Crying Suns

I really, really want to like this game. FTL was one of my all time favorite games, and this seemed to have taken some interesting twists on that idea. Unfortunately it doesn't come together as anything enjoyable. I'm on the final chapter (5 out of 5) simply because of pure stubborness. The first chapter is interesting, but the story alone isn't enough to make the remaining 4 chapters feel any different. I wish I could say I expect this game to improve with updates or expansions, but the repetition is due to core design choices. Fundamental issues - Rogue-like grind without sufficient reward or variety: Each game/chapter will feel 95% the same as the last. - Lack of cohesion: Land missions feel like a random add-on. Encounters aren't engaging. Story doesn't fit well with the game design. Some units just don't seem to have a use. - Inflexible combat: There are basically 2 strategies that I've identified. Difficulty basically consists of just throwing more stuff at you rather than allowing the opportunity for any non-blunt force tactics. - Limited upgrages/customization: You essentially determine what kind of 'run' you are going to do at the battleship/crew selection screen. TL;DR - Play the demo, then play it again and again if you like the game. It's the same experience.

Basically, the game is stylish FTL with story line, and each successful run gets you to the next chapter of the story. My first impression was WOW! But the devil is in the details: 1. It gets repetitive fast, there just isn’t enough variety in situations and strategies. 2. The story is good enough, but you’ll have to live through several chapters of doing the same things, just for a bit of story of the current cluster and a talk with the current cluster boss (and they are basically the same for the majority of the game) 3. The game asks for a comparison with FTL, and just can’t compete with FTL’s core: crystal clear rules and variety. Some mechanics are redundant, some aren’t explained enough (with no pop-up help in-game), some resource decisions have to be made without a way to look at what you have. The looks and the story took me through the game, but I have to say that, sadly, the demo part is the best this game has to offer.

The story is okay and the gameplay is fine, but it is necessary to point out explicitly that the game makes you play it through six times in a row just to see the whole story. If you are not interested in the story, I strongly recommend you to just download the free demo and win six times in a row. When you finish a chapter, you do not continue your journey with everything you've gathered in it – instead, you are forced to start completely from scratch, with a stock ship, stock squadrons, stock crew, etc. By completing chapters, you can unlock new ships, but they are not progressively more powerful, just balanced differently (better hull - less power, etc.). You absolutely can complete the game with the ship that you get in the beginning. Choosing a different ship doesn't affect the story in the slightest. You can also reuse characters that joined you during previous playthroughs, but only one character per replay. Almost no new content is added in the following chapters, and random encounters are exactly the same as in Ch.1. What is even worse, many of these “random” encounters have fixed outcomes. If not, the outcome is usually decided by a simple 50/50 RNG, and the only options you have are – to risk it, or to walk away with nothing. By Ch.3, I knew exactly how to deal with any situation, which made this part of the game awfully boring. And yes, the game relies on RNG *a lot*. How much resources you gather and what equipment you get, is essentially determined by the RNG. If every chapter of this game was not a replay of Ch.1 with a different boss in the end, but instead had completely new and different content - new opponents, new encounters, new missions, new squadrons and weapons, etc. - it probably would've been a 5/5 game. But as is, it just lacks content and is too repetitive. All in all, I've got an impression that the developers only had resources to make a demo version, but proceeded to release the game as a finished product anyway.

The demo delivered a promise for a well polished game. It seems the time bought from the succesful kickstarter gave the devs a decent reimbursement, and time to make the encounters that give the story. It seems the polish did not really come. Time seems to have been spent on the graphical development rather than tqeaking game mechanics and integrating the story. Although the story is rich, it is delivered in exposition in LARGE chunks with a rinse and repeat of the demo. This makes Crying suns very dissapointing. (I purchased on steam as a tip of the proverbial hat to the dev, as they sought greatest exposure there). I regret it, because I prefer the gog platform. I feel this is another dissapointment from the dev. The story is fun but flawed for the world in which the game plays. And the whole rogue lite element seems broken by the improper integration of the story. I feel like this is where the greatest criticism to the genre comes, that rogue lite is an excuse for not developing more content, just rehashing the same content over and over. I enjoyed the game. but truly expected more. And regret paying the $35AUD price tag.I truly wish I waited to get this on sale.

Pros: Beautiful art Decent music Combat is tactical and kept me engaged enough to finish the game Cons: Story is not garbage by any respects, but it thinks it's a lot smarter than it truly is. It also frustrated me by giving you info drip by drip and then leading to an unsatisfying conclusion. Following a mystery is only fun if the payoff is good. And it's not at least in my opinion. If you've read other AI sci-fi you can guess what's coming Combat is very repetitive. Squadrons are the only thing that matter and as long as you micro them correctly you'll have an easy time, at least on normal difficulty Not nearly enough content. I played all the way through and only lost twice (so 8 runs total). In those 8 runs, I saw most of the little story events in the game at least 3x over. That's unacceptable in a game that's supposed to be replayable. Conclusion: If you haven't played FTL, get that instead. Or Into the Breach. If you've finished both of those and have an itch for tactical combat, try the demo and maybe pick this up during a sale.