Vactics vs Critical
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Vactics
Engage in tactical, chess-like combat by building powerful mechs to battle robotic enemies. Face randomly generated challenges and fight for a better future in this strategic warfare game.
- Mech building
- Tactical chess-like combat
- Randomly generated challenges
- Mech and tech upgrades
- Extended campaign
- Leaderboard competition
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Build the mech to fight against robotic Vactics in tactical chess-like combat. The war is already over and the heroes of the city have fallen. Take on a new randomly generated challenge every time you play and join with the citizens to fight for a better future. Vactics is designed to let you play as much as you like and upgrade to the full version at any time. Unlocking the pro version of the game provides: • Access to all 18 mech types and dozens of additional tech modifiers. • Access to the full 24 colour palettes to choose from with custom app icons each. • An extended campaign with additional enemy types and areas to fight through. • An additional phase to the campaign with the true ending and all the co-pilots. • The daily district challenge where you can compete with others on the leaderboards. • Much more to discover.... -- Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Critical
Manage a reactor to prevent it from becoming critical by delivering water. Earn money over time to unlock permanent upgrades and improve your survival capabilities. Invest wisely to extend your runs and uncover secrets.
- Reactor management
- Incremental income generation
- Permanent upgrades
- Research and secrets
- Survival gameplay
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Stop the reactor from going critical by delivering water. Robots are expensive though, so we use cheap expendable personnel instead. Money earned ramps up incrementally the longer you last. Survive as long as possible to maximize your income! Spend your hard earned cash to unlock permanent upgrades. Invest wisely to make each new run longer than the last. Tons of upgrades to buy, research to be done, and secrets to uncover. Give it a try! The longer you can keep the reactor from exploding, the more money you’ll make. Start small and watch your income grow exponentially as you survive longer and longer. Delay the inevitable cataclysm as long as possible and watch your cashflow go through the roof.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Vactics at 71% against Critical's 18%. Vactics also leads on ads (none vs shown). Critical's advantage is rating (4.4 vs 4.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Vactics sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 3 months and Critical sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Critical holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 56 and 147 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 71% of Vactics's written reviews are positive against 18% of Critical's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Vactics ships an update every 3 weeks, Critical fortnightly. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.
| Parameter | Vactics | Critical |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (56 ratings) | 4.4 (147 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.9% of reviews — better | 18.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 56 | 147 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 309 MB | 99 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gerard Delaney | WaffleStack Studio LLC |
Customer experience
Vactics
Critical
Bugs and requests
Vactics
Reported bugs
6 issues- Combo attack bonus cancelled by heavy landing
- "Restore purchases" not working after update
- Cannot equip more than one ability
- Inconsistent combat: adjacent Vactic not hitting
- Cannot mount one tech in Chassis and one in Engine
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- Line-of-sight for ranged enemies unclear
Requested features
20 requests- Add more upgrades
- Add more game modes
- Add online co-op
- Add infinite wave competition
- Add diverging paths on map like FTL
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- Add small story elements at decisions
- Add new enemies and technologies
- Add a big boss
- Add Russian language support
- Improve tutorial clarity
- Faster restart function
- Option to confirm selection before moving
- More customization options for mechs
- Unlock more mechs for free
- Add wallpapers in the art style
- Support for lowercase game text
- Option to change palettes easily
- Save progress on runs
- Adjustable difficulty settings
- Add more content
Critical
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Vactics
- Subscribe to Vactics Pro$2.993 Months
- Vactics Pro$8.99
Critical
- 100 Gems$4.99
- Starter Pack$9.99
- Remove All Ads$9.99
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- 225 Gems$9.99
- Pro Pack$9.99
- Pro Pack$14.99
- New Player Sale$14.99
- 500 Gems$14.99
- 800 Gems$19.99
- 3000 Gems$39.99








