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Stars in Shadow

in library

3.9/5

( 57 Reviews )

3.9

57 Reviews

English
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Stars in Shadow
Description
Stars in Shadow is a turn-based 4X science fiction strategy game. Explore the stars, settle distant worlds, and build an interstellar empire. Recover ancient technologies and negotiate with alien leaders. Created by a pair of passionate strategy gamers, Stars in Shadow features streamlined empire...
Critics reviews
17 %
Recommend
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User reviews

3.9/5

( 57 Reviews )

3.9

57 Reviews

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Product details
2017, Ashdar Games, ...
System requirements
Windows 7 / 8 / 10, Intel Core 2.6 GHz or equivalent, 4 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series or better...
DLCs
Stars in Shadow: Legacies
Time to beat
6 hMain
25.5 h Main + Sides
-- Completionist
20 h All Styles
Description


Stars in Shadow is a turn-based 4X science fiction strategy game. Explore the stars, settle distant worlds, and build an interstellar empire. Recover ancient technologies and negotiate with alien leaders. Created by a pair of passionate strategy gamers, Stars in Shadow features streamlined empire management, sophisticated turn-based tactical combat, and detailed world building. “A worthy tribute to the classic Master of Orion games of times past.”
84 – CyberPower PC

“Proper turn-based combat paired with clever innovations.”
85 – Hooked Gamers

“An indie game truly for the 4Xer to revel in.”
90 – Gamewatcher
  • Epic Scope:
    Starting at the dawn of interstellar travel, progress through four eras of technological advancement. Discover the science of planetary terraforming, upgrade your infantry battalions to battle mechs, and grow your fleet from a squadron of destroyers to an armada of planet-destroying Dread Stars.

  • Varied Factions:
    7 Playable factions comprising six alien races. Each faction has different research strengths and technology options. Forming alliances, conquering neighboring species, or discovering ancient artifacts may open up additional avenues of research. Choose your race wisely as it impacts which worlds will suit you, what trades or alliances may be offered, and whether or not your neighbors are inclined to trust you.

  • Stylized Setting:
    A distinctive comic-book art style and an original, detailed universe backstory draw you into an immersive game world. Interact with a unique cast of alien characters, make friends and influence people, or crush your enemies and see them driven before you.

  • Focused High-Level Strategy:
    Build a vast and varied empire, taking advantage of the unique traits offered by different alien populations and the worlds they inhabit. Experiments on a slave population might diminish your popularity in the Galactic Council. A streamlined resource and planetary improvement model keeps the game moving even when your empire grows large.

  • Deep Turn-Based Tactical Combat:
    Face off against your opponents in complex 2D turn-based tactical battles. Counter your enemy’s missile barrage using point defense or interceptors, then close to energy weapon range! Stars in Shadow’s tactical engine includes several features rarely seen in turn based games. Multi-ship commands keep even large fleet battles fast-paced, and smart unit behaviors allow tight control with minimal micromanagement. Auto-resolve battles that are a foregone conclusion, while retaining the ability to replay any engagement to see exactly what happened.

Stars in Shadow © 2016 Ashdar Games INC. Developed by Ashdar Games INC. Licensed exclusively to and published worldwide by Iceberg Interactive. Iceberg Interactive design and mark are registered trademarks of Iceberg Interactive B.V. Microsoft®, Windows® and DirectX® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other brands, product names, and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Made in Canada.

Popular achievements
System requirements
Minimum system requirements:

Stars in Shadow requires the OpenGL framebuffer extension. This extension is present on almost all graphics drivers released after 2010, but laptops made before 2010 with vendor-locked graphics drivers may not be able to run the game.

Stars in Shadow requires the OpenGL framebuffer extension. This extension is present on almost all graphics drivers released after 2010, but laptops made before 2010 with vendor-locked graphics drivers may not be able to run the game.

Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction. Stellar support 24/7 and full refunds up to 30 days.
Time to beat
6 hMain
25.5 h Main + Sides
-- Completionist
20 h All Styles
Game details
Works on:
Windows (7, 8, 10, 11)
Release date:
{{'2017-01-19T00:00:00+02:00' | date: 'longDate' : ' +0200 ' }}
Size:
3 GB

Game features

Languages
English
audio
text
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User reviews
Overall most helpful review

Posted on: July 13, 2017

BoojieBoy

Games: 109 Reviews: 10

Finally a Proper MOO-Inspired Game

I'm going to add my nearly 1000-hours-on-steam counterpoint to these negative reviews. Do the following to MOO2 and you have this game: * Add the hint-of-anime art aesthetic and atypical-for-the-genre almost-perky electronica. I personally love both. The look/feel of the ships is particularly nicely done IMO. The artist/designer goes by Arioch and I believe well of souls, well-known-to-homeworld-fans is his site, which is how I discovered the game IIRC. * Remove custom races but add features that are harder to balance in a customization scheme like hard-pointed ship templates unique to each race, wide range of biome preferences, unique research options, etc.. * Add a mineral resource required for ship-building. This limits fleet sizes in a more natural way. Also mineral poor planets can still be massive manufacturing hubs. All that matters is space for factories. * Keep the transport mechanic from MOO2 but add the ability to actually break them out of the pool so you can do stuff like load tanks on them for ground invasions. Maintaining free transports contributes to trade route income which is key for rapid growth. * Build on the subterranean races adding to max pop thing by giving all races biome preferences. All worlds have 2-4 biomes each. Diversity makes for larger planets. * Yoink espionage (for now) * No heroes yet (coming soon hopefully) * Keep combat essentials but add some nice nuances like being able move and attack with multiple ships at once. Sadly not as many gadgets or weapon mods yet but expansions are in development. * Reduce the ridiculous variety of buildings that bogged everything down mid to late game in MOO, to farms, markets factories, labs, mines all with tech levels that autoupgrade buildings when researched and a repeat-build option. * Add non-faction races, some of which are uniquely good at more hostile biome types like inferno and airless. I'm a huge MOO2 fan. I don't know about y'all but this is the one I was waiting for.


