The main game's mechanic is the highlight, it allows you to play from the stone ages to a futuristic nano age (or space age if you play with the expansion). The campaign itself is vaguely inspired from history (except the Russian campaign which takes place in an alternate future, 2018), but is far from being accurate, it is a backdrop to introduce the game's mechanics and Epochs. It has got over the top (outright silly) voice acting and stories. The unit variety is good, some units evolve as you progress through the epochs while others are left behind. The game makes it obvious you don't have to worry that much about the economy compared to other RTS since each patch of iron and gold resources can be virtually endless, the food stops becoming a worry after farming is dicovered (the only ones that are actually limited are stone and wood). It is a matter of allocating the citizen to extract said resources. The game features decently large population counts, but obviously performance could suffer as the game is entirely 3D, it comes with another downside being the graphics aged a lot. The game tries to replicate the first Age of Empires game, to some degree of success, its main gimmick allows it to stand out as you move on from melee formations, to ranged combat, to air bombing campaigns (of the nuclear variety). The game at its core technically only features a single civilizational blueprint, with some units available to each chosen civilization. The game's biggest weakness is one that permeates most games in the genre, the AI. To compensate for its simplicity, it spams units, a lot. Which can turn some battles into absolute slogfest. It does encourage aggressive play to some degree, but at points it becomes just ridiculous. Also, the expansion in an attempt to make civilizations more unique introduces some of the most unbalanced units and structures in the game.
It is an interesting game from the past, basically the concept of the (management) game is that you are the manager of various space stations, rotating wheel space stations to be exact. As such the first main feature stands out, you are literally playing in a donut. You build facilities to maintain the space station and accomodate the various alien visitors, while making a profit because of course it is a management game. So now to the game features: the tone is heavily inspired by Douglas Adam's Hitchiker Guide to the Galaxy, the game is silly in a few ways and doesn't take itself seriously, also has your typical British voiceover (which may be good or bad depending on how one may view it). It features a campaign that introduces mechanics the further you move along with various objectives: including making a production, trading, touristic, meditation space stations, or waging war against competitors, for my case it has been enjoyable played in short bursts. The alien species that you can hire as workers are visually distinct and each populate their respective facilities. There is a garden mechanic, that allows you to tailor your own hydroponic level (that could be frustratingly ruined by occasional meteor storms). The combat system is a bit basic, but it can be easily dealt with appropriate turret placement and overwhelming your enemy (just make sure that your guys won't go so deep that they get isolated). The bad: after a while the lack of building variety becomes a problem especially when you get access to large chunks of the space station, the camera system takes a bit to be used to, and there is an annoying bug involving the slug species. This game gets an overall recommendation from my part as it has been enjoyable, while it's not as deep as other management games, it has been charming and doesn't overstay its welcome.
As much as it pains me to write this review, I must first say the game is generally good. it is an RTS with both space and ground battles and it conatains a campaign that plays like 4X game set in the Star Wars universe. The 4X component is simplistic, the ground battle isn't that great, yet the highlight are the space battles. The game itself is better than the sum of its individual parts, leading to the creation of interesting and memorable moments. I'd recommend the game on its own in a heartbeat, especially to Star Wars fans. However, do not buy the GOG version. This version is based off the disk version of the game, the one that Petroglyph stopped supporting in recent years instead focusing on the Steam version. Practically, the reason given is that they don't have the source code of the other versions. That means that this GOG release doesn't benefit from bug fixes, optimization for modern machines, and mod support found in the Steam one. These are all considerable downsides to be considered when judging this release.
For some context, this is my first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, and I've only started playing it recently. At first, I was just lost. Roaming around with little purpose besides exploring as much as I coud, tackling some quests on the way, dealing with the usual STALKER business: trying to get rich and avoid being mauled by roaming mutants or bandits). As I kept exploring, the game just clicked for me... I grew to love the atmosphere. From the (relatively) cozy shelters, the abandoned power plants, the old decaying railways, among others, the environments carry a wealth of character and, at times, ooze history. The encounters only enhance the sense of danger, and they can be satisfying to overcome. Discovering new anomalies that piqued my curiosity as I continue patrolling the zone has always been a treat. All in all, despite its faults—such as poor voice acting (which can be charming, I must admit), occasional bugs, and a forgettable main story—I love this game and believe it deserves the praise it has received.
The game features a compelling setting, serving as a prequel to the TTRPG Fading Suns. It shares similarities with Dune and Warhammer 40k, portraying an era of space feudalism in which five great houses compete for power alongside the merchant league, all overseen by a seemingly monolithic Universal Church. Besieged by rebels and the abominable Symbiots, trapped in what appears to be a galactic stalemate with the other houses, the player, embodying a noble house, must navigate their way to claiming regency then the Imperial throne. All the while, the initially friendly Merchant League builds up its forces to declare its rule over the Third Republic, and the Church enforces the technological restrictions imposed on the houses. This game features numerous moving parts and operates on a large scale. Players begin from a single planet and expand into a sector of space with dozens of planets. For each planet, players must carefully industrialize and maintain their rule, on that scale the way it plays is not too dissimilar Civilization II. Another dimension of gameplay is space travel. Initially, jumpdrive-equipped spaceships are a rare commodity not to be wasted, as they enable the transport of troops, personnel, and cargo from one system to another through the mythical Jumpgates linking one planet to another. Byzantium II, the capital planet, Here, nobles from the various houses, under a ceasefire, periodically gather to cast their votes for the Regency. The political landscape is fraught with intrigue and backstabbing; eliminating an opponent's noble prevents them from participating in the vote. Assassinating all of the opposing nobles can also serve as a potential victory condition. When it comes to the game's drawbacks and unrealised potential, it's the AI. It's incapable of making good decisions and may be prone to be exploited. It also doesn't adhere to the same logistical limitations as the players. Additionally, the game's interface is understandably archaic.
