Cantata

This is just one of if not the best strategy games I have ever played. I really don't know where to even start. Comment for specifics because there is just so much to this game, it is such a joy.

I'd been following [i]Cantata[/i] since around Covid. It looked like everything I wanted a mainstream strategy game to be - innovative, strategically diverse, beautiful, compellingly written... I remember an interview close to release, where one of the developers threw out confidently 'there's no stopping [i]Cantata[/i]!' Then came the release, and with it came the mixed reviews and I took note. Looked like a mess, however beautiful it might be. Turned out, there in fact was a lot of stuff stopping [i]Cantata[/i]. Now I took a lesson from that. [h1]ALWAYS TRUST YOUR GUT AND NEVER TRUST THE F@CKING REVIEWS[/h1] What happens when a truly unique game comes out? No, it doesn't get recognised. No, it doesn't get praise. It gets buried under an orgy of 'this guame isin't like that gayme me know hou to pley, me must learn nyuw skills, me [i]consumer[/i] sensebylytyies be ofendid!' Somehow - I don't f@cking know how - the developers managed to mingle real-time strategy dynamics with those of a turn-based one. I realise [i]Advance Wars[/i] was sort of an inspiration, but this goes so far above and beyond. With three [i]absolutely, completely, radically[/i] different factions - th…

Could have been something incredible but the developer got scared of the uncertainties that come from innovating and ran away instead.

Not for me. I found it really poorly done.

It's like a gorgeous art project trying its hardest to be a fun game, but failing miserably. The game is very tedious to play and feels like it's still in a beta or alpha stage before abandonment.

It's one of a kind. This game lives and dies by its herculean thematic setting and faction design. It would make an excellant setting for a novel. The gameplay is very plain. You follow: A machine rebellion, fleeing from the shotar of mars and his corporate executive in a last roll of the dice for a "edge" to guarantee your peoples freedom. A fanaticical prohphet turned rebel, and now a prisoner, one of the untold masses pressed into the ranks of the "reigns" penal battalions. Sent to this backwaters world in order to stomp out a machine uprising not so different from the one on your own homeworld. A Hunter, at home in the mists and humid bogs of shoal, the god below. Can these fallen stars not hear? are they deaf to the songs of gods hand? If they are deaf to shoals songs, perhaps when they see their fellow fallen slain and feel the blades of the hunters they will then know and hear our chorus. If you are looking for a solo turn based tactical base building sci-fi space drama then this is for you. I can't praise the art and lore enough. A very well thought out game.