The game, when it works, can be passable. However, it feels as though it was rushed and is seemingly in an unfinished state. The graphics, when it isn't crashing, are interesting, and the Mech designs carry over well from the tabletop. The game-play has some measure of promise that may be fulfilled in a patch or two. However, the game can be a repetitive slog, and unfortunately, was seemingly written by 19 year olds attempting to get an A in Gender studies and impress their social justice warrior teacher. And I'm not talking about the inclusion of the extra pronoun. That is completely inconsequential. Far more telling is, in a universe where literally EVERY other race and culture is on display (including Muslims, inexplicably), there are zero white characters that you don't create yourself. Inclusion and diversity are great, but unfortunately the writers are living up to the expectation that diversity simply means "no white people." I'm not sure how this is pushing race relations forward. Unfortunately, I have every expectation that the creators, like most of their ilk, will simply double down, call me racist, and ignore the obvious logical fallacy they are creating in order to signal their own virtue to other closed-minded people. Inclusion, by exclusion, is not inclusion at all. Someday, perhaps when they live in the real world for a while, they will figure this out. Frankly, if I had known that this game was attempting to troll white people, I never would have purchased or supported it. Especially when it was released in its unfinished state.
This game is a turn-based tactical strategy that plays something like a fantasy board-game version of X-Com. I really want to like it, and in many ways I do. It has flashes of brilliance, a great setting, and the freedom to make your own story. However, there are design decisions that seem to exist solely to make your experience needlessly tedious. Graphics/Sound: Hand-drawn art is nice, although this was likely due to having a low budget. However your characters look like Weebles. Blood-thirsty, head-chopping Weebles... The musical score is suitably epic. Game play: Finding the right strategy to destroy your enemies is very satisfying. However, be prepared to lose your characters, a lot. And while the game prepares you for this, it feels more like dumb luck and lazy difficulty than the fault of any poor strategy. I will also point out that the "beginner" difficulty is not really suited to beginners, and will likely result in numerous restarts while you struggle to figure out what's going on. Some people enjoy obtuse game design, and while it can be satisfying to figure it out, it can also be very frustrating. A beginner difficulty should truly be for beginners. Problems: My biggest gripe with the game are several design decisions that create frustration and tedium. The difficulty settings are poorly described. There is no tutorial whatsoever, and the game sorely needs one (queue the chorus of bros telling me to "git gud"). I had to learn it from YouTube videos. Overland travel is painfully slow, and the accelerate time setting constantly resets itself whenever you do anything. It takes forever to level up your characters, which is frustrating when they die so easily. In conclusion, this is a flawed game that is not without merits. If you are not easily frustrated, and don't mind digging through the internet to learn how to play it properly, like turn-based strategy, and like a dark-fantasy settings akin to fantasy warhammer, then this game might be for you.
I enjoyed Starpoint Gemini 2 quite a bit. It scratched the Freelancer itch, while letting you feel like the up and coming captain of your own capital ship. However, it felt pretty indy, and rough around the edges at times, despite being an fun, attractive game. SPG Warlords, however, feels like the developers took all the lessons learned from the first game, and turned it into a nearly AAA experience. This is a fantastic, polished game that asks the question: What would a modern freelancer be like if you could command a massive capital ship, along with an entire armada if you so choose? Graphics: The graphics are massively improved, and look fantastic Subtle ship details that are reminiscent of the ships in star citizen, etc. abound. Ships shed material when hit, and now explode with satisfying particle effects and debris. Everything is built on a much larger scale, and this makes the experience much more immersive. The game runs more smoothly than it's predecessor despite all of the additional detail. I have it completely maxed out at 1080p on a Geforce 970. The frame-rate is buttery smooth. Gameplay: Space felt barren in the old games, and despite visual details, there was little to interact with. Now random events might happen while you travel through space. A merchant might need rescuing, or a caravan might have gotten separated. Even the freelance missions feel like real adventures. You can hail ships and stations and converse using dialogue trees. A nice touch might have you stumbling across a special derelict floating in space with a story to tell. The controls are top notch, and the interface is easy once you get used to it. They have greatly improved the HUD, and it now looks very slick and polished. It's much easier to manage your quests, ships, and everything else thanks to a redesigned interface. Conclusion: This is a great, space opera simulator where you get to command a capital ship. It's far better than I could have possibly hoped for.
I wish there was a 3.5 star option, because that's what this game scores for me. Overall it looks nice, has some nostalgia for those of us who played the older games (more MOO1 than MOO2 however), and introduces a few interesting ideas (though not all are actually good ones). Pros: Solid graphics, great sound design, EXTREMELY intuitive, reasonable depth to 4x mechanics, easy to pick up and play, economy is fairly easy to understand (except galactic exchange), great looking battles and good ship configuration (although it does not affect ship aesthetics). Cons: Special events not very interesting, no Antarans or any similar mechanic, planetary pollution can be a chore to deal with and needs to be redesigned, spy network is a chore to deal with and doesn't really work (I find enemy spies whether I have counter-agents or not)l, negotiating seems pointless when the other races always require triple the value of whatever it is you are trying to get, galactic stock exchange is not explained at all, 500 turn limit is ridiculous and I can't seem to find an option to change it (may be my there, but it's well hidden if so). Overall, despite all the cons I listed, it's still an enjoyable game that I have spent many hours playing. I feel that with a patch or perhaps content update, the game could be truly special.
