Developer: Arcen Games. LLC
Publisher: Arcen Games
Platform: PC
Price: $9.99 (Steam)
Bionic Dues is an amazing strategy game with tons of depth that will give tons of hours fun to those that love turned based strategy games. You will be given many strategical decisions from how to build your robots to what missions you choose to take to help save the city. If you love strategy games you might find yourself playing this game for several hours straight.
Story
The robots have rebelled and you are the only thing saving a city of millions of annihilation. You are a Exo bionic pilot that has survived and are the only one capable of fighting back. Your abilities and strategies will be tested as you have only 50 days to save the city.
The story has a very serious setting with the fate of an entire city in your hands. A robot army is being built by the enemy and when the time runs out they will attack. How well you do will determine if the city gets nuked to completely stop the rebellion.
Though it does not take itself too seriously as you meet several different types of enemy robots do you realize how funny some of them are. You will find humor throughout the missions that lighten the mood so you reminded to have fun.
While there is not too much to be told it is enough to create an interesting setting. Also how the story helps create an understanding of enemy robots and missions can be quite creative. Some robots that were built with not the best software are told in ways so that you understand how to combat them while laughing at some of weaker robot enemies.
Gameplay
Strategy is the main focus of the game with each understanding and decision filled with tons of depth. Before you even begin your first mission you have to decide what kind of pilot you want to be and what robot army you will want to decide. These decisions will have great effect on how you will play the game.
Though thankfully the beginning decisions are offset since all the pilots and robot classes are equally powerful. All the six different robot classes can be mixed in any combination of four to create the type of army you want. If you decide to create an army of assault robots it can still be viable option since you will have tons of weapons at your disposal. Though I recommend starting with a mix of different classes just to try all the fun abilities and weapons.
On the city grid you will get to decide which missions you will want to take. All the different mission types will have advantages and disadvantages that will help you for the final battle. Do you want to raid a facility for new equipment for your robots or do you want to part of the robot army directly. As the days go by the robots get stronger but so do you and coming up with a powerful strategy will increase chances of success for the last battle.
The missions themselves are all turned based with you controlling one robot at a time. This creates an environment where you can focus on strategy and relatively quick missions once you get hang of things. You will be using your robots and all their different abilities and equipment. They all have abilities useful to them to help you complete the mission.
You will be able to upgrade your Exos to fit your play style and their are so many different ways to upgrade them. Choose to upgrade your Exos shields close range weapons so that they can up close combat to increase area of effects weapons to making clearing rooms easier. The different amounts of stats that you will be improving to make the Exo that you want to leave you trying many different strategies.
All the campaigns and missions are randomly generated which will give you tons of replay value. Some strategies will have to changed to meet the different situations entered in the missions. This also forces you to think on your feet to determine the situation and how to best handle it.
The amount depth in the game will lead anyone that loves strategy games to hours to master and fully understand all the different aspects of the game. With the amount of choices available to you if you survive the final battle you will most likely seeing yourself coming back to try a new strategy or on an even harder level.
Graphics
The graphics are probably the weakest part about Bionic Dues since they are only average. Since the game missions are in birds eye view grid maps it doe not leave much room to showcase amazing graphics. Though the artwork done for the robots are great you don’t get to see it in the gameplay but that’s ok considering you blow them up pretty quickly anyway.
The only real good look you get to see of your Exos are in the menus when you are customizing them. The artwork for them is done extremely well with a good attention to detail. Exos that have strength in artillery can be seen in how the artwork was designed for them.
Interface is done well with simple controls. Finding the information you need to plan your next attack or to how you want to build up your Exo is designed for ease. Since the game is built around strategy being able to find the information you need is extremely important. The only problem really is knowing what kind of information you need.
The graphics won’t blow you away by any measure but it works great with the gameplay in mind. Strategizing and navigating your way to victory is done well. You won’t feel overwhelmed by the interface giving you all the information especially since if you want to read more it is just a simple mouse over away to become more knowledgeable of the games depth.
Audio
Music was at a production level beyond what I was expecting. From the moment you start the game you are introduced to a beautiful original voiced song that had me playing it on repeat for a while when I first heard it.
The music throughout the game matches perfectly with theme of a futuristic punk robot setting. Upbeat electronic beats are played throughout the missions to energize you or more appropriate paced beats are played when you are deciding which missions you need to take.
Audio is done really well in this game. Even the voice acting that does appear in the game matches with the character of an instructor. The robots audio are also extremely hilarious making short outbursts before being blown into bits.
Downsides
The biggest downside to Bionic Dues is the huge learning curve associated with it. The problem with many strategy games is that they overwhelm you so much that you are dissuaded from playing since strategy games are a battle of intellect and understanding.
I thought this game could have benefited greatly from a better tutorial but it almost just throws you into all the important decision makings. I myself had to start the game over to learn from my mistakes like the importance of reading the descriptions of the different robots do understand what they could actually do. A simple tutorial mission could have explained a lot.
It is a shame too since only after the initial learning curve and getting the hang of it did I really get drawn into this game. I didn’t even need to learn too much to start to understand the fundamentals of the game which eventually unlock the amount of depth I was interested in learning.
Pros
– Tons of great strategy
– Lots of replay value
– Great soundtrack
Cons
– Average graphics
– Difficult learning curve
Overall
Bionic Dues is a great game for strategists that want something that has a lot of offer in terms of depth. From understanding all the robot statistics to the benefits of the different missions you will find many different ways to best save this city. To add on top of that ever random generated new worlds every time you come back will offer even more variety.
8.5 out of 10