Greed Corp is a hex based turn based strategy game out now for download on XBLA and PSN and coming soon to Windows PC. The game supports up to 4 players locally or online and features AI players if you don’t have any (or enough!) friends.
While at a first glance Greed Corp appears to be fairly simple (compared to other games in it’s genre) with a limited number of units and fairly small maps, a closer inspection reveals a ton of hidden depth. The objective of each game is to be the last man standing and this is no small task as a result of a very interesting and unique gameplay mechanic that means the battlefield is constantly shrinking through the course of the battle.
Each map is a symmetrical arena designed for 2, 3 or 4 players. Each of the four armies, while different in appearance, has exactly the same units giving the game a boardgame like feel. Each turn allows you to move your units or build new ones. You can also build a few buildings – an armoury which lets you build more walkers (essentially your infantry), a canon (which can fire across the level) and harvesters.
It’s the harvesters that, for the most part, create this fantastic mechanic of the shrinking battlefield. For every turn after one is placed the height of the tile it is on and the tiles surrounding it are reduced by one. At the start of the round each hex tile has a height value. When that value is reduced to one the tile becomes critical and when it reaches zero the tile and any buildings or units on it are removed from the game.
Each tile reduced in height by a harvester is converted into currency used to buy new units and means that you must find a balance between gathering resource and ensuring your army still has somewhere to stand on! Additionally you also recieve a certian amount of money each turn automatically. This cash actually increases as the amount of available land decreases meaning that as the map gets smaller and smaller, the armies on it get more and more powerful.
Your armies consist of walkers of which you may have up to 16 per tile. They are cheap to build and can move 1 space in enemy or neutral territory or 3 spaces in your own territory. Moving them onto a space captures that space and any buildings on it. Spaces with enemy walkers on can also be taken provided you have an equal or greater number of walkers moving onto it. This means that if you both have the full 16 walkers the attacker has the initiative and, although they will be left with no walkers, they will take the space.
Of course, as tiles are removed from the game movement for your walkers becomes increasingly limited and that’s where the most expensive unit in the game comes in. Carriers allow you to move a full compliment of 16 walkers from where they are to any tile on the map. Sneaking behind the enemy or even landing right in the middle of his base means that even blocked off enemies are not safe. Furthermore, once you have taken a space simply placing a harvester on it can have devastating results as turn by turn your enemies base is reduced in height and eventually dropped into 0blivion with very little they can do about it!
The presentation of the game is very nice. Each army has a very unique look and W! Games have obviously put a lot of thought into the universe, claiming that Greed Corp is in fact the first of many to come to be set there.
Multiplayer is tense and a lot of fun. Games often seem to come right down the the last couple of turns with winners and losers decided only in the final moments. As such the game is fun, even for the losing party as there is always everything to play for rather that one team deciding the fate of the game in the first couple of turns.
Definitely worth trying out, especially if you have someone to try it with, the demo is available now.
Tags: Free Demo, PC, PSN, turn-based, XBLA
Biggest surprise on XBLA, nearly turned it off during the tutorial but give it a chance and you find its actually kind of awesome.