Hydraulic Empire

https://youtu.be/n9nFXr76W9Q Developers guilty of posting reviews of their own game. I will be reporting this game and due to the duplicitous nature of the Developers, I would recommend you do not purchase this game. **UPDATE** As is fairly predictable, the Developer has begun deleting discussion threads showcasing the video in an effort to limit the visibility of the issue.

Update: A developer responded to my review and updated the game based on the feedback. I have not had time to play through it again, but I appreciate their effort. If you read the original review below and are on the fence about Hydraulic Empire, you might consider giving it a chance. My intention was not to be the bad review that killed their business; I was genuinely frustrated at the time. I don't know if it's better, but they seem to be honestly trying, which is commendable. Original review follows: Well, I just uninstalled this one, having decided it was no longer worth the effort. Another good example of a game with an interesting concept but poor execution. Also, a good example of why you should always check the global achievement stats: less than 1.5% of people who own this game even finished it. I am starting to get the impression that most reviewers just sample games and base their reviews on a fun initial impression, imagining the possibilities - they do not complete the...

I love Tower Defense games, I own and have played dozens of them on PC/XBLA/iPad etc. I want to like this game but it is just not very good in its current state. It lacks a lot of (basic) features - Custom keybinds - Full screen windowed - Sound off by loss of focus - 16:10 support Then the HUD is just lackluster, the upgrade menu's provide little information. Yes you can figure it out easily but you shouldn't have too. It just shows how much polish (or lack thereoff) this game has gotten. And on top of that I've had several times that the mission just restarted out of nowhere after alt tabbing. Posted feedback on the forums but no reply still so I'm posting this review and I'm asking for a refund. Even with 75% discount I don't think this game deserves to be rewarded with my money.

(Personal disclosure: I had this game before the whole thing and so was rather shocked about it all because I liked this game and was waiting for it to become more complete than when I first played it.) This is a TD game with a few customizable options, generally you know what you're getting fare with TD. But that isn't why I am recommending this title - [u]I am recommending it because the developer has impressed me.[/u] (Others, too, that a developer can turn themselves around!) Sure, the usual thing of a developer doubling-down with dishonesty happened, and in this case it was rather bad. Not as in banning everyone or deleting tons of threads bad (though some were deleted before it was noted that Valve and Steam Community Moderators can see EVERYTHING deleted) and the developer did play it fair in that regard afterwards. What happened was actually worse, pushing towards felony material. First it had started with review fraud by an account from the game's Greenlight submission...

Even if this game were free, I wouldn't bother wasting time with it. Everything is subpar, the graphics, gameplay, balance, UI, etc. You're better off playing Bloons TD or something like that.

Hydraulic Empires tries to be a lot of things. It's trying to capture the fun tower defense of Defense Grid and the skill building of Sanctum all in something remeniscent of a Steampunk look. Having played the games that it's trying to be, Hydraulic Empires falls short. I do like the hexagon element of the field planning...but that's about the only thing that stood out.

Early Access Review - Will update as more features are added. An absolute must buy for TD fans. Even if you not that in TD this is still worth a look. I did a first impressions / early access review video. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=479836216 Hydraulic Empire is a fantastic TD game. It uses some mechanics seen in other TD games. It also add some new mechanics and systems that make this an already really well round, fun and engaging TD. + Mob Interactions that I have not seen in previous TD's. It will keep you on your toes. + Great Map/Level design which makes you want to replay and try a diff set of towers/maze route. + RPG elements which reward replays of earlier missions without feeling like a grind. + Hero/Builder character keeps the gameplay engaging. No sit back and watch the towers kill mobs here. + Perk Tree for the Hero Builder. + A fresh unique take on persistent upgrades for towers. - A little rough around the edges. - Still more features to b...

This is not a bad game, there are some substance and challenge, but it is a bit rough around the edges for a commercial game, and I think there are a number of better and more polished games in the crowded Tower Defense genre. The game production is quite ambitious and certainly above many mobile TD ports. but unfortunately it lacks polish in several areas. In particular when there are many enemies on screen the action become confuse and it is sometimes hard to place a tower where you want because there are always an enemy on the tile were you want to built hence the game display an enemy info box instead of the build pop-up just because you can't access the empty tile with your mouse pointer. Here a simple keyboard shorcut for building would have helped. Then there are occasional fram rate drops or even a few of CTDs (though not during action proper but rather when navigating through menu). Also annoying is the fact that the game doesn't properly save your highscore and on occasio...

The sound effects and music glitch, high scores are not saved. Feels unfinished like a beta version. Graphics are fine, music is great. Looks like it has all it needs to be a great addition to the genre but the above mentioned breaks it for me.

A bad little Tower Defense game. The graphics are detailed and colourfull, but with annoying lacking of deeping and shadows; can not choose resolutions under 1072 px. While it runs, sounds and music degenerate in awkful noises, by a own software error. The mechanics is good, with a hero, 10 kinds of towers, upgrades and customizations. But are been awkfully implemented and gameplay ruins the fun: can not fit in full screen with 4:3 aspect ratio, sometimes crushes by abuse of graphic card even in medium quality, has few zoom option and a too slowly side displacement, hero is slow altought is needed to built every tower, is difficult to distinguish from the background and have problems to aiming, towers dont changes when upgrading, foes are too speedy, the rewards for kill them are poor. To complete it require patience and willpower; get 95% of achievements takes less of 20 hours in hard mode. Seems a failed attempt to emulate Tower Wars.