When comparing Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead vs Warzone 2100, the Slant community recommends Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead for most people. In the question“What are the best open-source games?” Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead is ranked 7th while Warzone 2100 is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead is:
Get taken back to when games were completely made of ascii letters and your imagination. Venture forth as an @ and survive the wild. With the classic ascii art, it is hard to ignore that this is not a graphical powerhouse, but of course that is part of the fun, allowing your imagination to fill in this void.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Classic computer gameplay that offers a lot of nostalgia
Get taken back to when games were completely made of ascii letters and your imagination. Venture forth as an @ and survive the wild. With the classic ascii art, it is hard to ignore that this is not a graphical powerhouse, but of course that is part of the fun, allowing your imagination to fill in this void.
Pro Open source and very moddable, making for a game that anyone can change to their liking
The mod community is pretty active on this game, and you can create some really cool things with the tools they already provide. This way anyone can change their game to how they like.
Pro Super involved gameplay that allows the user to dive deep into the mechanics of the game
Everything from weather to crafting to martial arts are accounted for in Cataclysm. You can spend hours mastering the depths of this games systems that allow you to play however you want.
Pro Being in constant active developed allows the game to constantly grow
Experimental releases exit a few times in a single day. Many people are working on finding bugs, and developers are quickly fixing them and adding new features. This makes for a situation where the game is constantly growing and improving.
Pro Free for anyone to download and try, which leave no one out
The game is free of cost as well as open-source, meaning that anyone can download the game, install it and play it.
Pro Graphics can be used instead of ASCII, for those that would enjoy something more visual
Not supported on every version of the game, but you can have a graphical experience if you want by using a graphical tileset for the game. This will need to be done manually.
Pro Big tech tree
Although it can be confusing to get the tech you want at times, Warzone has a complete tech tree that ranges from vertical take-off and landing crafts to laser guns and missile launching cyborgs, and includes four hundred different techs and upgrades.
Pro Custom unit assembling
The game permits you to research vehicle tech under three main forms, weapons, chassis, and locomotion. The player must then assemble their own design, from the tech they have discovered. This permits a wide range of customizability in units.
Pro Big game scale
Although there is a limit to a number of units, Warzone permits pretty massive armies.
Pro Open source
It's free so you can't lose anything if you don't like it and anyone can help in the development by taking the sources of the game.
Cons
Con Lacking hardcore survival feel
The game gets to be rather easy once you spend a little time with it. Basements full of everything one needs to survive in every other house, and stores that look like they were left as seem out of place since in a disaster scenario most items would probably have been taken already.
You can tweak the options to suit a more hardcore experience if you so desire. The options allow for a wide variety of difficulty and playstyles.
Con Difficult to learn at first
This could be a pro for some but for many this will turn them away from the game.
Con Units stay stuck everywhere
It's like there is sticky glue on everything, units just hit things and stay stuck. This creates bottlenecks in armies, and often impedes on army mobility and reliability.
Con Must micromanage, despite the fact commanders should avoid that
On the other hand, they do avoid a lot of micromanagement if the land is easy enough.