Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2024
Diplomacy is Not an Option
Developer Door 407
Diplomacy is Not an Option is a strategy game set in a medieval fantasy world. Build your town and defenses, raise huge armies and fight against massive hordes of enemies. How long can you survive? From the Steam store page
261 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 7, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
76
LovedLoved
182 positive · 56 negative
95% range 71–81%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 182 | 56 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
23 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
10,906 of 12,745 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 261 · most liked firstAnother Micro-Insane RTS. Guys, you build and show this very cool defense system, then make it a twitch-micro-RTS? If I want to play at 150 APM, I'll play Starcraft II. This game just doesn't have the balance or development forethought required for a micro-reliant-RTS. Here are just a few gripes: - T1 Units for EVERY FACTION are a trap. Read online - every guide is "skip T1, all the units are trash" and I agree. The T1 Units in this game serve NO purpose other than being a resource trap.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoy this game BUT that comes with a pretty brutal caveat or warning. Mission 4 is called Rothglen where you are suddenly dumped into a brutal mission with mechanics that you have never even seen before let alone been able to put into practice. The Mission 4 requirement of building a ship gets you the 'Salty Dog' achievement. This achievement is only at 18%! Dev's this means only 18% of your paid customers have even built a ship on Rothglen let alone finished the damn mission.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Look, on many fronts, this game is actually great and has some really cool things about it. But in my experience, it’s hard to tell what is a game engine bottleneck versus an intentional design choice. For starters, do your archers magically have perfect aim on the ground behind walls, but not when you actually put them on your walls or towers? Because the moment you put them up there, their projectiles literally hit your own walls or towers sometimes instead of the enemies, which is just…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like this genre a lot, and I got pretty far into it because I genuinely wanted to enjoy it, but the core problem for me is the game’s balance. Too many enemy waves feel random, unplanned, or difficult purely for the sake of difficulty, rather than designed around strategy or fair escalation. There is little satisfaction in defending against enemies that seem to operate as if they are using cheats, creating armies that do not feel possible or balanced under the same rules the player follows.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoy the game, really nice Dev. Met at Pax and he was so nice and gave me a copy. (and a cookie)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ok I guess after 400+ hours and a DLC announced I can make a review for this. First of all, kudos to the devs for keeping this game alive, updated, with new content and stuff. Here's my review of DNO I'll try to templatize it a bit (2nd part) since I don't often review games: This game is both the itch and the scratch for a base-building logistics-army strategy-tactical game that is one of my favorite genres. It lands in the ballpark of They are Billions, From Glory to Goo and some older…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not a very good defense game. Genuinely so many missions you'd do better to just charge at the enemy and spam spells. Walls feel useless, unable to withstand much damage. Towers only exist to buff the range of your units and equally suffer the health issue. Maybe its a good micro RTS, I don't know. But its definitely not one of the top "Build and defend" games.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lovely little game for the first few levels, spoiled by insane difficulty that requires you to play in a very exact way. At this point it just become slow going, frustrating and simply disappointing. I'm sure there are some out there who will like it, but it wont appeal to the masses. Its a shame, because everything else is so well polished and presented. Update after 70 hours: Well I tried to like it, I guess I got my moneys worth, but HELL NO, way too difficult. Don't bother.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The developers seem afraid that allowing the player to become genuinely powerful would remove the challenge. But becoming powerful through competent leadership is one of the core rewards an RTS should provide. Diplomacy Is Not an Option has the foundations of a great strategy game: satisfying construction, strong defensive mechanics, large scale battles, and a campaign with personality. Unfortunately, the campaign often prevents the player from fully enjoying those strengths. Many missions…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've put in a fair bit of time into this game. I'm REEEEEEALY trying to love it. I love the style, building, movement, story, etc. But the easy setting should be EASY! It is WAYYYY too unforgiving on the EASIEST mode. Not a matter of "GeT gUuD" or "sKiLL iSsUe". If you want to play nightmare, play nightmare. I just want to play the story mode with missions and casually enjoy it. You can't do that when you have constant hordes.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a medieval city-builder gets thrown into a blender with relentless horde survival chaos, Diplomacy is Not an Option answers that question—loudly, violently, and with thousands of enemies on screen. This is a mix of RTS base-building and tower defense survival. You play as a reluctant noble tasked with defending your lands against absurdly large peasant uprisings, undead hordes, and other threats. As the title bluntly states—there’s no negotiating…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played the game since early access and had high hopes for the full release. Whilst the game itself (the content, mechanics and the overall design etc.) are great, choosing anything other than the easiest option on the difficulty page takes it to a level that could only be enjoyed by an AI or algorithm instead of a human - which is a terrible shame because it makes players like me who could actually enjoy the game get frustrated and just give up because we are not looking for a "micro-chore…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Decent mechanics and economy management, but with all the mixed in ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like the corpse mechanics, unclear wave directions, lack of macro/autonomy and an obnoxious amount of micro-management this game suffers greatly. Just play stronghold crusader.