Zach Goodier
As a newcomer to the franchise, I had no idea what to expect
from this game, and I found myself pleasantly surprised with what I found. You
play the commander of a mothership. During your test runs, circumstances arise
that leave you as the last hope for your civilization. Desperate, you decide to
return to your races ancient home: Hiigara. However, pirates, unexplored space,
and a formidable empire stand between you and your home. As you engage in the
16 mission story, you will be tested in a variety of ways that challenge your
ability to adapt your fleet as new threats arise.
Even the backgrounds look amazing, and they only get better in later levels. |
The story isn’t overly engaging, it simply helps you
understand what is going on, and setting up each level. Your ship has an AI and
support crew that help with things like research and fleet management, but
these characters are simply voices, nothing more. Where this game aims is to
deliver strong gameplay, and this it does exceptionally well. Animation and
models are all beautifully rendered, with your ships having their own look and
feel. Enemy ships are distinctly different, based on who you’re up against, and
they all offer unique challenges.
Your mothership is your home, and carries the survivors of your race in stasis. It also produces all your other ships. |
One of the major things this game does is carry your fleet
over between levels. This means that whatever ships you have remaining
following your completed mission, will be the ships you start out with next
level. This results in a mechanic that makes you seriously consider what ships
your fleet is fielding, and whether your fleet can react to new threats well,
or if you are overspecializing in an area. Either method can work, and each
carries its own challenges. If your fleet is generalized, then you will have to
likely move more slowly to identify threats and position/build yourself
accordingly. Specialization results in a fleet that might be exceptional at
handling certain types of threats, but obviously would be lacking in every
other area.
Outside of the actual game, story is conveyed with various stills and narration. |
Ship models are all appealing, and the relationships between
ships in combat are interesting, with battles feeling truly life-like, as ships
rip into each other. While certain ships specialize against certain enemies,
they never feel like single-purpose tools, like they can in other games. Even
if a ship specializes in as an anti-fighter corvette, it can still be useful
against other corvettes and smaller ships, because lighter armor on most
corvettes offers less protection. This keeps things feeling realistic, rather
than having to build a particular type of ship to overcome each enemy ship.
This is why the game’s flexibility leaves you options in how you want to
approach most situations. However, it does challenge you by making certain
methods ineffective, so it is still up to the player to adapt.
Good:
-Wonderful models and animation.
-Has that “rock/paper/scissors” dynamic, but doesn’t make it
so extreme to make ships broken.
-Having your fleet carry over to the next level adds a new
dynamic to how you play.
Bad:
-Story and characters are lacking, but this is an RTS above
all else.
Scully Rating: 9 out of 10.
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