This post is by guest blogger Paul.
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Categories: Preview
Tags: 4x, pc
Sword of the Stars (PC), developed by Kerberos Productions (a new company formed from the core team behind Sierra’s Homeworld: Cataclysm) hits the shelves tomorrow. Paul escaped Einstein’s cage with a preview copy.
The newly terraformed Ka’Trulmo is ready to do its part for the Empire.Sword of the Stars is a 4X game, (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate), which is the buzzword for strategy games with an epic scope. The storyline finds us humans in the aftermath of first contact with an unknown alien race that ended less than amicably. As the newest player in an ongoing (and turn-based) space race, your goal is to develop new technologies to colonize and terraform planets while defending them from unfriendly races like the militaresque Tarkas. You’re also given the opportunity to form alliances with the less hostile races like the Liir, which look like evolved cephalopod/dolphin creatures.
A 360° Research Wheel lets you compare technology paths at a glance.I played a custom game and jumped right in without having too much trouble figuring things out. I was immediately given access to a whole slew of tools, with the 3D technology tree really standing out from the genre-standard static ones. I was able to zoom out to a general view of all the different techs or zoom in to get a detailed explanation of the individual ones. Kerberos implemented a customizable ship builder, so it shouldn’t be hard to end up with a ship that really expresses your vision of what space conquest should be. Considering the complexity of the ship design feature, the terraforming and management of your planets are accomplished through the use of a relatively simple slider bar interface.
We’re getting creamed, but it looks gorgeous!The least appealing part of Sword of the Stars is the real-time combat system. Kerberos does a good job of creating 3D combat environments that are eye-friendly, but without a manual (sure to be found with the full release), I found myself flailing around until I was eventually blown up. I came to rely on the auto battle feature, a nice option as well as a time saver for those of us who are more interested in the exploration and resource management aspects. The preview version also lacked a save option in the custom game– unless that changes, this won’t be the kind of game that you can just sit down and play for a few minutes before work.
Overall the game looks good and should stand out to the established 4X crowd. For those new to the genre, expect a steep learning curve with an enjoyable game on the other side.