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ActionAdventureCasualIndieSimulationStrategy by Door 407

Diplomacy is Not an Option

Diplomacy is Not an Option is a medieval fantasy RTS where you command a town against endless waves of enemies — thousands of units attacking simultaneously in battles that escalate toward the absurd. You build defenses, raise armies, and manage resources between assaults. The Steam Workshop enables custom maps and scenarios. Developer Door 407 targets players who enjoy being overwhelmed by escalating scale.

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Diplomacy is Not an Option

Steam reviews

10,954 of 12,799 Steam user reviews are positive (85.6%) and Steam's own label is “Very Positive”, according to Steam's review summary for Diplomacy is Not an Option at the last data refresh.

What Steam reviewers mention

16 of the 20 sampled reviews recommend it. Substantive reviews describe a simplified city-building and wave-defence strategy game with satisfying large battles; the most frequent caveat, raised even by recommenders, is steep difficulty on easy settings, alongside cemetery zombies, weak AI and missing quality-of-life features.

Sample: 20 reviews from Steam's English filter (10 most helpful, 10 most recent, ), 16 recommending · how Claude counts topics

  • Difficulty and Pacing (praised in 5, criticised in 7 of 20): Several reviewers, including some who recommend it, find it punishingly hard even on easy because of relentless waves, time pressure and random maps; others enjoy the learning curve, and one wants faster pacing.
  • City Building and Economy (praised in 5, criticised in 5 of 20): Reviewers praise settlement planning such as storage placement, fortifications and defence layout, but some complain about trade-only gold income, cemetery zombies, tight resource timings and thin city-building options.
  • Battles and Enemy AI (praised in 8, criticised in 4 of 20): Reviewers enjoy huge wave battles, varied enemy factions and the undead path, though some say the enemy AI is weak and exploitable, few unit types matter, and melee troops are rarely needed.
  • Campaign Modes and Content (praised in 5, criticised in 6 of 20): Reviewers like the sandbox, endless and challenge modes plus the branching campaign, while others find missions samey or repetitive, note a short early-access campaign and request co-op, workshop content or extra modes.
  • Quality-of-Life Features (praised in 1, criticised in 4 of 20): One reviewer praises attack-move, building priority and pause tools, while several others ask for additions such as a research queue, builder management or a guard command, and one dislikes the two-click market.

Good for

  • RTS players who want base-building focused on escalating wave defense at extreme unit counts
  • Players who find emergent chaos in large-scale battles entertaining rather than frustrating
  • Steam Workshop users who want a modifiable platform for custom scenarios
  • Fans of medieval setting strategy without turn-based complexity

Avoid if

  • You prefer precise tactical RTS over chaotic mass-scale battles
  • Base-building without a narrative campaign feels purposeless
  • The game's intentional difficulty spikes and 'unfair' wave escalation are not your style
  • You need multiplayer — this is single-player only

Is Diplomacy is Not an Option an indie game?

Yes. Steam lists Diplomacy is Not an Option under the "Indie" genre, and its publisher is not on this site's major-publisher list.

  • Steam genre tags on record: Action, Adventure, Casual, Indie, Simulation, Strategy — includes "Indie".
  • Developer: Door 407.
  • Publisher: Door 407 — same as the developer, i.e. self-published; not on this site's major-publisher list.

The rubric, its limits and the publisher list: methodology.