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely love this game so far. When I read the negative reviews for this game most of them were that this game was too difficult. As a person whose typical criticism of these types of games is that there is no real challenge seeing these types of comments was a massive positive for me since I like a challenge. This for me is one of the best games in it's genre full stop. I am very positive on this game, with a few criticisms, and a few things I hope they add. The Positives -This game is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game was in early access for such a long time that I wouldn't have given it a positive review in the past. However, with the full release and the wide range of content that's been added (for free, mind you), the complete vision for the game by the devs is remarkably well-designed. In a world so devoid of good RTS games, Diplomacy is Not an Option is a breath of fresh air for the genre, that finally understands that RTS are not necessarily ment to be competitive and high-APM. This is a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game goes in a good direction with huge armies on both sides but it is only for people that like hard modes. I rather have an endless easy mode (that still has waves). I played multiple other RTS but here I constantly have to stay on my toes even on the easiest mode. I rather play this while watching something else so I don't want to be super focused just to survive. I don't think enemies always need to catch up with my level, I rather enjoy it with less effort. I don't plan on becoming part…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is extremely fun, however there is one issue that makes me not recommend it. The campaign constantly forces increases endless hordes on you, forcing you to either have to constantly run under pressure to complete each level or die. This isn't the way I like to play games.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Horrible design decisions. Boring and stupid story. Terrible AI. You have to micromanage every single troop movement, and towards the end it becomes painfully tedious.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Diplomacy is Not an Option is a great game that is a balance between RTS and Tower Defense. If you've played They Are Billions, this game will feel familiar, but with a lot more charm and polish. I will say that this game can be incredibly difficult, so much so that they just added a newer and even easier difficulty. Pausing is your friend and never ever underestimate enemy waves. The gameplay loop is fun. You build and manage an economy, always trying to expand and upgrade as much as…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Now, it's not a bad game, but the difficulty is not balanced at all! I enjoyed They Are Billions much more than this. This game still has a lot of potential, but it needs a lot of balancing to make it fun to play!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been an RTS fan for my entire life and have played countless RTS games. This is the most annoying game on the planet. It would be fun if it weren't for the hyper micromanaging. I even love games like cities skylines where micromanaging is at its peak, but here, it could not be more annoying. Absolutely ruins the game. Idk why they showcase these massive battles, to even get to that point, you would need 15 hours to build up to an army like that, and the recourses are so scarce on every…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →RTS with a Pause option - casual yet exciting! Recommended to all RTS enthusiasts above 30
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting concept with a lot of potential in this game, but it lacks proper customization. For example, walls are too weak, even fully upgraded, which takes away the joy of building fortresses. No defenses actually feel like fortresses in the game. Yes, walls should be penetrable, but not like they are now, because they feel as if they are made of paper. The developers should either buff them or introduce a setting at the start of the game that lets players manually choose wall HP (1×, 5×,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was looking for something similar to "They are Billions" and this game was the best thing I could find. Beat the game. Thoroughly enjoyed it and looking forward to a new addition at some point.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game! Love the performance, gameplay, maps, and most of all campaign!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I expected a fun little RTS/tower defense game, but I was wrong: it’s an AWESOME RTS with lots of content, four campaigns with their own factions, a sandbox mode, special challenges, and custom maps. I came for the gameplay but stayed for the lovely characters in the campaigns. Also, the undead campaign is not very balanced, but it’s stupidly fun. And the game run very smoothly with thousands of units on the screen even on laptop!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amazing game. Campaign is long and has several branching paths for several factions. (Some missions are just a rehash of the same mission from other campaign just this time playing as a different faction sort of). Still Different faction allow you to use different buildings and specific units. The cut-scenes between the missions are gold comedy. Game doesnt take itself too seriously and the whole setting fits this extremely well. As for the gameplay, its interesting merge of strategy game,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is called "Diplomacy is Not an Option" and the trailer goes "YOU GOTTA FIGHT..." "FOR YOUR RIGHT..." And I was thinking "... TO PARLAY! That's really clever!" but then instead it came up and said "TO LIVE". Like wtf? That's not at all how the song goes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbAG...
