Posted on: June 15, 2012
Tezar
Verified ownerGames: 211 Reviews: 1
Quite a jewell you got here
Don't expect sophisticated campaigns or heartbreaking story. Expect moreless challenges. That said, it isn't the reason why not to buy this game - I still remember when I bought it at some retail store few years ago, I have played it every year since and it also was first game I wishlisted to be on gog. You start with single asteroid, ship for colonization and great dreams to exterminate every other specie in your sector (or is there any other way to win this? :-) ) Official manual states that you can make money several way - selling ore to the federation (or traders), from taxes (altought I always wondered why would anyone pay for stay on barren asteroid which is scorched by missiles with constant fear that enemy's agent could destroy your life support any moment) and from trading itself with various doubtful existences. Problem is that each asteroid you discover is limited with ore supply (which is also used as building material for some structures) and size. So in order to survive you have to balance colony micromanagment and your offense program. Thankfully you can use primitive budgeting to keep track of everything. In later parts of the game you can even hire deputies to handle colonies by themselves. With some perks of course, not everyone is capable of everything, sometimes they can by even bribed by enemy, they can collapse under stress if you put too much on their shoulders and so on. While we are checking roster it would be unfair not to mention agents. They are few of them, freelancing throu sector and they can be quite vital in encounters. Again, not everyone is capable of anything, but most of their power lays in ability to destroy (missile defences, energy grids...) or sabotage (for example mining operations so that ore could be gathered by someone more competent, like you). On the more creative side, you have quite few building at your disposal. Not enough to get confused but enough to get you thinking what should you build next on limited surface available . Some buildings require quite costly blueprints so you have space to build your strategies around them as its unlikely to you bought them all. Same case is with ships and missiles, you have some basic ones, if you want better, you have to pay. For building ships you get some degree of freedom in means of slots, which you can equip according to your taste - lasers, shields, emp disruptors, stasis field generators... Missiles are not so rich in customization, but quite inventive. From standard payload (god, I love scatter missiles) throu special ones (like biological one, or metal eating vortex ones) to ultimate problem solvers (MEGA - with no hint of sarcasm and irony, you will learn to respect such ridiculous name). That leads us to final aspect of game - battles. Unlike usual when you deploy missiles, fleet or you defend, there is nothing you can do. Just sit and watch the mayhem. Laser shooting, bombs bombing, ships flying from right and left, defense grids blasting, building collapsing (well, only when you fight at asteroid, you can also intercept enemy fleets in space, but thats kind of dull, just staring at each other and mashing their fire buttons) So if everything boils down to how well you done your homework. If you are encyclopedia fan this game can please you too. Not only that every building has 2 paragraph description, but almost every tradeable item too. Whats more, there is ingame encyclopedia where you can learn about various stuff, like which alian culture depends on energy or who is most vulnerable to virus. On the darker side of the moon, when designing aliens buildings developers apparently run out of money. While models seems quite elaborated, don't expect different world like between protoss/zerg/humans. Every alien building have basically just 2 functions identical to buildings you have. As final words be advised that game will continue to surprise you from time to time, at start it will be new technologies (when you will first encounter mega missile and you will treated with silent message - visual contact lost) later during the game it could be your own decision, like a-bombing your own asteroid to reduce enemy ship presence. tldr version: If you expect story or preciously controlling your units in fight this don't have to be the game you are looking for. If you enjoy unleashing hell on your opponents after some preparations, I recommend trying it. Warning: Never play longer than 6 hours straight (not so unusual with this absorbing piece), game will abruptly exit without saving with recommendation that you should go outside sometimes.
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