Achron
- August 28, 2011
- Hazardous Software Inc.
Get on Steam"Achron" is a Science Fiction Real Time Strategy game that allows for unique time travel-based tactics in both multiplayer and single-player modes. Experience dynamic temporal environments, where you can alter past and future actions to outsmart opponents. With the ability to send units back and forth through time, create paradoxes, and engage in subversive strategies, "Achron" offers a fresh and innovative take on the RTS genre.
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Reviews
- The time travel mechanic is innovative and well-implemented, providing a unique gameplay experience that allows players to manipulate events in both the past and future.
- The game offers complex strategic possibilities, encouraging players to think critically and creatively about their actions and their consequences.
- Despite its flaws, Achron is considered a groundbreaking concept in the RTS genre, showcasing the potential for time manipulation in gameplay.
- The game suffers from poor execution in many areas, including bad pathfinding, confusing controls, and a lack of polish that detracts from the overall experience.
- The user interface is clunky and difficult to navigate, making it hard for players to understand the impact of their actions within the time travel mechanics.
- Many players find the game unplayable due to frequent crashes, bugs, and a steep learning curve that can be frustrating for newcomers.
- gameplay72 mentions
- 28 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Achron is centered around a unique and innovative time travel mechanic that is both well-developed and engaging, offering strategic depth not found in other real-time strategy games. However, the overall execution suffers from poor interface design, lack of polish, and unbalanced core gameplay, leading to a frustrating experience that detracts from the potential of its standout mechanic. While the time travel aspect is praised for its ingenuity, many players find the game itself to be tedious and unrefined, making it difficult to recommend without reservations.
“The time travel mechanic is very well done and fun to use, but the game could use more polish and there are a few bugs.”
“This game shows a highly innovative, I'd even say genius mechanic of time travel in a real-time strategy - something no one has done before or since (up to 2015).”
“Fantastic gameplay, fantastic soundtrack, me and my friends greatly enjoy trying to one-up each other in multiplayer.”
“A real-time strategy game with a short time travel mechanic let down by awful execution in nearly every area.”
“The concept is amazing, but the gameplay is just so unpolished and so boring most of the time, I just can't recommend it.”
“Once you take away the utterly broken time mechanics, what you're left with is a rather poorly balanced strategy game, with really poor controls.”
- story34 mentions
- 12 % positive mentions
- 76 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as poorly executed, with many reviewers finding it weak and lacking depth, despite some acknowledging it as well-written. The narrative is often overshadowed by frustrating gameplay mechanics, such as a steep difficulty curve and poorly designed missions, which detract from the overall experience. Additionally, amateurish voice acting contributes to a sense of disconnection from the story, leaving players feeling unengaged.
“The story behind it is excellently written, and the mechanics are solid.”
“It does have a good story, but the difficulty level curve and difficulty with the interface made me take a long time to beat it as I had to take extended breaks from it.”
“Events in the game occur in reasonable order; instead, things happen that suit what the storyline needs at that point in time.”
“This sounds like an amazing game decades ahead of its time, but sadly its poorly designed tutorial and heavily scripted missions will turn off most players and make them drop the game in frustration.”
“Voice acting is amateurish and lifeless, as if the actors were bored or annoyed with the story as much as I was.”
“Okay, that's being generous, the storyline is probably one of the weakest things in the game.”
- graphics12 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The graphics in Achron are widely criticized for being rough and poorly designed, which detracts from the overall gameplay experience. Users have reported issues with graphical glitches and scaling problems, particularly on different hardware setups, leading to a lack of aesthetic appeal. Overall, the visuals are deemed inadequate, making it difficult for some players to fully enjoy the game.
“The graphics are pretty bad, in a way that personally made it more difficult for me to play, and my library is largely filled with faux 8-bit games.”
“Hazardous software has a few other products on offer, but they largely suffer from the same pattern of flaws: implementation in a very harsh resource environment with a bad sense of aesthetics and UI.”
“Everything about the time travel system is incredibly well thought out and manages to be mostly intuitive after some time with the game, which is a feat in and of itself, but the commands, graphical design, and UI all remain very rough, as do the campaign scripting and map design.”
- stability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game initially faced stability issues, including bugs and problematic pathfinding, which required multiple updates to improve. While some users noted these bugs, they also acknowledged that the game's mechanics added a layer of strategic depth.
“Another thing that contributed to that is it was a bit buggy at first and the pathfinding took a lot of updates to make right.”
“Buggy from time to time, but that one mechanic brings this game more strategy than Starcraft!”
- music4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the game is highly praised, with many users highlighting its fantastic quality and how it enhances the overall gameplay experience, particularly in multiplayer settings. Players enjoy the soundtrack, which adds to the competitive atmosphere among friends.
“Fantastic gameplay, fantastic soundtrack, me and my friends greatly enjoy trying to one-up each other in multiplayer.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly in managing and controlling the hierarchies involved. This repetitive task detracts from the overall enjoyment and engagement with the game.
“As tedious as it is to arrange these hierarchies, it becomes even worse to control them.”
