Breaking is not building, but it’s also interesting!
Forts is an RTS game based on the laws of physics. In it, opponents build bases, arm them to the teeth, and tear down the enemy’s structures.
Build an armored fort and arm it to the teeth, all in real time. Mine resources, develop new technologies, acquire new weapons, and, after finding the enemy’s fort’s vulnerabilities, rejoice as his creation collapses with a bang.
We built and built and built… and then it all broke down.
Players most of the time have to erect bulkheads of fortifications and lazily toss shells with their neighbors in the location. The player who first destroys the heart of the fort, the reactor, wins.
It would seem that such a simple activity cannot initially contain anything that could be called dynamic and exciting. But Forts is not as simple as the first 10 quests make it seem. After they teach you how to build forts – by the way, given the game’s physics, which is extremely reminiscent of the construction mechanics in World of Goo – it comes to upgrades, economic exhausting warfare, and firefights, which seamlessly develop into a systematic full-scale war involving an array of rocket launchers.
Of course, building in a 2D strategy is a limited thing. But in Forts, you’re building a series of fortifications whose size and scope are limited only by your imagination. If you want, you can hang your fort from the ceiling, holding the hinged supports with ropes and metal beams. It is worth adding that each fort is unique in its own way, with weaknesses and strengths.
Stone, scissors, paper
In typical RTS, the easiest thing to do is to deprive the enemy of resources and then destroy them. Here, you deal direct damage to the enemy by breaking their towers, defenses, and forcing them to spend money to rebuild them. This makes for a grueling but interesting war. Although, 1 on 1 battles rarely end after 25 minutes. In 4-on-4 battles, on the other hand, the battles are sometimes truly short-lived.
The mechanics of combat are simple and linear: you take turns erecting various turrets to “counter” enemy fire; you improve something, and you complete something. Roughly speaking, machine guns, though they’re a pain to dig up the fort, are great at demolishing flying projectiles. The sniper will not help to repel a raid, but does a professional job of destroying turrets through the narrow embrasures of the fort.
Of course, when it comes to exchanging armor-piercing shells and volleys of rail guns, there’s no sense talking about a “counterattack” – just shoot before it overheats! But this is when the most interesting thing in Forts begins – the micro-control and tense, sometimes very spectacular firefights. There’s no automated combat, except for the rockets themselves and the occasional machine gun answering the mortar rounds. But in all other cases, the fort commander controls everything at once, personally observing the consequences of attacks and damage.
Is the fort on fire? We have to put it out. Missiles flying? Must shoot them down. Is the enemy purposely punching holes in the defenses? We’ve got to fix it! And yes, all at the same time. In Forts, the player is asked to think and make decisions quickly.
And a clear battle strategy is essential. And it includes absolutely all stages: development, construction, and even minor force majeure – an accidental hit on a supporting pillar, for example.
The abundance of tactics and strategies is enormous. Given the fact that there are 9 unique commanders to choose from, they can help you decide what to do. For example, you can immediately begin to press, issuing bursts of the first machine gun volley. Or you can wait for the snipers, upgrading them to armor-piercing to get armor-plated guard turrets. Even the angle of the protective plate affects the penetration. It’s likely that at the right angle, bullets will simply ricochet, making it unnecessary to repair and waste resources.
Forts is a simple, yet entertaining 2D strategy game. The game is inspired by the construction ideas of World of Goo and reinforced with artillery salvos from Worms. As a result, it’s addictive and tasty. For such an unpretentious 2D strategy game, Forts turned out to have too diverse an opening, allowing you to happily kill evening after evening.
