I got this game off of a recommendation from a friend as they had messed around with it a little playing against the Ai enemy with their friends who stopped playing it. After awhile, having gotten to know some of the basics, playing some of the campaign- and of course, messing around some more with friends playing the Ai. I felt like there was a world of knowledge I was missing as there were many elements in this game that I didn't understand still. I was always getting frustrated and annoyed that I am under fire, yet can't restructure my base because I simply can't click on things that I need to in order to grab and expand pieces of my base into a new structure. Most of the time I find myself trying so hard to click or grab something and I simply can't. Sometimes under pressure this leads to clicking on other things and accidentally deleting it which results ultimately in catastrophic damage to your base or creating a massive weak point.

This whole process really removes the initial interest I had in this game. Building a complex fort which is an engineering feat, and facing off against others and their engineering in an RTS style of way sounds amazing to me. A good RTS is a good time in my book any day in the week. Unfortunately, that's simply not the case with this game it seems...

From the UI, to the build mechanics, to even trying to make your own map to play against Ai with friends, I find that the game does little to nothing to teach or showcase to you what you can do. I've been a gamer since Atari. I've always followed a rule of thumb when it comes to filtering out poorly designed games or games where the devs just got tired, which is this... "If you have to go outside of the game in order to do or learn something that the game offers as base functionality. Then don't play that game." It's often a sign of the creators not going the extra mile on something, expecting the players to do the work for them and explain very basic things that should be in the game, and if they don't do this for one thing, then clearly they will do that for others.

The simple fact is, if you want to learn or do anything in this game, you have to read and watch many things outside of the game, just to learn a piece of something that is offered in base game functionality.

Designing a map for example... sure there is a developer made video link in game that directs you to "YouTube." As you watch it and learn some very basics on the map editor on how to do this and that... Yet there is so much more needed to understand than what that video explains that is left unanswered. For instance, why there is isn't an Ai enemy "Script" in your custom map. Which then leads you down a path of joining this, and posting that there, and leading you all over the place relying on the whims, kindness and intelligence of other's, rather than these things existing in some fashion within the game itself or perhaps in the form of a tutorial. The fact that I have to then dig into files, and learn how the game is made and bla bla bla, rather than just a simple one stop shop in the game itself to achieve a fun map for my friends and I is gross.

The in-game user interface during matches... again, the gameplay functionality is extremely niche where it's a pixel precision grabbing skill rather than aim, or understanding damage types and how to do things cost effectively, or understanding structural engineering, and hey, I've played the crap out of "Poly Bridge," which having aspects like that in this game is a selling point to me, but unfortunately, this game seems to fall very short of even that in many ways because of this UI.
Again, there is nothing in game that teaches you or helps you understand whether or not if this is user error, or if there is this handy tool somewhere that you simply don't know about, or if you are doing something wrong in some way. There is NOTHING that helps you understand this in the game itself. So pixel-grabbing-speed-precision... if that is your cup of tea, than maybe you might enjoy it, good luck learning where that pixel is that you need to click on.

The building mechanic in this game, is quite frustrating and extremely unintuitive in the sense that you can move to node-grab a structural piece to "quick-drag" it and duplicate that structure to be built where you drag it. Yet often times, if you wish to perform this quick drag to be made out of a material you have selected in your tool bar below, it will often be changed into something else. For example, selecting steel, having plenty of economy to do that 10 times over, and yet when you drag it with steel selected, it will change to wood mid drag. Yet in the campaign, it doesn't seem to do this as much.
This also happens when trying to mass place armored doors and other metal pieces. You have to constantly move away from your precision clicking trying to connect something quickly, only to have the game switch your building material on you. This an extremely game breaking mechanic as it often costs you the game when trying to quickly build up defenses especially when you have the economy and there are no guns in the area that would need doors or other wise.
Now, either this is by design, or this is a game bug... Either way, you don't know, nor will you know, because there is nothing in the game that explains why this is a thing.
So you can see why this is frustrating for instance, if you are trying to mass produce armoring on your base, and it comes out as wood, and now you have to wait, and wait, or delete and try to do it again, all costing you time, and suddenly you are in quick sand because of this mechanic.

Then there is the map selection... It's extremely limited. There are only 3 or 4 4v4 maps. If you think you can down load more from the workshop you would be mistaken as none of the searches in the workshop can be sorted to find maps that have Ai programmed into them. This means you are stuck with the very limited amount that is there. Granted there are some other maps here and there, but ultimate they are a completely different game dynamic than what you may want starting off with friends against Ai.



So is Forts fun? Can you have a good time with friends? Is the game intuitive enough to pick up and play and grab the interests of regular RTS players or players who want a combat version of Polybridge?

In my opinion no... maybe if you learn how to use crazy macros and scripting devices for game play, than maybe. Other than that, no. You are better off trying to play a 3d game to do this kind of genre rather than do 2d as there is too much busy mess with clicking on a single spot with your cursor.


Also, there is the community element to this game as well. I'll leave comments open just for that.

I absolutely would recommend this game, but you may want to watch some tutorials first. The in-game tutorials teach the basics of the game, then you are expected to explore the rest on your own, which is a great idea, and it works pretty well! Especially if you progress through the campaign as intended. However, there are MANY complex factors and mechanics to this game, which are not taught in the tutorials. I only knew these because I found out about the game from a YT channel I used to watch.
The DLCs also add a pretty good amount of content into the game that's really fun! Luckily, these DLCs have in-depth tutorial and practice levels you can play at any time to learn or refresh new mechanics in your mind. The DLCs are 100% worth the price.
So, in summary, it's a great game, and you should definitely get it (and maybe the DLCs) if you're into base-builders or RTS games. Just make sure you're paying attention to those loading screen tips, they're actually important this time!

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