play online, with the hosting on an Uber server. If there is any interruption to your connection the game is lost permanently, and there is no ability to save in any fashion.

    All of this would be forgivable if they had not rushed a game to official launch status that was still replete with missing features and beta-esque bugs, all while begging indulgence, declaring that missing features will be added at some later, unspecified date. That is not acceptable behaviour for developers supposedly in possession of a game ready for full release.

    Anyone that was going to wait for the end of the beta should keep waiting.    … Expand
  42. dreadnought
    Sep 9, 2014
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game is Unfinished

    +Planetary Smashing and 'Annihilaser' are fun
    +fresh take on RTS maps by using planets
    +Multiple planets/dynamic planets
    +Strong community
    +Modding
    +no unit cap.

    +-procedurally generated planets (has 4 styles of planets, but actual terrain and play feel similar, not unique)
    +-graphics (Lighting and and viewing distant planets and actually seeing units and buildings on them in background is impressive yet up close, tearing, uninteresting land features and rather *plastic* feel)
    +-(very my opinion) Development team (seems quite devoted yet makes unsound decisions such as releasing game in unfinished state, seems to disregard community, does not seem to understand faults in game besides performance)
    +-Balance (navy is completely useless as much cheaper and stronger 'bots' known as dox and slammers can enter water, with little risk of return fire, Some units feel completely useless like T2 bots, solar arrays, transports. However strong and good transition from basic to advanced technologies and vehicles are (in opinion) complete
    +-Music Score (while very rich and varied on its own, most tracks do not support game-play and does not add to theme of planetary annihilation, with notable selections, (tracks do not support each-other))

    -Gas giants (uninteresting, no features, no strategic points yet "space jiggs" are very strong economically and easily defendable)
    -Unit Design (Basic, generic, not memorable)
    -not optimized
    -no in-game save features
    -Easily exploitable strategies (pausing and un-pausing continually to crash games intentionally, adjusting economy rates unfairly when game is in starting process, Taking a commander in an orbital transport and continually transporting in-between planets continually to unnecessarily extend game, because its nearly impossible to shoot down the orbital transport)

    --No offline mode. (Promised continually and consistently for release, yet seemingly ignored in favor of other design decisions by Dev-Team, no news whatsoever of when offline-mode will be released other then "SOON" which is very unhelpful)    … Expand
  43. poppen
    Sep 15, 2014
    5
    Game's (barely) playable, but I'd like to poke the devs a bit.

    The forums feel like a totalitarian reign. You post something too negative about Uber and you get your posts locked or removed from the forums. You post negative things too much, and the mods will shut down your account. It's ridiculous, the regular forumgoers are in their own little utopia where Uber is always painted in a    Game's (barely) playable, but I'd like to poke the devs a bit.

    The forums feel like a totalitarian reign. You post something too negative about Uber and you get your posts locked or removed from the forums. You post negative things too much, and the mods will shut down your account. It's ridiculous, the regular forumgoers are in their own little utopia where Uber is always painted in a positive light. Other gaming forums I go to are much more open about PA. I'll give you a hint, everyone thought it was "meh." Y'know, this actually reminds me a lot about the fun community at WarZ.    … Expand
  44. resula
    Sep 16, 2014
    6
    Planetary Annihilation is a well below average game. I've picked it up for a few hours at a time for the past year of its development, only to close the game out of sheer boredom. There's simply no point playing the game in a world where Supreme Commander, Total Annihilation, and Spring exist.

    Performance is poor enough that the epic battles of yore are chug fests. The planets are too    Planetary Annihilation is a well below average game. I've picked it up for a few hours at a time for the past year of its development, only to close the game out of sheer boredom. There's simply no point playing the game in a world where Supreme Commander, Total Annihilation, and Spring exist.

    Performance is poor enough that the epic battles of yore are chug fests. The planets are too small for any interesting strategy. A very poor (and boring) array of units. It just feels like the development team focused on the wrong things and ran out of interest or money when it came to, well, units.

    I will give the caveat that if you are the kind of player that really enjoyed playing the smallest maps on TA or SupCom to slug it out in a quick 20 minute match, PA is a game you'll probably enjoy. If, however, you liked to dig into 1-2+ hour matches on the big maps, just go play your epic strategy game of choice & skip PA.    … Expand
  45. UndeadRobot
    Sep 10, 2014
    6
    Planetary Annihilation is a really innovating game on many levels but it also falls short in a lot of areas in it's released state. Uber has always had intentions to continue development but this is what we've been left with at the moment.

    Spherical Planets are certainly a very unique gameplay element, and playing on a map with no "edges" is a nice refreshing prospect in the RTS genre,    Planetary Annihilation is a really innovating game on many levels but it also falls short in a lot of areas in it's released state. Uber has always had intentions to continue development but this is what we've been left with at the moment.

    Spherical Planets are certainly a very unique gameplay element, and playing on a map with no "edges" is a nice refreshing prospect in the RTS genre, unfortunately this is marred by the various different Biomes and planet types feeling like mostly like a cosmetic thing and there isn't much biome/planet-type related variety in regards to the gameplay. This is in part aided by the somewhat shallow unit roster filled with very plain unit roles while at the same time missing a few that seem obvious like Anti-Air for Bots and proper Amphibious units.

    Performance, while it has only gotten better since the Alpha, still isn't up to what I'd consider appropriate for release and there are still lots of crashing, slowdown and connection issues for many players.

    Some of these issues could have been addressed with the ability to locally host a server instead of relying on Uber's servers but that wasn't ready for release with no clear communication on what or when we can expect anything along these lines. If you don't have a solid internet connection definitely wait to purchase until Offline is included and fully functional.

    Another missing features is the ability to Save, or more accurate, ability to start a game from a selected point from a Chrono-cam replay. From a Technical standpoint the game already "saves" the games, as you can view the replays after the fact, but it doesn't let you "load" from the "saves" yet. This would have been not only a great tool for players on a limited time frame to still enjoy games at larger scales but also as a training/learning tool. You could go back and experiment with making different decisions under the exact same circumstances.

    Last of the key features that are missing is the lack of matchmaking of any kind, which can make the online experience rather hit and miss. This is all the more of an issue with the lack of any kind of in-game "Global Chat" like we had with SupCom which means you're limited to trying to join lobbies almost at random and hoping for a good even match.

    These things, while not Absolutely fundamental to the CORE GAMEPLAY of PA, are still very important to ensure more types of players can enjoy that core gameplay. Instead of working on stuff like this, Uber focused on delivering the first pass on Gas Giants and the Metal Planet Superweapon. These were only delivered to the Gamma players literally a week before release and they are thus far very shallow in regards to what they actually bring to the gameplay. Gas Giants are limited to only Orbital units, of which there are only 3 that are of use, the Jig, which produces Metal and Energy on top of having build in storage(resulting in the possibility to a crazy exponential Economy build up) and The Avenger(Basically a Fighter Jet in SPAAAAAACE) and the Anchor(An Immobile Turret in SPAAAAAACE) which natueally, doesn't leave much room for variety or depth. The Metal Planet SuperWeapon is almost more of an issue because they've balanced it in such a way that most of the time, as soon as a player gains control of it they win the game because they can proceed to blow up every other planet in the system, it doesn't have any cool down between shots nor any cost aside from the investment required to activate it. This Basically makes any system that has a Metal Planet with a Super Weapon into a completely different game mode, it's not really an Assassination game mode any more, now it's a King of the Hill Game mode.

    I think PA would have been a much more solid game if They had spent more time on the core game, instead of rushing to get it "released" and spreading themselves onto things that are really nothing more than extras like Gas Giants or the Metal Planet Superweapon.

    PA has lots of potential, never has that been any doubt of mine, but fulfilling that potential is completely different from simply having it be a possibility. Hopefully everything works out where Uber can pay themselves to work towards fulfilling that potential.    … Expand
  46. Kellerkind
    Aug 20, 2015
    0
    Greetings,

    First and foremost: The game itself is decent. It lacks soul and has no Singleplayer content, but the Skirmish and Multiplayer battles are good. The gameplay has been improved over Planetary annihilation. However, the Developers decision to try and circumvent review system by pulling PA from stores and re-releasing it as a standalone "Expansion" was a hamfisted approach.    Greetings,

    First and foremost: The game itself is decent. It lacks soul and has no Singleplayer content, but the Skirmish and Multiplayer battles are good. The gameplay has been improved over Planetary annihilation.

