When comparing Insurgency vs Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, the Slant community recommends Insurgency for most people. In the question“What are the best indie games on Steam?” Insurgency is ranked 48th while Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation is ranked 59th. The most important reason people chose Insurgency is:
In an effort to be more realistic, the gunplay is slow and measured. This makes for an immersive experience, both because of how real it feels and because of how different it is from other FPS games.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Slow and measured gunplay creates a more realistic atmosphere
In an effort to be more realistic, the gunplay is slow and measured. This makes for an immersive experience, both because of how real it feels and because of how different it is from other FPS games.
Pro Mature community means more people can experience enjoyable communications and interactions while online
Insurgency's player community is more mature and respectful than what is commonly expected in online shooters, making communicating both on forums and in the game more enjoyable.
Pro Easily play against friends, no matter the OS they use
The game works on Windows, macO and Linux, which means anyone can play the game against someone with one of these different operating systems.
Pro Easy VoIP support, as it is built in
Insurgency has Steam integration that allows for easy VoIP communication.
Pro Gameplay stays balanced thanks to no allowed class repetition on each team
The game doesn’t allow multiple people on the same team to have the same character class. This helps ensure the game remains balanced as no two players can have the same roll.
Pro Better framerate when ran in DX12
This game is DX12 compatible which allows for a higher frame rate over DX11. DX12 is only able to be taken advantage of on Windows 10, so that is something to consider, but for those that can take advantage, there is a slight gain to be had.
Pro Pleasing graphics
The graphics stand out as polished and make for a really nice looking RTS. This is top of its class in graphics for an RTS in 2016.
Pro Cool mechanic for controlling troops
There is a tool in the game that allows one to "lasso" their units together into an army. By making an army the player can then control that army as they would one troop unit, meaning that all micromanagement for a large group of troops is unnecessary as the game will deal with it in a more intuitive an easy manner. This can be done with as little or as many troops as the player want, which overall makes for an easy way to control the game when in the heat of battle.
Pro Good mix of gameplay modes for any skill level
The game features a single player story mode, a story mode called Ascendancy that will walk the player though how to play the game and multiplayer modes that are ranked as well as custom multiplayer modes. Through the assortment of modes the game allows for any type of player to find gameplay that they may like, whether they are a seasoned RTS player or a newcomer to the genre. Whether playing locally in single player or online with friends or random people, there should be plenty on offer for any skill level.
Pro Focuses on positioning over micromanagement
The maps in this game are large, sometimes taking up as many as 20-30 zones in a single map. What this means is that the player will need to focus a lot more on position of their units over actually micromanaging every aspect of each unit (due to the vast size of maps and the amount of units on them). This allows for gameplay that has a broader scope in strategy, as it forces the player to plan out what is best to protect and the best position to hold of enemy attacks all while still trying to grow their army in order to overpower their enemy.
Pro Easily allows the player to utilize specific info on their enemies
At all times the player can vies on a mini map how much their enemy has expanded and into what areas. There is also a thing called player power rating, which allows the player to know on a point scale what their enemies military and economic power level is. Which means you can get a sense of what fields your enemy is expanding into. Combining these tools allows for a quick way to know where the enemy is expanding and into what fields of tech they are concentrating on. This way the player can adjust their strategy accordingly, making for an even deeper level of strategy overall.
Cons
Con Steep learning curve at first
Even with experience in other FPS games, you will need to have solid knowledge of the maps and the tactical approach before you start to really enjoy yourself. The maps are very complex, which can cause this process to take a few hours.
Con Requires a good team
To really succeed, you need to communicate effectively in order to set up a winning strategy. This is much easier for groups of people that are familiar with one another as opposed to random people playing together.
Con Physics are unrealistic
Many of the units will pass right through each other, making for units that behave in an unrealistic way and can pull the player out of the immersion of the title. The units also all hover over the ground, which means they have no real weight to their actions, when combined with the unrealistic way they move makes for something that just does not looked polished.
Con Demanding system requirements
The game requires a high end GPU as well as at-least a 4 core processor. This means the game is quite demanding and needs to take advantage of multi-cores in order to play smoothly at high graphical settings. So for those with a mid-range system, the game may play at lower frame-rates, which can be frustrating.
Con Lacking in options for factions and units
There are only two factions available in the game to play with, so makes for limited choice. On top of this each faction has only so many different units, which also shows a lack of choice. Combined, once the game has been experienced and both factions played with there will be little in surprise as to what the game has to offer.