I see a lot of vitriol for this game in the reviews that I think is unwarranted. These are probably the same people who went over the moon about the game when they first saw footage, but didn't bother to read a single interview or article on it, and drew their own conclusions as to what to expect. The creators themselves said it would be divisive, and wasn't for everyone. That many would find it slow, and perhaps just not get it. However for me, as a fan of deep, science fiction mysteries like 2001, etc., I think it's just right. I'm not interested in death matches with my friends (there are other games for that), and I'm not interested in constant non-stop action (there are other games for that as well). What I did want was a huge universe to explore, a mystery to unravel, and an adventure of epic proportions. In that, the game succeeds. This game is exactly what the developers said it would be: A slightly quirky, old school science fiction adventure in a limitless universe. They said this many times. If some people thought it was going to be something else, that's on them. I guess if I had trouble running it I might be inclined to be less charitable, but for whatever reason it runs great for me. I spent five seconds adjusting the frame rate to 60 in the game settings, and viola, it runs smooth as butter. I have a GTX 970, I5 6600k, and an ssD for reference. If you have newer hardware, or some other configuration, then issues may occur. Pros: Massive universe to explore Well rendered graphics An interesting mystery to uncover An epic adventure across the galaxy and beyond Cons Could stand to be better optimized Somewhat tedious inventory management, and not enough inventory space Too many elements to keep up with in crafting Crafting items are somewhat generic Could use more story elements While far from perfect, this game is a unique gem, and truly next generation. Any game I find myself wanting to play all day at work is a winner in my book.
I greatly enjoyed this game on the XBOX 360, and I feel the same after playing it all the way through on PC as well. Pro Tip: I did not have the issues with mouse controls that some are reporting. I disabled VSYNC in the game options, and enabled VSYNC in the NVIDIA control panel. After that, I increased mouse sensitivity to roughly 75% using the in game options. It now plays perfectly for me. Any other "input lag" people are experiencing is due to the game intentionally slowing things down a bit to add suspense. Your character is not supposed to be a super-man, but an ordinary engineer, and it was the same on console. The game plays very much like Resident Evil 4 in terms of speed. I completed it using a mouse with no issues whatsoever, and I had a blast. Full disclosure: I have Windows 10, an Nvidia GTX 970, and a solid state drive. Positives: The game does an excellent job with world-building, and atmosphere. You really feel like you are on a derelict ship in deep space, attempting to solve a terrifying mystery. There is a great story here as well. The graphics, despite some occasionally obvious low res textures, look excellent in 1080p with all effects enabled. The graphics have aged quite well, and add to the sense of place. As I mentioned above, the controls are fine using a mouse, and it has the same speed of reaction time as the console, albeit somewhat improved thanks to a greater frame-rate. The game play is varied and keeps you guessing without a lot of repetition, except for, you know, shooting stuff. New game plus mode adds a lot of replay value as well. Cons: Some low-res textures, bossy NPC's that send you on a lot of fetch quests to drive the narrative forward, getting attacked by a lot of enemies at once can be a little overwhelming (though I suspect this is on purpose). Overall this is an excellent game that I have played through many, many times, and continue to enjoy. An awesome addition to anyone's DRM free library.
I'll get the elephant in the room out of the way first. A lot of people complain about heavy-handed social justice warrior nonsense in this game. I honestly don't really see all that much of it, although the inclusions are fairly ham-fisted and sophomoric when they do appear. I think the real problem stems from an interview wherein the lead-writer loudly announces her intentions to infuse the game with her own political rhetoric, millions of fans be-damned. Advice to Beamdog, find writers who don't feel the need to overshare their politics with everyone. If she hadn't chosen to act so smug and self-righteous, this probably wouldn't have blown up. The good stuff: 1. They've brought back the original voice cast (sans one or two), which is great. 2, The characterizations (while not completely accurate to the original) feel somewhat deeper than the older versions, and provide for some nice role playing opportunities. 3. Several of the dungeons are quite fun, and have many interesting secret. 4. The engine changes are largely for the better, and it's great to be able to do things like have a shield equipped but still switch to a bow or two-handed weapon. The bad stuff: 1. The game is buggy, even with the latest 2.1 patch. After getting to the crusader camp area, I could no longer save unless I hit the quicksave button roughly 20 times. I had to reload a main save from a couple hours back which was not cool. It also crashed to windows a few times. 2. Some of the writing and dialogue is quite good, and you'll find yourself enjoying it until it until you are hit in the face with some inexplicable design decisions. Examples include: A surfer dude, pot head that sounds terribly out of place, a transexual living in a world where a sex change is a magic spell away, and so on. However, there is nothing another round of editing couldn't fix. Despite any shortcomings, I still recommend it to fans of the series. Hopefully they will get to make more.
This game is very addictive and extremely fun. I purchased this after getting my feet wet by playing Rebel Galaxy (also an excellent game). I wanted something deeper, more serious, and bigger than Rebel Galaxy, and that is exactly what I got. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps as you make your way up from a lowly gunship to eventually command a massive super-carrier never seems to get old. To make things easier, here is my bullet-point review: Pros: Good graphics Excellent and varied ship-models Large universe to explore Character leveling well implemented Feels like you are really commanding a capital ship Lots of little details without ever feeling overwhelming Fairly well-thought out and realistic universe and back-story Cons (I would dock a half a star for these if it was an option) Occasional glitches, some of which require a restart of the game (though nothing that ruined a save) Mediocre to terrible voice acting Terrible dialogue (It occasionally sounds as if it is written by a non-native English speaker without the benefit of a grammar-check) All in all, I have greatly enjoyed this game, and can't wait for any subsequent sequels.
