This is a pure conquest focused 4X, with no building on planets, but great races, tech trees, ship design and 3D highly detailed real-time combat. It lacks a real in-game tutorial.⚔ Instead there are videos describing each aspect of the game, but they're very well made. Watch them with attention (not to read the whole manual) and you'll realize how easy it is, the interface is clear and straightforward.🌟 You only build ships, no ground building. Population, industry, terraformation are handled automatically. You only have to manage your budget. At empire level, the slider is savings vs research. At planetary level, it's construction vs trade, refined by 3 sub sliders : industrialization, terraformation, ship building. There are also technologies improving these. I find this relative simplicity refreshing compared to many other 4X.🌟 The tech trees are randomized (but make logical sense), and you only see the next tech(s) from those researched. I like it because it doesn't let you over think about what to do next and it also adds replayability and variety.🌟 In ship design, you choose different modules as front, middle and rear part, options for each (plating, shields, special equipment), and your weapons for the different sizes directional mounts. Enter 3D real-time combat where everything is simulated, and the amount of effort you put into it is up to you. From auto-resolution to handling each ship and weapon groups separately to act a certain way and target precise polygons on enemies.🌟 Developped planets can produce ships very fast, but you can't retrofit them...⚔ And as victory is only domination, the endgame can become tedious as you look for that last tiny fleet moving their homeworld again and again.⚔ Finally, the races are Science-Fiction delight, with highly detailed lore and specific gameplay changing features.🌟 ⚔ are major issues for me, but the game is still very good if you like its compromises allowing for still strategic but faster gameplay.
Great journey through an alien world at first shrouded in mystery, discovering flora, fauna and the remnants of an alien civilization, while getting resources to improve your equipment, giving you access to even more places and secrets. Beautiful and full of humor. If you like this kind of game, this is one of the best.
Good game for its atmosphere, main story puzzles and overall experience. The downsides : - a few kind of puzzles that are reused too often, which is a missed opportunity, with more varied challenges the game would have made it to another level. (Main puzzles are fine though). - near the end you have to walk the same path again and again with nothing new to discover - The ending itself (after gaming) is poor visually speaking. All in all totally worth it for its main puzzles, setting and relaxing atmosphere. 3.5/5
Good game, with some hinderance. Some story plots are guessed too easily just before being revealed. That's not too bad though. The main downside is that passed a point, the game becomes too easy until the end. Puzzles then are straightforward, like they were rushed, and you get to the end very quickly, which is anti-climatic. Other than that, it's worth it on sale. 3.5/5
