Zero-K

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Not enough reviewsNot enough reviews2018

Free to play

US Steam price, checked 5 h ago

The verdict

A deep, free Total Annihilation-style RTS with smart units, great controls and a big campaign. Skip it if toxic multiplayer moderation or dated graphics bother you.

Great for

RTS fans who love Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander, huge battles, co-op and skirmishes against AI

Main risk

Toxic community and heavy-handed moderation in multiplayer, plus a steep learning curve

What players love

Completely free with no monetization

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“do you want a game that dosent have micro transations, no battle passes no skins no store where you can buy emotes or skins then this game is for you”
Steam review · 293.8 h played ↗

“This game is free but feels like something you'd buy from the store!”
Steam review · 34.9 h played ↗

“That moment when a free game is better than most paid ones”
Steam review · translated · 22.4 h played ↗

Huge unit variety and strategic depth

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“so many units and so many possible strategies that i could spend pretty much forever playing this”
Steam review · 28.8 h played ↗

“The number of strategies you can pull off in this game is incredible”
Steam review · translated · 120.5 h played ↗

Excellent UI and smart unit control

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“RTS with the best quality of life features I've ever seen.”
Steam review · 102.6 h played ↗

“the best unit manipulation toolset I ever saw”
Steam review · 26.6 h played ↗

“Some of the best army control features [patrol/formation/retreat/etc] that I've used in 30 years of RTS play.”
Steam review · 118 h played ↗

Long campaign and strong AI

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews

“the ai will even kite you attacking outside your existing units weapon ranges”
Steam review · 0.5 h played ↗

“providing a free long (50+ hrs) co-op campaign”
Steam review · 38.4 h played ↗

Terraforming and unique mechanics

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews

“just the simple fact you can modify the terrain and the eco system is literally insane”
Steam review · 268.8 h played ↗

Runs well on low-end PCs

Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews

“My old office laptop has enough computer power to play it”
Steam review · 132.2 h played ↗

“it will run on nearly anything even your last decade era PC with no dedicated graphics card can run it”
Steam review · 14.3 h played ↗

What players complain about

Toxic community and heavy-handed moderation

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“The leadership has allowed the toxic moderator Aquanim to continue to bully and abuse players for many years”
Steam review · 4541.3 h played ↗

“admins will ban randomly for reports without even checking content”
Steam review · 2083.3 h played ↗

“The game is good and varied. But the admins are jerks and racists.”
Steam review · translated · 1399.2 h played ↗

Dated graphics, UI and sound

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“The menu and UI is super confusing and not intuitive at all.”
Steam review · 1.6 h played ↗

“Graphics are pretty potato”
Steam review · 2.2 h played ↗

Unbalanced units and spam meta

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“it's impossible to counter, and it's choking out whole parts of the game”
Steam review · 2234 h played ↗

“Raiders are way too strong, defenses are way too weak.”
Steam review · 998.3 h played ↗

Crashes, freezes and GPU issues

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“Zero-K not only crashes the game itself on a regular basis but can also freeze the entire computer.”
Steam review · 95 h played ↗

“it's constantly crashing over the last few months on my 7800XT”
Steam review · 5 h played ↗

Dead or small multiplayer population

Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews

“you can play team games only on weekends because there's not enough people on other days”
Steam review · 191.3 h played ↗

Brutally hard campaign and steep learning curve

Mentioned in ~1 in 17 negative reviews

“some of the missions are so heavily unbalanced in the AI's favor that it is borderline impossible to win”
Steam review · 52.3 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Unsupported

Minimum

OSWindows 7, 8, or 10

Processor2.0 GHz dual core CPU with SSE (Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent)

Memory4 GB RAM

Graphics512 MB graphics card with OpenGL 3 support (GeForce 8800 or equivalent); integrated cards may not work

Storage6 GB available space

Recommended

OSWindows 7, 8, 10 or 11

Processor3.0 GHz quad core CPU (Intel Core i5 or equivalent)

Memory8 GB RAM

Graphics2048 MB graphics card with OpenGL 3 support (high GT 500 series or equivalent)

Storage8 GB available space

OSWindows 7, 8, or 10

Processor2.0 GHz dual core CPU with SSE (Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent)

Memory4 GB RAM

Graphics512 MB graphics card with OpenGL 3 support (GeForce 8800 or equivalent); integrated cards may not work

Storage6 GB available space

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