User Score
5.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 17
  2. Negative: 7 out of 17

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  1. Oct 20, 2013
    2
    A really cheap and almost non-playable version of Sword of the Start: The Pit. The tiles are so confusing, I cannot tell the difference between a ground tile near door with wall coverage with door tile with wall coverage. Difficulty gimmicks like placing at start of the game random mines on floors/doors that you cannot do anything about and wall destroying robot ambushes on your turn(ifA really cheap and almost non-playable version of Sword of the Start: The Pit. The tiles are so confusing, I cannot tell the difference between a ground tile near door with wall coverage with door tile with wall coverage. Difficulty gimmicks like placing at start of the game random mines on floors/doors that you cannot do anything about and wall destroying robot ambushes on your turn(if you run out of Time Units, GG). UI is really bad designed. For instance, game doesn't really SHOW you from where you can shoot and what actually can do. You think attacking from angle will work because you see target? Well press on it, and WASTE Time Units, GG. You think that you can shoot from straight line? Sorry, you cannot, you WASTED time unit because you didn't checked your stat window and "range" attribute. You want to free aim with cursor/tile control for targeting or destroying wall for tactics? Nope, you will just make a mistake because game doesn't display well what you can do and what not. AI is really not challenging. Even Moon Bear were more scary and challenging in Pit, then these Reapers/Robots, that you can simply calculate their turns and lure them. Expand
  2. Dec 27, 2013
    2
    I took a flyer on this game during the steam sale after getting hooked on cheap 16-bit 'roguelike' games after an great experience with FTL. I'm also a long time fan of turn based strategy shooters with RPG elements such as X-Com, so when i saw this for $2.50 i said why not. well, let me just say the graphics and gameplay mechanics of this one seem unfinished and unintuitive. the musicI took a flyer on this game during the steam sale after getting hooked on cheap 16-bit 'roguelike' games after an great experience with FTL. I'm also a long time fan of turn based strategy shooters with RPG elements such as X-Com, so when i saw this for $2.50 i said why not. well, let me just say the graphics and gameplay mechanics of this one seem unfinished and unintuitive. the music is lame, the interface is extremely clunky and its just not very fun. I hope for the sake of gamers who bought it at the original price ($10) that it's nowhere near complete, but have a feeling that if the programmers intended to realize any potential here they'd have been too embarrassed to release this product to the public in the first place.

    There is also currently a game-breaking bug where the keyboard constantly goes out, forcing the player to exit and restart. Cheers
    Expand
  3. Dec 15, 2015
    4
    This turn-based strategy game has funny texts, stylish super-pixelated 8-bit retro graphics, and an interesting AP based combat system with reaction fire. But the controls are badly designed and are also bugged, which makes the game almost unplayable. Lack of save/reload forces you to lose soldiers while fighting with interface quirks and glitches eventually making you drop the game inThis turn-based strategy game has funny texts, stylish super-pixelated 8-bit retro graphics, and an interesting AP based combat system with reaction fire. But the controls are badly designed and are also bugged, which makes the game almost unplayable. Lack of save/reload forces you to lose soldiers while fighting with interface quirks and glitches eventually making you drop the game in frustration.

    The main problems:
    - stupid keyboard-only controls system where you use directional arrows to move and Z to shoot, R to reload, Q to overwatch. Instead, the game should have used a mouse-based system like in tons of other similar TBS games. Like, when you select a soldier, all tiles where he can move are highlighted, and you click on a tile to move there, and click on an enemy to shoot at it. Range highlight would also help. And for Overwatch, Reload and other actions there should be on-screen buttons.
    - vertical doors look like they belong to the tile just below them which creates confusion, so when you think you will open a door you start kicking a wall.
    - some doors appear to be rigged with explosives, but I only understood that after opening a few such doors because their graphics wasn't understandable
    - the GUI seems to be designed to only work well with 1024x768 resolution. At 1920x1080 all GUI elements are flung to the edges of the screen, and at 600x800 not everything even fits into the screen, with buttons simply getting cut off.
    - showing soldiers' stats on mouseover seemed to work in fullscreen mode, but in window mode the tile under the mouse seems to be calculated incorrectly, so you can no more see any soldier's stats (most importantly, range).
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Metascore
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No score yet - based on 1 Critic Review

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 1
  2. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Nov 4, 2013
    60
    Putting it all together, Steam Marines may be a tasty little challenge for some, but it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Perhaps it’ll be a nice addition to a rogue fan’s collection, and maybe a few indie diehards would like to pick it up to see what it’s all about.