Posted on: August 9, 2018
Syncron9
Verified ownerGames: 462 Reviews: 5
Light 4x game that needed more Development
I do wish they had finished updating and polishing the game, being a gold edition usually means the developers are done with any further development unfortunately. I can see potential of what direction they wanted to go but did not completely follow through with the game design. Comparisons to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) are I feel valid as that is not only a common comparison but also because there are aspects of the game that try to emulate that game play experience. The different factions in the game for example all follow the same template. University, Business, Military, Environment etc. Unfortunately they use only one voice actor where as with SMAC they used separate voice actors and added additional flavor and commentary where this game did not. I bring this up as the factions I feel lacked depth that could have been fixed by adding more to them, commentary both audio and text, more of this was needed to keep them from feeling so bland and the same. Expanding and growing cities is a key pillar in the game and to me felt unfinished. It is nice that there is easy moving of workers so you can adjust productions like: food, science, industry, society. Two game features such as global supplies helps in new city growth but the other feature city specialization I felt was lacking. Yes the location matters due to the resources present but there was no follow through, no additional bonuses other that the standard city structures that could be added. One way to fix this is to add additional unique city features for example if by a gold resource then adding a unique mining option vs the generic city option would have helped. I wanted to like the random technology research trees but I only grew frustrated with it the more time I spent. Want to have your Nature faction focus on growth and city expansion? Too bad on this game run, the next four layers is all military and two options for adding water travel. Instead of adapting to the land resource tiles presented, I felt that I could not make adjustments as the forced randomized technology available channeled me down directions I did not want to go. This lead to for example– food shortage, a former could help some by shifting land tiles to food focus but there were no strong crop technology improvements available so other that shifting workers I was stuck having to ride it out. Randomized maps is great as it creates a sense of exploration and keeps the game fresh, randomizing the tech which is the tools to respond to change I feel needs more options as there are only a few paths and branches to go down. I feel if the game design stayed on its light elements and focused on polishing those areas I would have enjoyed the game more. Adding additional features and then not following through with them to fully flush them out causes the game play to feel incomplete. Overall I wanted to enjoy Pandora but I will end up parking this one to the back of the library as there are other 4x strategy games that I find more enjoyable to spend my time with.
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