R.O.O.T.S - interplanetary war 1.42

I remember the first time I've played a game that works on a similar premise. I can't recall its title, but it seems that it has spawned (pun intended) several games with more or less the same mechanics. As a brief description, you control 'orbs' on which you breed... things, with which you invade other orbs. Although amusing at first, said game became stale rather quickly. But not the same can be said about R.O.O.T.S.

After being stuck to my tablet for almost an hour of play, I lifted my eyes to see a horrifying sight. Outside, there were full grown trees. Several of them! I instinctively braced myself against the chair, in a subconscious effort to combat this menace. Luckily, I came about without anybody noticing.

R.O.O.T.S features the same gameplay that I described earlier, but it seems that the developers realized a couple of things when it comes to this 'genre:'

1. Uniform maps are boring.
2. Equal footing is dull.

As a consequence, every level in R.O.O.T.S is designed to feel strikingly different than the last.

To start off, you're growing space trees, on planets. You can only have one tree per planet, and its mass determines the maximum size the tree can grow. That also determines how far the tree can 'unwind' to reach out and populate other planets. With this limitation, some planets can be out of reach, making the planets that are closer to home necessary steps in reaching where you want.

Easy enough, but the problem is the competition. You will always face at least one other tree species, often two, and sometimes even three. As such planets can sustain trees of different species growing on them but if left alone the bigger tree will eventually devour the smaller one. So to protect your investment, you will need to set up constant flows of 'seeds' to supplement the growth on contested planets, or to siphon strength in a network to where it is needed the most.

This simple principle wouldn't go too far if it weren't for the hugely asymmetric challenges that you're faced with on almost every level. Most of the time you will need to gauge what planet to go for first so that you can keep an upper hand on the competition. Since planets can accommodate all players, you will often find yourself fighting on multiple fronts, with uncertain outcomes.

It can also happen to get into a stalemate. In these cases, there will be nothing left to do than to juggle 'seed' streams, to confuse the AI until you can breach its defense. This might be a bit annoying, but it's sufficiently satisfying once you make it.

Final Thoughts

Having planets with a limited range means that every map can have a unique topography, which needs to be assessed and exploited differently in every game. This makes R.O.O.T.S interesting enough to keep you glued to the screen for some time. The neon light style graphics also makes R.O.O.T.S highly aesthetic if you ask me. 1488, fellow space-tree growers!