Oil Night Walkthrough

OK fellas, this is one of those strategy games that don't look grand. No fancy or jaw-dropping graphics and design. All you get is an 'all black' silhouette of your oil well, your defensive and offensive units, as well as your opponent's. Well, there's an orange sun in the background to brighten things up BUT that's about it. HOWEVER, don't let the simple looks of this game deceive you. This has to be one of the hardest strategy games I have played!

The objective is very simple and straightforward: you have your oil well. Your opponent has his. Apparently, the place isn't wide enough to accommodate 2 oil wells. Either you or the other guy has to go, BUT no one wants to give in! So how should you decide it? Simple - duke it out and try to destroy each other's oil well. The player whose oil refinery and well remains standing wins! Simple as it may sound, emerging as the victor is NOT as easy as straightforward as it sounds.

Trust me, losing this game is very easy. It seems that the odds are heavily tipped against your favor. First off, the enemy acquires resources and points faster than you do. That means he will be able to pump out those fast moving and high damage units faster than you do. One moment of sloppiness from your end could lead to you and your oil refinery's demise. To make matters worse, he pumps out those crushers, which are fast moving and deal quite some damage, early on in the game. With these being thrown at you on the 'regular', switching from a defensive stance to an offensive one is REALLY hard. And to top it all off, things just cost a little too much for a newbie strategy games player to cope up. Think about it - for 12 heard earned and slowly acquired points, the best you can have is a level 1 barrier. ?

Guys who have played this strategy game agreed that there is only one way to win the game: that is be on the ropes for the first hour or so... beef up your defenses as much as possible before going on the offensive. I'm afraid I would have to agree. And this way of playing Oil Night requires a heck LOT of time. Also, this makes it more of a game of attrition. Personally, I'm OK with it. After all, in most strategy games, being on the offensive is, more or less, emphasized. Forcing you to be on the defensive and win the game from there is somewhat a "refreshing" change.

As you can tell from my tone, there are A LOT of stuff I would like to change in the game if given the chance. To start off, I would like to change the game's color. This has to be one of the most boring-looking strategy games I have seen in my life. Adding more color to the units and decorating the background a bit shouldn't hurt.

Adding some nice animation and backing it up with a cool story (why the 2 oil well owners are squaring it off) should make it sound and look cooler.

While the game does have an objective (and a very clear-cut one if I may add), I think beefing it up by adding levels; mini-goals one has to achieve; upgrade section or menu so that all of the upgrades are viewable in one neat place, etc. would surely make it even more interesting.

Oh! And last BUT not the least, this is a shout out to the creator / developer of the game: please get rid of that crusher thing... or at least restrict the enemy in the way that they don't get to pump them out so early in the game. These crushers make it impossible to attack; they make it impossible to take on the opposing units head on.

Quite a lot of suggestions for improvements I must say. BUT don't get me wrong. This game certainly has its potential and has some nice points, too. The concept is quite good, and it's NOT like most strategy games which are, in reality, just tower defense games adorned with useless bells and whistles. The sound track of the game is also quite nice.

Summing things up, this is one of those strategy games that are NOT for everybody. Come on, not everyone wants to be on the defensive or on the ropes. HOWEVER, if you are someone who plays it like George Foreman... someone who slugs it out all the way to the last round and always on the receiving end of blows 90 percent of the time, then this may be for you. After all, the long wait should be worth it as long as you remain as the last guy standing.