Developer Abylight Studios released an interesting and cleverly developed economic strategy One Military Camp into Steam Early Access. A couple of weeks ago I had a case of major burnout which prompted me to turn from online games to something new. That is when One Military Camp crossed my path and I don’t regret a moment spent in the game.
Currently the game is going through its Steam Early Access phase and frequently receives a variety of patches and updates, showing the team’s dedication to further improve the game.
Devs promise that players will get to build their own military camp, manage its economy, recruit the best candidates and send them through rigorous training to become the best freedom fighters in the world that are able to conduct special missions.
How close is it to reality? Read on to find out, this is our One Military Camp Steam Early Access impressions.
Just a bit about the story of the game: the world has been taken over by an evil maniac with the exception of a single region. Now we, the brave and just freedom fighters, need to liberate the oppressed and overthrow the tyranny and dictatorship.
The game is very light and comical in its approach to espionage, sabotage, war and such, however. Need to spread leaflets with drones? Whip them so they go faster. A local commander is allergic? Have civilians cut all the flowers by hand, turn off waterworks AND step on a rubber ducky! The ducky was the last straw, how could Dragan do that?!
At the moment, the game features two gameplay modes: campaign and sandbox.
The sandbox mode speaks for itself, you are given a small plot of land and go on from there. Meanwhile, the campaign gives you a small base to manage, a handful of recruits and Sergeant John Hawkins. His friends call him Sergeant Hawkins, his mother calls him Sergeant Hawkins… and so will we as well. He will become our guide and the source of problems, opportunities, quests and jokes.
I highly advise newcomers to go through the long but comprehensive tutorial that will teach you the basics and even some of the more advanced intricacies of the game. Surprisingly, despite its length, the tutorial is quite interesting to play through as it guides you through the gameplay process from hiring staff and soldiers to replenishing supplies and going through training and hobbies.
Usually the strategy tutorials are either boring and drawn-out or plain stupid, but here the devs tried their best to keep the game welcoming to players, even to those who have no previous experience with tycoons.
Getting your recruits joining you while all you have is a wide, empty field is a recipe for disaster. They will lose effectiveness or desert outright. In order to prevent that from happening or to lower such unhappy probabilities to a minimum, you need to use certain buildings for the maintenance.
Here are some of them:
- Power generator– you will likely have quite a few of these as without electricity the rest of your buildings will cease to function;
- Kitchen – can’t do much without food;
- Technical staff building – workers will be repairing building and delivering supplies;
- Barracks – the building for hired fighters and the restoration of their endurance;
- Entertainments – expect discontent if your fighters get bored;
- Warehouses for various consumables – food, ammo, fuel for generators and so on;
It is important not only to construct buildings but also to keep them in a functional condition. Make sure that there is enough electricity, supplies (that have to be delivered to appropriate sites), that buildings are repaired on time and connected to the road network.
At the same time, you will need to recruit personnel to maintain the base. The kitchen requires cooks, the first-aid post has a need for doctors, the repair shops can’t work without engineers and so forth.
Each recruit has certain starting parameters and special perks (or the lack of them). For example, some of them level the Intellect characteristic faster. There are a total of four main characteristics – Intellect, Speed, Strength and Accuracy – and chances are you will be heavily leaning into one or two with each recruit. They can be leveled up with advanced buildings such as gyms, reading rooms, shooting ranges and so forth.
Marksmen with high Speed characteristics can become tank staffers, the recruits with high Speed and Intellect can be trained as Spies. There are also grenadiers and many other types of soldiers. The higher the complexity of the profession, the more time and resources it will take to train your soldier.
Special mention goes out to Scientists as they bring you points to study improvements and unlock new buildings.
Why should you train your fighters and give them professions? To complete missions and take back the land from the enemy, of course! Every mission requires specific fighters with clearly defined soldier specializations.
Victory is not always easy to reach and your soldiers can be taken down. Fortunately, even knocked out fighters will return after a certain amount of time passes, ready to take to the field again.
In order to unlock the option of being able to go on a mission, you will have to construct the helipad at your base. Every freed location gives you something useful, the ability to replenish supplies or extra properties or even gold. Speaking of gold, every fighter receives a salary and every building has a certain cost. So it is not something that you can easily overlook if you want to have a functional base and a trained army of freedom fighters.
The game has a great number of parameters, buildings and soldiers both. At first you might get lost but as you get adjusted, the system shows its potential. One Military Camp offers a detailed system of construction and management, the day/night cycle, the sheer amount of management that you have to go through feels just right – not overwhelming or boring.
The system is striking in its complexity when it comes to relationships between things but it is also quite easy to understand and start ironing out for best results. It is VERY functional, comfortable and pleasant to partake in.
However, I still had to restart a few times in order to build the base more competently lest the entire system collapses because of a couple of mistakes down the line. It is important to build your base without draining resources into soldiers or buildings that are not necessary.
Separately, I want to highlight the humor of the title. One Military Camp has amazing style, the humor seeps into every aspect – from the names of soldiers to the descriptions of the last flower bed, the missions are filled with jokes, references and memes. Just the log from Final Destination is well worth it.
At the same time, it doesn’t feel overdone or out of place but rather consistently remains an important part of the game. Certain moments almost drove me to tears from the hilarity of it all. The sound and music is just as good and exists in perfect harmony with what is happening on the screen.
As a conclusion, the game has a very large amount of content despite being in the Early Access stage. Hopefully, the developers will keep up and add even more by the time it launches in full.
Just the tycoon dynamics are complex enough that you can’t brute force your way through. Successfully going through missions requires a lot of effort and attention to a variety of details while building your base and training your soldiers.
