Reviewed on:
PC
Platform:
PC
Publisher:
Mystic Forge
Developer:
Rami Ismail, Aesthetician Labs
Release:
Australia Did It: End-of-the-world Railway Defense Business is a game I catch myself playing in my head long after I shut it off. Though it uses turn-based strategy as its base, it expands beyond the genre’s regular confines, blending elements from roguelikes, puzzle games, bullet-heaven titles, and the tower-defense genre. The result is an experience that demands wide-scale experimentation and rewards improvisation.
In a post-apocalyptic world where the Atlantic Ocean has dried up, you risk your life to ensure your shipment reaches its destination. Riding from station to station by train, you must build your team amid your many missions as various mutated creatures, malicious machines, and coordinated soldiers attack your convoy. Lore is doled out piecemeal and serves mostly as background dressing, but each time I learned more about the world, I became more curious.
To survive the harshness of the wasteland, you must use cindermint, an in-game resource gained for surviving turns and killing enemies, to spawn defenders, with three base classes to choose from. The revolver-wielding Gunslinger is your primary damage dealer, while the Radshot applies corrosive radiation damage, and the Nomad offers a close-range shotgun blast with knockback.
Those base-level characters offer solid variety upon which to build. And that’s where the main hook for Australia Did It comes in: experimentation through combination. In the midst of battle, you can merge two units of the same level to create new, more powerful defenders, influenced by the traits of those used in the merge.
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