Sword of the Stars : Complete Collection (PC DVD)

A friend bought me this game, having raved about it. Being a fan of Homeworld and the Total War series, I was intrigued to see how a game that sounded like a mix of the two would work.

Initially I was a little sceptical, being used to Total War games where you could spend a good portion of a turn deciding precisely what to build where. Turns in Sword of the Stars, at least initially, are actually very quick and you may well spend the first few turns waiting for the technology you want to be researched. However, once I started getting into this game, I realised that it was something really special.

There are a number of things about this game that set it apart. It's not just that each of the eight races play differently (largely due to their drive modes and ship builds) but that no two games will turn out the same. For a start, you can change the size and make-up of the star map (certain races will struggle on certain types), but the main reason is the tech tree. There are a few technologies that are unique to each faction (most commonly drive modes, but others too), but the majority of technologies are theoretically available to all factions. I say theoretically because the tech tree is randomly generated each game. Each race will have a percentage chance of a technology appearing and may be lucky enough to get short cuts to them. But some technologies will be missing and these change from game to game. So you can't do what many 'traditional' RTS games depend on and rapidly tech up through the same pathway every time, because the technology you want may not be there. Combine this with the fact that each technology has a number of counters and you end up with a game that will continue to be challenging for a long time.

The AI is also very good and will adapt to circumstances. A ship design that is initially successful against an enemy may not be when they have analysed what you are doing and adapted. Similarly, the game includes a number of 'grand menaces' that turn up with little or no warning and can wreak havoc if you are ill prepared.

There's also a lot of fun to be had from customising your ships and weapons. I would certainly recommend this game to other people. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you enjoy games that require genuine thought and that offer a challenge, then this game may be what you're after.

This game was recommended to me while buying Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity (also a superb 4X game), something I knew was good and had been meaning to get around to for a while Sword of the Stars had good reviews so I figured why not and tried it.

I was blown away.

The technology tree is vast and incredibly dynamic and every game you will randomly have or not have certain non-core techs. This means that even in a game where everyone is human or another species, they will all be very different. One side might have advanced energy weapons, while another specialises in biotech. Each species has a leaning in what they are likely to be given - except humans, as ever the jack of all trades master of none.

Every species has its own method of FTL. Humans use a node drive which allows them to travel between gravity wells using gravitational fractures in space time called node lines. This is fast, but direction restricted and they cannot stop en route.
The Hivers on the other hand (bugs), have no FTL but have gate ships. They travel everywhere sublight (needs a little suspension of disbelief, since while VERY slow this is still impossibly fast for the sake of the game) and when they get there they set up gate ships for instantaneous travel later.
The Tarka (lizards) have traditional warp middling in speed, the Zuul bore their own node lines which they have to maintain, but can't use natural ones. There are six sides in total, all different - I'm quite fond of the Liir (wale/dolphin type species).

You can design your own ships. As you progress in research you unlock different modules and you can totally customize and name your own ship classes. Even within a module you can vary the weapon mounted on the hard point. I'm enjoy the spinal mount module for destroyers (the smallest ships size), it lets you give them a big cruiser sized gun. Obviously you can also customise maneuverability and scanning capability and all sorts.

Strategically it's turn based, but drops into real time for individual space battles. Within this you have great fleet control and can target specific enemy systems and weapon mounts.

Additionally, it has amazing maps with fantastic random encounters. The maps are 3d and you can have spiral galaxies, clusters, spheres, customize how many stars, almost anything you can think of. Von Neuman machines wander around and will randomly attack colonies, there are also lots of other great ones for which I won't spoiler the surprise.

On maps bigger than 50 stars, every turn after turn one hundred, there's a one percent chance he (or another 'grand menace') will show up. You get one per game.
There's also a great trade system, involving securing galactic grid sectors, assigning them freighters and having to keep them escorted to fend off raiders. You can even raid enemy trade routes.

Finally, this game manages to be awesome and hilarious. The human engineer voice who tells you how ship design and construction is going is basically Scotty from Star Trek. They manage to tastefully reference every sci-fi and still keep it good. Stargates, hyperdrive, photon torpedoes, it's all there.

I haven't played this versus other people, only against the AI but I can tell you that it is a nice game with plenty to offer.

It has 6 races each with it's particular Star Drive, which makes them different in the way they move about in space. The battles are interesting and the possibility to manually target any part of the enemy ship gives you a greater degree of control on the outcome of the battle: target enemy weapon systems and destroy their capability to damage you...

There are tons of research items and the research trees are randomized at each game start, so you might not get the same research items going twice through the game.

Not much planet development involved but that is not the focus of the game, the ships and the space battles are.

I haven't seen a campaign though, and that's a bad thing for me, but the game is clearly made for the online experience.