TLDR: Game is good, but marred by "Influence" ressource and pacing mechanic. Most aspects of the game are competent, some even really good. It succeeds at generally staying interesting, immerses with exploration, flavour text and some story elements and definitely has the "Just one more click addictiveness". So why only 2 stars? The game has a pacing mechanic centered around a resource called "Influence". You will have an average Influence income of 2-5 which does not scale with your domain/power and can only be raised by very few race design choices (already included in the 2-5 count). To expand you need to claim star systems by spending influence whereas the cost scales the more jump points a system is spearated from your already claimed territory. If it is immediately next to your turf, each claim costs about 60 influence per system. Once you need to take systems by force, add to this that whether a system is next to yours is counted from the qua ante bellum situation and the price rises by about 100% for each of the following: - has colonized planet - has built-up star base - per jump away So if you conquer a system 3 jumps away with planet and starbase, you will have to pay 240 influence for this system alone. Now a usual enemy can have 20-80 star systems, core systems starting 4 jumps away... need I go on Wars are always time-limited and through the influence mechanic can go like this: You conquer 80 star systems, annihilate the enemy's fleet and occupy all his planets. If your influence can only buy you 4 systems and the time runs out, the enemy gets everything back, but the systems you managed to buy via influence claim + you are prohibited for several years, before you can declare war again. Conclusion: --> Most of the game is spent waiting for the "influence" resource to trickle in, so you can actually do something. --> The developers lackluster pacing mechanism wastes your time. Better do something worthwhile, life is precious.
In this game you play a freely nameable male person in a harem setting. The overall mood in the dialogs is rather tongue-in-cheek style and over the top at times. Gameplay-wise it is a cross-over of a visual novel with resource management elements and a very streamlined (almost trivial) dungeon crawler-like mechanic for combat. The game is definitely not bad, but neither would I call it outstanding in any way: ++ - Have not experienced any bugs or glitches (aside from minor differences in the spoken word vs. the subtitle in English - really minor) + - Art style is pleasing - Voice acting is good - Music is good/matches the context well - if non too varied - Sounds are good enough +/- - It's obviously a budget title, but you get what you pay for so that's perfectly fine - Story/Setting is ... special - UI is super-simple CAUTION minor spoilers ahead -- - Combat is trivial, grindy and repetitive + could be optimized UX-wise (less clicks, option to skip animations). Lack of enemy variation and tactical options doesn't help - Dialog is awkward, as in who would say that in this situation. Example, you go on a date with one of the heroines, she tells her of motivation to seek her profession and your answer is along the lines "Yeah whatever" and "How stupid" - There are two types of tasks given by the heroines to fulfill in order to increase their liking of you. Either do activity A X-times with me in the next Y days or fetch me (buy and hand me) item A X-times within Y days. X and Y are determined by RNGsus, so you end up with "fetch me 6 packages of instant noodles in the next 1 day. This is the money equivalent of a whole combat encounter and you have to hand them over 1 by 1 each requiring several clicks. Activities are a wildcard, because the heroine needs to be in a certain place for it to work, if she doesn't go there often enough - bad luck All in all okay, especially for the price, but nothing to write home about.
At first I was very sceptical about this game, as I have grown to be with any space 4X game that has an MOO hue since MOO3 and GalCiv2/3 (both not too bad games in their own right - after heavy modding/dlcing). But I must say - it's great and it's captivating. Maybe the greatest feature setting this game apart from other titles that strived to be MOO in recent time is that it has atmosphere. There are these neat little things like space monsters, ruins, minor factions and natives for example. Sure other games have these features as well, but here they are varied enough to make it interesting to explore the galaxy. And the graphics though not fancy, are pretty in their love for detail and feeling for style - think e.g. Banner Saga. The art style and UI have been critized by some of my co-reviewers and though I must agree it is a matter of taste, I personally percieve it in no way as a hindrance to immersion. Maybe the graphics is a good example of something that can be set about most enjoyable games - they instill a desire for more. All in all this game has so many good parts: the music, the love to detail and the graphics work great together to generate atmosphere. The ship customization and ship combat - finally a 4X MOO-ish that has any tactical appeal at all. If you are like me, bored to death by letting the AI rock-paper-scissor it out in automated, eye-candy, boom-and-awe - this is the space 4X strategy game you have been waiting for since MOO2 and Space Empires 4. I would love to see and am looking forward to what they still have planned to add to the game. If you are into the 4X genre and do neither look for fast-paced action, nor awe-inspiring graphics - and of course if you are still looking for a game that is true to MOO2 in spirit - Stars in Shadow is a definitive recommend.
