Solaris
So fun! If you like games like Risk or Chess you will love this game. But instead of turns its all in real time just really slow, like make your move to set up what you want your ships to do, then come back and check it hours later when they are there. Or you can set your ships to loop, so they pick up and drop off troops where you want them FOREVER. I just started playing and entered like 15 games at once and I spend all day playing it without having to wait haha. Addicting, fast and great learning curve, and good replay value (harder for me to claim this latter one as I’ve only put in 40 hrs so far, just seems like a game I will always come back to).
– Real player with 124.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Strategy Games.
The only negative reviews about this game are people who are mad because there are no tutorials and don’t know how to play. I mean… I was in the same boat but I had no problem learning, it is actually really easy to learn and only took a couple minutes, so I’m not sure what the problem really is. There is a wiki tab right in the game to help learn and beginner games.
I like it because it doesn’t need my full attention. I can play another game and have this up on my other monitor. Only have to play a few minutes each day and you can have multiple games going at once.
– Real player with 83.0 hrs in game
Beard of Stone
Beard of Stone is a fantasy turn based 4x that tell the story of a world’s creation all the way to the twilight of the gods. Not exclusively a turn based strategy game, real time bidding mechanics keep everyone actively involved. Who is up for their next turn is constantly in contention! The game is fast paced and quick enough to be played in a single sitting.
Players take the role of Gods, bending the prophetic destiny of the world to their ends. Every event and action in the game is public information from the very first turn, displayed on the Prophecy Track. Players spend their Influence currency to gain control of these prophecies in real time. Anyone can bid and be outbid before a prophecy arrives as the current turn. Prophecies span a wide range of actions, from the creation of the continents of the world, the birth of all the various races, disasters, military campaigns and more.
As Gods, players are not playing as any specific race. They strive to make the warriors and nobles of the land believers in their faith. As the races expand and worship each God, the Influence invested is redistributed to the Gods to be bid on further prophecy turns. Having the most believers in the most prosperous races will lead to one of the Gods dominating the world and winning the game.
Read More: Best 4X Strategy Games.
Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition
This was one of the few games I played over and over as a teen.
I’ll be honest, I never got into the sequel, because I didn’t like the way the planets were depicted (though it probably made influence more intuitive). So I don’t know how this one holds up to GalCiv II. But on its own merits, it’s a good game.
In Galactic Civilizations, you start out as ruler of united Earth. The various alien races, having gotten the secret of hyperdrive from the humans, have turned off their massive wormhole portals and scrapped them for hyper-capable colony ships. The real space race has begun, and it’s up to you to determine the path you want humanity to take.
– Real player with 194.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Grand Strategy Games.
In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a Steam review for every game in my library (#291 out of 612)… it’s time for Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition.
You might know Galactic Civilizations by its other name: “Oh, yeah, there was a game before Galactic Civilizations III, wasn’t there?” Indeed there was! The obvious question here is: why should anyone play Galactic Civilizations 1 when the third game exists, and is so, so good? Historical context? Pure, unadulterated whimsy? A PC so old and out-of-date that it doesn’t even qualify as a toaster? Galactic Civilizations I has got fewer features, less polish, and less depth all-around. Furthermore, you’re in for one hell of an uphill battle if you’re even -thinking- of trying to get the game to run on a modern operating system. Galactic Civilizations does not play nice with anything more advanced than Windows XP!
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
Legion Gold
Really cool - suits me down to the ground. I had never played this (or even really heard about it back when it was released) so it was a new experience entirely.
Battles are simple - you give your troops a placement, a formation and advance/hold orders. When battle begins, you have no direct control over your units, in what the manual describes as an accurate depiction of a large-scale battle where commanders could not adequately give orders in the heat of the fray. When setting up your regiments, however, you do have to take into account the terrain your soldiers will be fighting on, and it’s necessary to refer to the included manual on this.
– Real player with 37.1 hrs in game
If you like this type of game, it is still fun to play.
Yes 8 hours is not much as yet. However i have played SPARTAN on retail version many hundreds of hours.
LEGION is what I expected it to be, similar to SPARTAN in gameplay, interface, and visuals. I has less depth than SPARTAN, as the latter has a more elaborate diplomacy, more and different types of resources, a trade option and a tech tree.
Buy it on sale though, scenarios are limited and there is no grand campaign feature to conquer the ancient world.
– Real player with 20.4 hrs in game
TerraMartis4x
Background story
A short but fragile period of peace followed the cold war. Humanity is divided into two factions. The western part under the leadership of the USA and the eastern part under the leadership of Russia.
That peace ended shortly after the beginning of space colonization. Under the continued pressure of the hegemonial western faction on Earth, large parts of the eastern factions left Earth completely and moved to Mars and are now known as Martian.
Gameplay summary
In TerraMartis4x you take the role as leader of one of the factions, either Terra or Mars. Both factions are at war over the uncolonized space. Your goal is to lead the faction of your choice to victory.