unlabelledView post →Cute graphics, good effort in making a variety of objectives for this kind of game, and played smoothly, but for me, even on the very easiest difficulty, it was just much harder than what I was looking for. I don't play this kind of game often, but I do enjoy them occasionally...as long as i don't have to madly construct as fast as possible every moment, which the player must do in this game. Furthermore, the ambiguity of where the next wave of enemies would hit and the stray enemy that would…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Managing the armies isn't very fun when you go on the offensive. Should've been defense-only type of strategy game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game just goes above and beyond in almost every way. One of the best strategy games to come out in the 2020s. The campaign is difficult, but fair, and it tests different skills with its objectives. You also have branching paths, which I did not expect!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Diplomacy is Not an Option does what it says: no talking, just walls, archers, and a thousand guys who want your castle dead. You scramble to build a base, turn peasants into meat shields, and pray the next wave doesn’t eat you. Hard and chaotic. If you like base building and watching your plans explode, play it. If you wanted actual diplomacy… well, that was never part of the plan.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I appreciate the efforts of the devs to support the game all this time, the constant stream of updates has really improved the game over time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game! It feels like it's missing a certain something, but the core gameplay loop is good. The campaign missions feel very same-y. Endless mode is closer to what I thought the best version of the game was, but ultimately didn't have a goal besides survive the next wave. The foundation for greatness is there, it just needs a long term goal to work toward - I feel like I've seen it all in less than ten hours
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly a great game. Its like age of empires, but simpiler and less chaotic. I like the story (though the cutscene pauses could be shorter, why am I waiting 10 seconds for a single frame), the combat is fun. The only real issue I have currently is that research doesn't have a constant reminder on screen. I went through two waves of attacks in my current save and haven't researched anything. It's really minor but impactful. Also, the boat building is a nice take on ship creation. It would be…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I came here after beating the dead horse that is They Are Billions, looking for more content and challenge in city builder/tower defense/rts genre. I love this game and how it has a lot of QOL things that They Are Billions doesn't but I still also do love TAB despite their flaws (and difficulty it's probably 10x harder than this) If you lose an outpost here it's okay. In TAB it can be a death sentence to even just lose one building. The fact that this game is still receiving consistent updates…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A game very similar to "They are Billions", but medieval (mild fantasy) theme. It fixes all my issues with that game - no softlocks on the techtree, normal saves, more factions to play. It's a really nice tower defense/RTS hybrid. Also pretty funny writing. If you do decide to pick it up, don't forget to build like 3 more builder huts than you think you need.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Campaign has 30+ hours of content alone with several paths to take. It's one of the most enjoyable and funny campaigns. 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Diplomacy Is Not an Option left me with some rather unusual impressions. From a story perspective, I almost found it to be a masterpiece, in a very specific way. Not because the plot itself is especially deep or gripping, but because the way it is presented makes the whole experience genuinely entertaining. It is one of those games where you are not hooked because you are desperate to know what happens next, but because you are having too much fun watching the madness unfold. When it comes to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Military control is cumbersome. Grouping and moving doesn't feel good- units tend to get lost. Manaing the economy becomes a starcraft like game of macroing certain buildings each day. There is some redundancy and tendium in building choices. Terrain and builds hide units.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →3rd time rewriting a review. Went from recommend to not recommend to recommend again. There is no easy way to say it. This is a "skill issue" game. You need to put tons of hours into it and try missions multiple times to win on higher difficulty. It is meant for people who want to prove to themselves that they can do it... and it is possible. Game is fun but quite a slog and the micro does not feel that great. Maybe it's because I was never a big fan of Age of Empires.. Regardless, you will get…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like this game, but it still needs more polish for me to consider positive review. Seems like "there are billions" game. and this could be fine for people who want that. Game crashed on choosing the rebels in campaign, then the map was finished and I was introduced to later stage. Later it seemed fine... Quality of life improvements or missing features: - Dialogs in cutsceens are too slow, can't be sped up or skipped (yes you can skip the whole thing, but not go one by one simply…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a great game, you get really into it, and then for some reason the game starts cheating against you. The nemesis actually brags about it, that the mechanics have now changed and difficulty has gone up for you. And suddenly all the fun stuff you were doing before doesn't work anymore and you play the same level five times and it's not fun anymore. Stupid way to ruin an otherwise great game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. The difficulty can be surprisingly tough, but if you’re looking to challenge yourself, this is definitely a game you can sink some serious hours into.