Being Positive About PA

Dear forum people,

I'd like to share my reasons for liking this game. I know that not everybody has loved this game every step of the way through its many builds to date. Not everyone will agree with me, and that's cool. But I want to put my own, purely personal, case for why I think this game is actually pretty special, and why Uber may well be a bunch of rad dudes after all. Preamble time is over, puny humans! Here is the list.

1. It looks gorgeous. Not just in a 'so many lazors' sort of way, but in that it has a coherent and generally well-executed art style that adds drama and excitement to the underlying game elements. I honestly think it works better than the art for both Supcom and TA in this respect. I've watched intricate battle plans unfold in casts and on my own screen, seen commanders trapped and dying on lonely worlds, watched whole planets explode into a mass of wreckage. There may have been attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion in there somewhere. It's colourful, bold, clear, and it adds savour to something that could have been dry and difficult to swallow.

2. It is its own game. I have enjoyed SupCom, FA, FAF and TA down the years. They are great games, and they have left me with great memories. But this game has always felt like an important addition to that lineage, something that wants to take the excellent ideas of those earlier games and bring them somewhere new. It feels important to me that someone is taking the games I grew up loving into a new generation, seeing them as a tradition of gaming which can be drawn on, rather than a formula that needs to be reiterated.

3. It has always been fun to play. Not always fun for extended periods of time, but definitely fun. I'm not that bothered if today the game is dox-wars or T2 rush or whatever. When I get bored with a build, I wait until the next one, or find something else to do with the game; I don't have time to be always playing, and I don't need to (and I'm aware that not everybody will be in this situation). It also feels like the game has gotten more fun over time, especially as the core units of the game have started to find their niches.

4. I've not encountered any serious technical problems. I have no idea whether I am in a minority or not here, but the game has generally run pretty well for me. Obviously I've hit lategame slowdown, like everyone else, and the odd server KO, but that hasn't been the majority of my games, or the thing that has defined my experiences with this game. There have been problems, and some of them have stuck around a while, but, in the spaces when I have time to play, it feels like the problems get a bit smaller each time.

5. The game is improving. I understand that many people were underwhelmed by PA at release, and they had their reasons (and I wouldn’t disagree with all of them). But I also know how flimsy Supcom was at release, and how long (and how many incarnations) it’s taken that game to become the excellent thing it is today. Stuff is continuing to happen to this game, and each time it does seem to get better. Not all at once, and not all changes move in a completely positive direction, but the trend feels positive, and that makes me feel positive too.

6. Last one, and maybe the biggest one for me: it feels like there is a vision behind this game, pulling it into a shape. IRL, I work with writers (poets mostly) helping them shape their work, edit it, and bring it into a final form that feels like it hangs together as a whole, ready for a wider audience. Finding that vision and expressing it clearly is one of the defining acts of the creative process, and PA has felt like it has possessed that vision for a long while, even when the expression of that vision hasn't always been perfect. It is genuinely impressive to me that a team of humans can work towards something so technically challenging and still have it feel like the work of an auteur (this is why games and film are such amazing media to someone interested in artistic processes). The art style is a part of it, but it goes deeper: there's an idea, a poesis, at the bottom of PA that is emerging through the language of the game. It's not wholly there yet, and there’s tons of stuff that it might be cool to add, but I also know how long it took something like FAF (which also feels like a game of real vision) to reach the impressive state it's in today. I think this is why I'm not too bothered about Uber's communication etc. (though it certainly feels like it’s improving): their work is convincing enough for me to believe that they are committed to a vision of the game, and that their self-belief as artistic individuals won't allow them to just say 'oh that'll do'.

So yeah. Sorry for a long post, and a highly subjective one at that, but I think it was something I needed to get off my chest. It might seem silly to say 'oh it just kinda feels right' about a game, but sometimes it’s like that; taste and criticism are two sides of the same coin, and I hope that people will understand that just because I find PA to my taste, that doesn’t mean I've completely shut off my critical faculties. I know people like their discussion, and their interesting and intricate arguments, but I wanted to say something nice; feel free to disagree (or agree, I guess) vehemently with me below!

Thanks to Uber for all their ongoing hard work, and thanks for reading this far, you nice forum people. Peace out.

Ya, there is a lot of good things about PA that are truly impressive and are quite feats of engineering and design.
There is so much potential with PA to go forward with like new units, different planets, and/or improved Galactic War
However what is scary is the lack of basics to the game (when it has been released, these things need to be in there) are tool-tips and a basic but proper tutorial (the one we have is out of date) and is just glaring in the face of everything

PA right now is a massive shade of gray, many huge achievements, but many problems.

There are still so many things that need improvement, but PA is the only video game I currently play and continually enjoy even with the server slowdown and crashes, horrible naval, etc. I will be playing this game for years to come so I'm hoping the development will continue like they have always promised. For how long the funds will last to support the continued development of this amazing game, who knows.

wow, very well (and I'm tempted to say "succinctly") put (feels like so much was said in such space, maybe it's because it's so true).

personally 3. and 4. have halted my party where they have not for you, but that's great I'm happy you made the best of it all!

Totally agree on that post:
I´d like to add something---PA is one of the few games that completly lives its settings.
UnitDesign, Music, Gameplay, Scope and so on---they all contribute to the right feeling.

Every shot is a hit. There is no eternal fortress; the only way really is "Annihilate Everything".
And, what´s most important: It´s gigantic, but real little puncture attacks can still hurt a lot! You can REALLY flee, you can do a hard reset. And so on, and so on...
...in other words: It´s already a great game---so it deserves to become a fantastic one!

Honestly, I can say that PA is one of the few games that I have been able to play over and over again, without losing interest. Part of that is the modding scene, and part of that is the game itself. I don't know how, but I can't get bored of PA for long periods of time. I always return eventually, and even when I'm not playing, I'm an active member of the forums.

Just seen a video of Forged Alliance, it felt outdated, having the flat map and even the graphics. The style of PA just fits the genre perfectly ^^

personaly i find pa's current status ok so far .. to fully enjoy it though i would need every feature and content that allows for easier macroability of troops
aswell as easier ways to invade enemy planets ... lasty as personal wish a hovercraftfactory with its own set of units ...

if all that is in .. yea then i think pa is gold .. at least for me ...

Yep. PA is the only RTS that can fulfill my RTS needs.. I just can't play any other RTS after PA.. seems to lack something in them