TerraMartis4x is divided into two layers. On the galaxy map you make strategic turned based decisions about which planets to colonize, which fleets to build, where to attack, what to defend and which planet to conquer. When two fleets meet you can dive into the battlefield the second part of the game where you make tactical decisions for each unit in your fleet in real time.
Beside the two larger factions Terran and Martian there are also some minor factions in TerraMartis4x mostly from the outer asteroid belts and not recognized as a united faction by the former two.
The Mystic
Game is improving a lot trough the EA. Even now i find it god offer. I’m looking for the campaign. if it is good this will be classic.
– Real player with 40.4 hrs in game
Arcane Sorcery
This game feels like a cross between Master of Magic and Medieval Total War (the first one that is). Gameplay wise, it feels like Master of Magic with the magic spells, and the isometric battle system, but the campaign maps feel more like the original Medieval Total War. As one of the other reviews described, it has an early 90’s feel to the graphics (and for once that phrase does not mean ‘pixel art’, which is a rarity). The 4x nature of the game is more 4x-lite, specifically with lite aspects on the diplomacy and exploring aspects of 4x. There’s three different maps, but it would be nice if there was random map generation, though that would probably require a different map style I think. It has flaws, but it’s an inexpensive game as well.
– Real player with 32.0 hrs in game
A game that strongly resembles strategy games of yesteryear, that actually does not pretend to be anything else. Its pretty straight forward, without much tactical depth or need for strategic thinking. Still its an enjoyable game, even if only for a couple of runs, its still worth playing. If you are a hardcore 4x or strategy player, I would strongly suggest you stay clear, for you will be disappointed as the game lacks in both areas. Its perfect for the casual strategist, looking for a fun run.
– Real player with 26.7 hrs in game
Dominium Mundi
I only played the game for 5 minutes, but I left the game running for 3 hours as I was doing christmassy stuff with my cats. So in short, I know very little of this game so far. The UI and map are excellent, I’m excited to go back and look at it more. I only took over one single city and explored over half of the map thus far, but it feels good to play.
If you consider yourself a fan of something, you deserve to something something good review.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Save your money. I like simple strategy games at times when I want to take a break from too much intense thinking, but this is overly basic. You get bored of it after playing once or twice; it looks far more interesting than it truly is. Perhaps prices at $0.99 it may be worth considering - do not spend more than that on it.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander (LIGHTSPEED EDITION)
Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition is a turn-based combat space simulation R.P.G. both developed and published by Massive Damage, Inc. After a devastating attack by a relentless unknown alien species decimates the New Terran Federation, you are immediately put in command of the starbase Halcyon 6. It’s up to you to rebuild the Federation, make lasting alliances with alien species, gather vital resources and prepare to stop the impending alien invasion that has it’s sights set on Earth. Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition includes a number of additional content, optimizations and new updates to the original award winning title, Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander, that vastly improves the overall gameplay experience of the first title. Prepare to take your seat in the commander’s chair for this thrilling spacefaring adventure.
– Real player with 39.3 hrs in game
I was expecting some revival of MOO2.
I started my first game at “Commander level”, expecting to take a quick and severe defeat, but learn enough for an enjoyable second round.
For the first 8 hours, it was fun: build your ships, evolve your captains, oh! there is a tech tree, great! And those aliens, are they friendly or not? Pirates, space travellers, threats, offers.. Excellent!
After 8 hours, I started to realize that:
1/ I did not made any strategic decision, I just clicked randomly on the various “evolution trees”, I did not experience a single defeat.
– Real player with 24.4 hrs in game
Master of Orion 1
I played this game when it first came out kids. That’s right. I played on DOS. My CPU was so slow in late game you’d hit ‘next turn’ and go grab lunch and PRAY it was done when you got back. Games took a while.
Back then you kept your games on a shelf, in boxes like freakin' board games. Back then you went to a physical store and walked around trying to decide what to buy because the gaming magazines with reviews lagged behind the release of games so you had to decide what was good by the box art.
– Real player with 4370.9 hrs in game
Minimal micro-managing. Multiple choices: play one of 10 species; 1-5 opponents; 4 “galaxy” sizes; 4-5 levels of difficulty; up to 15 random events, positive or negative that may or may not occur. There is usually more than 1 choice, often 2-4 of next level of technology to focus research on (computer, construction, force field, planetology, propulsion, weapons) and options via sliding bars to apportion research points among categories; likewise choices @ ea planet to apportion among shipbuilding, missile bases, industry, ecology, tech. You have shipbuilding choice features (size/ propusion/weapons/special features); espionage/sabotage/limited interactive communication choices; ship/fleet combat. Graphics limited (2D). If you want to spend less time learning the game and just playing, this is an easy game to learn and can readily be made more challenging by your selection of species, level of difficulty and size of star domain. If current tech-graphics and very detailed management are more to your liking, you will want a more modern version of MOO or one of the more recently developed similar themed games.
– Real player with 1154.0 hrs in game