Orc Incremental creates the discussion around the line between auto battler and idler. I’m not engaged enough with it enough as an auto-battler, and I can’t disengage enough to let it be an idler. The developer should pick one and go all in with it, and I think idler would be the better option.
There’s not enough strategic substance. Pick units, send them to battle, watch them work, earn money, pick upgrades, expand your army. There are no type advantages, strategic implementations before a fight, or anything like that. Any ongoing maintenance is choosing an upgrade based on the money you have. The appeal of an auto battler is making strategic choices, and watching those choices play out. If that were the case with Orc Incremental, I wouldn’t mind the low stakes nature of failure, but it’s a terrible combination of low stakes and breathless choices. Yes, the battles are automated, so it’s technically an auto-battler, but the functions feel closer to an idler and unit upgrades might as well be assigned to the game so it can fully be an idler.
If this were an idler, it would be cool that there is an option for us to engage if we want. We can throw fireballs at the enemy units. But we have to do a lot for an idler. The first boss fight at level 10 must have destroyed my units at least 5 times before I finally upgraded them. I don’t see a world where my units win that fight without my intervention. The game says I can step away, but my poor units can’t upgrade without me. I don’t get the sense that’s how an idle game should work. There should be an auto-upgrade option.
I want to see my number go up. That’s the point. When I return from doing something for a few hours, I want to come back and be awed by the amount of units on the field and how they’re obliterating the enemy. Sure, they lose a battle or two, but there’s a clean method for their progression.
You can rewind to previous levels if the units are too underleveled so you can farm money. But again, you have to decide to do that. An option to rewind to whatever level I choose after losing a pre-determined number of fights would be nice, so the game can be, y’know, idle.
But it’s not an idle game. It demands some micromanagement because it wants to be an auto-battler, but Orc Incremental isn’t committed to that genre, either. I think it would work better as an idler, where the whole game could control itself, but have the option to take control if you wanted. I spent an hour talking to my wife and playing the game that way. I can get behind that.