Grey Goo

About

"Grey Goo" is a real-time strategy game that features large familiar and alien forces in battle. Players can choose to command one of three factions: the humans, the Beta, or the Goo, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The game offers a single-player campaign and multiplayer modes, with a focus on strategy, base-building, and resource management. Character count: 162. More information about the game is available on its Steam page: .

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

+11

67%

Audience ScoreBased on 2,883 reviews

story488 positive mentions

optimization34 negative mentions

The game features beautiful graphics and highly polished cutscenes.
Each faction has unique mechanics and playstyles, making gameplay diverse and interesting.
The campaign offers a compelling story with engaging voice acting.

The game suffers from balance issues, with some factions being overpowered compared to others.
The campaign is relatively short, with only 15 missions and a lack of depth in storytelling.
Multiplayer is essentially dead, limiting replayability and community engagement.

story
1,556 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
64%
5%
The story of "Grey Goo" is described as intriguing and well-presented, featuring high-quality cutscenes and a narrative that explores themes of misunderstanding and conflict among three distinct factions. However, many reviewers note that the campaign is short, consisting of only 15 missions, which leaves the story feeling incomplete and lacking depth. While the overall premise and character development show promise, the execution often falls flat, leading to a mixed reception regarding its storytelling quality.
- “The story is intriguing and beautifully presented, with high-quality cutscenes that enhance the overall experience.”
- “The campaign is fun to play through and not too hard on normal difficulty, with a well-structured narrative that keeps you engaged.”
- “The story is well-written and captivating, with a unique premise that draws you into the game's universe.”
- “The story is not very well written and completely lacks a real end.”
- “Ultimately, the story has other problems, the largest of which is that it was simply never finished because the devs abandoned the game after it didn't make them the next Elon Musk.”
- “The story itself is so incredibly sparse that I felt a sort of imposter syndrome on behalf of the game; I had no idea what was happening, figured I might have missed some important cutscene or exposition dump, only to go back and realize no, I hadn't missed anything, there's just barely any story there.”
gameplay
800 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
58%
7%
The gameplay in "Grey Goo" is characterized by its unique faction mechanics, with each of the three factions offering distinct playstyles and strategies, reminiscent of classic RTS games like Command & Conquer. While the game features solid mechanics and a well-balanced experience, many players find the gameplay to be slow-paced and at times repetitive, leading to mixed feelings about its overall engagement and depth. The visuals and storytelling are praised, but some players feel that the gameplay lacks innovation and can become tedious over time.
- “The gameplay changes depending on which faction you are playing, with the campaign serving as an in-depth look at the capabilities and special 'epic' units of each faction.”
- “Gameplay is fun just somehow the game is slow or you feel heavy. AI in normal games are overwhelming.”
- “The gameplay is smooth and well thought out.”
- “The gameplay feels really clunky and unrefined compared to other RTS games.”
- “The gameplay is extremely boring.”
- “The gameplay is just set up better economy, mass units and position them well in battle.”
graphics
444 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
37%
3%
The graphics of the game have received widespread acclaim, with many reviewers praising the stunning visuals, high-quality cutscenes, and overall artistic design. While the graphics are often described as beautiful and on par with AAA titles, some players noted that the gameplay and mechanics did not match the same level of quality, leading to a perception that the visuals overshadowed other aspects of the game. Overall, the game's graphics are considered a standout feature, contributing significantly to its appeal.
- “The graphics are absolutely beautiful, especially with the goo and how it moves in this game.”
- “The graphics both in actual game and story cutscenes are great; the story grows on you as you progress through the game but only really gets interesting as you reach the game's conclusion.”
- “The graphics are amazing and colorful; explosions and laser fire effects are beautifully animated.”
- “The graphics in the cutscenes slowly degraded into 2010 levels by the time we play as the humans, and then 2007 when we play as the goo.”
- “Very disappointed with this game, graphics are nice but the campaign was a letdown to me and short; flashy game but not worth anywhere near £30.”
- “The graphics are not that great.”
music
260 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59%
40%
1%
The music in the game, composed by the renowned Frank Klepacki, receives widespread acclaim for its quality and ability to enhance the gameplay experience, with many reviewers highlighting its nostalgic ties to classic RTS titles like Command & Conquer. While some players find the soundtrack memorable and dynamic, others note that certain tracks can feel repetitive or lack standout melodies. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a significant highlight of the game, contributing to its atmospheric and engaging presentation.
