Posted on: August 14, 2021

Revan5678
Verified ownerGames: 582 Reviews: 4
Great game with minor issues
Essentially this game plays a lot like the strategic map of a Total War game. However it is so much deeper than Total War. Each planet has a diplomacy rating. which will make it neutral or join one of the two game factions. These ratings can be influenced by sending diplomates and spies as well as winning space battles in a sector. Other than in most other RTS games, production times are much more realistc in this game. Producing big ships takes a lot of time. Battle damage remains active after battles and repair times are long also. This usually means, that space battles are decisive. There are many small encounters, where usually one side retreats. However, whenever boths sides commit to a fight, stakes are high most of the time, as the outcome can swing around half the sectors loyalty. Planets can be held by force even when you are not welcomed but the lower you popularity the more troops you need to prevent uprisings. This is where spies can do a lot of damage by taking out just a few of the garrision units. Tactical battles are very simplistic in terms of the damage model and orders you can give. Also from Windows 10 onward, you have to use dgvoodoo in order to fix the graphical issues in that mode. The only drawbacks of this game are some of the very outdated design decisions made by devs when compared to todays standards. The camera in battles is controlled by clicking on arrows in the user interface. You can't just fly around with it using keys or moving your cursor to the windows edge. Worst of all hover is the UI of the galaxy map. Keeping track of what is happening can be hard as you have to navigate through layers of windows to actually do what you want or get the information you need. It is still usable but not great. Is it worth getting? Yes, if you want a much deeper Empire at War and can live with the outdated UI, this game will keep you playing for many hours.
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