IUBES Demo

The RTS genre has never had a shortage of ideas to implement, new mechanics to test out, different gameplays to experiment with and so on. And every once in a while, one game just takes the cake. Introducing IUBES.

In IUBES you play the role of an omnipresent god who looks out after his people (in this case robotic cubes) and guides them through the challenges of building a base, gathering resources, creating an army and ultimately defeating the enemy.

The action takes place in a unique spherical world that looks minimalistically awesome, just like the iubes themselves. Generally, in RTS games unit micro and macro management skills are essential but in IUBES, you can chill out. The little cubes have a mind of their own and you won’t ever need to give them any orders, except where to build something.

Once the construction command is set, an available iubes whistles (yep, whistles) at the other free workers to signal that they have a job to do. With no kids to take care of, they quickly gather and start the build.

IUBES is probably the most relaxing RTS you will ever play. Since you don’t have to control the workers or warriors, you have all the time in the world to watch how they interact with one another, pseudo-randomly roam around the planet gathering resources or slack off for a millisecond.

When it comes to warfare, you get to create warriors or destroyers, which, being the clever little cubes that they are, will automatically seek out the enemy. They travel alone or in groups and spread out all around the map to hunt down enemy fighters or workers.

The way everything looks in the game is simple and simply wonderful. World design is interesting, the animations are smooth and the audio effects are subtle. Combining visuals, with gameplay and mechanics, IUBES really stands out as a fun strategy game to play.

On the flipside, due to its basic (and great) concept you might see repetitive gameplay as an issue. It’s fun to play online against other players but the lack of diversity (at least when it comes down to warfare and other options) might make you loose a bit of interest for it along the way.

To sum things up, adding both the good and the bad, there’s more good than bad, IUBES is by all means a great little game to play whenever you want to unwind. It’s unique and entertaining.