It’s been a long time since I’ve played a real time strategy game that could rival Starcraft. However, I think I’ve found the one. Byte Lynx by Artful Games is an addictive, fast-paced RTS base building game with battling AI. Construct your defenses, beat back the enemy and steal their buildings out from under them as you fight to save your crew.

When the orbital defense systems of an unmarked planet cause Captain Serena to crash land, she never expected she’d be tossed into a machine’s political drama. This planet Kradle bears no organic life – just the AI and their nanobots. Luckily enough you, as Captain Serena, happen to meet a friendly unit right from the start. Byte agrees to help you find your crew mates and contact your fleet for an emergency evacuation. However, there is something more that this AI just isn’t telling you.

Hello, Dave

Byte Lynx pits you against numerous enemies who use different battle strategies to try and halt your progress. Though most have the same abilities as you, you do start off much weaker. You have to extend wires to places that you want to build and protect mines that give you energy and nanobots. At first, your only defense is the Lancer, which acts as a battering ram for the two tiles ahead of it. The Prime unit is none too happy with your exploits, however, and revokes your construction privileges.  Battling against Broken or Corrupted AI lets you take back the ability to construct different units, like turrets, shields, platforms to build on and surging trucks to push them with. If you can cut off your enemy’s connection to their units, you steal them for yourself. And if you can tear down the enemy stronghold, it’s game over for them.

The biggest threat you will have to face, when all is said and done, is Unity and the Corrupted. Of all the AI, this one acts the most like the Borg. It has been limited to Kradel for now, but with your lovely meat-suit it could fly and infect the cosmos. Where you could safely have your wires next to another AI’s before and not have to worry about it, Unity will take the opportunity to infect your network, progressively hacking into your systems unless you can cut it off. You even get the chance to play as Unity in a few levels of the campaign, which I think was probably my favorite part of the whole experience.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

Not all of the levels in Byte Lynx are straight out “take down your enemy to win” type scenarios. In some scenarios, your goal is to hold out against an overwhelming enemy long enough to escape, or for reinforcements to arrive. In others, your stronghold is on a moving platform that you have to push through enemy lines to reach the other side of the map. You will have maps where you’re protecting a weaker ally, or you’re up against three enemies on your own. No level is like the last, each one thoroughly engaging while moving the plot of the main campaign along.

Aside from the Byte Lynx’s main campaign, there are optional challenge levels and custom maps. The custom maps consist of various games given a Byte Lynx makeover. Byte Bound works like Frogger, with you having to dodge obstacles while moving your base across the map. Byte Command is an arcade style use of Byte Lynx‘s mechanics inspired by Missile Command. Gari Game switches which base you control every minute as you play. And then lastly, Jail Break is a stealth game where you have to avoid combat with the Jailor until you’ve stolen enough buildings to fight. They’re not critical, but they’re well crafted and great fun.

There is also even a map editing feature. You can import and edit the other custom maps, or export or publish your very own map packs. Challenge yourself and other players with unique designs and game modes!

Top-Down Tactics

I wouldn’t say that the art is much to write home about, but it doesn’t need to be. Byte Lynx is a top-down game, and it doesn’t give you much time to smell the roses. You’re going to be much more concerned with making sure your units are in the right places, so its good that the graphics aren’t distracting.

Kradel is a barren, mechanical world, and the maps reflect this with grey colors and rectangular shapes. Each player is represented by a unique, bright color to make it easy to differentiate each other on the battle field and the mini-map. The building units are also easily differentiated, so you can tell what’s going on at a glance. Thank goodness, cause that glance is all you will get.

I will give Artful Games kudos for their soundtrack. While I wasn’t paying attention to it the whole time, its distinctively sci-fi, and even a little retro. The fast, deep notes keep the tension high without pulling your attention away. The sound effects for the machines are also very cool and engaging. I’m not experience with mechanics, but they sound realistic to the setting. Lazers pizzt and the launchers crunch. There’s a funny bump sound when your platforms hit a wall out of combat, which I actually got fond of. You’ll hear combat engaging across the map, which might be your first clue that something’s wrong out of sight.

Overall

I wish Byte Lynx was longer, honestly. I had a lot of fun playing it, and blew through the main campaign in about 6 hours. It was so addicting that I didn’t feel like pulling away, even though I hadn’t had anything to eat. The gameplay is very solid, and I can see it evolving further into a competitive game the way that StarCraft has.

One thing I would like to potentially see in this game’s future is an online PVP mode would be very fun and add even more replayability. That being said, I can’t wait to see what Artful Games brings us next!