Insane Unity’s Win That War! is, on paper, a “massively multiplayer retro sci-fi RTS crossover”. Normally for me, that’s just a bunch of meaningless SEO keywords that rarely get delivered on. This time, however, you get what it says on the tin.

Gameplay in Win That War! is an interesting mix of classic RTS elements with an almost 4X aspect. It plays like the love child of Blizzard’s Starcraft 2 and Sid Meier’s Civilization series or the Endless Legend or Endless Space games from Amplitude Studios. You click, you build, you wait, you attack, you retreat, you hopefully take out all the enemies bases and there’s no turns to worry about slowing down that high APM. At least, that’s how it worked out in quick play and it felt comparable in length to an SC2 match.

Controls are pretty intuitive and straightforward once you go through the tutorial and get a feel for how they function. As someone who is not great at RTS games, this felt good compared to SC2’s myriad of keyboard shortcuts and confusing menus and sub-menus. The tutorial does a very good job of teaching you how to access just about anything you’ll need in normal play.

I wasn’t able to take a look at two of the modes: the massively multiplayer “Galactic Campaign” and multiplayer matches. In the case of online multiplayer, there’s not a large enough player base yet to provide lobbies for play. There is also LAN and custom matches as an option. The Galactic Campaign is tied to non-custom online multiplayer in a similar way to For Honor’s faction wars but on a larger and longer scale. Insane Unity promises a large-scale experience with factions vying for control across multiple planets but it’s simply not an experience that can be judged yet. You can read more about the Galactic Conquest system from the source here.

It’s hard for games like this to really have a story and lore but Win That War! does a fair job of setting the scene fairly well. The 50s-esque vision of the future of planetary conquest is tempered by today’s knowledge. The earth tones with rounded corners and sleek UI all come together to make a fun and playful package that’s different from other games in the genre that have harsher and more pointed aesthetics. The UI and visual design work well together to give the mechanics of the game set dressing and purpose. In a game like this, they don’t need much else and that won’t affect your gameplay experience.

Final Verdict: great for RTS and SC2 fans especially; keep an eye out if this sounds like your jam. It’s still an unfinished game but it’s fairly far along in its development. Win That War! is available on Steam Early Access now for $19.99. Currently, there’s no For more info, check out the official site.