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Athena Crisis

It’s not quite at the level of the games that inspired it, but Athena Crisis is a great effort with loads of customisation options.
Athena Crisis Game Cover
83%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:gameplay, story
Most mentioned negative aspects:graphics, stability
84% User Score Based on 124 reviews
Critic Score 80%Based on 1 reviews

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Athena Crisis Game Cover

About Athena Crisis

Athena Crisis is a single player and multiplayer tactical role playing game with warfare and science fiction themes. It was developed by Nakazawa Tech and was released on September 23, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

Athena Crisis is a modern retro turn-based strategy game that places you in command of distinct units including infantry, tanks, and air forces in your journey across multiple worlds. Embark on a challenging single-player quest or dive into the thrill of ranked or casual multiplayer modes.

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Reviews

84%Audience ScoreBased on 124 reviews
gameplay13 positive mentions
stability3 negative mentions
  • Addictive gameplay with a strong Advance Wars-inspired core and extensive unit variety, including unique units like zombies, dinosaurs, and trains.
  • Large amount of content including multiple campaigns, a map and campaign editor, and a wealth of community-created maps and campaigns, offering hundreds of hours of replayability.
  • Cross-platform support with seamless save-syncing across devices (PC, mobile, web browser) and an active, responsive developer community continuously updating and improving the game.
  • Always-online requirement and mandatory login hinder offline play, frustrating players who want to play on the go or on devices like Steam Deck without internet access.
  • User interface and menu navigation are unintuitive, cluttered, and cumbersome, with missing or awkward quality-of-life features like partial undo functionality, no key remapping, and lack of clear control instructions.
  • Campaign maps sometimes suffer from poor design with unbalanced difficulty spikes, grind-heavy progression tied to star collection, and heavy reliance on multiplayer to unlock full content; some units and mechanics are polarizing and occasionally frustrating.

  • gameplay

    61 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    21% positive mentions, 72% neutral mentions, 7% negative mentions

    The gameplay is a well-executed, addictive turn-based strategy experience inspired by Advance Wars, featuring expanded unit variety, unique mechanics like the optional Dark Souls-style invasion system, and dynamic property construction/destruction. While the core combat feels polished and satisfying with fast-paced tactics, some map designs, unclear explanations of mechanics, and presentation issues hold it back slightly. Overall, it delivers a fresh and engaging evolution of the genre with strong multiplayer features and thoughtful depth.

    • “Overall, I highly recommend you play this if you're looking for an Advance Wars game with both the familiarity and added gameplay flair with units, skills, invasions, and more.”
    • “The true evolution of the Advance Wars formula, Athena Crisis vastly expands the unit and building roster of the game, while the property construction/destruction mechanic in addition to the existing capture mechanic adds a welcome dynamism to the battlefield and makes each match even more different.”
    • “A clear love letter to the genre, expanding on unit compositions, gameplay, and unique multiplayer mechanics, and shuffling about a campy campaign makes it an easy pick up if you are even remotely interested in the genre.”
    • “Because if you can put up with the balance issues, poor writing, and the fact that the game doesn't explain its unique mechanics well, this game will fill the void.”
    • “The game on its own would do a poor job of explaining the gameplay mechanics to those unfamiliar with this genre of game.”
    • “Game mechanics like capturing properties aren't explained well either.”

  • story

    31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    16% positive mentions, 74% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions

    The game's story is generally seen as weak and somewhat incoherent, with characters often lacking charm and inconsistent motivations, especially in the main campaign. However, players appreciate the extensive content, including tutorial, prequel, and main campaigns, though mission design and pacing issues sometimes detract from engagement. Overall, the story takes a backseat to gameplay and character-driven dialogue, which offers some enjoyment despite the narrative shortcomings.

    • “Especially love that the game on top of having 70 odd official campaign missions, there are hundreds more fan made.”
    • “The game features a 9 missions tutorial, a 10 mission prequel campaign, and a 40 mission main campaign, though some of the maps are locked behind secret objectives.”
    • “The overall storyline of the campaign is not particularly gripping, but it certainly is engaging enough to follow along with the characters and see how it unfolds.”
    • “The story is kind of a mess, a lot of the characters are cringe, and the writing itself is just... ugh.”
    • “Characters lack any charm and its campaign story nonsensical and the maps are poorly designed.”
    • “The prequel campaign doesn't have any characters with inconsistent motivations/actions, and while I do understand it's a much more lighthearted story style so far, I vastly prefer Athena's Crisis' story over Wargroove's butchered potential.”

  • music

    20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    25% positive mentions, 60% neutral mentions, 15% negative mentions

    The game's soundtrack is generally enjoyable and sets the mood well, with catchy melodies and a retro vibe that enhances nostalgia. However, it suffers from limited variety across biomes and repetitive tracks during battles, making it somewhat forgettable and less dynamic compared to other strategy games. The main menu music is widely regarded as uninspired and the overall music experience could benefit from more distinctive themes and fanfares.

