Greed Corp is a download initiative from the guys at W! Games, whose only other known title is My Horse and Me for the Wii and DS. Taking that into consideration, this game has nothing to do with horses. Greed Corp is something totally more violent. It’s about outsmarting and pounding your opponent into the ground. The game is similar to two other downloadable games that came out a while ago: Catan and Carcassonne. It’s a tile-based strategy game, in that it is you against up to four opponents, and the last player standing wins. The game is a challenging romp though many unique hex based boards, and it doesn’t disappoint, just frustrates.
There are only two modes in the game: campaign and multiplayer. In the campaign, you play as one of four factions, and go through a series of missions to basically get a handle on what you need to know to play against real people. First off, I want to say that the game is hard. It beats you into the ground, and only lets up for you to get a little rest, and then beats you down again. Even on beginner, I had opponents defeating me before I even knew what hit me. I actually also had to play the tutorial twice, just to make sure I was doing everything right. There is definitely a steep learning curve with this game, and it is something that everyone will have to get through just to be able to get into the game.
However, even with this great difficulty, this isn’t a game that is meant to be played against a computer controller opponent. This is a game that you jump into with a bunch of friends, just for fun. This is where the problems arise. When I jumped online to play against people, there was no one to play online with. I checked the online leader boards, and overall, there are one hundred and nineteen people playing this game online. That’s it. So, if you really want to play a game like this, make sure you find a couple of friends that want to jump in with you, and set up a game with them, otherwise there is no reason to pick up this game, unless the online community gets bigger.
The gameplay breaks down pretty easy, after you get the hang of things. You control the camera with the left stick, and the menu with the right stick, you press Y to build a unit when you have it highlighted, X to attack, and A to move units. There are only five units: The walker, cannon, harvester, flyer and armory. The walker can take spaces, the cannon can break down tiles, the harvester gains you money to buy things, the flyer moves units across gaps, and the armory lets you create new walkers. This all may seem very simple, but the catch is that overtime, when you harvest, the tiles that you are playing on will sink lower and lower, and eventually fall off, leaving any units on that tile to fall into the abyss.
The game does look good, with awesome looking maps, and overall good presentation. The sound of the tiles breaking will leave you with a feeling on tension, and leave you scrambling to figure out what to do next. There are also even day and night cycles, and the atmosphere changes depending on the time of day in the game. The game also has a cartoony feel, with light hearted character models, each with their own style, as well as the old timey music that adds to this cartoon feeling. Overall, the visuals add to a truly unique game.
With all these complaints, I want to say that the game is not bad; it just can be very frustrating. It may take you a dozen times to complete one mission, but once you do, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences you will have. This game is going to live or die by word of mouth, because I know there are people out there who will like this game, and when they find it, they will spend hours and hours online. I just hope that there are eventually enough people who also enjoy this style of game to play with them. It is a very niche game, and one that only a hardcore group of players will truly have fun with, and make it a classic.
Overall, Greed Corp is a good game, and one that if you give it a couple of hours, it will be a game that you can at least appreciate. It’s not for everyone, but I urge everyone to at least give it a try. If you like it, then you have found a good place to spend ten dollars. If not, there are plenty of other games that are worthy of your time right now. I just hope that developers go back to the drawing board, and if they can make a game similar to this, but for a more main stream audience, then they will have something that will truly shine, and be played by tons of people.
Review copy provided by publisher.
