Punk Wars - post-apocalyptic 4X where four -punk genre factions battle for supremacy

[Infinitron]

https://af.gog.com/game/punk_wars?as=1649904300

Spoiler

The years go by and another cycle has come to an end. Our civilisation has crumbled due to our greed and selfishness. Now we know that to avoid repeating the same mistakes, we need to stand united… and ours is the banner, under which humanity can thrive again. Our technology, philosophy and way of life are the ones that can finally bring happiness to the world… we just need to convince a few stubborn leaders...

Punk Wars is a combat and tactics-oriented strategy drawing inspiration from the classic turn-based 4X titles. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, in which the ruins of a once powerful megacity become the arena for a deadly fight between four newly emerged corporations, trying to assert dominance for both their unique technology and philosophy of life.

Become the powerful leader of the mesianic steampunk, tenebrous dieselpunk, militaristic steelpunk or technocratic atompunk; explore the ruins of a bygone civilization, where resources are scarce and the dangers way too common. Develop your infrastructure and technology that will secure your triumph. Create a winning strategy and a playstyle for each faction, utilising their distinctive skills and units.

But before you make that happen, you will have to set out to explore the once magnificent, ruined wasteland full of hostile nomads; find water and other vital resources, extract them and put them to a good use developing your scientific, industrial and military infrastructure. Grow and expand your territory, creating advanced and foolproof supply chains in which single units rely on each other, working together like one organism.

Grow and rule over your population, carefully monitoring its well-being and keeping it content. Plan ahead as much as you can, but leave yourself some space for a time when a random event strikes. And finally - put your meticulously trained and developed units to good use, engaging in challenging, turn-based battles that will put your tactical thinking to the test.

• Take control of one of the four powerful corporations - Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Atompunk or Steelpunk - and use its unique skillset to lead it to glory.
  
• Explore the mysteries of a ruined, post-apocalyptic megacity.
  
• Level up your units and engage in fierce battles that will challenge your tactical sense.
  
• Grow your scientific, industrial and military infrastructure, creating advanced supply chains.
  
• Seek, garner and wisely use scarce resources.
  
• Unite humanity and lead it to the new era of peace and prosperity!

 

[Fedora Master]

I thought this was like The Warriors or something. You know, actual punks.

Instead it's about the gayest of subcultures imaginable.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I thought this was like The Warriors or something. You know, actual punks.

Instead it's about the gayest of subcultures imaginable.

Damnit!
I rated before watching trailer or reading OP, thought game was about punk rock.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Damnit!
I rated before watching trailer or reading OP, thought game was about punk rock.

Punk about rock, what's that. Get with the times, grandpa.

I can't wait to cover the map in nuclear power plants.

 

[Infinitron]

Coming November 11th.



Free prologue:

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Tried the free Prologue - it is pretty weak tbh fam.

The whole premise of dieselpunk vs steampunk etc is kinda lame (I thought it would be a bunch of punks fighting each other Mad Max style... which would be much more interesting), the game is pretty simplistic (more so than Gladius for example), you build your base, conquer neutral settlements and fight enemy factions. From time to time there are some CYOA stories ("You discover a wastlander settlement, do you loot it or bring it into your sphere of influence?"), there is branching research, but nothing special or interesting.

IMO if you want a simplistic 4X you should get Gladius, if you want a complex one, get Shadow Empire.

 

[Nutria]

When I was a kid I thought that the whole punk thing kind of half serious but half tongue-in-cheek about how young people viewed a world where they were born into the threat of nuclear holocaust at any moment. Then the Cold War ended. Then I got to be about 18 and I belatedly realized there were tards who thought it was a 100% serious political movement. And now I'm old and I'm it's gone full circle back to being a fashion subculture like it originally was, except now there's a bunch of different equally embarrassing flavors to it. Millions of lifetimes were spent perfecting steam, steel, internal combustion, and nuclear energy and now it's just remembered as a bunch of cosmetic goggles for zoomer children to put on their MMO characters.

 

[JarlFrank]

Those "punk" subcultures/genres forgot what the "punk" in the name is supposed to mean.

It all started with cyberpunk, which got its name after its invention by writers like Gibson who wrote dystopian sci-fi stories set in hyper-digital futures where computers and megacorps rule everything. Protagonists are usually outsiders, cynical assholes down on their luck who got the man pushing down on them, and they just wanna make a quick buck to afford another day's lunch. They're not upstanding members of society, but they don't fight for justice or anything either. They're true punks - outsiders who don't give a shit and might as well watch society burn down for all they care. Hackers, illegal software dealers, mercenaries, etc.

But in late cyberpunk works after the 80s and 90s, the focus was more on the cyber than the punk. Some modern cyberpunk (2010s) even has protagonists with healthy social lives who aren't cynical outsiders, and sometimes the new social and political order isn't even portrayed as a fucking dehumanized hellhole. Cyber is cool now. Replacing your natural eyes with cybernetic ultra 4k HD implants with a zoom function is no longer described as a dehumanizing commodification of the human body, but as a cool gadget people love to have. The punk aspect has been pushed to the sidelines.

