I think that with some effort getting some new talk out amongst reviewers wouldn't be impossible. The big thing that I see AI War having apart from the crowd is the ridiculous amount of iterative growth and feedback. While remaining, fundamentally, the same game it is still almost indistinguishable in 3.189 from launch, and that's before you take into account adding Zenith and Neinzul content. AI War isn't a static product, it isn't a launch-and-forget game like so much of the competition. It's not about $10 DLC every month after launch until a sequel is announced. It's a game that evolves and grows organically and seeing what can be done about getting re-reviews from people who wrote about it way back in the day could go a long way towards getting more good publicity.
That's a matter of marketing, though, and requires working with other people to get the idea set right.. What you really need are cleaner trailers. Tidalis, for instance, in watching the trailers on Steam and actually having played the game. It makes sense, look, those streams don't exist in other games! But take a step back and realize that to the lay viewer, it just looks like generic-tile-game with more flash, despite promises about gameplay modes and new mechanics. Develop a trailer around explaining how the game plays and it might actually make people more curious.
AI War is a different beast altogether. Your trailer for the base version, at least on Steam, spends it's time trying to explain what's going on when it just simply won't make sense to people. You see some stuff move around, there's probably an explosion, then stuff moves around again and you explain "look the AI has flanked." It makes sense when you've played the game and are familiar with _what_ is going on, but not to a lay observer. I think there's something to be said to trying to develop a trailer that creates a narrative. Takes it away, paradoxically, from being about "look at the amazing AI" and make it a story about taking back the universe. In fact, I just now watched the Zenith trailer and it ironically missteps by taking the right tone for the wrong audience. People considering the expansions will buy on the basis of liking the game and wanting to know what the expansion adds in a cost:reward valuation. People considering the base game will want to know the experience the game will bring them and right now it really seems like word of mouth is a primary driving force, whereas random people spotting the game on Steam or Metacritic have a single trailer.
What's the experience - what's the story? It's losing the galaxy and the struggle to retake it. It's commanding epic forces against an inhuman enemy that is smarter and better equipped than you. It's the player being the hero. It's what games are supposed to make us - heroes. Let _that_ be the face of your game and let the players drawn to that idea learn about the AI and the depth of the game by themselves. The curiosity brought on by a strong trailer will drive them to read reviews about the amazing nature of the game. A trailer, even with quips of high praise, that focuses on a few blips moving around with an explanation of what is happening is not going to hook.
