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 Infested Planet is a 2014 RTS by Rocket Bear Games, a one-man-plus-freelancers outfit who was since hired by a larger studio to work on other projects. It's gotten above-average but not stellar reviews from critics, with Tom Chick being a notable exception who praised the game very highly. Steam reviews stand at an excellent 94% positive, and it's definitely been by all appearances a glowing success of an indie game. Game Setting Pretty simple sci-fi fare; a band of mercenaries aiding human military efforts on a planet infested with alien bugs. There's a lot of hostile life forms that need killing, and peace isn't an option. You won't come away from this overly impressed by a basic and straightforward narrative, and a vague Starship Troopers-like sensibility seems appropriate. How It Works The gameplay is what is more unique; instead of gathering a bunch of resources and building up an unstoppable army and an invincible base, the watchphrase here is 'tactical flexibility'. The player has a limited military force, much fewer in number but more technologically advanced than the enemy. You can swap out at no cost any structures or units you deploy and re-spec to different ones. However the enemy also gets flexibility, in the form of 'mutations' which will periodically change up their capabilities significantly and shift the balance of the engagement. As you advance through a mission, you'll get additional points to enhance your force - and the enemy mutates at the same time, forcing you to adapt to what they've just done. What results has been described as a 'dance' or give-and-take situation in which it's often useful to re-envision your approach and disposition of your fighting force multiple times in a given mission. Why Infested Planet? Viewers of my channel selected it in my second Viewer's Choice vote, so here we are. (Actually, it was a tie with a certain unique retro title that has a fascination with ducks, but I decided to do this one first). LP Specifics VLP as usual for me. I'm doing the Story on the highest available difficulty, Expert. The first handful of missions are explicitly tutorialish, so I'll be doing two a week to get through those a bit faster, then slowing down to one a week once we get through that phase. There are procedurally generated Skirmish maps, as well as an interesting Planetary Campaign mode that can add some additional unpredictable and dynamic elements; it consists of a board-game strategic layer a la Risk being added on top of the tactical missions. Whether I dive into that or not will depend on interest. Battles So Far Story Mode, Expert Difficulty Opening Gambits (6:03) Warpath (8:44) Arsenal (8:18) Foundations (12:11) Blitzkrieg (12:41) Crow's Neck (12:48) Sudden Strike (12:55) Science Station (17:37) Contact (20:22) Caves (12:25) Night and Day (26:21) Preparations (22:22) Mine Shafts (22:47) Mine Shafts Raid (16:11) The Return (21:34) Caves Hunt (20:05) Memento Mori (24:06) The Grotto (28:10) The Grotto Raid (16:37) Anabasis (20:33) Survival* (40:19) Tension (31:57) Periapsis (37:09) The Grotto Hunt (36:05) Ruins (31:57) Ruins Raid (29:46) Elite Survival (19:50) Endgame (37:54) The Abyss (39:45) Abyss Raid (32:56) Abyss Hunt (56:55) Terminus (31:28) Terminus Raid (27:29) Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 14:09 on Jul 5, 2022 |
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Dec 13, 2021 15:13
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| # ? Jun 9, 2024 22:45 |
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 Opening Gambits (6:03) In which we see weapons in use by the army that are far more advanced that we'll have access to anytime soon, and have their help in slaughtering bugs by the thousands. Literally. Personally I'm rooting for their bugs. It's their planet.
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Dec 13, 2021 15:14
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So this is Creeper World but the turrets move? Also, you seem to be doing an Imperialism on poor bugs a lot, lately.
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Dec 13, 2021 16:05
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hell yes. love this game. Planetary Defense is one of the most compelling gamemodes i've played in an RTS.
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Dec 13, 2021 16:29
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This looks familiar - didn't unfair attempt to LP this a few years ago?
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Dec 13, 2021 16:48
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not sure about unfair, but i attempted to do a Planetary Campaign LP a few years back: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3846621&pagenumber=1&perpage=40 i tried a similar gimmick to what i did with the Minesweeper LP but was also approaching LP burnout so the whole thing collapsed pretty rapidly. i've thought about ways to fix the workflow and not make it such an arduous process but never got it figured. glad you are doing this, Sage! especially on expert  the AI in this game is mean and i love it
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Dec 13, 2021 16:59
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Do you get access to the other DLC content even without playing the Planetary Campaign?
