ControlCraft 3 Review

ControlCraft 3 is a real-time strategy game with a silhouette aesthetic and streamlined gameplay. In this particular title, players must manage units as resources to capture control points across a map. While the game looks pretty slick and keeps its strategy mechanics in check to keep it accessible, ControlCraft 3 falls just a little short of standing out from the crowd.

The beginning of each level in ControlCraft 3 is simple. Players start with a predefined number of unit-producing control points, and must manage those points to conquer all enemy control points. Conquered control points automatically generate units, and the number of units available at a control point is displayed as a number on that point. To move units from one point to another, players tap and drag a path from one to another. After doing that, half of the units from a control point will start making their way to the designated spot.

This simple control scheme is the core mechanic of ControlCraft 3. Strategy comes into play in the form of managing the numbers of units at each given control point. If players expand too quickly, they may spread their numbers so thin as to become easily conquerable, but if they wait too long, they hamstring the total number of units available at once. In addition, as players complete the campaign they can tweak their overall strategy going into a level by customizing the way their army operates by purchasing upgrades and power-ups.

All of this knowledge only gets players so far in ControlCraft 3. While the game seems easy-going at first, the difficulty quickly ramps up to the point that it becomes frustrating to play. Even when purchasing upgrades and making adjustments, progression slows to a crawl by the fourth or fifth stage. This difficulty curve of ControlCraft 3 might not be a big problem if there was a multiplayer mode or something to allow players to continue upgrading their armies in novel ways, but sadly this is not the case.

In the end, ControlCraft 3 just feels like a more tedious version of more successful games. It's free, sure, but so are some of its more successful competitors. It is fun for a few levels, but sadly, ControlCraft 3 is just too frustrating to recommend playing.