Diplomacy Is Not An Option Preview: Shooting Peasants From An Ivory Tower
While a bit rough around the edges, Diplomacy is Not an Option is a fun combination of Tower Defense spirit and Real Time Strategy gameplay.
For PC gamers, the Real Time Strategy genre is an old favorite. From Starcraft to Warcraft to Age of Empires, the genre has thrived thanks in some part to being so well-suited to computer hardware. While not for the same reason, Tower Defense is another genre that has made its home in the same space. Even though it has not been uncommon for fans of certain RTS to create game mode mods which could turn that genre into tower defense, it has never been the main selling point of an entire game. This is what developer Door 407’s new Early Access project Diplomacy is Not an Option comes in to rectify.
As can be expected from a game mostly focused on its mechanics, the story for Diplomacy is Not an Option is rather barebones. The long and short of it is that the players control a local Lord who discovers that the peasants of the realm are revolting in more ways than usual, and must defend against their riot lest his head find the end of a pike. The levels each have a setup, but they are mostly to give a reason for the player to be defending themselves from everyone around them. There is, however, an interesting branch in the narrative early on that does provide some variety for those seeking it that we won't spoil here.
While the title does have the idea of a Tower Defense game at its core, mechanically it’s an RTS, with the twist being that there’s only one real viable tactic for beating the level: turtling. Other than that, all of the hallmarks of other Real Time Strategy games are present, from resource gathering to technology trees. The resource gathering is what will take up the majority of Diplomacy is Not an Option's playtime, as managing and amassing a constant influx of people, food, wood, stone, iron, and coin are how to build the arms and defenses necessary for survival.
There are some buildings required for general settlement management, but their inclusion is basically arbitrary, as the problems that they solve are only tied to their existence rather than being intrinsic to the main gameplay. A good example of this issue is the corpse mechanic, which causes bodies of dead citizens or soldiers to rot and spread disease, even having a chance to become zombies, unless they are taken care of and buried by a gravedigger. This one mechanic justifies the existence of three different buildings: the Graveyard, The Gravedigger’s House, and the Hospital, yet none of this aids the main goal, leaving the player with less land to use for buildings that actually do help them.
From a more technical standpoint, Diplomacy is Not an Option is solid, but rough around the edges. A few crashes were experienced during gameplay, and although they weren’t consistent, they were frustrating. On the brighter side of things, outside of these relatively rare occurrences, Diplomacy is Not an Option ran fairly smoothly during play, even with quite the number of enemies on screen.
Combining two different genres is never an easy task, and it seems like Door 407 still has a little bit of improvement to go before the result will be seamless. With that being said, what is on offer is quite fun, if a bit tedious and bloated with non-essentials. While the straightforward gimmick of a game like Diplomacy is Not an Option can get a little stale after a while, this one does a good job of making everything quite replayable with its fun tone and aesthetic.
Diplomacy is Not an Option was released on February 9th, 2022 on PC. Screen Rant was provided a digital Steam key for the purposes of this preview.