Any game with the noble ambition of reviving 90s-style real-time strategy is going to have our attention here at PCG, especially when it comes from the great minds behind Command and Conquer. Industrial Annihilation, a follow-up to Planetary Annihilation and spiritual successor to Total Annihilation, after accomplishing its Kickstarter funding goals earlier this year, but its first few days on Steam have been a bit faltering.
Early sentiment in the community is that the game feels too threadbare (which could be a case of mismanaged expectations around what 'Early Access' means). "It's so bare bones that it's basically an asset show without a game," . and inevitable EA bugginess to see the potential of its 'Factorio meets C&C' concept, while saying that it [[link]] has a long way to go.
It's worth remembering that Planetary Annihilation, made by the same team under a different studio name, also had a rocky journey before landing on a pretty solid final product. Planetary Annihilation was one of the early Kickstarter superhits back in 2012, raising over $2,000,000. When it finally came out, it… , so the studio released the Titans expansion the following year that , as well as adding a bunch of new content.
Founding Kickstarter backers were gifted Titans for free, but other owners of the base game—some of whom paid $90, which granted them access to the alpha build—weren't too happy that they had to pay for the upgrade (albeit at a steep discount), feeling that the base game fell so far short of expectations that it should've been a free upgrade for all existing owners.
When all was said and done, Planetary Annihilation: Titans wound up being pretty good, with a 'Very Positive' score on Steam, so here's hoping that the studio has learned from previous experience, and Industrial Annihilation grows into a game that does its RTS lineage proud.