14 DAY TRIAL // 
My battle line of four watchmen has been dealing with enemies’ assaults with relative ease, backed by a medic and positioned just ahead of a choke point. But every time I want to advance my enemies manage to inflict significant losses, which I need time to replenish. I can probably win this battle and destroy this enemy base by simply hanging back for a long enough time that I can accumulate a big numerical superiority.
But this is a boring way to play a strategy title so I invest in some better tech, hoping that it can give me the edge to break the stalemate. Even if it does, I also need to prepare for losses. Maybe a bit more industrial expansion is required before trying to deal a big blow to the enemy corporation.
Punk Wars was put together by Strategy Forge and is published by Jujubee, with the game offered on the PC. It blends an interesting take on a post-apocalyptic universe with classic turn-based mechanics and 4X concepts. The setup is kinda simple but also effective: the world has been destroyed by nuclear fire but there are still survivors.
Four factions, identified by the game as corporations, are trying to make their version of a new civilization (powered by their favorite element) happen: Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Atomicpunk, and Steelpunk. The campaigns are pretty immersive, with events that shift the stats for the corporations and allow the player to get a better idea of how they are remaking mankind. But there’s no diplomacy, with the four sides set to destroy each other to achieve supremacy.
Punk Wars asks players to deal with classic combat and with base and tech development. Military units can move across hexes and can attack during their turn, with each faction also featuring special abilities that can become pretty powerful. Bases start off small, but builders can expand their borders and then use various buildings to generate resources. Food and water are important to all 4 corporations, but uranium is only relevant to Atomicpunks, with each other faction having its own special needs.
Generating research points allows the player to unlock new military and civilian tech, unlocking abilities, and more. The few units that survive long enough also get a choice of upgrades. The apocalypse-affected environment offers plenty of opportunities to limit frontage but an even smaller number to flank and achieve decisive victories. Battling after a massive catastrophe is ugly and very similar to World War I.
Base building is centered around watchtowers that capture territory, with the builder units lost when it is deployed. The early game features quite a bit of tension between the need to get more resources, which requires watchtowers, and the fact that enemy units are always roaming around, leading to increased priority for military unit creation. There are turns when any choice I made felt consequential, a great feeling in this type of video game.
The biggest problem with Punk Wars is the very static combat. It is relatively easy to create a strong defensive position, both for the player and for the computer opponents. It takes time to unlock technology that can turn the tide of one battle or make sure that tough enemy units can be bypassed. Players have to move slowly, make sure that they use defensive stances and reaction fire, just to take down enemy assaults. Some stalemates made me reload so that I could move faster to solve a tactical situation.
The game also misses any form of multiplayer. The campaigns and the skirmish modes are good, by themselves. But fighting another human to show the power of the atom over the other elements would have been more satisfying if a human opponent was involved.
Punk Wars looks pretty good for a turn-based strategy title. Each of the faction/corporations has a distinct look (Steelpunk’s spikiness is my personal favorite) and I appreciate the effort to make the largely brown world feel a little alive. The user interface also does a good job of feeding information to the player, although the tech tree implementation is somewhat clunky. The sound design has nothing interesting to offer and the music that is both repetitive and forgettable.
The Good
- Solid 4X concepts
- Post-apocalyptic factions
- Hard choices
The Bad
- Limits to the tactical approach
- No multiplayer
- Mostly brown universe
Conclusion
There’s pleasure in methodically moving forward, expanding the base slowly, putting more units in the field, chocking the adversary, gaining a tech edge that helps with the final assault. But the developers at Strategy Forge need to be a little more adventurous with their mechanics if they want to make Punk Wars an actually exciting game to play.
Review code provided by the publisher.