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Dec 13, 2021 17:08
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NGDBSS posted:didn't unfair attempt to LP this a few years ago? Sally posted:not sure about unfair, but i attempted to do a Planetary Campaign LP a few years back: I consulted the bones (i.e., the Master List) before making this thread. The bones held no record of any previous attempt at this game. Here's hoping whatever evil force befell those attempts doesn't claim me as a victim. Sally posted:on expert You are not wrong. White Coke posted:Do you get access to the other DLC content even without playing the Planetary Campaign? Yes, but some of it makes less sense to use without the Planetary Campaign. I.e. there's at least one upgrade that impacts the Morale feature, but Morale isn't a thing in the Story, only in the Planetary Campaign, so it becomes rather less worth having. Fat Samurai posted:this is Creeper World but the turrets move? On the first, sort of? I mean the whole base and infrastructure building is almost non-existent. I hadn't thought about the bug thing, but you're right - I need to find a good pro-bug project to do to balance things out :P A somewhat surprising amount of people appear to be interested in watching this, so I'm bumping up the pace to 3x a week at least until we get through the tutorial missions. That should happen before Christmas now, and by New Year we ought to be getting into the meatier parts of the Story a bit. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Dec 13, 2021 |
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Dec 13, 2021 23:11
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Strategic Sage posted:I consulted the bones (i.e., the Master List) before making this thread. The bones held no record of any previous attempt at this game. Here's hoping whatever evil force befell those attempts doesn't claim me as a victim.
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Dec 13, 2021 23:23
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Warpath (8:44) We meet a military personage of apparent significance who gives us a new task. New ways of moving our troops are learned, the ability to add more marines using build points, shotgunner upgrades are (temporarily) introduced, and rockets which are our first use of the ammo resource. Despite all of this we still take our first casualties. They won't be the last.
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Dec 15, 2021 17:46
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Arsenal (8:18) Rockets. Lots of Rockets. We find the supplies we were looking for, and use a substantial portion of them to blow up more alien towers in the area. These are 'armored', which makes using the rockets mandatory. There's some weirdness about the design and flow of this map as the tutorial continues, and casualties continue to grow. Of course every dead merc is simply money saved from the army's perspective ...
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Dec 18, 2021 17:02
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for a tutorial mission, this one is a blast!
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Dec 18, 2021 17:33
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Grizzled Space Mercenary Drake is presumably a nod to David Drake, writer of the Hammers' Slammers series. Seminal works of hard-bitten space mercenaries using their alienation from their employers as a metaphor for the US experience in Vietnam.
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Dec 18, 2021 17:36
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Sally posted:for a tutorial mission, this one is a blast! .... I see what you did there. Mostly I'm just irritated I didn't think of it.
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Dec 18, 2021 19:40
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Foundations (12:11) All is not well in paradise with the human effort, and Gen. Magnusson thinks Drake and co. had too much of a 'blast' in their last outing. On the other hand, mercs have stopped dying for now as we have a better weapon to deal with the spitter towers; turrets. Also we get our first look at an Officer.
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Dec 20, 2021 17:11
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Strategic Sage posted:All is not well in paradise with the human effort, and Gen. Magnusson thinks Drake and co. had too much of a 'blast' in their last outing.  i see what you did here and i love it
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Dec 20, 2021 17:56
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It's purposely a bit simple right now but I am interested to see where this goes outside the tutorial. It feels like mistakes would be punished severely but recovery would be quick enough to get a push/pull going rather than just an outright loss.
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Dec 22, 2021 06:27
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I would say that's generally correct. When things go south on a mission, what that often means is a stalemate develops; it's far more common in my experience to get pushed back and be unable to find a good way to gain ground than it is to just get smacked around to the point where you actually lose. If you do lose, it's often a very slow grind in that direction. Worth noting though that there are timer mechanics later, so it's much easier to 'lose' or in some cases even 'win' but not fully complete the map because of those.
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Dec 22, 2021 15:43
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Blitzkrieg (12:41) Final tutorial map, in which we get permanent access to Shotgunners and after the start there's less direction and we're left to find our own way through the mission. Plenty of resources to build an overwhelming force by the end though. Mutations start in the next episode as we take our first steps into the deep end, but it won't really get intense for a handful of missions more. Baby steps.
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Dec 22, 2021 15:45
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Boy I sure hope the humans don't turn out to be the bad guys. I hate when that happens!
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Dec 25, 2021 04:47
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I got this some time ago, but never played through it. Looking forward to the rest of this!
