Diplomacy is Not an Option Review

Diplomacy is Not an Option, an RTS where your survival is non-negotiable.

Diplomacy is Not an Option is a real-time strategy game developed and published by Door 407. The Indie studio has also worked on URBO, a city-building puzzle game. Diplomacy is Not an Option is not a tower defense game, as it may seem at first glance, but a real-time strategy game in which you must defend your medieval settlement while wave after wave of enemy attacks try to destroy it. 

What’s refreshing about it is that you’re not running around the map looking for trouble; instead, the focus is on the defense you would have built up between waves. Victory is determined not by how much of the surrounding land you conquer but by how long you, as the defenders, can actually survive while taking heavy hits.

In peacetime, between attacks, you have some precious time to expand your city with more houses for your settlers, more farmland and fishing grounds for food, and resource-producing buildings such as iron mines and sawmills to be able to upgrade your building. Once your warehouses and granaries are full of goods, you can upgrade your buildings from wood to stone and expand your army with better-equipped units and weapons.

They can build hospitals to prevent the corpses of fallen soldiers from rotting where they fell and causing a plague. Gravedigger’s houses can be built so you can hire Gravediggers to properly bury the dead. Just don’t forget to build the graveyard to go with it, preventing them from rising as vengeful zombies or spreading disease throughout your settlement.

Your town hall is located in the center of the map and is initially defenseless from all sides. Before the next wave comes, you must surround it with as many defensive towers, gates, and battlements as possible.

These waves come thick and fast, and increasingly aggressive enemy forces will eventually number in the hundreds or even thousands of troops, flowing between your buildings like a jam-packed sardine can and crashing into your defenses like a wave of mass destruction if you haven’t built your defenses properly.

Diplomacy is Not an Option. It’s all about strategically surviving as long as possible. Especially in endless mode, it’s a simple conveyor belt of army management that unfolds the same way in each playthrough but generates very different results depending on how you play.

Only by repeating failures will you know which parts of your tech tree you need to accelerate from day one, how many mines and factories you need to maintain your progress, and how many farms you need to get up and running as soon as possible to ensure a food supply.

If your food stores aren’t up to par for survivability, your people will starve. There are right answers to how you do this, and yes, you will have to try and fail a few times because the first few days are crucial to getting your base up and running.

It makes up for the game’s lack of variety with its finely tuned gameplay mechanics. The cartoony low-poly graphics and punchy sound effects make building an ever-growing fortress an addictive pleasure that will have you replaying it over and over again.

Assigning a few crossbowmen to your walls and towers and watching them effortlessly sweep away waves of angry enemy units coming your way is a good way to pass the time when you have your defenses how you want them in between waves.

For now, Diplomacy is Not an Option is limited to just a few unit types, somewhat simplified resource management, and a technology tree that lavishes soldiers and workers with a handful of upgrades rather than anything drastic that would redesign the game to suit your preferred play style.

The campaign mode of Diplomacy is Not an Option adds personality and depth to missions. There are also some unexpectedly fun little cutscenes and storylines that tie together very similar missions. Endless mode feels like the true heart of the game.

Whereas campaign missions essentially reset your progress after each victory, endless mode lets you build even stronger fortresses, so long as you don’t get overwhelmed by a particularly powerful enemy invasion.

There are no fixed landscapes for campaign missions in Diplomacy is Not an Option. Combat and, of course, economy management becomes easier or harder depending on the nature of the terrain. Luckily, this can be easily changed by restarting if you end up getting overwhelmed by enemy forces.

The same random selection also applies to cards in endless mode. Both campaign and endless modes of Diplomacy is Not an Option have three difficulty levels, with more troops deployed in endless mode. You can attack enemy camps across the map, so you don’t have to wait for the enemy to attack you.

Active combat happens to be the core of Diplomacy is Not an Option, even with the city-building management aspects to the ga,e. You start with only swordsmen and archers, but over time, you’ll be able to staff your upgraded barracks with any type of army. Crossbowmen deal more damage but are slightly slower than basic archers.

Spearmen have a longer range and can deal additional damage to cavalry. Healers can restore the health of allies but cannot fight themselves. Axe Warriors deal high damage but have no defensive advantage. Hammer types attack groups of enemies and take less damage. Finally, Foot Knights can block most melee or ranged attacks.

Building stables and Engineer guilds can also build more specialized units later on. Riders move quickly but can take extra damage from melee attacks. Horse Archers are ranged units but cannot be assigned to watchtowers or walls like regular Archers. Horse Knights are immune to arrows but take extra damage from spears.

Catapults hit with a wide area but are defensive against melee attacks. Ballistas can deal damage to up to three targets in succession. The Bludam Chimera explodes on command, injuring any enemies caught in the sacrificial blast, allowing you to thin out enemy lines. Finally, the trebuchet has a greater impact force than the catapult but requires a massive tower to reach great heights.

Most missions require a combination of troops, melee attacks, ranged attacks, and support. However, for most objectives, you don’t need to overdo it. Evaluate enemy forces by scouting them and building what you need to fight them. You can also intercept stragglers by taunting them away from your main forces.

Diplomacy is Not an Option’s Enemy AI is usually not smart and can be easily fooled by moving, backing away, or blocking their path with a wall. Only large numbers of enemies or certain units that hit particularly hard pose a statistically significant threat. The ability to rest at any time makes it very easy to manipulate the battle and avoid danger.

This is reminiscent of the combat in Baldur’s Gate 2 or Pathfinder: Kingmaker, where preparation is much more important than moment-to-moment combat. The sheer size of the enemy forces is very similar to the zombie colony sim They Are Billions. Although it is in the RTS genre, it differs from games like Age of Darkness: Final Stand, where you have an objective to destroy.

While the graphics and art design in Diplomacy is Not an Option are great, with the poly-art models and detail to the maps, the sound engineering feels a little lacking in terms of music. While the background and battle sounds are well done, the soundtrack isn’t varied and can become tedious after a few hours of gameplay.

Overall, Diplomacy is Not an Option offers a unique and engaging real-time strategy experience focusing on defense, resource management, and strategic decision-making. With its addictive gameplay and various modes, it provides an enjoyable challenge for players seeking a deep and rewarding strategy game.

Whether fortifying defenses in campaign mode or striving for survival in endless mode, players can immerse themselves in the intricacies of city-building and active combat, making Diplomacy is Not an Option a standout title in the real-time strategy genre. It is a fantastic game for veteran RTS  players looking for a new challenge. However, it isn’t a good game for someone just getting into Real-time strategies.

Check out the Diplomacy is Not an Option Beginner’s Guide.