How we test a strategy game

People sometimes ask how we review a strategy game without playing it for a hundred hours. Fair question — here's the honest process we used for Iron Tide Command.

First we play the tutorial cold, without reading anything, to see how well the game teaches itself. A strategy game that needs a wiki to understand loses points immediately. Then we run a full campaign mission or two to feel the pacing.

Next comes the part players care about: does the interface fight you? On mobile, a cramped menu can ruin a brilliant system. We note every moment we had to tap three times for something that should've been one.

Finally we test the boring but crucial stuff — does it pause and resume cleanly, does it eat the battery, does it crash. A clever game that can't survive a phone call isn't a mobile game. Only after all that do we put a number on it.