The demo version is surprisingly functional. There are a few restrictions of course: When you set up a multiplayer game, you can only play against one other person. When you join a multiplayer game, you can only do so if there are no other demo players in the game (so max one demo player per game). And you're not allowed to play Office Mode, Diplomacy, Speed Defcon, or Tournament Mode.
I'd say the blocking of more than one demo player/game is the main thing which separates demo from full. And of course it's always fun to be able to customize the settings a bit for game modes.
I pre-ordered it, for a mere $10 through Steam I thought it wouldn't be too much of a loss even if it turned out to be not so good. So far I've only played a little, and watched a few games, but I'm loving it. And of course I have that warm fuzzy feeling you get from supporting an independent games company.
As for the game itself, I was actually surprised that Australia is totally empty. I had expected North America, South America, Africa, Europe (with a bit of Russia), Asia (with the rest of Russia), and Australia (with Pacific island groups and perhaps a bit of South-east Asia) as the big supernations.
I haven't been able to think much about good strategies yet. On the one hand a territory like Europe is nice, because you have all your defences together, which is a big help for defence (loads and loads of anti-missile fire for each incoming nuke). On the other hand enemies can scout your territory really easily, especially your direct neighbors, and you don't really have much opportunity to hide away silos like (for instance) Russia can.
I wouldn't mind a bit of mutual mass destruction (or at least watch if a lot of people want to play). |
