Planetary Annihilation: TITANS, Some Thoughts On The New Standalone Expansion & The Controversy

Now that I’ve had some time to sit down and try out Planetary Annihilation: TITANS, here are my thoughts of it.

What is it?
It’s a standalone expansion, so it’s listed as a separate game on Steam. You get it for free if you backed the original PA on Kickstarter, and a heavy discount if you picked it up after.

It’s a strategy game on a massive scale, and that’s even more true now. TITANS adds some massive new units, new maps, a proper tutorial to give you the basics (which was a common complaint) and more.

Controversy
The sad thing here, is that there are lots of people feeling burnt by this move of a paid expansion. People seem to be under the impression that they deserve a developers time and effort for free. While it’s true the original PA wasn’t perfect, with TITANS they have delivered quite a bit of new content along with lots of polishing and it feels like a new game to me.

I already mentioned that Kickstarter backers get it for free, and that’s a solidly good move by Uber Entertainment here, as we (I backed it) made it happen. Without us, it probably wouldn’t exist at all. Kickstarter backers paid money for an idea to happen. I’ve seen people comparing the amount they paid during Early Access to the amount Kickstarter backers paid, and while in theory that’s an argument (and I understand it since the price was higher then), it’s still flawed. Early Access backers paid to gain instant access to the game and it was publicly detailed that the price would get lower at release, and gamers weren’t promised anything more than that.

Anyone who owns Classic PA does get a 66% discount, which makes it around the price of a DLC in other games anyway. Not quite free, but it still shows Uber aren’t in it for a major cash-grab like some people seem to think.


Uber even enables TITANS players to play with Classic PA players by simply adjusting an option in TITANS, so the community isn’t even fractured by this move. You can’t even buy Classic PA now either, which means all new players will be on TITANS, so the community should get bigger by this move.

Their Steam store page states the reviews are “Mostly Positive” (It was Very Positive earlier), but that hasn’t stopped the ones showing on the store page directly all being negative. It’s another reason why user reviews shouldn’t really be trusted, as you will notice the negative reviews have hardly put any time into TITANS to see if it was really worth it or not.

Honestly, this reminds me of the backlash 4A Games had with the Metro Redux games, and it seems that backlash faded after a while when people realised how much better the Redux games were.

There’s also “Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance”, that was a standalone expansion for Supreme Commander. It was pretty much the same game with a few new units and a better UI, but I didn't hear anyone complain about it back then.

I could pull out a long list of other examples of why complaints about the pricing is silly.

The “Classic PA” had about a year of big and small updates, but they needed a bigger push, so TITANS it is. They have stated they wouldn’t have been able to afford to do things like this with normal free updates (source, see answers from the 19th).

Notable point: People really do forget how much it costs to make games, especially if you’re making something other than a simple platformer. Steam is as always a cesspit of vitriol, and I suggest you all ignore the Steam forum for TITANS. Developers aren’t charities, developers and general support takes up a lot of time and money. Kickstarters are generally priced way, way below what developers actually need to develop and support the game after release, remember that folks.

My thoughts on TITANS itself
I was in shock a little bit when I saw it release out of nowhere. I knew they had something planned that they hinted at, but I didn’t think it would be anything this big.

I know some people will be a bit annoyed at Uber Entertainment, but it’s a great way to breathe new life into Planetary Annihilation with TITANS.

One major criticism of the original was the lack of a tutorial, and TITANS makes up for this with a proper one, and it’s actually quite nice. They finally realised a lot of people didn’t play the games they are inspired from, so hopefully now more people will learn the (rather simple) mechanics. It does take a lot to master the game though, and after 50+ hours in “Classic PA” and now nearly three hours in TITANS it’s clear I still suck. I enjoy how much I suck though, because explosions.

I’ve tried a few ranked 1v1 matches online, and the new maps are much better polished. Having clear choke points to battle over, and some maps having hilltops as starting areas makes them more interesting to defend against quick attacks. The hilltops remind me the way Starcraft 2 maps are designed, and some even older Total Annihilation maps, so they are very welcome.

Having the orbital units always visible from normal radars, instead of them being separated into their own orbital radar system is much more sensible too, as it was too much work to keep an eye on all the different layers of the game. It also makes certain orbital rushing tactics much less viable, and makes the game a little more accessible to lower ranked players.

The TITANS themselves are insanely big and powerful, and one of them was able to destroy my entire base in a match I streamed, even if I did manage to destroy that one the other player had practically finished a second. They are absolutely fantastic to see in game, and it makes it really quite exciting!

Overall, this is the version of Planetary Annihilation I wish was released before, as it’s a much better experience all around. I don’t feel burnt by this standalone expansion, and I’m more pleased with it now than I ever was before.

Check out Planetary Annihilation TITANS on Steam. I do highly recommend it, but it’s still a bit iffy for AMD GPU’s. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.