Sword of the Stars

During the year 2405, scientists have finally been able to uncover the technology that allows travelling faster than light. But the very first interstellar colony ship is destroyed and Earth is devastated by an unknown alien race. Now it’s time for you to head out, kick some alien butt and conquer galaxies. In a universe where weakness means extinction, you are to wield the sword of the stars. Rather than stepping foot on alien soil, you performmainly on building gigantic space fleets and send them to attack enemy ships and their worlds.

Sword of the Stars comes with highly customizable campaign features. Each scenario can last from a single night to weeks based on the number and ability of enemies, starting cash, planets and technologies each starts with, and obviously the strategy you imply. It allows you to conquer galaxies diverging from a few dozen stars to a few hundreds. There are also twelve cooperative and competitive online multiplayer with up to eight players and some prefixed campaigns. While getting used to the campaign features, you’ll realize that there are no set stories. You are given the chance to dominate from a star to an entire galaxy. If time is an obstacle for you, premade scenarios are most recommended. Tutorial is also a must if you are new to this series.

Environments are completely dynamic and randomly add events based on the scenarios. You can research over 200 technologies on a dynamic tech tree and the best part is over 100 weapons in 11 different classes. The game comes with 4 different playable factions with unique advantages and methods of interstellar travel. These races are Human, Liir, Hivers, and Tarka. Each race has its limitations, however. They aren’t able to colonize if the climate isn’t suitable. The Humans have higher adaptability which they have taken with them to many places. Their empires have a larger focus on research, and equally adept at improving their planets, in the area of research and on the battlefield.  Since they don't have a research focus, they don't have to ponder on a specific area if it's unsuitable for the current game.

Hivers are called bugs because of their resemblance to the countless insect species found on Earth, where as they refer to themselves as "The Children". Hivers do have many common features with earthly insects, especially when it comes to social organization and physical appearance. Nonetheless, they are a fully conscious space-faring race. They can move ships instantly and can use spare gate capacity to swap defense fleets back to their colonized planets to repair them if they take damage on an uninhabited world.

The Liir have not been a star-faring species for long. Being a highly peaceful race, the Liir have developed excellent research techniques but because of this peaceful focus to their early development, the Liir are inexperienced with space combat, and can’t field as much weaponry on their ships as the other space going races.

Tarkasian culture is very ancient and has been remarkably stable in the long term, allowing for hundreds of thousands of years of recorded history and over five hundred years as a space-faring race. Tarka culture is imperialistic and has a long warrior tradition, so it isn't surprising that the emphasis the Tarka bring to space is a militaristic one. Tarka ships are ideally designed for charging into battle, sport good tactical speed, armor, and weaponry, and they have optimized their cruiser class ships for ease of construction. The Tarka hyperdrive is by far the most intuitive mode of travel to grasp.

Sword of the Stars’ gameplay is somewhat similar to the usual real time strategy game. The galaxy itself is showed in a 3D map which gives an ideal reflection of the environment. Camera movements are also similar to usual strategy games. You can zoom in and out, click on the map to direct yourself to any particular plant or fleet. Rendering some area of the map which you haven’t visited too often, sometimes takes precious loading time, which can get a little frustrating when you are in the middle of a war site.

There isn’t any great deal of Empire managerial features in the game. A small part of diplomacy has been included such as non-aggression pact, alliance or war. Most of your times will be spent on exploring, research, building fleets and turns. Earlier during the game battles can be short lived even within a preset time limit and winning is never certain, as the fleets are considerably small.

You can customize a ship’s design and their engine or weapons whether it’s a destroyer or cruiser. Each type of weapon installed in a ship gives you a separate combat influence, and these ships can carry on their own based on your preferences. Since commanding a ship isn’t anything complex, letting the AI control it saves you precious time. Doing so however will prevent you from certain advantages. For example, during a battle targeting any particular spot from an enemy ship can give a vital strategic advantage, which the AI won’t bother. And a visual prototype tells about the damages your ship took instead of a health bar. If you are not managing a fleet by yourself, battles dealt by the AI won’t provide you any summary afterward; which is very frustrating. Refueling is an essential part factor but if an AI controlled ship needs to be refueled, you’ll have to find it yourself inside the large map.

There are undeniably some issues that can upset you while playing, but most of them are regarding user friendliness and interface factors. The game itself is very solid and has tons of potential to go further. Despite some of the setbacks, Sword of the Stars is an enjoyable experience and fans of world domination would perhaps be interested in getting their hands on this game.

Sarwar Ron, NoobFeed