AI War is a mix of a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) and RTS (Real Time Strategy) sprinkled with a touch of TD (Tower Defense). The game forces you to battle against overwhelming AI forces, which outnumber you massively. The goal is to destroy both AI home worlds, which is a huge undertaking, given the fact that the whole Galaxy now belongs to the AI overlords.

It forces you to evaluate your best move.

It forces you to evaluate the cost-benefits of your actions.

It never has a correct next step.

You want to have something to really think about? Try it.

It will overwhelm you, it will force you to learn new things by hour, it will force you to overthink your strategies over and over. That being said, it has a high learning curve, the tutorials are essential to grasp even the basic premise of the game. The UI is clunky at first, but you will learn to love it; the graphics are mediocre, but this isn't a game about graphics. It's all about gameplay, which is very hard and quite fun, very rewarding if you manage to beat the AI.

The game has an insane amount of customizability, especially in terms of the AI I have never seen a game that has so much options. Not even Supreme Commander, which is praised for the AI, comes even close to it. Due to this fact every single game plays different, since there are around 10-15 AI types for difficulty setting (Easy/Medium/Hard/Insane), each of them with unique abilities, plus you can change the AI difficulty itself (from 1-10 while the 'real' game starts out at 7).

Unit cap of 1000 in SupCom? Pffsh. AI War forces you to attack the AI forces, which are usually in the ten thousands in the whole galaxy, even simple attack waves can already have 1000+ units. Your fleet will start around 1000 Unit cap (playing with large fleet settings) and grow to 5-6k units in the end. You will have to use your fleet efficiently to win the game, especially since the AI can crush you basically at any time. But - the AI plays a whole different game than the human players, which makes it quite asymmetric and very interesting to say at least.

Oh, did I mention the game has a brilliant Co-Op mode and it really is awesome with at least a friend? Well it has one, and works up to 8. There are no public lobbies, which is understandable though, since a game can take up from 12 to 40 hours (usually around 20-25), and is pausable as well as savable, even in multiplayer. Also supports drop-in Co-Op so a friend can join even mid-game.

And I haven't even started yet about the expansions, the hundreds of different ship types with different abilities, which are randomized each game, the hundreds of buildings and possibilities, the hacking of enemy ship types, different minor factions which are completely optional (Astro Trains! Dyson Spheres! Zenith!), different game-win conditions aside of destroying the 2 main AI planets, different starting options (want to have a powerful Starship instead of a static home base? it's possible!), and an pretty awesome and very fitting score.

Besides the developer already released 5 DLCs (which is not a bad thing here at all, those DLCs are all pretty much worth the price they're asking, enormous content additions and new modes are introduced) over the course of 5 years, and the game is still maintained with patches, bugfixes and major changes.

This game is the perfect example of a dance on the knives edge. And I love it for this. It's my absolute favorite RTS/4X genre-mix and I don't expect this to change in the near future.

AI War is a mix of a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) and RTS (Real Time Strategy) sprinkled with a touch of TD (Tower Defense). The game forces you to battle against overwhelming AI forces, which outnumber you massively. The goal is to destroy both AI home worlds, which is a huge undertaking, given the fact that the whole Galaxy now belongs to the AI overlords. It forces you to evaluate your best move. It forces you to evaluate the cost-benefits of your actions. It never has a correct next step. You want to have something to really think about? Try it. It will overwhelm you, it will force you to learn new things by hour, it will force you to overthink your strategies over and over. That being said, it has a high learning curve, the tutorials are essential to grasp even the basic premise of the game. The UI is clunky at first, but you will learn to love it; the graphics are mediocre, but this isn't a game about graphics. It's all about gameplay, which is very hard and quite fun, very rewarding if you manage to beat the AI. The game has an insane amount of customizability, especially in terms of the AI I have never seen a game that has so much options. Not even Supreme Commander, which is praised for the AI, comes even close to it. Due to this fact every single game plays different, since there are around 10-15 AI types for difficulty setting (Easy/Medium/Hard/Insane), each of them with unique abilities, plus you can change the AI difficulty itself (from 1-10 while the 'real' game starts out at 7). Unit cap of 1000 in SupCom? Pffsh. AI War forces you to attack the AI forces, which are usually in the ten thousands in the whole galaxy, even simple attack waves can already have 1000+ units. Your fleet will start around 1000 Unit cap (playing with large fleet settings) and grow to 5-6k units in the end. You will have to use your fleet efficiently to win the game, especially since the AI can crush you basically at any time. But - the AI plays a whole different game than the human players, which makes it quite asymmetric and very interesting to say at least. Oh, did I mention the game has a brilliant Co-Op mode and it really is awesome with at least a friend? Well it has one, and works up to 8. There are no public lobbies, which is understandable though, since a game can take up from 12 to 40 hours (usually around 20-25), and is pausable as well as savable, even in multiplayer. Also supports drop-in Co-Op so a friend can join even mid-game. And I haven't even started yet about the expansions, the hundreds of different ship types with different abilities, which are randomized each game, the hundreds of buildings and possibilities, the hacking of enemy ship types, different minor factions which are completely optional (Astro Trains! Dyson Spheres! Zenith!), different game-win conditions aside of destroying the 2 main AI planets, different starting options (want to have a powerful Starship instead of a static home base? it's possible!), and an pretty awesome and very fitting score. Besides the developer already released 5 DLCs (which is not a bad thing here at all, those DLCs are all pretty much worth the price they're asking, enormous content additions and new modes are introduced) over the course of 5 years, and the game is still maintained with patches, bugfixes and major changes. This game is the perfect example of a dance on the knives edge. And I love it for this. It's my absolute favorite RTS/4X genre-mix and I don't expect this to change in the near future.