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Dec 25, 2021 14:12
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Kibayasu posted:Boy I sure hope the humans don't turn out to be the bad guys. I hate when that happens! What could possibly make you think this? I'm sure this time the space marines will be the good guys  (Note: I know nothing about this game)
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Dec 25, 2021 14:24
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Omobono posted:What could possibly make you think this? I'm sure this time the space marines will be the good guys I'm noting we're a stone-cold badass group of mercenary outcasts who'll be off in a corner somewhere right before The Big Push, the general is a monocle-wearing martinet with a stick up his rear end, and the bugs have started talking. Oh yeeeeah. It's going to be a total Klendathu when the main assault starts. There are going to be lots of wild, uncontrolled bursts.
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Dec 25, 2021 15:01
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I should have added a [/sarcasm] tag at the end to make my intent come out clearer. And/or a link to the "are we the baddies" sketch.
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Dec 25, 2021 15:06
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"It's afraid!" [everyone cheers]
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Dec 25, 2021 16:51
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Frankly, I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive!
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Dec 25, 2021 17:54
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...And I suppose if they were good(which they may be), you'd be complaining about how tired and cliched that was, too. Of course, that wouldn't be a wrong sentiment, either. Meh. "Go. Kill enemy. Enemy bad." isn't the worst thing in the world. Nor is 'Something's wrong here."
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Dec 25, 2021 19:36
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How can the tutorial be over, we didn’t learn about the failures of democracy.
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Dec 25, 2021 20:10
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Bloodly posted:...And I suppose if they were good(which they may be), you'd be complaining about how tired and cliched that was, too. Of course, that wouldn't be a wrong sentiment, either. Meh. "Go. Kill enemy. Enemy bad." isn't the worst thing in the world. Nor is 'Something's wrong here." To be clear, I wasn't judging with my post. Merely noting the direction the plot was heading. This game hasn't tipped into fascism yet, although I'm raising my eyebrows at this "sterilise" language. But it's coming from a character we're clearly supposed to disdain so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. But we know exactly what happens when space marines all charge into bug nests full of confidence, so I'm bracing for impact.
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Dec 25, 2021 20:14
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Bloodly posted:...And I suppose if they were good(which they may be), you'd be complaining about how tired and cliched that was, too. Of course, that wouldn't be a wrong sentiment, either. Meh. "Go. Kill enemy. Enemy bad." isn't the worst thing in the world. Nor is 'Something's wrong here." I don't think I'm complaining, just being uselessly snarky.
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Dec 25, 2021 20:25
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Yeah I didn't get the vibe that anyone was complaining. Poking good natured fun at familiar plot tropes? Sure. Complaining? No.
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Dec 25, 2021 21:44
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WhiteCoke posted:How can the tutorial be over, we didn’t learn about the failures of democracy. These aren't the droids you're looking for. Sally posted:Frankly, I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive! This was inevitable.
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Dec 25, 2021 22:25
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Crow's Neck (12:48) We begin a new story arc, such as it is, and get to see our first enemy mutations. They're not particularly bad ones at this stage, but they will get worse. They will get much worse. Meanwhile the power of Chopper Strikes are now available to us, but only if we happen to notice as the come unannounced.
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Dec 27, 2021 16:00
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mutations are what propelled this game from being just solid to great. then the Planetary Campaign made it a GOAT. but seriously, love the aggressive ai!
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Dec 27, 2021 17:59
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Is there an in-universe explanation of what these bases are that we keep capturing? It doesn't sound like (based on what I've seen) that humanity had ever step foot on this planet until recently and yet we keep finding these (seemingly) man-made structures.
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Dec 27, 2021 19:10
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Tombot posted:Is there an in-universe explanation of what these bases are that we keep capturing? It doesn't sound like (based on what I've seen) that humanity had ever step foot on this planet until recently and yet we keep finding these (seemingly) man-made structures. As far as I understand it, purple ones are schematic representation of alien nests. We get reward for burning them and paving them over.
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Dec 27, 2021 19:54
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my guess is theyre just dropping some sort or automatic prefab base kit on top of the hives.
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Dec 27, 2021 20:33
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Tombot posted:Is there an in-universe explanation of what these bases are that we keep capturing? There is not. We just accept that they are there, smile, nod, and move on.
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Dec 27, 2021 21:54
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Look General Magnusson has perfectly good Spacebux that we can spend on, uh, space beer.
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Dec 28, 2021 09:02
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I guess the healing aura will matter once everything isn't dying in one shot/rocket/helicopter barrage.
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Dec 29, 2021 03:07
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