Ever wished you could play a game that made you feel incredibly stupid but at the same time also like you were improving your thinking skills? Well, if you’re that much of a masochist, then BOID is the right purchase for you.
BOID (Bio Organic Infestation Drone) is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Mokus Games and published by tinyBUILD GAMES. Its single-player campaign starts on Earth – in the near future! – where all of humanity has united for a common cause: to be the first race to colonize multiple planets (so, when we’re done fucking up our original planet, we can just pop on unto the next one and start the self-destructive cycle all over again).
They’ve just launched the first BOID drones into outer space, however, the government wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t screw up. A few months in and a research spaceship “New Orion” is contacted by the military veteran, John Maverick.
He informs the researcher that one of their BOID drones crash-landed on Kepler 42c, where the planet is bio-active, meaning, any alien forms in contact with the BOID drone may cause “unpredictable consequences”. They’ve lost contact, so, since you’re near the planet’s orbit, it’s now your job to search for the drone.
With help of the AI Clava (Computer Linked Avatar) you will have to fight against hostile life forms, using the game’s mechanic of mutation and special abilities.
There are seven distinctive unit classes you can mutate your biomass into: the ranged attack Gun and Venom; Scout, who are the fastest units; Leech and Crab who are most effective close ranged; Kamikaze, the self-destructive bombing units; and, finally, the Medic, acting as supportive units which, trust me, you’ll need plenty.
In most levels, you’ll have to gather enough biomass to take over every breeding base from the enemy AI. Which gets increasingly more complicated as you move forward in the single-player campaign. One maddening example of this is the addition of turrets! Powerful guns that will kill all of your units if you don’t play it smart.
This requires quick thinking. Which some – me, for example – are not experts on. This will make you replay the same level numerous times, till you realize you’re just making the same mistake, over and over again. At least, the first few levels. Then it feels like you’re actually starting to develop some strategy skills. Finding new solutions to the problem at hand becomes easier to grasp. I liked that. It made BOID a lot more fun to play.
Nevertheless, our biomass AI is sometimes frustrating. Your units don’t really attack the hostile ones unless they’re in immediate danger themselves. I’ve had instances where some were attacking allies right next to another type of units, but unless I explicitly directed them to attack the enemy, they wouldn’t move an inch. Very damned frustrating.
I mean, in their defence, they’re basically infants. You can’t expect much out of infants, can you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbVtmyy6k2M
And BOID’s multiplayer may be free, but it lags significantly on my computer. The match may start out fine, but then, out of nowhere, my biomass ends up stagnant in mid movement, resuming their action only a few seconds later. They don’t stand there for the entirety of the lag though. Once it gets normal again they’re right where they should be, but this problem is indeed distracting and annoying.
Luckily, the single-player campaign is about 10 hours, thus, if you’re having problems with the multiplayer just jump back into the other campaign. It has three levels of difficulty: normal, hard, and extreme. So, to all of those achievement junkies out there, this can be your next big challenge.
BOID also has stunning character and background designs, with a soundtrack that gets you into the mood of the game quickly. It really surprised me how much detail they’ve put into it. Not saying independent developers don’t put all their might into other sections of the game, but the quality of it could compete with other big name publishers who usually downgrade their graphics quality before release. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised.
To recap then: masochist, RTS fanatic, or just looking for your next infuriating challenge as a gamer? Pick BOID. You will (most likely) not regret it.
The game is available on Stream.
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