This overview was created utilizing an LCD Steam Deck. OLED testing will probably be carried out at a later date.
Athena Disaster is in early entry, so efficiency and content material is topic to modifications.
Advance Wars was one of many greatest video games from my childhood, and I’ve been having fun with choosing the sequence up once more on my varied handhelds. Regardless of the dearth of Advance Wars video games on PC, a number of comparable video games are in the marketplace with combined success. Whereas I take pleasure in Wargroove and Wargroove 2 for his or her in depth campaigns and map editor, the relative lack of depth in fight turned me again to Advance Wars. This brings me to Athena Disaster, and followers of the Advance Wars franchise ought to preserve this title on their radar.
Developed by Nakazawa Tech, Athena Disaster is constructed from the bottom as much as be a non secular successor to Advance Wars from the gameplay to the ambiance. Whereas some video games wrestle with content material and polish at launch, Athena Disaster isn’t a kind of. It is usually pretty playable on the Steam Deck, though it suffers from some odd points that drag down the expertise for me.
Athena Disaster is a turn-based technique RPG with a lot meat on the bones. Followers of the style will know what to anticipate. There are a great deal of completely different items for gamers to unleash upon their enemies, combating one another throughout a various vary of battlefields. Like most technique video games, these items have completely different strengths and weaknesses.
The sniper has to bunker down for a flip to organize himself however has a wide variety and firepower to compensate for the dearth of mobility. Jeeps haven’t any fight potential however are quick provide items and may transport infantry throughout the map. There are even loads of tanks. Capturing buildings offers revenue on items, whereas terrain provides benefits reminiscent of elevated line of sight and defensive bonuses in opposition to assault. Engineers can construct varied manufacturing services to gasoline your struggle machine. It’s the traditional factor on supply for a technique sport, and Athena Disaster has sufficient selection to make missions attention-grabbing.
As for campaigns, the devs provide two of them, every with 40 missions. The story and dialogue have the identical theme and really feel of Advance Wars, and the little cutscenes earlier than fight put a smile on my face. A few of these missions are fairly difficult even early on, and they need to present veteran technique followers a enjoyable time. There are three problem choices to offer a great steadiness, and a few maps can final fairly some time.
There’s a good mixture of mission sorts. Some require defending an space or escorting items to security, whereas others require a cautious mixture of logistics and figuring out all of the unit choices out there to you. The principle objectives are often primarily based round capturing enemy headquarters or destroying all enemy items, however the maps have some twist to make the missions attention-grabbing.
In a single early mission, I needed to defend in opposition to two enemy armies whereas outnumbered and outgunned. It took me a number of makes an attempt to finish it, however I favored how the 2 enemy armies fought one another and me, so I used to be ready to make use of my snipers to choose off enemy infantry whereas holding my floor with my tanker items.
That isn’t all, as Athena Disaster options not simply full multiplayer however a bunch of customized situations alongside dozens of skirmish maps. With the strong map editor, you may shortly make new situations and add them to the inbuilt mod engine, though the dearth of direct Workshop help is a little bit disappointing. A few of these customized campaigns are huge and are within the opening weeks of launch.
This won’t be important if you happen to solely intend to play on the Steam Deck or PC, however I like how one buy on a platform permits unrestricted entry on all different platforms, reminiscent of Mac or Android, with crossplay help. I play on Android handhelds usually, so with the ability to play on my cellphone after which choose issues again up on my Steam Deck is a stunning bonus.
There’s a lot to love right here, though I’ve a few nitpicks. One factor I discovered Athena Disaster missing was its settings. The choices out there are relatively barebones in the way in which of tweaking graphical settings, and whereas it has some controller help, it’s not excellent. I’ll cowl that extra within the efficiency part of the overview, however I want we had extra issues to tweak. Whereas Athena Disaster is a reasonably light-weight sport, it does wrestle with odd body drops, and whereas there’s a redo flip button, there isn’t any approach to take again a unit’s motion if you happen to screw up, so I hope the builders add that in.
Steam Deck Efficiency
In accordance with Valve, Athena Disaster is classed as Verified, which largely holds up. Whereas the sport is completely playable on the Steam Deck, some bizarre issues preserve it from performing completely.
Athena Disaster suffers from odd body drops. Even on inventory settings (60Hz, 1200X800 decision, and uncapped TDP), the sport doesn’t preserve a gradual 60fps, though the Deck has greater than sufficient energy. Via testing, we discovered that the match purposely reduces the framerate for sure animations or when a participant is not transferring to save lots of on battery. This additionally occurs on PC, so it’s not only a Steam Deck problem. Whereas this can be a little irritating, we are able to do nothing about it. As a result of its turn-based mechanics, this isn’t a dealbreaker like in different video games, however I wished to be clear about it.
Athena Disaster appears to work equally nicely irrespective of the efficiency mode, and with no graphical choices to tweak, our choices are restricted. I carried out my traditional battery-saver check. As a result of Athena Disaster is unfazed by energy administration, I turned the TDP setting to three with a 40hz refresh fee and located it to have an analogous efficiency to inventory, which is bizarre, however I’ll take it!
The facility draw will differ considerably, so hammering down a dependable common was tough. Nonetheless, on the 3W TDP setting, I noticed a median energy draw of 6 watts, whereas the inventory settings noticed a median energy draw of 8 watts. For that reason, I like to recommend taking part in Athena Disaster at a 3 or 4W TDP for the additional battery life, with as much as 6.5 hours on the LCD Steam Deck.
Though I discovered some issues navigating the map editor mode, the usual controls work moderately nicely. When you can navigate the map utilizing the joysticks, I discovered no approach to entry the modifying instruments with the controller. I solely obtained it to work by utilizing the touchscreen, so I’m not sure if this can be a bug or a quirk with the controls. I might entry the editor as supposed by switching to the Keyboard (WASD) and Mouse configuration. Nonetheless, I’d advocate sticking to a pc when making a map over the Steam Deck.
Accessibility
Athena Disaster is offered in English, French, German, Italian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese language, Russian, and Korean.
As I discussed earlier, Athena Disaster is relatively skinny on accessibility choices. You possibly can alter the quantity, change the animation pace throughout fight, toggle map tilt, change map fog from laborious to tender edges, and alter the affirm motion command from at all times to by no means. I discovered no approach to rebind controls on the keyboard or controller, and the sport lacks colorblind help.
You possibly can change the identify of your faction, character profile, and portrait and rename items.
Though there isn’t any UI scaling, the textual content is simple to learn out of the field.
Conclusion
Athena Disaster packs lots for its $20 price ticket with the content material out there. The tactical parts pack a punch, and loads of items exist for various gameplay. I benefit from the quantity of identify customization you may put into your faction and the sturdy marketing campaign editor. Technique followers ought to take pleasure in Athena Disaster, significantly if you happen to like a great problem. This title is crafted with love and reveals in each nook.
The odd framerate points I skilled on the Deck do drag down the expertise a little bit, and I hope the builders think about including extra accessibility settings to the sport. Should you can look previous these, Athena Disaster is definitely worth the asking value.
Our overview is predicated on the PC model of this sport.
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