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Posted on: July 12, 2017

RavenTheDragon

Verified owner

Games: 527 Reviews: 3

A very well made game with some flaws

Let me start of by saying if you enjoying 4x games similar to Master of orion then you should deffiantly gives this game a chance.I was very skeptical about getting this game because it looked like some meh flash game that you would find on the ios store but i was very wrong. The game has a unquie personality and some humor to it that is really needed in a genre that is basicly you looking at menues for hours on end. As for the gameplay i would say it is fairly competent it is your standared fair colonize planets so you can produce more recourse to expand more ect.Diplomacy is very lacking which is a minor gripe i have because i love diplomacy in these games. The ship combat is turn based this is one aspect i think can be inporved by having a quick anmation option. Waiting for 20 ships to complete there 4-5 second animation becomes a bit tiresome late game. This game does have a snowballing problem also. If you play the game extremly agressivly the AI doesnt seems to know how to handle it so you tend to be unstopable around mid game. TL:DR You should deffinatly check this game out if your a fan of the 4x genre expect a well crafted game with minor flaws


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Posted on: July 12, 2017

Seboro

Verified owner

Games: 660 Reviews: 32

Master of Orion 4

There's nothing to add here really. It's not revolution, it's maybe not even evolution, it's just a careful preservation of all the good things we used to know and remember in a long brilliant history of space turn-based 4X games, be it in graphics, in mechanics, in lore or in any other departments. Just buy this game immediately - and you'll forget as nightmares all the GalCiv3, Master-of-Orion-without-number and other recent misapprehensions and misunderstandings. We'll have here on GOG Lord of Rigel sooner or later, and also M.O.R.E. maybe, check'em out too. Please, play the good games only!


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Posted on: July 13, 2017

Igraine

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 38

Poor interface, restricted depth

A good game, with an atrocious interface given its potential complexity. At its core, a fun 2D Master of Orion-inspired game, with plenty of things to like: - turn-based tactical combat: just like MOO2, and much better than the new MOO - streamlined planetary management: limited slots and buildings filling those slots - simple, but the restrictions allow for many choices and gameplay arises - plenty of technologies and tech variations in weapon enhancement, ship design, even warp gates However, a singular flaw arises: the interface is very, very poor. Large, eye-catchy buttons in the upper-right of the screen for new events are ok (although Sword of the Stars does it better); however, when trying to perform planetary management, you have to manually select each system, each planet, then issue the building or scrapping order. To send some ships on a mission, you have to manually highlight each ship. There is no large-scale management interface, and each action requires too many clicks (and too great a distance travelled by the mouse and the eye). This limits an otherwise good game with micro-management slow-down. Additionally, I feel it improves too little on MOO2. I'll bring up again Sword of the Stars for its techtree, amazing ship design, fleet formation and statistics break-down screens, or GalCiv 2 and 3 for their diplomacy options.


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Posted on: July 17, 2017

fahbs

Games: 354 Reviews: 89

More MOO2 than the remake, but flawed

The question on everyone's mind is "Is it better than the MoO remake?". Yes. It is more of a sequel to MoO 2 than the remake is. The short version is that it eliminates a number of poor design choices the MOO remake made, most notably the combat is now very much like MOO 2 (in fact it's better than MOO 2 with better feedback for movement, range, and animations). There's just a bunch of weird decisions though that keep it from being very good. Everyone has pointed out the poor interface. Windows will pop up and a wrong click can advance something behind the window. Windows cannot be closed by right clicking or any other way but clicking on the 'X' in the top right corner like it's LITERALLY Windows. There's less need for micromanagement like the MOO remake (no pollution nonsense), but for some reason they kept some of that games bad micromanagement choices. You can assign transports to a "transport pool" which abstracts your empire's logistical capacity, exactly like MOO 2. However this pool can only transport food. To transport colonists, you must take them out of the pool and manually fly them to the planet to pick up colonists, then manually fly them to the destination, then manually drop them off. One at a time. Every time. Production is weird. Along with food and money you must mine metal, which is used to build ships but not planet buildings. Why not just have ships limited by production? They also retain the 4X feature of assigning production to income/research, but instead of a portion of your production being converted to that resource, it doubles that resource. A planet with 100 research but 1 production will become 200 research 0 production. A planet with 1 research but 100 production will become 2 research 0 production. Huh? Research screen is poorly organized, with categories and levels layed out randomly. There's other head scratching features, so in short this would be a new classic if they cleaned up the interface and design.


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