- “Beautiful presentation, great soundtrack, and wonderful cutscenes.”
- “The soundtrack is composed by Frank Klepacki, who is an icon in the Command & Conquer franchise.”
- “The music is beautiful, and I like the storyline.”
- “The music is plain and boring; the sounds aren't so good and the story didn't catch me.”
- “The music is okay, and gets repetitive quickly.”
- “In other aspects, the music is plain and boring; the sounds aren't so good and the history didn't catch me.”
optimization
131 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
53%
26%
Overall, the game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant performance issues, including long save times, frame rate drops, and crashes, even on high-end systems. While some users noted improvements and smooth gameplay under certain conditions, the consensus indicates that the game suffers from clunky controls, unoptimized graphics, and inconsistent performance, particularly in late-game scenarios with numerous units. Despite its potential, these optimization problems detract from the overall experience, making it difficult for players to fully enjoy the game.
- “The game has nice graphics, runs smoothly, and has polish.”
- “For me at least, this game's really quite optimized now and runs great which is always a pleasant thing given the scale of some of the battles you have in an RTS game.”
- “Game has been optimized for slower PCs and newer machines alike.”
- “Extremely poorly optimized controls make a game that had a chance at excellence become a poor, mediocre, frustrating experience where they want you to be precise and accurate, and the mapping makes it impossible to click, select, or place certain tools and units.”
- “The constant crashes for higher resolutions, random crashes in missions, and poor optimization are a big no for me.”
- “The performance issues of this game are the major hampering factor to truly enjoying the experience.”
grinding
49 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
4%
94%
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and frustrating, with many players noting that missions often devolve into monotonous tasks and slow-paced gameplay. The resource management and micromanagement required can feel burdensome, leading to a lack of engagement and enjoyment. Overall, while the game has some interesting design elements, the grinding experience detracts significantly from its appeal.
- “Since the last years only brought us MOBAs and StarCraft-type clicking frenzy games, Grey Goo returns to the roots: no unit skills, no tedious micro-tasks, and a focus on strategy.”
- “But the overall story was fine otherwise, though the individual missions were often obnoxious, grindy slog-fests that involve throwing yourself against the enemy or painfully exploring the map in search of the final goo mother.”
- “Grey goo is simplistic, tedious, and boring, with a lazily designed campaign that just gives the enemy huge defenses to artificially lengthen game time.”
- “Playing as the goo is the most tedious micromanagement I've seen in an RTS; you have to babysit every mother goo, it's a 3-click operation for every unit you build, goo units moving to join a large force often get killed on the way since they can't attack-move, it's just so aggravating!”
replayability
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
63%
9%
Replayability in this game is a mixed bag; while some players appreciate the unique experiences offered by different factions and the potential for custom maps, many find the short campaign and limited skirmish options detract from long-term engagement. The multiplayer aspect is seen as lacking depth, and overall, the game may not justify its price for those seeking extensive replay value. However, the inclusion of modding support and optional objectives can enhance replayability for dedicated players.
- “This produced a very unique experience and style between each faction, and the multiple combinations of gods and their tech trees/units allow for much replayability.”
- “With the various factions, their many units, and virtually unlimited supply of maps, Grey Goo has lots of replay value.”
- “It's replayable because you can make your own maps or use others on Steam Workshop, it has LAN gameplay, offline skirmish, a nice campaign with amazing CGI cutscene graphics, and custom online matches.”
- “The campaign is short, extremely short, and for single player, the game lacks some of the features of other RTS games (in-depth scenario customization, etc.) that might've given it more replayability.”
- “I don't think the campaign has much replay value.”
- “0 replayability; getting to the end started feeling more like a chore just to see how it ends. I have no interest in playing again, and given the horrible unit diversity and little strategy required, I have no interest in playing multiplayer as it most likely will be who can bind their keys to spam the most.”
stability
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
80%
The game's stability has been a significant concern among users, with many reporting frequent freezes, crashes, and various bugs that hinder gameplay, such as unresponsive units and flickering screens. While some players note improvements over time and commend the game's optimization, the initial launch was plagued with issues that still persist for many, leading to a mixed reception regarding its overall stability. Despite these challenges, a portion of the player base still finds enjoyment in the game, suggesting that it may appeal to those willing to tolerate its technical shortcomings.
- “Polished to a spit shine and runs great on any rig.”
- “For me at least, this game's really quite optimized now and runs great, which is always a pleasant thing given the scale of some of the battles you have in an RTS game.”
