I bought this game along with its DLC. It's a nice take on empire management. The appeal is in the implicit storytelling as much as it is in the strategy. You start the game with a collection of planets in the center of the map. Surrounding you are various alien races, some can be engaged in with limited diplomacy, and others will always be at war with you. Your own territory is only under your control indirectly. You spend about half your time on internal politics, pushing your agenda while balancing attitudes of the royal court, and half your time on the galactic map choosing between worlds to defend and conquer. I played though half a campaign to learn, and then played through an entire campaign using the suggested starting options. It took me about 450 turns and 6 hours to complete. In the beginning each turn took several minutes, but by the end of the game I was mostly just clicking through the turns since by that point the empire was effectively managing itself. One thing I'm uncertain about is the replayability of Stellar Monarch 2. After completing my first campaign, I then loaded and quit several new starts to see how they vary. All the characters are randomized on each run and the galaxy is populated differently, but it's always you in the center surrounded by aliens. I think the appeal of future campaigns would either be to increase the difficulty; see if one could win in fewer turns, less time, or with a higher score; or experiment with different approaches to the political side of the game.
My 5-star score rates this product in its role as an expansion to the base game. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys AI War 2. The quality and feel of the content is on par with the base game. You'll have more of everything: ships and ship types, turrets, map types, AI variants, map capturables, weapon effects, factions, etc. For those who like AI War 2, this will all be more of a good thing. The standout feature of Zenith Onslaught is the new factions it introduces. They are fundamentally different from each other and from anything else we have in the game. Their theme seems to be alien forces of great power. I would classify all of these as highly interesting factions. The Zenith Architrave may end up being added to most or all my campaigns moving forward, and the Svikari will replace Scourge as my go-to when I want an allied faction. Other features enhance the game overall whether you play with the new factions or not. There is a new cruiser ship class which seeds on the map along with new AI defensive structures. New mechanics including wandering planets, dimensional phasing, and alien terraforming mix things up well.
This 5-star review evaluates The Spire Rises in its role as an expansion to AI War 2. I consider this a must-have addition. One of the joys of AI War 2 is deciding how to strengthen your forces based on what you find on the galactic map. This expansion doubles or triples the number of turrets available to you, and adds several unique ship types. There is now enough variety that each scenario feels different. Besides additional ships and turrets which affect any scenario you play, the two new factions significantly change game play in scenarios where they appear.
This review is my first impression of AI War 2 after having previously played AI War: Fleet Command. I got into the first game after all its expansions had already been released, and would consider myself a late beginner player of that game. I have an understanding of all the base mechanics, though I have not played with or experienced every ship type available. AI War 2 retains the same feel of AI War: Fleet Command while overhauling several of its central features such as how space ships are managed and how to explore the galaxy. Graphics and sound are both improved. The user interface has been revamped to fit AI War 2's new features. This is a complex game, and I think the UI does a good job of helping the player navigate within the game world. The most apparent difference between AI War 2 and its predecessor is that ships are now managed within fleets that populate themselves automatically based on their composition of ship types. The effect of this is that I spend less time managing ship production and delivery of new ships to the front lines. It's easier to direct my forces around the galaxy because I can now do so from the galactic map. On the other hand, it's a little more difficult for me to isolate specific ship types to use on an ad-hoc basis. Overall, I like the new fleet management because it distinguishes the 1st game from the 2nd and it allows me to speed up my games. AI War 2 has several other exciting new features that I am unable to evaluate yet. The AI has been rewritten, and is supposed to be more sophisticated. We have even more options for setting up a new game including the ability to have 1 or many AIs rather than being limited to 2 for each game. In my games so far, I've seen many new structures and ships that were not in the first game. I think that anyone who likes the first game will like this one too. AI War 2 feels like an improvement over the first, and will likely be my go-to galactic conquest game moving forward.
