Bite-sized Review:
Diplomacy is Not an Option

By Chris Picone, 23 May, 2025

Not going to lie, I didn't love Diplomacy is Not an Option as much as I thought I was going to. It's a solid game, don't get me wrong; it has a lot to offer and I can understand why lots of people out there love it, it's just that while parts of the game shone, some areas fell a bit flat for me. Oh - and if you're wondering why I'm writing about DiNaO now when it came out so long ago? Door 407 have just pumped out a huge update that includes a map editor!

Aesthetics

Low poly graphics have never been my favourite but everything in DiNaO is presented well. It all looks good, and for a game that's designed to let you control and fight against huge swarming armies with thousands of troops on the field, it's a very sensible option. And there's still plenty of detail though I might have preferred a bit more variety across the maps. There are also some cutscenes between levels, which I'm sure some will enjoy but I found that while the humour wasn't bad exactly, it was very dry and very slowly delivered and was a bit of a swing and a miss for me.

Gameplay

Diplomacy is Not an Option initially feels like a bare-bones strategy game. At first, you do all the generic stuff; build your houses for population, your berry gatherers and fishermen for food, and wood cutters and mines for resources, then a barracks which pumps out stock standard swordsmen, archers, and the like. But that's because DiNaO is built primarily on sandbox play, and its prime attraction is the ability to create massive sprawling townships and castles and pump out insanely huge armies that would be impossible in other games. DiNaO's simplicity allows you to do that. So you build lots of houses, lots of lumberjacks, lots of mines, lots of farms, and then more of all of the same to feed and house all the people to work all of those jobs until you create a massive economy that lets you go crazy. And that's definitely fun in its own way. DiNaO also features a campaign now and that's what I was most interested. Unfortunately, I found the early levels to be very sluggish and repetitive, and while the game was definitely becoming more interesting as I progressed, the tediousness of those early levels took their toll. 

Verdict

If you're a fan of sandbox-style strategy games where you're most interested in freedom to just experiment and mess around with huge armies and crazy big fortresses and battles, you'll love Diplomacy is Not an Option. It's genuinely a good game. Also, the new level editor is very cool.  But if you're more of a story and campaign player like me, your experience will probably be similar to mine.

Links: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272320/Diplomacy_is_Not_an_Option/