“A worthy tribute to the classic Master of Orion games of times past.”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.
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.
Game length provided by HowLongToBeat
Posted on: April 1, 2025
Ghoosty
Verified ownerGames: 21 Reviews: 2
Some weakness but enjoyable
It is a good 4x game. Pro: -tactical space battles -good tech tree -worth use many fleet, not just one superstrong -own setup ships Cons: -the UI is not intuitive, I played many battles, but still missclick -in larger maps the micromanagement is too much -not enough details in ship components
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Posted on: April 10, 2025
tamanous
Verified ownerGames: Reviews: 8
enjoyable, short, minor upsets
no linux support. last game update/fix/patch: 2022 Stars in Shadow is good enough to enjoy some playthroughs and short enough to finish one of these in free one day. The machanics are pretty straight forward if you know 4x mechanics. Sadly, the game manual does not offer any help while learning, and there's a huge deficit on available guides in the web. So you will have to figure out a quit large potion of the not too complex machanics on your own. The interface does not offer enough help. Important tooltips are simply missing and you are constantly faced to wild-guess a mechanic, but ignoring mechanics and boldly researching the next tech works good enough. The worst parts for me were caused by the bad UI design. It is so huge in design, that I can read it 2m away from the monitor, but at the cost of information depth and visibility. Sometimes, one information overlaps the other, and micromanaging your planets and their population is tedious and frustrating, when the UI makes it even more worse that then lack of proper hints like "max pop reached" or "highlight selected planet in a list of 15".
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Posted on: October 8, 2024
Electromagnetism
Verified ownerGames: 366 Reviews: 2
Pretty Solid Game, Can't Recommend
This is a pretty good game. If you like MoO2, then this is an obvious pickup. There are a few major standouts in differences, though: Base management is simpler. That may or may not be something you like, but for my 4X games, I love that. No racial customization. That's not an issue for me, personally, since this isn't a multiplayer game. A few of the races change gameplay a bit, which is refreshing, and each does something different. In all, I would solidly recommend this game if only it didn't crash for me so often. Makes it frustrating enough for me that I will just play MoO2 to get my fix. If the game doesn't crash for you, this is a great pickup on sale.
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Posted on: December 8, 2020
ArcaneTourist
Verified ownerGames: 152 Reviews: 10
Should be a future classic
See the reviews by BoojieBoy and others for an overview of the game-play. In short, vaguely a MOO2 style game, but with more depth, more asymmetrical and varied races, more variation in tactics, but no race customization. The only thing I want to add to the other reviews is that this is one of those few games that I keep coming back to. I wore it out when I got it years ago, but every half year or so I'm compelled to play again. "Still playing years later" might be the highest endorsement that can be given.
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Posted on: March 26, 2023
MarkusFrost
Verified ownerGames: 190 Reviews: 3
Diplomatic System ruins the Game
Soon after having started the game you realize that you play an inferior race. While others are allowed to demand no matter what you are restricted to only very few options. Some of their demands you can comply with, and you better do unless you want to seriously damage your diplomatic standing. In many cases, however, you can't: If two factions are in conflict and each one demands you to take position and act against the opposite side. If you decide to help neither one, you lose sympthy from both sides. Otherwise you lose sympathy from just one side, but that quite a bit. Result: In the long run you will inevitably make enemies. It is only a question of time until you are pushed into a war, like it or not. No chance to improve relations by making gifts. Only the other races are allowed to do so. So once you will end up with war, you can propose an peace treaty only after 15 turns, whereas the opponent is allowed to do so any time he wants. Are these unbalances supposed to be fun? Not for me! There is no way to create custom races. I played Phidi through on normal level. I won any vote I wanted to as well as some battles. Then I gave up due to boredom. Just routine throughout the game, mainly interruped by these troublesome diplomatic events. Or from the occasional chance to battle some Harpys. There is no score at the end of the game anyway, not to mention a hall of fame. So what would I endlessly continue to fight for? The manual is lacking. E.g. until now I haven't found the slightest clue for why some barren planets can be terraformed and others cannot. Nothing to be found in the manual. Pity. The game has quite some potential: the aboriginal inhabitants on some planets, good music, nice graphics …
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