Particle Fleet: Emergence

I played through the campaign of Particle Fleet: Emergence, and I must say that it isn't Knuckle Cracker's finest game.

Particle fleet is a game from the maker of the various Creeper World games, which were highly praised among free flash games, but the newest edition of that series, Creeper World III, holds up even to today's paid game standards, despite being a tad niche. This post isn't directly about Creeper World though, but since I hadn't written about it before, I figured I should. That is especially the case because Particle Fleet shares a lot of similarities, to the point of almost just being in a slightly different setting.
In both games you fight this single hivemind entity that pumps out an endless stream of fluid/particles. Your goal is to warp in to a relatively safe area, quickly establish your supply network, and set up defenses before the enemy reaches you. It's this tug-of-war kind of RTS, but the physics-based enemy is what makes it oddly more enjoyable.

I really liked the various Creeper World games despite the usual problem that plagues most strategy games based on bonuses from map control (snowballing). However, Particle Fleet feels like a step backwards. For one, the particle-based nature of the enemy slightly robs the game of it's uniqueness. Now you're fighting discrete groups of enemies, much like you would in a regular RTS. Secondly, the supply network system has been heavily dumbed down, with resources mostly just teleporting to where they are needed, as long as you are in range. Thirdly, your strategies and your capabilities are basically set in stone, because everything you can build has been predetermined, and you kind of have to use them to their fullest to win effectively. I really liked how Creeper World had a lot of different approaches you could take, even as far as not using some buildings if you didn't want to. There was fun in setting up custom rules for oneself if the missions ever got too easy. Not much of this luxury here, I'm afraid.

But what has Particle Fleet improved on? Nothing, as far as I'm concerned. It's mostly the same game, but with many systems just turned down to be less fun. I'd really rather just go back to playing Creeper World III, and not bother with this one at all. Perhaps things will improve in the next installment.