Athena Crisis is a retro war strategy game with a robust builder mode

Athena Crisis’ turn-based war strategy format can be most likened to Nintendo’s Advance Wars series but with a couple of unique twists. For one, the game’s multiversal premise introduces units from a range of historical periods and settings. Secondly, the game has a builder mode that not only lets users create their maps, but also write out NPC dialogue.

During my Athena Crisis demo, I fought a battle that took place in a metropolitan area, with two landmasses separated by a river and connected by a bridge. I had a dragon, who could fly over the water and breathe down fire attacks on enemies, while my human and tank units had to cross the bridge in an orderly fashion. I was free to execute a movement and action for each of my units before ending my turn.

Athena Crisis also utilizes a fog of war effect that made for some surprising moments during my match. I had opponents pop out on me on more than one occasion as I was lured into a false sense of security. Even visible enemy units can slip back into the fog of war if none of your units have a line of sight on them.

After I lost my match in spectacular fashion, I was shown a demo of the builder mode in Athena Crisis. This mode provides the user with all the tools used to create the game’s official levels: terrain, hazards, units, etc. I watched as a demoist quickly created a large body of water in the desert, filled it with water-based units, and hit the play button so that they would start fighting. You can also create full-blown missions, programming dialogue for different soldiers.

Athena Crisis is looking to tackle a familiar genre, but with a couple of neat twists. The game is out now in Steam Early Access.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_