The folks at Unigine have created a beautiful naval tower defense/strategy hybrid. But how does the game play?
Oil Rush is a tower defense/strategy hybrid game by the independent developers at Unigine Corp that aims to combine the strategic challenge of a classical RTS with the sheer fun of Tower Defense. Utilizing their own custom engine, the developers have managed to make a very stunning and beautiful game. Utilizing the Unigine engine, the game’s graphics look really polished. The churning of the sea, as well as the battles and explosions. However, one little flaw is how some units look rather cartoony, undoubtedly to allow players to easily separate friend from foe, but does slightly detract from the aesthetic quality.
Players are gently introduced into the game’s background: In this post-apocalyptic environment, most of the Earth is now covered in water, and the most important resource available is oil. The inhabitants of this land now fight endlessly to gain control of this black, liquid gold. Through early missions, the player is introduced to the game’s mechanics: Capturing platforms will create units automatically, which will in turn help capture other buildings or to defend. Oil platforms give the controller a slow trickle of oil, which act as a source of income. Killing enemy vessels earn players experience, which they can use in turn to spend on the game’s technology tree, giving players a boost. For example, the radar ability will temporarily reveal an area, allowing for surveillance before an attack. Similarly, he “increase build speed” perk allows platforms to build defenses early, which helps a ton when you want to snatch a base.
Ultimately, Oil Rush is a very good tower defense/strategy hybrid. It’s easy to pick up, and is a ton of fun. However, the game-crashing bugs do detract from the overall enjoyment of the title. Until the developers fix said bugs, it’d be hard to recommend the game at it’s current price of $20.