    However, the Developers decision to try and circumvent review system by pulling PA from stores and re-releasing it as a standalone "Expansion" was a hamfisted approach.

    They actively took a DUMP on ALL buyers of the game that were not kick starters, totally ignoring the fact that The Game went to steam with a 90 dollar price tag, and more when you consider the "DLC" commander skins.

    They just went a said "You are second class citizens now, please pay us more money and g f+ck yourself!".

    They threw the PA buyers under the bus, and that gives reason to expect they will be throwing Titans buyers under the bus too.

    Do not support this company. Do not buy the game.

    Wait a few month, then snatch it up for cheap from a third party key retailer.

    Do not support the sort of anti customer behavior that UBER entertainment just displayed.    … Expand
  47. Dozmo
    Oct 14, 2014
    5
    Essentially, it is a Total Annihilation / Supreme Commander clone, but more expensive, higher system requirements, and a few gimmicky things involving interplanetary movement. Worth trying for a hardcore RTS fan, just for the novelty of strapping engines to an asteroid and ramming your foe's planet with it. Don't expect it to hold your attention for long, though. You're probably better offEssentially, it is a Total Annihilation / Supreme Commander clone, but more expensive, higher system requirements, and a few gimmicky things involving interplanetary movement. Worth trying for a hardcore RTS fan, just for the novelty of strapping engines to an asteroid and ramming your foe's planet with it. Don't expect it to hold your attention for long, though. You're probably better off buying TA or SupCom I / Forged Alliance instead. Just don't get SupCom II - that game isn't even deserving of the middling score this gets.… Expand
  48. Earofcorn
    Aug 24, 2015
    0
    The game went from "pre-release" alpha to being "full release" AND a full-price expansion. What a scam. The developers should be ashamed and customers should avoid purchasing. Maybe worth $5, expansion included. The game has hardly changed or improved since early access. Still full of exploits and terrible AI. Still extremely repetitive and lacking the grandoise feeling of planetary combatThe game went from "pre-release" alpha to being "full release" AND a full-price expansion. What a scam. The developers should be ashamed and customers should avoid purchasing. Maybe worth $5, expansion included. The game has hardly changed or improved since early access. Still full of exploits and terrible AI. Still extremely repetitive and lacking the grandoise feeling of planetary combat it was marketed as. The maps are small, the combat is weak, and the game is completely uninteresting after very little time. This is a dishonest and manipulative trick by Uber Entertainment, that saw declining sales, and instead of working to revive a failing project, decided to release the game as is, package their recent additions into an overpriced expansion, and make as much money as they could with what pathetic little content they had. I've reported this product to Steam and recommended they take action against the developers at Uber Entertainment.… Expand
  49. Masterhummel
    Sep 5, 2014
    6
    Is Planetary Annihilation a good game? Yes. Did it meet my expectations? No. The game improved a lot from Alpha to EA to Beta to final product. It has its outstanding features - like the planets or amount of active units - but then it also lacks such basics features like re-bindable camera controls or units firing the earth because they can't handle the planits curvature. The transitionIs Planetary Annihilation a good game? Yes. Did it meet my expectations? No. The game improved a lot from Alpha to EA to Beta to final product. It has its outstanding features - like the planets or amount of active units - but then it also lacks such basics features like re-bindable camera controls or units firing the earth because they can't handle the planits curvature. The transition between planets is very meh and you never get the feel like you're doing a 'invasion' It's a very tideous process. In the end, it's very very hard to competete against Supreme Commander FA Forever which is balaned and maintained by the community for more then six years and it would be unfair to measure PA against it. But i.. just expected something more then average. And it hink, in its current state, PA isnt more then average if you sum up all the pros and cons.… Expand
  50. Stellen
    Sep 15, 2014
    0
    Really not ready for launch yet. A lot of bugs and missing or incomplete features. Total Annihilation 1 was fantastic, Total Annihilation 2 was good, Supreme Commander 1 was amazing, Supreme Commander 2 was pretty good, but Planetary Annihilation is very weak by comparison.

    Serious lag issues in single player games, planets which are tiny, the size of small asteroids, a huge reliance on    Really not ready for launch yet. A lot of bugs and missing or incomplete features. Total Annihilation 1 was fantastic, Total Annihilation 2 was good, Supreme Commander 1 was amazing, Supreme Commander 2 was pretty good, but Planetary Annihilation is very weak by comparison.

    Serious lag issues in single player games, planets which are tiny, the size of small asteroids, a huge reliance on the random number generator to decide whether you'll be allowed to build good forces, completely unmatched opponents, due to the random number generator, worse graphics than the first Total Annihilation, and the AI only knows how to zerg rush. Luckily for it, zerg rushing is really the only viable tactic anyway.

    Edit: I'm downgrading this to a zero. I'm consistently having games fail either due to lag, with units becoming completely unresponsive, or the game freezing up for minutes at a time, to come back to find my armies destroyed or my base levelled, or just having the game crash or drop out completely. This appalling lack of quality is so far beneath what we're entitled to expect from a 'finished' game that the 0 rating is completely justified.    … Expand
  51. extrastoutguinn
    Sep 17, 2014
    0
    I'm concerned that the bulk of these reviews are not genuine. My review was posted yesterday, scroll down for it. But seriously, big disappointment, the game isn't finished yet.
  52. MatthewAMEL
    Sep 22, 2014
    3
    I was hoping for a true successor to Supreme Commander. Not even close.

    This game makes SupCom 2 look good.

    Almost enough to make me swear off the 'crowd funding' model of development.
  53. Buccelus
    Sep 18, 2014
    5
    I purchased PA in Early Access for 60€ because it looked like a great game with massive potential. The trailers promised me everything I as a RTS-fan could ever dream of. But once I started the game things appeared differently. You don't have different races, you don`t have a matchmaking-system, which could match you to equally skilled players. By that you enter a lobby and are shred byI purchased PA in Early Access for 60€ because it looked like a great game with massive potential. The trailers promised me everything I as a RTS-fan could ever dream of. But once I started the game things appeared differently. You don't have different races, you don`t have a matchmaking-system, which could match you to equally skilled players. By that you enter a lobby and are shred by more experienced players. Also this game does not really provide an option to play defensively or passively and insists on going at each other like crazy. I don't want to play a game with only one tactical options.… Expand
  54. Xenofact
    Sep 15, 2014
    3
    No tiers 3 units, servers crash quite often even on single player .
    All units looks like the same: looks like a mess.
    Only "one race", no differences like total annihilation (ARM/CORE) No Solo campaign: only solo skirmish. As first kickstarters, i'm quite disappointed. It's fun, but not as a Supreme Commander which it should inherit. Even Total Annihilation is more strategic. The    No tiers 3 units, servers crash quite often even on single player .
    All units looks like the same: looks like a mess.
    Only "one race", no differences like total annihilation (ARM/CORE)
    No Solo campaign: only solo skirmish.

    As first kickstarters, i'm quite disappointed.
    It's fun, but not as a Supreme Commander which it should inherit. Even Total Annihilation is more strategic.

    The "unit catapult" shown on the kickstarter video doesn't exist.    … Expand
  55. Gamesmaster123
    Sep 10, 2014
    2
    The worst DRM since SimCity (always online to play single player vs AI), game ending lag within that online experience, constant crashing,inability to field large armies (lag again), failure to meet kickstarte promises (missing units, DRM) and absolutely no dev communication on why the game was released in such a poor state, or when it will be fixed?

    This is simply a failed game at the    The worst DRM since SimCity (always online to play single player vs AI), game ending lag within that online experience, constant crashing,inability to field large armies (lag again), failure to meet kickstarte promises (missing units, DRM) and absolutely no dev communication on why the game was released in such a poor state, or when it will be fixed?

