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ZEPHON
From the developers of Warhammer 40,000: Gladius, ZEPHON is a post-apocalyptic 4X strategy game built on Proxy’s unique tactical combat system. Guide survivors through a turbulent future, navigating unexpected disasters, eldritch horror and cyberpunk monstrosities. What will you do to survive?
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “Combat-focused strategy” (66 of 103 reviews) and “Distinctive post-apocalyptic aesthetic” (25); the most common complaint is “Repetitive tactical combat” (14). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-29 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
66 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Amazing game PROS World map combat - This might seem obvious, but there aren't many 4X games where combat unfolds directly on the world map. I played a lot of Age of Wonders 4, Spellforce: Conquest of Eo, Songs of…”
“I'd classify this as a hidden gem. Great writing, chunky combat animations and sound, good AI. Map is highly customizable. Ongoing support and DLC. If you like 4X, Lovecraft, Post-Apoc, and flavor text, you'll like this.”
“Hmmm, Is 20 hours of playtime enough to leave a verdict? Yes, I think so. Zephon is a mechanical improvement upon WH40K Gladius: Relics of War. The overall gameplay is deeper and the AI behavior is more nuanced. I await…”
25 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Honestly the game at first was fun when I didnt know much and fortunately tried the warlord as my first one who's more of an active faction. As the more I played myself and alongside my partner, the less I enjoyed it…”
“It’s a shame that the gameplay is kind of boring, it’s a beautiful game with some great writing. Ultimately I am left wanting Alpha Centauri with this level of graphical fidelity and with the UI improvements.”
“Very very good game, fun fun fun. Graph.'s are great, and so is the music. Lots of way's to play this game, lots of units, and the tech tree is large.”
22 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Hmmm, Is 20 hours of playtime enough to leave a verdict? Yes, I think so. Zephon is a mechanical improvement upon WH40K Gladius: Relics of War. The overall gameplay is deeper and the AI behavior is more nuanced. I await…”
“It’s a shame that the gameplay is kind of boring, it’s a beautiful game with some great writing. Ultimately I am left wanting Alpha Centauri with this level of graphical fidelity and with the UI improvements.”
“+1. It gets better the more you play. A lot like Gladius but with Diplomacy and a more dynamic world and narrative.”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I'd classify this as a hidden gem. Great writing, chunky combat animations and sound, good AI. Map is highly customizable. Ongoing support and DLC. If you like 4X, Lovecraft, Post-Apoc, and flavor text, you'll like this.”
“Very very good game, fun fun fun. Graph.'s are great, and so is the music. Lots of way's to play this game, lots of units, and the tech tree is large.”
“Excellent tactical combat. Good graphics and music.”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I almost certainly shouldn't be posting a review after about two hours of play time but then this isn't a review for hardened 4X strategists looking for their next fix. However, it IS for anyone hanging around the…”
“Very fun game with high quality AI that coordinates attacks and strategically retreats. Quite a challenge on the higher difficulty levels.”
“Funny how most of my hours were one game with a friend lol. Anyways I like this game. Unlike Gladius, this game is actually hard. My game with my friend was us getting owned then coming back only to get owned again. It…”
14 of the 103 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“Honestly the game at first was fun when I didnt know much and fortunately tried the warlord as my first one who's more of an active faction. As the more I played myself and alongside my partner, the less I enjoyed it…”
“They took a great game (Gladius) and made it worse. It's visually cluttered, chaotic, worse controls, bloated tech trees, and other issues. Going back to playing Gladius now.”
“It’s a shame that the gameplay is kind of boring, it’s a beautiful game with some great writing. Ultimately I am left wanting Alpha Centauri with this level of graphical fidelity and with the UI improvements.”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“Really like the game but stoped playing it 2 months after release. The game crashed every other turn after getting 30-50 turns into a round. After some research it seems like the previous game (gladius) had the same…”
“I like the game. I never played the previous one. It scratches the Halo Wars itch a little bit. It just crashes way to often for the amount of money it costs. Probably once every 2 hrs. Would like to see some type of…”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“This game has all the makings of a great game, but it is optimized very poorly. The longer the game has been out, the worse the optimization has gotten. I'm sorry to say that I can't recommend this game as it is now.…”
“It is a okay turn based game. The setting is interesting, but the game itself is nothing special. It has some optimication problems but is mostly running fine. The biggest problem is their DLC policy, selling marginal…”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Honestly the game at first was fun when I didnt know much and fortunately tried the warlord as my first one who's more of an active faction. As the more I played myself and alongside my partner, the less I enjoyed it…”
“Funny how most of my hours were one game with a friend lol. Anyways I like this game. Unlike Gladius, this game is actually hard. My game with my friend was us getting owned then coming back only to get owned again. It…”
“The game is fun to play turn to turn (even if late game can be a slog on map sizes above medium), the lore is intriguing and legitimately well written and all the factions have very diverse playstyles... only issue is…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“This game and the very similar Gladius are no Civ. I heard a caster describe as knife fight in a phone booth and probably right. I am personally liking this game more than Gladius due to the diplomacy. In Gladius it is…”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 82.9% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“I'm not sure I understand or agree with some of the negative reviews I've seen. However, I've not yet played Gladius, so maybe I'll change my mind once I've tried it (I plan to now having played Zephon a bit). But that's also an 8 year old game with a lore that is decades old to…”
— a player, Steam review · 56 hrs played“Ever get that feeling of disappointment from a 4x game when you spend all the time in the world getting ready for a map changing, ground shattering, absolute slug fest between you and the super powers... and then it just never happens? If you crave to satisfy that feeling, look…”
— a player, Steam review · 235 hrs played“First of all I really wanted to like this game, it had so much potential, but it really fell short. My main complaint is identity, coming from Gladius every leader/race has an identity, unique features, units, and heroes. The factions in Zephon are barely different from each…”
— a player, Steam review · 33 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-22.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-10-22). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Version 1.3.25
This update makes AI opponents considerably stronger, reduces memory usage by about 4 GB, improves stability when video memory runs low, and fixes several crashes. In 400 head-to-head test matches aga
Version 1.3.24
This update fixes crashes when surrendering, collecting caches, and losing a final city with garrisoned units, and fixes a rare text rendering error and a Linux keyboard crash. Bug Fixes Fixed a crash
Version 1.3.23
This update fixes the Statistics Timeline start label, attempts to recover from running out of video memory, and suggests increasing the Windows paging file when virtual memory runs out. General Attem
Version 1.3.22
This update adds a Timeline to Statistics, takes Team Starts and Symmetric Map out of experimental, and fixes symmetric map generation, search shortcuts, and XML mod patching. New Added a Timeline cat
Version 1.3.21
This update fixes Abkhan rewards from player actions, remaining movement when buffs and penalties interact, Transubstantiation targeting, multiplayer join slots, and several other bugs. Bug Fixes Fixe
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | RPG, Strategy |
| Player tags | Strategy · Turn-Based · Tactical · 4X · Multiplayer · Sandbox · Lovecraftian · Co-op · Procedural Generation · Sci-fi · RPG · Turn-Based Combat (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Online PvP · LAN PvP · Shared/Split Screen PvP · Co-op · Online Co-op |
| Languages | English * , French, German, Korean, Russian, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Spain * |
| Achievements | 86 |
| Official site | http://proxy.community |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i3 / AMD Ryzen 3 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Vulkan support with 2 GB VRAM (Nvidia GeForce 10 series / AMD Radeon 400 series) Storage: 8 GB available space