    • “The game looks pretty alright for the price point, and does sport a good soundtrack.”
    • “Unit composition and variety is excellent, graphics and music are nice.”
    • “Retro art style and catchy looping melodies in the background music really contribute to the nostalgia.”
    • “The music is very forgettable.”
    • “There are other things like how the music doesn't swap when the opposing side takes their turn, which is surprisingly noticeable as it makes all the gameplay just mush into one repeating soup whereas AW mixes up the turns with different themes.”
    • “The song choices are extremely limited.”

  • graphics

    15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    20% positive mentions, 60% neutral mentions, 20% negative mentions

    The graphics feature a colorful, cutesy, retro pixel-art style that evokes nostalgia and aligns with the aesthetic of classic turn-based tactical games like Advance Wars. While some players appreciate the charming and engaging art design, others find certain sound elements, such as bit-crushed attack sounds, detract from the experience. Overall, the visuals are well-received for complementing the gameplay and enhancing the game's unique feel.

    • “It is a turn based tactical war game with a cutesy and colorful aesthetic.”
    • “Unit composition and variety is excellent, graphics and music are nice.”
    • “If you are interested in turn based games and you like pixel-graphics, do consider giving this gem a shot.”
    • “A lot of the mechanics are the same, a lot of the units are the same, and they even have a very similar style in graphics and art.”
    • “Also, they tried really hard to stick to the cutesy aesthetic of those older titles as well, and I just do not think it works here.”
    • “The game is hard, don't be misled by the pastel colors and cute graphics.”

  • replayability

    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 50% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game offers immense replayability through its deep strategy, extensive multiplayer modes, and customizable conditions. The scenario editor and user-created maps further enhance the lasting appeal, providing virtually infinite replay value despite the need for an online connection.

    • “Multiplayer plus strategy depth equals infinite replayability.”
    • “The variety of conditions is a nice touch, and the fact that those conditions can be implemented in maps you can build from scratch adds an absurd amount of replay value.”
    • “Although it always requires an online connection, there is a benefit in the way of infinite replay value thanks to the scenario editor and community maps.”

  • humor

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The humor in the game is generally well-received, with amusing dialogue and entertaining moments like a T-Rex chomping a tank or destroying and rebuilding buildings in the same turn. However, some players find the unskippable bulk dialogue during longer maps a bit tedious. Overall, the humor adds a lighthearted charm to the gameplay experience.

    • “The tutorial manages to be both funny and informative, with dialogue that is very much in good humour.”
    • “A T-Rex chomping a tank is still so funny.”
    • “It’s hilarious when you can destroy your opponent's building and then build on top of it in the same turn.”

  • optimization

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    75% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 25% negative mentions

    The game is well-optimized, delivering a consistent 60 fps in online mode and smooth performance in offline mode depending on the device. It runs efficiently even on large maps and the Steam Deck, offering a polished experience despite being in early access.

    • “The game is quite polished for an early access title, with smooth performance even on large maps, and a powerful map editor allowing creation of everything from simple PvP maps to entire campaigns with scripted events, custom win conditions, and secret triggers.”
    • “Performance in online mode is a solid 60 fps, while offline mode performance depends on the device.”
    • “Happy with the performance on the Steam Deck.”
    • “Performance in online mode is a solid 60 fps but in offline mode it depends on the device.”

  • stability

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The game’s stability is hampered by buggy and confusing menu navigation, with limited customization options like team colors and UI scaling. The utilitarian design further detracts from the overall user experience.

    • “The menus are unpleasant to navigate and feel too utilitarian in design, and are buggy.”
    • “The menus feel a bit confusing and buggy in terms of navigation and design.”
    • “I can't change the UI scale, and the menus lack customization options.”

  • monetization

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions

    The game features no microtransactions or pay-to-win mechanics, focusing solely on pure tactical gameplay. However, some users have noted the presence of ads.

    • “No microtransactions, no pay-to-win nonsense, just pure tactical goodness.”

  • character development

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 100% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    Character development is a strong focus alongside gameplay, with well-written dialogue that enhances the overall experience despite the story taking a secondary role.

  • grinding

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Grinding in the game is criticized for being tedious due to overly large maps, excessive unit numbers that complicate control and enemy turns, and challenging criteria like one-shotting a high number of enemies to earn rewards.

    • “Those maps are either too big or have too many units, making it a pain not only controlling your own units but also watching the enemy take its turn, unless you know the trick to skip the enemy phase. Additionally, there are tedious criteria to get stars, like one-shotting 75 units.”
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Critic Reviews

80%Critics’ scoreBased on 1 critic reviews
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Play Times

90h Median play time
90h Average play time
90-90h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Athena Crisis is a tactical role playing game with warfare and science fiction themes. Common tags for Athena Crisis include turn-based, indie, 2d, pixel graphics, relaxing and others.

Athena Crisis is available on PC, Web Browser, Mac OS, Phone and others.

On average players spend around 90 hours playing Athena Crisis.

Athena Crisis was released on September 23, 2024.

Athena Crisis was developed by Nakazawa Tech.

Athena Crisis has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked Athena Crisis for its gameplay but disliked it for its graphics.

Athena Crisis is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Warside, Wargroove, TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children, Songs of Conquest, TINY METAL and others.