    This is simply a failed game at the moment, not worth buying, it's full of bugs and doesn't work. There is a rabid core of fanboys on Uber's forums bigging it up and claiming all this stuff is coming, but as an average consumer, this was a big mistake. Do yourself a favour and avoid, at least until there have been a number of patches and things are fixed (not sure this will ever happen).    … Expand
  56. BoTuLoX
    Oct 7, 2014
    0
    Absolute disaster. This "release" is an utter disaster and the Linux issues are disgusting and unacceptable. And we can't play single player offline? What a joke. SMNC gone to the **** and now this, I'll never buy anything from Uber again and I suggest everyone to do the same.
  57. juanmatog
    Sep 27, 2014
    2
    This game promised much, but the end result is far from the promises. It is far from the quality levels of Total Annihilation or Supreme Commander series. This game lacks manual, has no tutorial, no ability to save games, very limited in many aspects of gameplay, and in others points is unfriendly, several flaws in the AI, naval units are useless, the whole control system the planet isThis game promised much, but the end result is far from the promises. It is far from the quality levels of Total Annihilation or Supreme Commander series. This game lacks manual, has no tutorial, no ability to save games, very limited in many aspects of gameplay, and in others points is unfriendly, several flaws in the AI, naval units are useless, the whole control system the planet is chaotic, the transport system between planets is very bad, the two factions in the game are the same (structures and units are the same). PA is not a good strategy game, or even add something really new to the world of gaming, as something similar, but without planets, it did years ago a game called Metal Fatigue. In PA, the planets are just maps, and very small, it is an arcade game, compared to the Supreme Commander is an insult to the strategy, and the game of Chris Taylor. All this, without going into depth on how bad it is optimized and tested with crashes or errors of any kind, especially for a game in 2014.
    Today, it is impossible to recommend to anyone to buy this game. Let no one be fooled, because they say that the game follows the steps of Total Annihilation or Supreme Commander, because that is a lie by 90%.    … Expand
  58. Meraco
    Oct 30, 2014
    0
    The failure of PA stems back with it's introduction on Steam as an early access alpha. The game was priced to coincide with the kickstarter values and this produced an uproar of discontent among the gaming community. Many that were outspoken were silenced by various means such as forum threads being locked and Bans issued. As a result this left a bad taste in a portion of the potentialThe failure of PA stems back with it's introduction on Steam as an early access alpha. The game was priced to coincide with the kickstarter values and this produced an uproar of discontent among the gaming community. Many that were outspoken were silenced by various means such as forum threads being locked and Bans issued. As a result this left a bad taste in a portion of the potential market share. Many supporters paid the high price of alpha testing and the Uber team forged ahead.

    The financing model viewed by many as inversely proportional was beginning to show its effect. The premise for kickstarter and for early access, is to fund the creation of a game for final release to be sold to the public. The problem with this model is, anyone that is interested in the game will buy it in the alpha state with hopes that the game will eventually be completed as advertised. This means when the game is finally released there are very few sales since anyone that was interested in the genre have already purchased it. And since the opening price was so high they reduced the amount of potential sales later on even at a reduced price. People that are silenced tend to move on to other titles.

    As new funding slowed, and ongoing development costs continued, this meant that sustainability was rapidly coming to an end. So a final version was needed quickly. And the final result is a game that does not fulfill the initial hype or promised features as advertised.

    This game had so much potential, so much promise. But poor decisions made from the onset ultimately has left a sour taste with many early backers and ultimately has tarnished the corporate image of this development team. So much so that a new kickstarter from the same team failed to meet minimums and was ultimately shut down.

    This game is incomplete and fails to deliver. The company made its money and has lost the confidence of it's early backers to produce new titles. In my opinion, Uber has eloquently demonstrated to all would be game developers what "not" to do.

    Yes you will make an influx of money early on. but it will result in the unsalvageable demise of a once respected development firm.

    One that in it's own words published the following statement:(in part)

    "So what happens now? After we've spent some “recovery time,” which consists of a dark room and probably some sobbing, N*** and I will regroup and figure out what to do next. Who knows what the future holds"

    I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this game to anyone.    … Expand
  59. Ravendarke
    Sep 14, 2014
    0
    Absolute failure, unpolished features, promises not kept, missing content, online mod only, broken save system... I pity everyone who invested in early access or after official launch.
  60. bdeuebyukgcg
    Sep 16, 2014
    0
    Unethical conduct, please avoid. Game accounts and forum accounts are tied together. Uber banned people (in both game and forum) for speaking out too negatively in all their games.
  61. Suthainn
    Sep 15, 2014
    1
    Very disappointing, no offline mode, no save game, single player experience is nothing like what was promised. Overall this game should never have left beta, it's buggy, has frequent crashes and is far from the advertised original game, needs a lot more work before it's worth even thinking about paying for.
  62. CassiusDean
    Sep 24, 2014
    5
    I have been a Planetary Annihilation backer since Alpha. In this state the game does not come close to rivalling Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation, two games which it draws inspiration from. The game is plagued by bugs and connectivity issues and there is little in interesting unit diversity.

    The one hope for Planetary Annihilation is that these various issues are rectified in    I have been a Planetary Annihilation backer since Alpha. In this state the game does not come close to rivalling Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation, two games which it draws inspiration from. The game is plagued by bugs and connectivity issues and there is little in interesting unit diversity.

    The one hope for Planetary Annihilation is that these various issues are rectified in upcoming versions of the game. Unfortunately significant updates are taking painfully long to be released and the game's developers do not seem to have their priorities in the right place in terms of what features to work on, leaving me to wonder if the game will ever come close to achieving it's original vision and satisfying us hopeful backers.

    Pros:
    -Interesting concept
    -Not a bad game when it works.

    Cons:
    -Lack of strategic depth.
    -Huge problems with connectivity.
    -No single player.
    -No saved games.
    -Difficult to have a good time with so many bugs and unpolished features.    … Expand
  63. eroticburrito
    Jul 5, 2014
    6
    'Planetary Annihilation' is the self-proclaimed 'spiritual successor' to the genre-defining RTS 'Total Annihilation'. It is being developed by veterans of the industry (UBER) whose employees have worked on "Total Annihilation", "Supreme Commander" and "Demigod" in the past.

    On most accounts, it delivers on its aim to be a better spiritual successor to TA than SupCom, and introduces new    'Planetary Annihilation' is the self-proclaimed 'spiritual successor' to the genre-defining RTS 'Total Annihilation'. It is being developed by veterans of the industry (UBER) whose employees have worked on "Total Annihilation", "Supreme Commander" and "Demigod" in the past.

    On most accounts, it delivers on its aim to be a better spiritual successor to TA than SupCom, and introduces new (awesome) features to the genre, such as spherical maps (planets which orbit in solar systems) planet-smashing and Orbital Units.
    There is no unit cap - this is a 'macro' streaming-economy RTS on a scale which promises to live on for many years to come as hardware advances.

    The game is beautiful to look at, with a 'blocky' art-style'.

    Modding is already a big part of the game, and the developers are generally pro-active within the community. Therefore the game has a community and will continue to improve after release (both through UBER's efforts, and those of modders).

    The game is currently in its "Gamma" Phase (following Alpha and Beta). More polish comes with every patch. However there are still some lag issues - which is distressing because the game looks great, and in-game balance is coming along nicely.

    As an old player of the genre there are also one or two things which I feel "Planetary Annihilation" as 'Spiritual Successor' to "Total Annihilation" is missing. Namely these are:
    A more diverse Energy Generation System (Wind-Solar-Tidal-Geothermal).
    A few environmental effects (such as units moving slower on ice), and spider-bots going over mountains.
    Greater terrain variation - that is, sheer cliffs, steep valleys and mesas.

    For that reason I give the game 6/10, as it still has a way to go, and misses some of the important and idiosyncratic parts of Total Annihilation's spirit (such as putting your artillery on a hill, or that moment when your Solar Power Pyramids fold shut whilst under fire).

