Posted on: December 15, 2015
Jephrey
Verified ownerGames: 110 Reviews: 12
This is a good game
I tried a mission and put it away. Then I did another mission and put it away again, grumbling about its shortcomings. But...then I did another mission. Now I'm getting hooked. Underneath the aging and drab hood is a pretty good strategy game. The artwork is monotonous. Images are slightly unclear and colors tend to blend with each other, so you wonder if that is a scout ship next to an asteroid, or maybe it's an enemy dreadnought? It isn't horrible, but even in it's day the artwork would have been less than stellar. The story and voice acting are better than some I've seen, but that isn't saying much. It's just okay. I set the background graphics to medium, and that helped. It defaulted to 640x480 resolution, which is not a pretty sight. Raise it. The maps are battlefields with one or more planets plus fields of nebulae and asteroids. These are connected by wormholes to other star systems (battlefields). This creates a strategic map similar to those used in Space Empires IV, if you remember that old game. You will build at shipyards and fling flotillas of starships at the enemy, and then do it more, and then still more, moving your point of view between systems frequently to monitor events. The game only begins to shine when a scenario has several star systems and you have to work your way from one to the next. The reason this works well is the game's emphasis on supply. It is the most supply-conscious strategy game I have ever played. You need supply ships for all your long-range missions and carefully placed depots to supply those supply ships. The AI is older and not brilliant, but it has some notable features. While fleets can drift apart during travel, they always gather together before going into a new star systems. I watch defensive ships pursue enemy scouts far into space to destroy them, then intelligently return to their assigned positions. It's cheap, and it's good RTS. It's not beautiful or new, but it grows on you.
Is this helpful to you?