- “The game is generally bug-free.”
- “The game freezes when trying to launch.”
- “Not to mention freezes during trying to save the game, terrible loading times, changing settings on its own and other bugs that are still not fixed yet, despite people reporting them since a long time.”
- “30 minutes playing a fun campaign, then the game crashes and manages to fill my system SSD partition to 90% with a useless crash dump, freezes my desktop and forces me to reboot.”
humor
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
94%
17%
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with some players appreciating the lighthearted elements and funny campaign moments, while others criticize the lack of depth and reliance on stereotypes. The quirky design of certain factions and their humorous interactions add a fun twist, but some feel the overall storytelling lacks the charm and wit found in previous titles like Red Alert. Overall, while there are moments of levity, the humor does not consistently elevate the gameplay experience.
- “Bring back humor to the gameplay and keep a good light action movie-like story and the RTS genre will be reborn.”
- “The creativity of the units, the ability of units to rank up, the humor suffused throughout the whole experience.”
- “Funny enough since there is a tiny little player base, I was able to play most of the top 10 players (and getting owned by them) from the day I got the game.”
- “Right now, it's not funny; just a few days later, a patch fixed all that.”
- “The humor feels forced and often falls flat, making the game less enjoyable.”
- “I expected more laughs, but the jokes are stale and predictable.”
atmosphere
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
45%
27%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its impressive graphics, beautifully composed soundtrack, and effective voice acting, contributing to an immersive experience. While some reviewers note that it may not be the most innovative or fully immersive, the combination of engaging story elements and well-crafted cutscenes significantly enhances the overall atmosphere, making it stand out among modern RTS games.
- “Speaking of atmosphere - both the graphics and the soundtrack are pretty great.”
- “- the sound/voice acting is really well done in this game, music is beautifully composed and atmospheric.”
- “Definitely some of the better graphics, and more immersive atmosphere of any strategy game which I am currently aware of.”
- “Well, my problem is with the story and atmosphere of the game.”
- “The atmosphere is better than in SC2 in my opinion, but due to the length, you cannot get immersed enough in the story.”
- “It's not the flashiest, it's not the most innovative, and it's not the most immersive, but it is innovative, the story is worthwhile and the cutscenes add a lot to the atmosphere.”
monetization
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
71%
The monetization strategy of the game includes microtransactions for cosmetic items, which some players view as a positive aspect aimed at supporting a good cause. However, many criticize the game for being a cash grab, feeling that it does not live up to the quality promised in its advertising, leading to disappointment and a small player base.
- “Microtransactions for a good cause.”
- “Deserves donations for cosmetics.”
- “What a freaking cash grab.”
- “This game looks nothing like what it's advertising; it's very subpar.”
- “Game is nowhere near the quality of the ads and trailers.”
character development
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
Overall, reviews indicate that character development is a significant weakness, with many noting a lack of plot depth and emotional connection to the characters. While the character design and visual quality are praised, particularly in cutscenes, the absence of meaningful character arcs detracts from player immersion and engagement with the story.
- “The cinematics, though not having as much action as a Blizzard production, absolutely can compete with Blizzard in terms of character design and visual quality.”
- “As for the single-player, Weta's influence with character design is one of the stronger points.”
- “The character design is nuanced and interesting, since the beta have much more in common with the ancient humans (us) than the neo-humans do.”
- “In all of the missions, there is basically no plot or character development.”
- “The story itself and character development is lacking in some areas.”
- “Without any character development, and no true depth to the ongoing story, there is no immersion into the story or connection to the characters.”
emotional
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
80%
60%
The emotional aspect of the game elicited mixed responses, with some players feeling a strong connection to the narrative and characters, while others found the experience lacking and uninspiring. The music was noted as a significant factor in evoking feelings, but overall, the game's story and units were criticized for being boring, leading to a diminished emotional impact for many.
- “What made me feel great was the music.”
- “Actually made you care about and feel concerned for the welfare of an entity whose only real goal in life is to wipe out all other life. This is actually a pretty difficult feat to achieve; it's kind of like making someone feel emotionally connected with the Tyranids or Zerg.”
- “The emotional depth of the characters is lacking, making it hard to connect with their struggles.”
- “I felt no attachment to the story; it was predictable and uninspiring.”
- “The game tries to evoke emotions but ends up feeling hollow and unengaging.”