Australia Did It Review: High Potential, Rough Execution
When I was asked if I wanted to review the latest game by Rami Ismail, I jumped at the opportunity. Ismail is best known for his work at Vlambeer, the now-defunct studio that defined 2010s arcade action with titles like Nuclear Throne and Luftrausers.
This time, Ismail’s talents are focused on a strategy, run-based game with a bit of Rogue in its DNA. Now, Australia Did It—Ismail’s latest game and his first major project since Vlambeer closed its doors—isn’t exactly the polished arcade perfection we used to get from him. While there are some great ideas buried in Australia Did It, it’s a game that’s just not very fun to play, full of what feels like unfinished, rough edges.
Australia Did It: End-of-the-World Railway Defense Business, or just Australia Did It, is a hybrid action roguelike, autobattler, and unit strategy game. It bills itself as a tower defense, but I wouldn’t quite classify it as that. The developers call the real-time transit sections a "reverse bullet hell," but really, it's just a simple turn-based tactics game where you’re always on the defensive, interspersed with messy action sequences.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “wow, that doesn't sound like a glowing endorsement,” you're right. I had absolutely no fun playing this.
It’s a strange mishmash of ideas presented with ugly pixel art and 3D graphics, all tied together with a UI that is barely functional. There are basically three screens you interact with: the turn-based station battle, destination selection, and the realtime autobattler between stations. If even one of these gameplay modes was decent and the others just “meh,” I would try to find nice things to say. As it is, nothing about this game is compelling or fun for me—save for the unit combining.
Synergy is a big deal in roguelikes, and Australia Did It understands that. But despite having that understanding, it doesn't really work that well in practice. You can merge created units together to create new ones, unlocking some very overpowered and interesting combinations. Ismail has bragged that there are over 1,500 combinations in the game, and it shows—if you have the right setup, you can fill the screen with death and kill anything trying to get to your train. It feels like the team spent months tweaking this one mechanic and completely forgot to build a good game around it. That’s all the praise this title gets.
During the standing, “station” portion of the game, you play a turn-based strategy mode. Ugly pixel art, with barely any animations, does a terrible job selling gameplay that is confusing and janky. The turn-based battles are the main gameplay element, and you’re stuck on a small grid, repelling enemies before they can get to your parked train. It's just no fun.
And it looks awful doing it. It's muddy art, with basic bitch pixel animations. The so-called bullet hell segments between stations are just as ugly, with so little animation and care put into them that it looks like a cash-grabby phone game from ten years ago.Coming from the guy who helped define modern 'game feel' with Nuclear Throne, the audio here is shockingly anemic. Instead of screen-shaking, bass-heavy explosions that make every hit satisfying, the guns sound like pathetic peashooters and the impacts carry absolutely zero weight.
While Ismail wanted to “break the mold” with Australia Did It rather than play it safe with a more traditional title in a brutal market, I don’t think this worked. It’s a massive swing and a miss on a pitch far outside the plate. I don't know if more development time would have helped this stinker, but when it rolls into the station, ignore it for something better.
Most things are better. This has none of the hallmarks that made Ismail’s previous games fun, and feels like it was pushed out the gate just to get some cash flow. Or something. I even went back to the Steam store page and made sure it wasn’t releasing into Early Access. What a letdown.
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