    That said, these missing features will hopefully either be modded in eventually by the community, or Uber may add them as the unit roster and Planet Biomes expand - so my rating and feelings may change :)

    All in all, "Planetary Annihilation" is shaping up to be a great game and is definitely worth buying if you enjoy huge online armies of robots blowing each other up!    … Expand
  64. elvisior
    Jul 1, 2014
    10
    I love this game. The game is still being developed but I've enjoyed playing it since alpha. I had held off until recently to recommend this game to friends but it's now at a point where I think less hard core gamers can enjoy it.
    If you RTS games then in my opinion, this is the best one.
    I participated in a tournament a few weeks back and that was probably one of my favourite gaming    I love this game. The game is still being developed but I've enjoyed playing it since alpha. I had held off until recently to recommend this game to friends but it's now at a point where I think less hard core gamers can enjoy it.
    If you RTS games then in my opinion, this is the best one.
    I participated in a tournament a few weeks back and that was probably one of my favourite gaming experiences ever. Great fun!    … Expand
  65. PeggleFrank
    Jul 2, 2014
    5
    Planetary Annihilation extracts the essence of what makes a good RTS and multiplies it to the extreme. Battles can range from small-scale skirmishes to wars waging across entire galaxies, with interplanetary combat and super weapons that are designed to annihilate anything, whether it be a single unit, a base, or an entire planet.

    Graphically, units are easy to distinguish and the game    Planetary Annihilation extracts the essence of what makes a good RTS and multiplies it to the extreme. Battles can range from small-scale skirmishes to wars waging across entire galaxies, with interplanetary combat and super weapons that are designed to annihilate anything, whether it be a single unit, a base, or an entire planet.

    Graphically, units are easy to distinguish and the game has a blocky art style, despite the focus on spherical maps. Buildings are absolutely massive compared to units, which definitely gives a defining sense of scale to the game. The server takes in nearly all the data and processes it, lowering the stress on the user's end, which makes the game more available to those with older or outdated computers.

    In terms of balance, there are five main unit types. Bots are quick and can be made en masse, vehicles are slower, deal more damage, and have more health, aircraft are very fast but have low health and often times have trouble targeting other types of units, ships are slow, have massive health/DPS, and are restricted to water, and orbital units are slow, capable of travelling to other planets, and have trouble targeting ground units.

    The game, while still technically in "beta," feels incomplete. The roster of confirmed features provides very little to actual gameplay, except for a few superweapons that will be added post-launch. Games usually end up being generic fights between two types of units, with little diversity in army composition. Many units are very weak with a light specialization; if they're massed (as intended), their strength will be much more reasonable and their specialization more apparent. However, even though there may be hundreds of units on the field at a time, it still feels like only a handful of units. It's very difficult to evenly split up an army, due to how units randomly align themselves against other units, so an army will usually be composed entirely of one unit or a mishmash of completely random units that cannot be divided.

    Every superweapon in this game feels unique. SXX laser satellites can be used to annihilate your opponents from orbit, Halley ion engines can be used to crash planets into each other, and Holkins artillery can be used to bombard your enemy with powerful explosive shells, capable of dealing massive damage to small groups of units. They're all very expensive, and very much depend on the type of battle you're fighting; there is no superweapon that will work in every scenario. For example, Holkins have difficulty firing on small planets, where the gravity will make their shots miss more often than if they were on a flatter surface.

    Interactions between unit types feels dead. Orbital units can only interact with orbital units, with exception to the Anchor, which is capable of firing towards the surface. Naval units can't go on land, and bots/vehicles can't go in water, which usually discourages engagement as there's no point in fighting a land army if it's incapable of doing anything to a base located in the middle of an ocean. Air units interact with both naval and land units, but are usually either obliterated before they can do anything or overpower the anti-air and win regardless, making battles between air units and ground forces very much a boolean of whether or not you have enough to kill the enemy.

    In its current state, the game has enough content to be fun, but it leaves much to be desired once its core mechanics are analyzed. It may still be in development, but the confirmed features list is barren of gameplay-affecting features. The game also has absolutely ludicrous marketing, which is odd, given that there isn't much more to be implemented besides bugfixes, a few units, and performance improvements.

    All in all, the game feels like a proof of concept more than anything else. It's certainly fun, and the interplanetary interactions are interesting, but it feels as if there just isn't enough there. The scale of things is mostly due to dividing numbers, as most units feel as if they're weakened versions of other, stronger units that will never be seen or heard of.

    Planetary Annihilation may not be Game of the Year 2014, but it's certainly an interesting spin on the RTS genre. It lacks what many other games of the RTS genre have, yet has a few unique features of its own that will most likely be incorporated into many new RTS games going forward.    … Expand
  66. SweetLemonKing
    Jun 28, 2014
    8
    Great real time strategy game, I can feel that it's no perfect for everybody, but if you are a person who likes these kind of strategy games, you should definently pick this one up, I love the new resource mechanic in the game wich we have not seen in alot of games lately and I also love that you can transfer to different planets, set off nukes at your enemies, and even blow planets up.Great real time strategy game, I can feel that it's no perfect for everybody, but if you are a person who likes these kind of strategy games, you should definently pick this one up, I love the new resource mechanic in the game wich we have not seen in alot of games lately and I also love that you can transfer to different planets, set off nukes at your enemies, and even blow planets up.
    Worth buying, if you don't usally play these games but you still wanna try it, I suggest picking it up on a sale.    … Expand
  67. LoganFrost
    Jul 1, 2014
    10
    For the game being STILL NOT FINISHED it is fantastic. It will bring a huge breath of fresh air to the RTS genre. The game has its bugs, but that's why it is early access so we can get those bugs out. The game will take place on an incredible scale across an entire solar system. I enjoy it now and cannot wait for the full release!
  68. sudomilk
    Jul 1, 2014
    10
    It has been said that a game is only deep if you can constantly find counters to tactics which elevate the level of play higher and higher with time. StarCraft, Street Fighter, and even Chess are fantastic examples of this. Planetary Annihilation is very new, and not fully released, but already the "ceiling" of play is high and constantly rising as more competitive players come onto theIt has been said that a game is only deep if you can constantly find counters to tactics which elevate the level of play higher and higher with time. StarCraft, Street Fighter, and even Chess are fantastic examples of this. Planetary Annihilation is very new, and not fully released, but already the "ceiling" of play is high and constantly rising as more competitive players come onto the scene.

    If the development rends continue, this game will continue to improve, expand, and grow in the minds of strategists and gamers alike.    … Expand
  69. jonathansty
    Jul 2, 2014
    9
    While the game still has some flaws because it's still in beta phase "gamma". I can totally stand in for the fact that is totally wort the 50 euro I spent on it. I already had so much fun. Been playing tournaments, Casting tournaments, talking with the community. The devs really keep touch with the players and updates get pushed to a public test environment first to test them out.While the game still has some flaws because it's still in beta phase "gamma". I can totally stand in for the fact that is totally wort the 50 euro I spent on it. I already had so much fun. Been playing tournaments, Casting tournaments, talking with the community. The devs really keep touch with the players and updates get pushed to a public test environment first to test them out.

    Gameplay wise this is an rts without unit limits so it means we can have huge size battles. And that's what the devs also try to get with balancing it. Moving between planets, using portal, etc... If you think that's cool wait until you smash a planet against an enemy. It may not run as smooth as expected. But in the next pte there is a huge peformance improvement where as my computer now can run it at 30+ all the time. Even in the end of the game where your field is crowded with unites and satellites.    … Expand
  70. Bradaz85
    Jul 2, 2014
    5
    The development for this game so far has been good, the game is starting to look like a finished product, although some features are still missing, and others still need tweaking and finished. A lot of the balance still needs sorting out and the unit roster could do with fleshing out, there's still a whole lot of fun to be had with PA!
    The game has been said to be more of a platform to    The development for this game so far has been good, the game is starting to look like a finished product, although some features are still missing, and others still need tweaking and finished. A lot of the balance still needs sorting out and the unit roster could do with fleshing out, there's still a whole lot of fun to be had with PA!
    The game has been said to be more of a platform to make mods for and play your own way so the game ultimately is going to be quite light on content and is going to be expected to have many mods such as full balance conversions and new units and hopefully Shields! I can see this RTS being very popular when finished, it does help that PA is pretty much the only current RTS at the moment, it is the only game of its kind with huge scale.