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The depth and quality of this game is super impressive. I definitely did not expect a story that is determined by your choices in a RTS game like this. The actual RTS part is really good too. As someone who loved Empire Earth 2, this scratches an itch I've had for a long time!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really like this game, it’s honestly a lot of fun to play. The gameplay feels smooth, combat is enjoyable, and overall it keeps me engaged. The main thing for me is that I just want more content, more nations, more military variety, bigger maps. Still, I had a great time playing it, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops further.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Age of Empires meets They Are Billions. Build a city and an army while keeping up with your economy and while defending against increasingly larger waves of enemies. Quite fun once you get the hang of it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to give this game a good review but unfortunately I didn't get to play enough of it to consider it anything other than a grind. The idea of a game that blends Tower Defense with RTS was really appealling to me but this game is not that. The "Tower Defense" aspect is just timed, increasinly overwhelming waves that you litterally can't defend against. Each wave rips down your paultry defenses forcing a cycle of "rebuild everything" while making little to no progress on the actual scenario…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is NOT a cozy game. The easiest option in Campaign mode is far from easy, but I still come back after rage-quitting after my town hall gets destroyed for the 5th time in one day. The city-building and resource management is satisfying, enough complexity to appeal to those who love games like Oxygen Not Included and Rimworld, but not so much that you get a steep learning curve. I can see myself spending hundreds of hours in this game, but I only wish there's an easier (but still…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Probably the best real-time-with-pause strategy game that I ever played.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has incredible potential. I absolutely loved it! It’s a solid RTS with plenty of options and variety that really keeps things interesting. It definitely deserves a try if you enjoy the genre
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Since you don't get an option other than recommend or not recommend I had to go with No just to highlight what some others are saying about difficulty swings on each map. I played They Are Billions and I still found that game more enjoyable even without the ability to save. I also don't mind micromanaging maps but this game takes that to another level where you are literally paused most of the time micromanaging and one less than idea day can immediately fast forward to hours of back…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun and challenging! For a while it was getting a decent amount of negative reviews because even with 5 difficulty settings, even the easiest was kind of a nightmare once you get through the first handful of levels. Devs listened, and made a 6th, actually easy setting. So no matter your skill level or play style, you're likely to enjoy this game. 9/10 loses one point for your troops being completely oblivious to if they are standing right next to some resources they could pick up, or just an…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Diplomacy Is Not An Option is an incredible RTS, one that I had a lot of fun with. If huge battles are something you crave, DiNaO is your game! Please check out today's Indie Game Spotlight! nerdybirdgames.com/2025/12/09/d... #DiNaO #indiegames #indiegame #review #videogames #content
unlabelledView post →Honestly this has been a really fun RTS game in a way most in recent memory have not. The balance is largely good, the story is really good, nice sound and runs real well even on my not particularly high end PC. Also it MOSTLY works right via Proton on Linux. There are a few cutscenes later in the game that perhaps because of DRM do seem to render video, but other than that everything plays great on Debian Linux. Some people will ♥♥♥♥♥ and whine that the game is too hard. There is a learning…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice to see someone remembers what RTS is and how to make a good one! Now go ahead and make a few more... Like a WW2 version, Modern Warfare and a Futuristic/Alien version. The Campaign is great and challenging. The voice acting in the cutscenes is priceless. Who knew complete gibberish could be so funny. I usually skip cutscenes for being a complete waste of time and dialogue well, normally is horrible in most games. Completely surprised how good they were. Hours of fun... ROI meter = 100%.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Play for 2 hours building up your defenses and fighting off waves that steadily increase in difficulty, then at the end fight a super wave that's 10x as difficult and overruns your defenses in seconds, restart.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a charming game. So far the medium difficulty is well balanced, QOL features are 80% there. Pausing is your friend for micro! The cutscenes are cute and funny but the pacing is horrible honestly, the awkward pause joke gets old quickly. I wish there was more unit/tower variety per faction. Perhaps hero units with their own abilities?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game actually difficult strategic game. Damn games so hard they had to make a easier mode.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty fun concept for a game but the difficulty scaling isn't very good and unless you are an old Starcraft pro you'll probably get overwhelmed quickly in the later levels. This is definitely not a casual city builder.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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