Recent reviews by Hotdog

For a Beta the gameplay is surprisingly solid, and the strategic depth offered would put certain AAA titles to shame. Especially the newer ones.

I'll begin listing what I consider the pros and cons before heading on to why this is an excellent RTS:

• Pros: No dank "Rock, Paper, Scissor" system, no crushing "Slippery Slope", diverse and unconventional units and abilities, sticks to canon as much as possible, lot's of room for micromanagement of units, diverse maps, frequent updates. FREE with no microtransactions or DLC.
  
• Cons: Sometimes you'll have to host locally instead of using the game servers, which depending on your location might lag. Game might crash in rare circumstances, but is overal stable.

Lambda Wars is like your old school assymetrical RTS games - with a twist.

What makes Lambda Wars great?

First of all: A lot of RTS games suffer from the "slippery slope" problem. Once you start losing it is very hard to get back on track.
Lambda wars effectively solves this problem by allowing the action (Ability) of a single unit to sway the battle or even a match. For example: efficient RPG microing, a tactical grenade throw or a well manouvered Hunter dodge and charge. Even a last resort headcrab canister or dog leap can turn the game around. Most units and certain buildings come with these special (unlockable) abilities.

Most RTS games also follow a stale "Rock, Paper, Scissor" recipe. Lambda Wars negates this. The effectiveness of a unit depends on its position, how it is micro'd and the composition of the force you are using as a whole. Not the hard counters many RTS games implement. (Swords beating bows, tanks beating infantry, etc.)
Combine Elites can be used against Striders, and Veterans (Crossbow rebels) can wipe the floor with dogs. Yet it is also possible for the latter to beat the previous, even if the size of the force remains the same. Even resource starved teams and players can beat those that nearly control every flag. Late game units and structures aren't "insta win" buttons like in many strategy games.

Barring a few abilities (like the explosive crossbow bolt) the game also tends to stick to the canon.

The music captures the atmosphere of the game and the HL2 universe as a whole, while the sound effects are a mix between those imported from the base HL2 game and newly creates ones. While sometimes they don't seem to play when you select a unit or building, they are characteristic and not overwhelming. Though some of the effects are a bit too loud in my opinion.

Besides that there are several gamemodes ranging from traditional "Annihilation" (destroying all enemy units and production buildings) to "Overrun", where you attempt to stave off increasingly large and more powerful hordes of zombies.
Maps range from 8 player FFA zombie overrun frozen wastelands to smaller 1vs1 canyon style maps. There is enough variety to allow for continuous replayability. A sandbox mode is also included.
Also note that both Rebels and Combine differ a bit in their resource gathering. While both require "Requisition" gained by captured (and upgraded - which increases earnings) flags, the Combine gather - generator generated - Energy as their secondary resource (which they need to store using batteries) while the Rebels gather scrap from (a limited amount of) scrap heaps.

Without doubt I consider Lambda Wars as it is one of the best RTS games I have ever played (and I've played many in a 15 year time period, especially the classics), and it also ranks highly in my top 10 of best Source mods.

If this is the Beta, then I have very high hopes for the full version.