And then, other genres inspired by the tech aspect of cyberpunk came into being, with steampunk being the most prominent of them. Steampunk was inspired by Victorian sci-fi like Jules Verne and took the idea of late 19th century steam technology and pushed it a little over the top, with steam robots, airships, etc etc. It's a cool genre when done right, but there's nothing "punk" about it. Its protagonists aren't outsiders fighting against a dehumanized system. They're usually inventors and scientists who play around with cool gadgets, or airship pirates or whatever. The technology is generally portrayed as something cool and good, even though you could easily use the Victorian backdrop for criticism on industrialization and its dehumanizing effects on the population at whole (factory workers having to work all day on products they feel no connection to, etc). There's many ways in which steampunk could be made punk, but that's rarely done. It's all about the tech being super cool, and all the protagonists are pro-technology, and the most outsiderish element of them is that they are eccentric or something. You rarely see steampunk featuring disenfranchised factory workers performing sabotage jobs as corporate mercenaries, for example. That would be somewhat punk.

The fashion movement around these "punk" genres is even worse. People wearing retarded doodads with gears all over them that don't even make sense. I kinda got into steampunk in the early 00s because I loved Arcanum and its Victorian aesthetics. I still like those aesthetics and wanna get myself a nice 19th century style suit because they look good. But steampunk fashion is nothing like that. It's all completely over the top bullshit like a top hat with gears on it for no reason, and an otherwise normally dressed gentleman wearing goggles for no reason, or a chick dressed like a whore wearing boots with gears on it... WTF IS IT WITH THE FUCKING GEARS??

The cyber/steam/diesel/atompunk fashion scenes are all about worshipping the technology rather than criticizing its dehumanizing effects. It's a cool style to identify with, not an oppressive anti-human system to rebel against. The cynical element is missing, the true outsider mentality is gone. Any "punk" genre post-90s has lost its zest. It's just an empty shell of vapid consumerism... the exact things that original cyberpunk criticized are now reveled in.

 

[BING XI LAO]

That's like what you posted on Luckmann's discord last week concerning modern "Lovecraftian" media being caught up with the superficial aesthetic, and how some fags were writing "optimistic cosmic horror with LBGTBBQ elements".
It drives me up the wall when my soy normie friend talks about steampunk and it's just retarded superficial anime aesthetics with multiple belts and garbage like that.

 

[JarlFrank]

That's like what you posted on Luckmann's discord last week concerning modern "Lovecraftian" media being caught up with the superficial aesthetic, and how some fags were writing "optimistic cosmic horror with LBGTBBQ elements".
It drives me up the wall when my soy normie friend talks about steampunk and it's just retarded superficial anime aesthetics with multiple belts and garbage like that.

Yeah it's the exact same phenomenon.

They're taking an aesthetic from a certain literary movement of the past, which hit the zeitgeist of the time perfectly, and strip it off all its meaning because modern soyjaks can no longer relate to the original ideas behind the fiction.
So all that's left is empty memes.

Haha tentacle monster creepy!
Haha gears on my top hat!
Haha cybernetic arm goes brr!

When the original cosmic horror = the cosmos is fucking massive and our minds aren't made to understand all the implications of it, modern humans (early 20th century) will go mad if they realize how insignificant and powerless we are in the grand scheme of things!
the original steampunk of the 19th century = the wonders of technological progress will allow us to go to places mankind has never before seen, and we will achieve ever greater things through it!
(in a way, cosmic horror was a direct reaction to the progress-positive attitude of 19th century and early 20th century science fiction, Lovecraft's stories confronted scientifically minded men with horrors they could not conceive of)
the original 80s cyberpunk = progressing digitalization of the world is dehumanizing society and turning us all into cogs in the machine!

That said, I still think cyberpunk cosplay chicks are cute

 

[lightbane]

All of that happened because nowadays we live in a cyberpunk, dystopic society, with a dehumanizing system, corporate drones that gladly sell their soul and anuses to the corps, and so on. Worse, no cool cybernetics yet.

 

[KateMicucci]

I for one am sick to death of anything with "punk" in its name.

 

[Norfleet]

Cyber is cool now. Replacing your natural eyes with cybernetic ultra 4k HD implants with a zoom function is no longer described as a dehumanizing commodification of the human body, but as a cool gadget people love to have.

To be fair, the target audience for these things has pretty shitty eyes and replacing them would be an upgrade. Also, being a cyborg or a robot is awesome. Humanity is overrated.

 

[Endemic]

Those "punk" subcultures/genres forgot what the "punk" in the name is supposed to mean.

I think you're reading too much into a stylistic choice for a cheesy strategy game, especially one where you're playing as "the system". It would be cool to explore the merits of technological approaches and their societal effects in a TBS, but this clearly isn't meant to be Alpha Centauri. More like Frostpunk with combat.

 

[Infinitron]

Released: