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Oil Rush

While it has some novel ideas and interesting concepts, Oil Rush is ultimately a poorly made and extremely boring game.
Oil Rush Game Cover
49%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:gameplay, story
Most mentioned negative aspects:grinding, music
48% User Score Based on 336 reviews
Critic Score 50%Based on 2 reviews

Platforms

Playstation 3LinuxPCMac OSWindowsPlayStation
Oil Rush Game Cover

About Oil Rush

Oil Rush is a single player and multiplayer real-time strategy game with post-apocalyptic and science fiction themes. It was developed by UNIGINE and was released on January 25, 2012. It received neutral reviews from both critics and players.

Oil Rush is a naval strategy game that takes place in a world where nuclear war has melted the ice caps, changing the face of the planet forever. Oil Rush offers unique gameplay, avoiding micromanagement of every single unit, while still providing full control over all important aspects of strategy and economy.

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Games Like Oil Rush

Looking for games like Oil Rush? Here are top real-time strategy recommendations with a post-apocalyptic and science fiction focus, selected from player-similarity data — start with Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Swords and Soldiers HD or Meridian: New World.

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Reviews

48%Audience ScoreBased on 336 reviews
gameplay24 positive mentions
grinding12 negative mentions

  • Unique setting with post-apocalyptic flooded world and naval warfare creates a memorable atmosphere.
  • Impressive graphics and water effects powered by the UNIGINE engine that hold up well over time.
  • Accessible and streamlined RTS mechanics that reduce micromanagement and allow focus on broader strategy and territorial control.
  • Limited tactical control over units and oversimplified gameplay leads to repetitive and shallow RTS experience.
  • Artificial intelligence cheats with unfair spawning and perfect knowledge, causing frustrating difficulty spikes and imbalance.
  • Poor voice acting, subpar story, and some technical issues reduce immersion and polish.
  • gameplay

    87 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    28% positive mentions, 61% neutral mentions, 11% negative mentions

    The gameplay of Oil Rush offers a unique blend of base control and tower defense with an accessible, streamlined RTS experience focused on strategic location capture rather than traditional base building. While initial missions and visuals are engaging, the mechanics lack depth and variety, leading to repetitive and slow combat that may disappoint veterans seeking complexity but appeal to players looking for straightforward, visually appealing strategy without overwhelming micromanagement. Overall, it is praised for its concept and setting but criticized for shallow gameplay and limited unit control.

    • “At its core, the gameplay revolves around controlling strategic locations rather than constructing traditional bases.”
    • “The campaign offers a variety of missions that gradually introduce new mechanics and technologies.”
    • “The story is forgettable, but the core of this game is in its gameplay, and that's where it shines.”
    • “Although the campaign provides a solid amount of content and multiplayer options are available, the core gameplay loop can become predictable after extended play sessions.”
    • “While the streamlined mechanics improve accessibility, they also reduce some of the depth that veteran RTS players may expect.”
    • “The gameplay is incredibly slow, the story is boring, and I'm incredibly sad that I paid a small portion of the Humble Bundle for this game.”
  • story

    80 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    19% positive mentions, 67% neutral mentions, 14% negative mentions

    The story in the game is generally seen as simplistic, predictable, and cheesy, serving mainly as a basic framework for the gameplay rather than a compelling narrative. While the post-apocalyptic oil war setting provides some context, many players find the plot and characters unengaging, with poor voice acting and translation issues detracting further. Despite occasional moments of amusement or interesting premise, the overall story fails to strongly engage or motivate players through the campaign.

    • “The campaign offers a variety of missions that gradually introduce new mechanics and technologies.”
    • “Players participate in offensive operations, defensive battles, escort missions, and large-scale confrontations that showcase different aspects of the game's strategic systems.”
    • “While the story primarily serves as a framework for the gameplay, it does a respectable job of providing context for the ongoing struggle between rival factions competing for dominance in a dying world.”
    • “The plot is naive and simply bad; gameplay is dull and there are many minor technical and translation issues in the English version.”
    • “The campaign follows a very linear story arc, which is fine for a strategy game if the missions were fun, but in this case they're really not.”
    • “The plot is predictable, the characters are mind-numbingly simple, and the campaign ended too soon for me (13 hours).”
  • graphics

    65 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    54% positive mentions, 41% neutral mentions, 5% negative mentions

    The game features impressive, detailed graphics powered by the Unigine engine, showcasing standout water effects, dynamic lighting, and expansive environments that remain visually appealing even years after release. While praised for its beautiful visuals, cinematic battles, and clean design, some users note that the graphics may overshadow the relatively simple or repetitive gameplay. Overall, the graphics are consistently regarded as a strong highlight and a key attraction of the title.