    Time will tell how well this game will do, and just what is actually finished at 1.0 release. And for that reason, this review is subject to change.    … Expand
  71. NikolayG
    Sep 7, 2014
    6
    This will be a great game once the single player save feature is implemented or, if it exists, if it's made clear to the user just how to use it. The games last for hours. No game can be saved to your hard drive, but it might be possible to continue playing after quitting by accessing the 'replay' feature, scrolling to the end of the replay, and continuing to play. I'm not sure and theThis will be a great game once the single player save feature is implemented or, if it exists, if it's made clear to the user just how to use it. The games last for hours. No game can be saved to your hard drive, but it might be possible to continue playing after quitting by accessing the 'replay' feature, scrolling to the end of the replay, and continuing to play. I'm not sure and the developers seem unaware that this is a critical feature if single player is to be playable for anyone without 12 straight hours of free time on a regular basis. Do not buy unless/until you find unequivocal clear statements from the developers that single-player saving is possible (not that it will be one day, but that it IS now). Until they can say that, stay away if single-player is your thing.… Expand
  72. tehtrekd
    Jul 2, 2014
    7
    DISCLAIMER: As has been mentioned before, keep in mind that this game is in development, everything and anything is subject to change. As such, I am not reviewing this game on what it will be, rather I will be reviewing and scoring the game based on how it currently is, in build version 67523.

    With that out of the way... Planetary Annihilation is a pretty damn good game. It's come a    DISCLAIMER: As has been mentioned before, keep in mind that this game is in development, everything and anything is subject to change. As such, I am not reviewing this game on what it will be, rather I will be reviewing and scoring the game based on how it currently is, in build version 67523.

    With that out of the way...

    Planetary Annihilation is a pretty damn good game. It's come a very long way from when it was just in its alpha state and I've definitely been loving it.

    Its presentation is downright awesome. The cartoonish art style adds a lot of life to the game, and unlike in other games where all the units blend into a big gray mess, in this game you can actually see every single individual unit, assuming you aren't in the icon view. I'd say it almost looks like a slightly less realistic Borderlands. With considerably less brown.
    The game's soundtrack is absolutely amazing, composed by Howard Mostrom it really captures the game's feel of blowing up everything in sight.

    The game plays pretty much like your average everyday RTS, build a bunch of units, blow up a bunch of stuff, pretty normal stuff, but with one tiny, insignificant addition.
    PLANETS IN SPACE.
    Yes indeed, you are not only playing the game on a spherical planet, but on MULTIPLE planets! You can send your units to other planets either by using a drop pod, capable of sending single units to other planets, or a teleporter akin to stargate, which can transport hundreds of units in mere seconds.
    The addition of space of course adds in the orbital layer to gameplay and unfortunately this part of the game is somewhat lacking. It's pretty much just a second, much higher air layer, with slower moving units. Overall it does what it needs to but it'd be nice if it had a little bit more.

    The unit balance is also not very good, unfortunately. Some units are too weak, others are too strong and air units are downright overpowered all across the board.

    Now, as this is a PC game, it's worth talking about the performance. The game actually runs quite well, my PC is pretty crappy and I'm able to get a pretty good and stable framerate, although on the server side of things the game can get VERY laggy late-game, which is a problem due to the fact that the game is currently always-online until initial release.

    Overall PA is an awesome game that is downright fun to play. Doing things like pulling off a successful invasion or taking over a planet, just to flood immense amounts of units through a teleporter just feels damn great, there's simply nothing else like it. It does have its faults (like the aforementioned balance issues) but the pros do outweigh the cons, the game never feels truly unplayable and is just a great piece of entertainment.
    If you're an RTS fan, I HIGHLY recommend picking it up. You won't be disappointed.    … Expand
  73. Ohnotheydidnt
    Sep 16, 2014
    1
    The cons:

    Always online DRM It lags forever Many, many bugs A core group of rabid fanboys who attack anyone and everyone who dares disagree with them It's an unfinished game that has been 'released' The AI doesn't work The pros When it works it can be fun to use the superweapons. It's just annoying that you use them on an 'Absurd' level AI who has built one factory and a small    The cons:

    Always online DRM
    It lags forever
    Many, many bugs
    A core group of rabid fanboys who attack anyone and everyone who dares disagree with them
    It's an unfinished game that has been 'released'
    The AI doesn't work

    The pros
    When it works it can be fun to use the superweapons. It's just annoying that you use them on an 'Absurd' level AI who has built one factory and a small dog to accompany the commander and nothing else after 30 mins of play    … Expand
  74. hierax
    Sep 18, 2014
    5
    Its not the supreme commander killer it used to be. The Units are boring, everything looks like 8bit tanks and planes. There arent any units feeling epic like the giant units from supreme commander. I knew from the beginning how the normal units will look, and that they will look "unspectacular" because i bought it during the alpha, but i thought there will be superunits or somethingIts not the supreme commander killer it used to be. The Units are boring, everything looks like 8bit tanks and planes. There arent any units feeling epic like the giant units from supreme commander. I knew from the beginning how the normal units will look, and that they will look "unspectacular" because i bought it during the alpha, but i thought there will be superunits or something making it unique. There are no differences between the armies. Everybody got the same units, it doesnt have any effect what commander you take etc... Just build up as many units as possible and overrun the others. We had that before in C&C 1 and 2. 15 years ago. The campaign is boring. No story or something. I think this game is ok if you play with or against friends, alone its just meh...… Expand
  75. scarletblade
    Oct 3, 2014
    2
    The presentation simply did not meet the expectation nor the goal set out by the developer in Kickstarter.

    Game content: Single player is non-existent, without storyline, PA only has the galactic conquer mode is just skirmish games with minimal alterations(with certain units/buildings locked until you equip it in the meta-game map.) Units and technology is very basic. I've counted    The presentation simply did not meet the expectation nor the goal set out by the developer in Kickstarter.

    Game content:
    Single player is non-existent, without storyline, PA only has the galactic conquer mode is just skirmish games with minimal alterations(with certain units/buildings locked until you equip it in the meta-game map.)
    Units and technology is very basic. I've counted more units in the old classic , Total Annihilation, which is a 1997 game for god's sake.
    The space part of the game is also underwhelming, with only 3 buildings, and 7 units. (These are, builder, scout, adv scout, fighter, transport,bomber, turrets, 2 types of resource generators, and finally the factory)
    It's basically a water-down version of a new dimension like air, or naval, with less units!
    Ground based orbital defenses , unit-firing cannon (showcased in the pledge of Kickstarter), or more orbital combat units than 2 of the fighter/bomber is nowhere to be found.

    Stability:
    Game crashes.
    Server crashes.
    Other player crashes.

    Combine all three of the above, with the fact that the game has to log-in to play, you'll get a very frustrating experience where you can't play single players when the server is down, and when you want to play multi-player (and the server is actually up and running!) chances are someone will crash mid-game.

    Other thoughts:
    I understand this is a small-production studio trying to re-create a classic RTS game with new ideas, but overall even when that is taken into consideration it's still disappointing.
    The fact that the game was unstable, and simply has not met the goals set out by kickstarter when they officially released it a month ago was disappointing(not to mention how they rip people for $100 with the even more unstable version during Alpha)
    But today when I received an email from the developer about their new kickstarter project it's simply heartbreaking - It meant they'll be shifting their focus onto the new project. Updates to PA will be limited to say the least.    … Expand
  76. dal789
    Oct 27, 2014
    2
    Some things that make this game completely uninteresting to me:

    - I don't like playing on a sphere. They should have axed that idea at the beginning. TA and SC have "flat" maps and it works well!! Tried too hard to be different. - Units are too cartoonish. Seems more like a tablet game with respect to unit graphics detail. - Unit tiers are bare bones. - Bugs and overall lack of a    Some things that make this game completely uninteresting to me:

    - I don't like playing on a sphere. They should have axed that idea at the beginning. TA and SC have "flat" maps and it works well!! Tried too hard to be different.
    - Units are too cartoonish. Seems more like a tablet game with respect to unit graphics detail.
    - Unit tiers are bare bones.
    - Bugs and overall lack of a finished game feel.
    - DRM.

