Crying Suns

In addition to being gorgeous and having an engaging story, I've been enjoying how it's easy to explore different combat styles - weapon-heavy vs. pure fighters and drones, or a blend, and they all seem viable. The different officers' strengths add a nice twist as well, but I kind of wish they could advance as the game goes on. It's almost possible to play with just the keyboard, which is cool (and would be nice to completely go that way). This is clearly a labor of love, and we're all benefitting from the thought and care put in to the design.

This game brings some good ideas to the table. I feel however, after finishing the game, that the gameplay would have been better had there been a sense of progress, rather than a reset between each chapter. I think that this game might be a solid foundation for future titles to build upon.

Imagine FTL but instead of controlling a crew you control a fleet of ships. Thats what this wants to be. But it just.. doesn't deliver that experience. Part of it is the AI clumping ships. Part of it is poor balance. I beat chapter 1 on hard first try with no challenge whatsoever. Why? Because I got 3 separate command-ship weapons that I could wipe their entire fleet with on a whim. Any of these would have let me win easily. 1 weapon took ~40%HP (80% if they're patched) of ships in an entire line. Another killed any cluster of ships and chunked any ships that were only touching a single ship. The last let me freeze 3+ ships every ~14 sec (same as ship rebuild time). All these are just mediocre if the AI was competent and avoided clumping. But it took hardly any effort to bait the AI into a pattern, and to make it worse, the AI will almost always follow the default pathing to their destination (always along the same side). I expect later chapters to get better but the AI will likely stay predictable and easily exploitable. If the AI is improved this will be an incredible fleet tactics game. But until then you would have to intentionally handicap yourself to find it challenging. For what its worth, I did enjoy the writing and music. (Although it is annoying that they keep acting as if I had lost a run when beating ch1 or starting ch2 despite never taking a single hull damage, let alone dying).

Interesting plot but gameplay elements repeat themselves after first halve our with little new elements. Warp to new location->fight/dialog->warp to new location->...

The game is BRILLIANT. The plot is very interesting, even if too mixed up sometimes to be easily understandable, and you seem to know what's going to happen but then there's a turn of events. There is one big flaw imho and that is the ending. Too bad for all you've done and what the game offered before and it's the main reason why i won't give 5 stars. I don't want to spoil it more than that. About the gameplay well, I've been playing with normal difficulty (easy is a really pieace of cake and too much forgiving) and i found it the perfect suit for me. I've been playing many hours alone and with a friend. The choices are nice but once you know how things works you know almost what to do and it may be a little repetitive and that's the other reason why it does not deserve 5 out of 5. Anyway i found it intriguing. I also loved the idea that it is not full of one thousands of things to decide so the game, even if sometimes may seem repetitive, it's pleasant to play. I love thinking and i love to make my strategy but still i don't want to decide how to wipe the crew bottom or what they're going to eat during the day. Too realistic simulations are boring for me. It's easy and cool to play. The graphic...well who cares if the story is cool and the gameplay very enjoyable. It's a classic adventure game graphic. The ones i love the most and the creators focused on the game and not on the aesthetics. I really suggest you to buy this game and support the authors. I would buy it again at this price. A++++