    • “The game was built using the Unigine engine, and the graphical technology successfully showcases detailed water effects, dynamic lighting, large-scale explosions, and expansive environments.”
    • “Excellent graphic environment, wonderful details, and excellent variety of forces. I wish this masterpiece game would be seen more or at least be advertised a little.”
    • “The top-notch visuals, sound design, and cinematic battles really help to draw you in; this is definitely a fun one to sink some time into.”
    • “On launching a round, it immediately becomes obvious why this is being called an uninspired mobile game clone with pretty graphics.”
    • “Unfortunately, the graphics and building defensive turrets around the bases is all the main screen is used for.”
    • “The graphics are fine, but that doesn't matter since you spend 90% of the time looking at the mini-map.”
  • grinding

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

    Reviews highlight that grinding in the game leads to a tedious, unbalanced, and slow-paced experience, especially in prolonged missions and repetitive micromanagement. While some gameplay elements have potential, the overall pacing and difficulty often feel frustrating and unenjoyable, diminishing replay value.

    • “The game is fun for about half the campaign then starts becoming tedious; the chasing missions are annoying, and the 20-wave missions are horrible and long.”
    • “Overall, it's not an entirely terrible campaign, just tedious and uninteresting enough that I certainly wouldn't want to play it more than once.”
    • “This game is a mixture between an action real-time strategy game and two subgenres: from the action RTS comes unit management (in this case, select all bros to blow up enemy bros), RPG powers, and tedious micromanagement.”
  • music

    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    27% positive mentions, 46% neutral mentions, 27% negative mentions

    The music in the game effectively complements the post-apocalyptic setting and reinforces the atmosphere of isolation and conflict, with some tracks praised for their catchiness and quality. However, opinions are mixed, as some find the soundtrack too action-oriented, obnoxious, or of poor quality, detracting from the intended strategic feel. Overall, the soundtrack is generally viewed as a positive aspect despite occasional shortcomings.

    • “The soundtrack and audio design complement the setting effectively.”
    • “Music often reinforces the feeling of isolation and conflict that defines the post-apocalyptic world.”
    • “The music is suitable, and quite good too.”
    • “Half of the music tracks in the game are either too action-oriented or straight up obnoxious, not complementary to the strategy feel this game is supposed to have.”
    • “The music is decently catchy but the quality is poor.”
    • “The music is also meh.”
  • humor

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

    The game's humor is characterized by its funny, often hilariously acted and poorly translated story, which adds charm despite some cliches and mismatched voice acting. Players find both the single-player campaign and multiplayer amusing, though the campaign can feel a bit dragged out. Overall, the humor enhances the experience and keeps players engaged.

    • “Almost worth staying for the poorly translated, hilariously acted story.”
    • “Also very funny in multiplayer!”
    • “Funny game, campaign is a little short but you still want just to finish "one more mission" till you turn it off.”
  • atmosphere

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

    The game’s distinctive visual identity, especially its flooded landscapes, creates a compelling post-disaster world that enhances its atmosphere. Combined with effective audio design, this immersive setting stands out as one of the title’s strongest qualities.

    • “This visual identity immediately distinguishes the game from many other strategy titles and provides a strong foundation for its atmosphere.”
    • “The flooded landscapes also contribute significantly to the game's atmosphere, making every map feel like part of a larger world struggling to survive after disaster.”
    • “Together, the audio and visual presentation create a distinctive atmosphere that remains one of the title's strongest assets.”
  • stability

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

    The game’s stability is poor, with frequent bugs, glitches, and unexpected behavior such as auto-switching to windowed mode and losing save files, which severely hampers gameplay and progression.

    • “The AI system isn't quite logical and handling activities as expected. Bugs and glitches make repeating the same tasks frustrating.”
    • “I can't get past level 2 because the game switches to windowed mode by itself, then forces me to save and close. After that, my save file disappears. The game is riddled with bugs, glitches, and has a poor setup.”
  • replayability

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

    Users frequently criticize Oil Rush for its limited long-term replayability, indicating that the game may not maintain player interest over extended periods.

    • “Another criticism often directed at Oil Rush involves its long-term replay value.”
  • optimization

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

    The optimization aspect is criticized for poor voice acting, suggesting low investment in quality audio performance that negatively impacts the game's immersion and overall feel.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Oil Rush is a real-time strategy game with post-apocalyptic and science fiction themes. Common tags for Oil Rush include free to play, science, indie, tower defense, naval and others.

Oil Rush is available on PC, Mac OS, Windows, PlayStation 3 and others.

Oil Rush was released on January 25, 2012.

Oil Rush was developed by UNIGINE.

Oil Rush has received neutral reviews from both players and critics. Most players liked Oil Rush for its gameplay but disliked it for its grinding.

Oil Rush is a single player game with multiplayer support.

Similar games include Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Swords and Soldiers HD, Meridian: New World, Anomaly 2, Infested Planet and others.