    With the all-star team, I expected a much better game. I would have been thrilled with just an update to Total Annihilation, with new units, maps, and use of modern graphics card features. Anyway, I don't see myself ever playing this game. At least I have a cool t-shirt coming this "winter" for my $120!!    … Expand
  77. axolotl777
    Jul 1, 2014
    9
    For me, Planetary Annihilation is a refreshing real-time-strategy after having played countless hours of SC2 and Broodwar. As of this writing, the game is in "Gamma" aka Beta development. Still, Planetary Annihilation offers battles that take place across planets, the ability to smash other planets into each-other sowing sweet catastrophe, and epic battles between ground, naval, air andFor me, Planetary Annihilation is a refreshing real-time-strategy after having played countless hours of SC2 and Broodwar. As of this writing, the game is in "Gamma" aka Beta development. Still, Planetary Annihilation offers battles that take place across planets, the ability to smash other planets into each-other sowing sweet catastrophe, and epic battles between ground, naval, air and orbital units.
    The game has gone on sale for $17 & $25 through Steam when it usually costs $50. If you've enjoyed Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander, or any other rts, you should look into purchasing this well crafted game (feel free to wait until it actually releases!).    … Expand
  78. Zexer
    Jul 1, 2014
    9
    This "spiritual sequel" to Total Annihilation is pretty much a modern remake of it. It has updated graphics, units and tons of new features. The only criticism I'd have with the game is that the interface is a bit clunky. Other than that it is a pretty solid game.
  79. cody112
    Jul 2, 2014
    10
    Planetary Annihilation is still in development and has bugs, performance issues, etc. Do not participate in the early access unless you understand what in development means as well as the issues that could arise. Currently has a release date of sometime in 2014. Release date could be changed at any time. I will not write a review until Planetary Annihilation is released.
  80. JadeRuby
    Sep 10, 2014
    0
    This is one of the worst Kick starter overhyped games of the year, as a long time fan of TA and other RTS games this is a Unplayable mess of bugs and is a staple of Devs who are destroying the Game industry.
    Stay Away from this game please
  81. aggie2016
    Jul 2, 2014
    10
    It's only when you become a programmer yourself, do you begin to appreciate the complexity and thought that when into making this addictive RTS. I've put over 300 hours into this game (which is currently in development; a fact that some of the aggressive reviewers seem to have ignored). It currently has a wide feature set with a large laundry list of exciting features still in the works.It's only when you become a programmer yourself, do you begin to appreciate the complexity and thought that when into making this addictive RTS. I've put over 300 hours into this game (which is currently in development; a fact that some of the aggressive reviewers seem to have ignored). It currently has a wide feature set with a large laundry list of exciting features still in the works. Uber Entertainment has a winner in Planetary Annihilation and I would recommend anyone interested in large scale strategic wars (or previous fans of TA, Sup Com, or AOE) purchase this game and see for yourself just how amazing it is!!

    P.S. Ignore posters giving the game a 0/10 (like Cyliann). I get an average of 60 FPS in-game. The only time the frame rate drops is late game (which has already seen MASSIVE improvements in multi-threading to minimize this). Additionally, because this IN DEVELOPMENT game requires constant download of new features/content via updates (and continual reporting of server/client bugs) a fairly decent internet connection is required for now (between 1 - 2 MBps). After this game is shipped (version 1.0), Uber intends to provide all owners with the server files for offline play.    … Expand
  82. kwopper
    Jun 28, 2014
    10
    Fantastic RTS with gorgeous yet simplistic graphics and gameplay mechanics, this is innovation done right. Very few bugs and easy to understand controls, as well as a large amount of content, and this game is still in early development. We will likely see much more content added in the future, not that it is necessary. Get it now during the steam summer sales.
  83. glinkot
    Sep 6, 2014
    9
    Amazing concept, cool platform. The goal here (much like half life and the source engine) was to develop a revolutionary engine and a game to demonstrate it. As a Kickstarter project, it's pretty amazing to consider the innovations they've made around asychronous multiplayer is great, and if it could replace the 'slowed down by the slowest peer' synchronous crap in pretty much all otherAmazing concept, cool platform. The goal here (much like half life and the source engine) was to develop a revolutionary engine and a game to demonstrate it. As a Kickstarter project, it's pretty amazing to consider the innovations they've made around asychronous multiplayer is great, and if it could replace the 'slowed down by the slowest peer' synchronous crap in pretty much all other games, it would be a win. Second, dealing with spherical planets instead of flat maps would have been a headache.

    As for the game, it is indeed epic in scale and there is great satisfaction in knocking others off with this and that sneaky attack. I recommend it highly. It will still take some time though to a) Iron out bugs, which they're aware of and launched anyway, and b) Get the balance sorted.    … Expand
  84. Zweistein000
    Jul 1, 2014
    8
    Planetary annihilation is an awesome game of epic proportions. Although still EARLY ACCESS and in so called "Gamma" phase it is still very fun to play. The game play is interesting and follows the well established Total Annihilation style of games with it's streaming economy, lots of factories and upgrading to better tech, except that in Planetary annihilation the battles span overPlanetary annihilation is an awesome game of epic proportions. Although still EARLY ACCESS and in so called "Gamma" phase it is still very fun to play. The game play is interesting and follows the well established Total Annihilation style of games with it's streaming economy, lots of factories and upgrading to better tech, except that in Planetary annihilation the battles span over multiple spherical planets and over 4 different types of battlefields (ground, naval, air and orbital). Another one of it's awesome features is modability. Although not completed yet, there are a lot of UI mods and quite some server mods available and it us the long-term plan of the developers so create a highly modable game to ensure it's longevity. I personally find it very enjoyable and this is one of the two games in my life that I have managed to play for a period greater than a few months.
    However no one is perfect and Planetary annihilation is no exception. The game has been in early access for almost a year now and it is beginning to show. Corners are being cut as shown by removal of submarines and the unit cannon form initial release, with a lot of features like 40 player games and gas giants under question if we will see them before release. There also a lot of other thing that seem a bit rushed like orbital, which plays well, but has some holes in it's functionality. But by far the worst result of a year long pre-release state is the fact that in order to secure income the game has been put into retail shops IN IT'S CURRENT PRE-RELEASE VERSION!!!!! The Retail version also promises a lot of things that have been confirmed to come a long time after release (like submarines or multiplayer galactic war). So if you do plan on buying it, do your research, head over to he uberent forums and get a picture of the games current state and then buy it.    … Expand
  85. XieneusJongIl
    Sep 5, 2014
    9
    Is this game good? Yes

    Does it need more work? Yes

    Is it worth the current price of admission? Depends if you're willing to cope with the current issues of the game.

    This game has mostly delivered on Uber's promise of a interplanetary RTS. It is massive, fun and really is a great successor to Total Annihilation.

    Is it perfect? No, but its still great.

    9/10
  86. tatsu
    Jul 2, 2014
    10
    I say it's a 10 because of all it represents. If you've delved enough into grand scale simulated projectile real time strategy just a bit, then you'll know it's a big man's game requiring nothing but the best both from the PC and the gamer.

    PA lives up to it's predecessors in taking the sacred torch of this game genre and carrying it through into it's next generation, and once again    I say it's a 10 because of all it represents. If you've delved enough into grand scale simulated projectile real time strategy just a bit, then you'll know it's a big man's game requiring nothing but the best both from the PC and the gamer.

    PA lives up to it's predecessors in taking the sacred torch of this game genre and carrying it through into it's next generation, and once again being the pinnacle of software technology.

    It's nowhere near complete yet. But it's already a blast a a revolution.

