Your city is everything. It’s where you live, work, grab the mail, get food, got to school, and hang out with your friends. When your city is your home, you want to take care of it, build it, and defend it from any hostile threats, both from within and from the outside.
In the world of Aegis Of Earth: Protovonus Assault, there aren’t many cities left, and the few that remain hold the last bits of humanity. With entire continents having fallen, and the rolling thunder of armies silenced, these cities have become mechanized weapons against a terrifying menace.
Behind these defenses lies a cheery crew, and you the Commander. This is Aegis Of Earth, Protovonus Assault, from Aksys Games and Acquire Studios. Aegis of Earth is a hybrid between a city-building game and a strategic twin-stick shooter. Against the desolation of the world and vicious enemies, Aegis Of Earth gives its players a good experience in a unique setting.
In the future, humans have discovered a strange new energy called Altenite. This mysterious crystal-like substance yielded new innovations in energy and technology, but unfortunately, it came at a terrible price. Large alien monstrosities began warping to the planet, attracted by the energy signatures of the Altenite. A long, massive war waged across the planet, with many entire continents falling into utter devastation.
Over many years, what was left of humanity fled into a handful of megacities, fused with a massive rotational defensive systems. As the commander of a small, but dedicated team of military officers, your objective is to defend the city with the latest weapons, while also improving the cities living conditions.
Aegis of Earth plays as an RPG of sorts. Players are the commander of the defense team and are tasked with appointing specific operators to their roles. These roles range from special operations to zone defense and firearms handling. Players and their operators earn XP from participating in combat missions, and each level up unlocks new features to construct for your city. After each mission, players collect tax money from the city’s citizens, including receiving pay and items from the combat mission. Using the collected Altentite and money, players can upgrade their city’s weapons and special capabilities.
Later in the game, players will be able to unlock and utilize the USW, a special weapon that can clear entire waves of enemies, as well as take down the epic boss fights that players will inevitably encounter. Over the course of the game, players will be able to construct a variety of turrets, from missiles to cannons and lasers turrets. Aegis of Earth has a way of introducing players at a firm pace to these new features, so newcomers won’t feel intimidated.
From the start, players are free to embark on a variety of missions, while traveling to several different cities, including an apocalyptic Washington, D.C. Combat missions are incredibly intense and require the player to not only have a strong loadout for their city’s defenses but also a fast-reaction time.
Aegis Of Earth has the distinct feature of having a unique combat system, as it is a blend of twin-stick shooter and real-time strategy. When in combat, the city transforms, placing its citizens into an underground bunker and its weapons on the surface. Players must rotate their city’s weapons in order to properly line them up with a target.
This strategy is further important if players want to combine weapons of the same type to strengthen their firearms and engage a tough enemy. The aliens come from all sides, and early on, players will need to rotate their cities aggressively to maintain constant firepower. As players progress, they will be able to add more weapons to their defense, but even that won’t be enough.
Players will need to rely on their outer defense, such as shield walls, to survive the most brutal of onslaughts. When all else fails, however, players will utilize the USW, which can consist of a variety of superweapons. The USW builds energy over time and can disperse concentrated firepower over a wide area. However, using these weapons at the wrong moment can spell disaster for your city.
Finally, players face down large alien bosses, which come in a variety of different forms. Each boss will require an entirely different strategy to combat them, as well as require the full use of players’ weapons. These boss fights feel like a true moment straight out of Kaiju films involving Godzilla.
The beasts featured in Aegis of Earth are massive and incredibly difficult to defeat. While special items can be acquired an used mid-battle, the items are few and far between, which means players need to think about what weapons they are adding to their cities. It is in moments of great challenge where Aegis Of Earth really opens itself up, providing an unparalleled combat challenge. This is most especially true as the city loses turrets and players are down to only a small functioning number of guns. However, the ability to think fast and survive is a constantly rewarding effort, which makes victory.
Where Aegis Of Earth falters, however, is in parts of its presentation and its long-term duration. Aegis of Earth is an RPG best played in 1 hour long sessions. Despite adding more features to cities, the player will be required to grind out missions and consistently revisit certain cities. The upgrades require specific shards of Altenite, which can only be acquired in particular cities.
Additionally, earning money is important, as the game challenges the player to upgrade their features. This can make Aegis Of Earth incredibly repetitive. Additionally, the game features a limited degree of voice acting with its characters, but for the longer cutscenes, which play out like a visual novel, the characters don’t speak. it would have been nice to have had more voice work or even animated cutscenes to flesh out the world of Aegis Of Earth more. however, the story is entertaining and does serve its purpose in between missions, with plenty of humor and character development.
Despite its repetitive nature and lack of presentation, Aegis Of Earth is a solid, intense game of inviting the enemy into your home and wiping them clean with devastating power. The atmosphere is solid and the gameplay will keep players constantly coming back to unlock more weapons and accomplish more challenges. The strength of Aegis of Earth is in its distinct nature, providing an experience that most twin-stick and strategy games cannot provide. Aegis Of Earth: Protovonus Assault is a game worth fighting in.
*Special Note*- Aegis Of Earth features cross-saving on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, meaning players can save their progress to keep the game going, both at home and on-the-go.
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