    This game is just WAITING to topple Starcraft II and steal all of it's user base.

    this IS the next big thing.    … Expand
  87. misterbingo
    Jul 1, 2014
    9
    A true successor to the Supreme Commander series with the scaled-down space setting giving enough twist to the strategy to justify a new game. Graphically it's fantastic (imagine Kerbal Space Program with extra shaders). The strategy is incredibly deep with all the unique units and buildings that can turn a game around. This combined with random terrain and multiple planets create a trulyA true successor to the Supreme Commander series with the scaled-down space setting giving enough twist to the strategy to justify a new game. Graphically it's fantastic (imagine Kerbal Space Program with extra shaders). The strategy is incredibly deep with all the unique units and buildings that can turn a game around. This combined with random terrain and multiple planets create a truly next-gen RTS. Interface-wise, it is very intuitive (apart from a few recent updates). Uber Entertainment are not only promising to continue updating the game but they also added linux support.
    The only flaws right now are orbital gameplay and a few rare graphical glitches. Both of those can be ironed out before release though.    … Expand
  88. Andweeb
    Oct 2, 2014
    10
    I think this game deserves better ratings than what it's currently got. I would think it's at 6 right now because of all the early adopters writing reviews before the game was even finished. It's come a long way and unlike many other eary access games the developers have been consistent and updated the game regularily - they have not left us in the dark. I am a TA and FA player and II think this game deserves better ratings than what it's currently got. I would think it's at 6 right now because of all the early adopters writing reviews before the game was even finished. It's come a long way and unlike many other eary access games the developers have been consistent and updated the game regularily - they have not left us in the dark. I am a TA and FA player and I really, really enjoy this game. It's more polished than people have been giving it credit for. It's fun, fast and exciting gameplay. The AI is intelligent and provide a challenging game. Multiplayer is addicting and being able to launch into space and smash planets ect. is the icing on the cake. There are many innovations in this game also, it's not just a copy of the originals with a few extras as people have suggested. There's a 4th dimension to this game that's absent from the originals (which only contain land, water, and air units)... now we have SPACE. Graphics are really nice with realistic day/night planet rotation effects. I'm really glad I bought in early on this game and I now can't wat until I play my next game of PA... I'm at work at the moment damnit!… Expand
  89. TrophySystem
    Sep 10, 2014
    10
    TL;DR This game is an 8, but I will submit a 10 sheerly because I had to downvote 9 0's that just didn't make sense. What follows is a comphrehensive overview, pros, and cons. If it's biased, it is at least factually supported points.

    About P.A.: It is an RTS, build a base and an army and attack an enemy that does the same. It has been in development little over 2 years now, in total,    TL;DR This game is an 8, but I will submit a 10 sheerly because I had to downvote 9 0's that just didn't make sense. What follows is a comphrehensive overview, pros, and cons. If it's biased, it is at least factually supported points.

    About P.A.: It is an RTS, build a base and an army and attack an enemy that does the same. It has been in development little over 2 years now, in total, and to compare, Starcraft and Supcom were 5 year games with completely behind the curtains development for 90% of it so you didn't have any details until it was just about done. In 2 years time, I don't claim that PA is at the same progress point as Supcom. I do claim it is a solid foundation. Such is par for an indie kickstarter title.

    It is mostly webscript built, run on OpenGL, UI is a Coherent overlay, supported on Win/Mac/Linux. It does not have a playerside offline or server available, it is in development still although the game is released, and there are server mods via the server pulling the mod for the duration of a game. For that matter, the game also has a great clientside mod support. The game also is still actively developed and updated. Games generally need special troubleshooting to ensure best operation when they run on OpenGL and Coherent especially, keep that in mind that it may require a tweak to run for you as it usually ends up the case.

    The game is fun to play, different than other RTS, can be somewhat complex, it relies on it's macro high-volume scale. You don't build a powerplant and a factory and a laboratory. You build a factory, and then engineers, who you have spread across a map building powerplants and metal extractors and more factories. To play right, your structures must cover the face of a map, and you should have 20 factories because without metal/energy storage you simply "store" your metal and energy in a standing army or an expensive missile launcher. This leads to hundreds of units clashing into bases constantly burned to the ground and rebuilt time after time until somebody kills a leader unit, a vulnerable "Commander". These maps where the game takes place, are also planets. Spheres orbiting a star, and one can achieve orbital technology to travel between the spheres. In extreme games, one can invade with thousand unit armies through a teleporter, one can launch interplanetary nuclear missiles and the plural is important because it can take many nukes to land an effective blow, one can build jet engines on a small planetoid and launch it crashing into an enemy planet, one can use orbital laser satellites to launch precision strikes, or even transport heavily armored point blank vanguard tanks via air or orbit directly onto an enemy.

    Facts:
    -1 faction
    -2 tiers
    -4 units per basic, 4 units per advanced
    -Systems of a star with playing fields being the planets orbiting it and each other
    -Earthen (tropical, desert, ice, water), tropical, desert, ice, lava, lunar, and metal planets and biomes
    -Orbitals such as transports, builders, radars, anti-orbitals, defense platforms, laser strike satellite, as well as interplanetary teleporters once a builder establishes one on each location via standard travel
    -Superweapons, such as nuclear missiles, laser platforms, planet launching jet engines, and metal planet anti-planet-lasers
    -macro scale, requires construction of hundreds of structures across the face of a planet and hundreds or thousands of attack units
    -AI, can be very difficult, 4 difficulties and an economic handicap, best when eco handicap used as that controls it's "speed of expansion", and when playing multiple AI with less eco.
    -Skirmish is a match set up from a lobby, can add up to 10 seperate players, can be AI or human.
    -Galactic War Campaign is mildly storybased if at all, just a general back story, instead it is procedurally generated starmap with 4 factions, you start off with a select tech and battle star after star to unlock more tech and locate enemy faction leaders to defeat them wholesale. A loss is a game over, saves between matches but not in-match, can avoid a loss by alt-f4 closing game and restart at beginning of match as "retry".
    -"System Editor" is a map generator, it generates planets based on sliders and seeds, no hand-made editors yet
    -Active community, with mods both clientside and serverside
    -Active development post-release
    -7 different appearances of commander, multiple more purchased seperately, some available on retail purchase or from early access.
    -Online only upon release, servers in development for offline player use and player hosted multplayer at a later date
    -In-game recording that can be accessed in-game as well as stored after the game for watching.
    -No in-match save game, development in progress for loading a game from "replay", any point in time from a game's recorded match.
    -May require troubleshooting to run, unless you have used other OpenGL games or games using Coherent prior.
    -Bugs do exist but from a personal experience are not too frequent.    … Expand
  90. leemanfor
    Sep 9, 2014
    6
    I have been following this game for a very long time, since the original Kickstarter campaign. I was very close to donating because the concept was a cool idea. However, the game has fallen short of my expectations and I am glad I did not spend the 90$ that it was originally.

    The game is basically a Supreme Commander clone. You simply build factories to churn out uninspiring units, to    I have been following this game for a very long time, since the original Kickstarter campaign. I was very close to donating because the concept was a cool idea. However, the game has fallen short of my expectations and I am glad I did not spend the 90$ that it was originally.

    The game is basically a Supreme Commander clone. You simply build factories to churn out uninspiring units, to then mob your enemy. The AI is pretty pitiful at defending their base. I sent 30 Tanks over to the enemy base, and all he had built was Power plants. The AI was standing in the middle of the base doing nothing.

    To say I am disappointed is an understatement. However, the game is pretty smooth. My computer would be considered a medium to high end gaming machine and this does not falter at maximum graphics.

    All in all, for the 30$ I got a few hours of entertainment out of it. I would recommend waiting until its 20$ or less unless you are a Supreme Commander junky.    … Expand
  91. ellister
    Jul 1, 2014
    10
    Best RTS game ever made! Other developers shouldn't even try to compete. Game Over. Go home.

    This game has not disappointed me at all. The battles are enormous and span multiple planets and asteroids. There's an endless amount of ways you can finish off your opponents. Overrun them with bots and tanks, snipe them from space, attack from a distance with artillery units, nuke them from    Best RTS game ever made! Other developers shouldn't even try to compete. Game Over. Go home.

    This game has not disappointed me at all. The battles are enormous and span multiple planets and asteroids. There's an endless amount of ways you can finish off your opponents. Overrun them with bots and tanks, snipe them from space, attack from a distance with artillery units, nuke them from any planet, bombard their coastline with naval units, roast them from the air with bombers and gunships, devastate them with crawling bombs, burn their base to the ground with armored flame tanks, or accelerate an asteroid into their planet and flatten every machine that lived there. The game has several features, like Area Commands, Squads, and Screen Anchors that make it easy to keep up with the fight!    … Expand
  92. dosh_money
    Jul 1, 2014
    10
    Great game, Developers are committed to excellence. Gameplay is intense and demanding of all your attention. Love playing it. I would advise anyone who loves strategy to try this game out.
  93. naginacz
    Jul 2, 2014
    10
    Planetary Annihilation is one of the best RTS I've ever played.
    Very innovative and coherent.
    I would recommend it to all fans of Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation.
  94. Berlinrain
    Oct 11, 2014
    0
    Read all the negative reviews to get a good idea of what this game is about. Full of promise but none of that promise was delivered upon. There's much talk about the 'revolutionary' features of the game, but noone really wants to actually talk about what they are and whether they work. It seems to me that, for a game to have moons crashing into planets and a 'true' 3D playing field UberRead all the negative reviews to get a good idea of what this game is about. Full of promise but none of that promise was delivered upon. There's much talk about the 'revolutionary' features of the game, but noone really wants to actually talk about what they are and whether they work. It seems to me that, for a game to have moons crashing into planets and a 'true' 3D playing field Uber felt they had to jettison everything else that could have made this game good or have any strategy whatsoever. The units are boring and you'll find yourself only using one unit in each tech level because the others are a waste. Huge disappointment and waste of money.… Expand
  95. andrewnez
    Jul 2, 2014
    10
    As a die hard lover of Total Annihilation and the Supreme Commander series I was always going to love this game. What I didn't realise was how much. The rest of reviews here will tell you about the technical aspects and strategy elements of the game. I'm not going to repeat that here.

    What I will say is that this game has allowed me to revisit the heady days of the late nineties, back    As a die hard lover of Total Annihilation and the Supreme Commander series I was always going to love this game. What I didn't realise was how much. The rest of reviews here will tell you about the technical aspects and strategy elements of the game. I'm not going to repeat that here.

    What I will say is that this game has allowed me to revisit the heady days of the late nineties, back when LAN gaming for entire weekends playing Total Annihilation was a regular occurrence. Playing Planetary Annihilation brings that experience back in spades.

    It feels more TA than SupCom, but that's not a bad thing to me given that TA was my all time fave RTS game. Planetary Annihilation now holds that crown.    … Expand
  96. warrenkc
    Sep 11, 2014
    9
    Just played the latest update as of 9/11/2014. Awesome! So smooth and fun. Played 2vs2 against AI opponents.

    Getting better all the time. I got so tired of Forged Alliance because of the networking issues. This solves that problem and helps a lot with lag in general. Although I recommend keeping the games smaller for now because the server will lag if you do too much. Very fun game.    Just played the latest update as of 9/11/2014. Awesome! So smooth and fun. Played 2vs2 against AI opponents.

    Getting better all the time. I got so tired of Forged Alliance because of the networking issues. This solves that problem and helps a lot with lag in general. Although I recommend keeping the games smaller for now because the server will lag if you do too much.

    Very fun game.

    My specs:
    Operating System
    Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 4590 @ 3.30GHz
    Haswell 22nm Technology
    RAM
    16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
    Motherboard
    ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. B85-PRO GAMER (SOCKET 1150)
    Graphics
    S221HQL (1920x1080@60Hz)
    1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 7750 (Gigabyte)    … Expand
  97. Milkdragon
    Jul 3, 2014
    8
    This game is good one of the better RTS out there.
    The balancing its being work out by the Uber team and they listen to their community and interact with the more then I have seen any other game out there do.
    Also no release date means they don't fully give a game out half broken or have a million patches to fix bugs. The pricing is meant for people who want to support the game and help    This game is good one of the better RTS out there.
    The balancing its being work out by the Uber team and they listen to their community and interact with the more then I have seen any other game out there do.
    Also no release date means they don't fully give a game out half broken or have a million patches to fix bugs.
    The pricing is meant for people who want to support the game and help develop, but its not meant for people just to complain about it.
    The graphic are not meant to look awesome. You don't need amazing graphic to have an amazing game

    I rate this game as a 8 because it is still unfinished and has some aspects still missing, but I promise you won't be disappointed when you get this game and watch it develop.    … Expand
  98. Wubinator
    Jul 29, 2014
    9
    This RTS is one of a kind and just epic. Currently it is still in early access phase, but they since the last two updates it is becoming obvious that they are working very hard on polishing up the game and getting it ready for release.

    The way in which Planetary Annihilation (PA) is unique is that the battles don't take place on a 'flat' map with a single or multiple players on either    This RTS is one of a kind and just epic. Currently it is still in early access phase, but they since the last two updates it is becoming obvious that they are working very hard on polishing up the game and getting it ready for release.

    The way in which Planetary Annihilation (PA) is unique is that the battles don't take place on a 'flat' map with a single or multiple players on either side of that map (therefore your enemies are almost coming from roughly the same place), instead in PA the fights are held on planets, round planets. Therefore if the enemy is above you, you can walk around the planet and attack them from above, or the left, or the right. Really from all over the place. This asks for a very different play style compared to other RTS games.

    But that's not all, you're not really battling on just a planet, the battle takes place in a solar system with one, or multiple planets (with possible moons) and you are free to travel to each of the planets to start a new or secondary base of operations. Large solar systems can have a large amount of players on them.

    Before the game reaches it's 1.0 version it will be able to have matches with up to 40 players in teams or a free for all. This of course means a lot of units, well PA does more then just a lot of units, this games supports up to 1 million units in a single match, so you can say that there is no unit cap because I've yet to see a game that comes even close to that number.

    The units can be land, water, air or space (orbital) units. and the ammunition ranges from tank shells to nuclear (interplanetary) missiles. But the best and utterly amazing feature of this game (and where it gets its name from) is the ability to build huge motors on a planet / moon, fire them up and put that planet on a collision course with another planet, smashing them into each other. The result: all the units instantly whipped out and massive crater on the planet that was targeted. But still, you can land on it again and start a new base on it.

    At the moment the game is still early access so it's not a perfect score yet. There are the occasional (although nowadays far less so ) player drops and they are still working very hard on the code optimization to get it to run even smoother.

    If you're unsure you can cope with these kind of battles you can practice against one or more AI players, where you can choose between four difficulty levels. There is even the relatively recent single player addition called Galactic War.

    So if you want my advice: If you love (or even just like) RTS games don't wait just buy the game now and start playing it, you won't regret it for a moment.    … Expand
  99. binmaze
    Oct 5, 2014
    2
    The most definite example of the downfall of crowd-funding. It is full of great ideas but executed -very- poorly. It lags like hell and crashes to the desktop like every minute. It has serious connection problems but has no off-line mode. And that without save functionality.

    Gamewise, strategic depth is too shallow. The variety of fations    The most definite example of the downfall of crowd-funding. It is full of great ideas but executed -very- poorly. It lags like hell and crashes to the desktop like every minute. It has serious connection problems but has no off-line mode. And that without save functionality.

    Gamewise, strategic depth is too shallow. The variety of fations or units are extremely limited. AI is stupid. Pathfinding is way too primitive.

    All in all. It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too far from finished.

    And they are already preparing another game on the kickstarter. What?
    It is quite unethical of them.
    Don't buy this s*t. It's not worth your money.    … Expand
  100. FWordFizz
    Mar 7, 2015
    10
    It's cheap, has pretty fun multiplayer and robot designs and lets you fulfill your dream of being a robot overlord beating the crap out of planets. What more can you ask for? Well probably alot, but because of my personal robot overlord fetish I'm willing to let this one slide. 10/10 A+
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Awards & Rankings

42
#42 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
62

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 18
  3. Negative: 2 out of 18
  1. PC PowerPlay
    Nov 1, 2014
    50
    A frustrating experience. [Nov 2014, p.60]
  2. GameSpot
    Oct 31, 2014
    70
    True, its best qualities can be obscured in the early going by its unforgiving difficulty and the absence of good tutorials, but even when you're overwhelmed, speedy combat and smart AI reel you in. Give it time, and the fast and furious combat smooth out the rough edges into a compelling and challenging strategy game.
    Read full review
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Oct 25, 2014
    70
    Planetary Annihilation looks and feels underwhelming. Interplanetary combat might seem fun on paper, but gameplay-wise it's an absolute chore. And that's just it, Planetary Annihilation is missing all the FUN which was present on Supreme Commander - a much better successor to Total Annihilation. [Oct 2014]
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