Tachyon Wars
That is an interesting one, space strategy with the real-time flow. I am looking forward to try out PvP.
I read some reviews below and wanted to say - not much of a point to expect it to be another space strategy clone with different race pictures. Here you offered some novel ideas, and you’d need to dive into it to see the difference.
I enjoyed tactics, some good tunes, and 3D space combats, even though some polishing was needed here and there.
Thank you.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy 2D Games.
Well, it takes time to get used to the interface, however, I see how it stands out from other similar strategy games. The gameplay includes plenty of action planning, reconnaissance, resource distribution - what a good strategy game should have.
Overall, I like what I see. And I am looking forward to future updates, guys!
– Real player with 5.7 hrs in game
Scuffed Tower Defense
A must play game. Scuffed Tower Defense is genuinely a lot of fun to play, and I’d recommend picking it up if you’ve got the money. Buster.
Buster
- Buster.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Tower Defense Games.
When I first saw this game, I had high expectations, mainly because of its resemblance of the hidden gem New EPIC SCUFFED BHOP SIMULATOR 2023 (POGCHAMP). After playing it, I can gladly say, my already high expectations were blown out of the water by this modern masterpiece. Most triple A games cannot even compare to the work of art that is this game. From the aesthetic design, to the gameplay, everything about this game is the definition of groundbreaking.
When it comes to aesthetic design, this game is perfect. Menus are simple, yet effective. The background of the main menu in specific shows gameplay that makes you pumped to play. The sound design has real bangars that always get you hyped for the next wave. The enemy design is minimalistic, but charming. The levels in the game all have a charm to them in a different way. From the dark lighting of the asteroid, to the minimalistic style of the fall, every level feels different from the last. The voice acting has tons of personality and sets a tone for the rest of the game. Even the towers all shoot bright bullets that feel really satisfying to watch tear down the enemies. Also the doggo is really cute I wish I could pet him.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Structura
This is a niche game intended for a small group of people that enjoy the concept of turning DOS into a game, and manually handling every aspect of base building and logistics through text commands - in lieu of having situational action buttons that figure what you are trying to do when you aim at x thing.
I am not one of those people. I don’t know any of those people.
But I do hope the devs find their audience.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Base Building Games.
Space Empires I
I remember playing Space Empires way back ages ago, so I was pretty excited to pick the series on steam again and replay them.
Sadly, Space Empires I is NOT FUNCTIONAL on windows 10 at this time. It cannot process a single turn, crashing to desktop when ‘end turn’ is pressed. game load and save functions also do not work either.
This should have been tested more before release.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
I had no idea Steam was carrying the Space Empires Series, and was incredibly shocked to see SE I and not SE II on the store list. So a little bit of history here. Aaron Hall back in 1993 was working on his personal project Space Empires and formed this game as a prototype for something bigger and in 1995. We got Space Empires II.
Space Empires II was technically the first product released to the public and I remember sending in a money order to purchase this game after playing the shareware forever back in the mid 90s. I also got the CD when buying the complete bundle with Space Empire 4 Gold back in the early 2000s. Which was the only way I knew at the time, on how you actually got the original Space Empires prototype.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Stellar Monarch
If you are familiar with Eurogame style tabletop games, then the abstractions and economic focus (vice military control) will feel very familiar to you. The game’s pillars are not based on American-style wargames.
Many devs who make 4X games seem to have the souls of engineers; Aurora 4x being the archetype. In those games micromanagement focuses on design, production, and use of things like ships. Mastery of those concepts leads to victory.
This game requires micromanagement and is numerically obtuse as well, but it focuses on the qualitative values of game elements (i.e. cards) instead of design, production and use of things.
– Real player with 30.3 hrs in game
There’s a lot left to be desired in this game. The UI is clunky, the artwork is amateurish (think early D&D), and there are some strong biases (no female officers, everyone is Caucasian). Maybe there’s a button to change that - but if there is, I havent dug it out from the UI yet (oh, that tiny button on the map pulls up a list of worlds? Which cannot be ordered to tell me most populous, most rebellious, etc?).
For all that, however, the game does two things well. It lives up to what it says it is - you’re the Emperor, not a warehouse clerk. You dont deal with the minutae of the empire, you have People for that - who are, admittedly, often trying to kill you. Or skim off the top. Or are just idiots. But you’re the Emperor, you have People for those People too; people with sharp, pointy objects - my purges havent reached Stalinist levels, but every once in a while, I do feel the need to prune my court of the more corrupt or stupid couriers or officers (‘fire’ all corrupt governors except the loyal ones? Meh heh heh heh).
– Real player with 23.5 hrs in game
Stellaris
Stellaris is a fantastic game.
I have seen thousands of stories unfold during my playtime. I’ve watched humanity bloom into a galaxy-spanning civilisation. I’ve watched megacorporations be seized by fanatic communists. I’ve seen weapons created that span the circumference of quasars and watched them wipe away entire solar clusters. I’ve unlocked the secrets of the universe again and again, scoured the galaxy for relics and found stories spanning universes in scale, stories that go beyond the beginning and the end of what we would conventionally call a universe. I held the line against an extra-galactic threat while the galaxy crumbled around me, a threat that had followed the Prethoryn Scourge to our local cluster and fed on our galaxy as a cow would a field. My empires proved and disproved the false vacuum theory again and again, and when that empire eventually fell; futurespawns travelled back in time to warn the past against the coming storm. A revolt against fate itself had formed, and after swiftly taking over the galaxy through diplomacy it found itself fronting that storm yet again. This time it was ready.
– Real player with 1967.2 hrs in game
This review is difficult to leave as I have lots of great memories with this game. Its unique approach to RTS Space Strategy is incomparable to anything else on steam at this time. Which is a real shame because Paradox Interactive continues to fail with DLC updates and constant redesigns.
The game has been practically remade at least twice. Entire game feels more like a beta with constant major changes to core gameplay, to fix things that should have been fixed before release. Which ironically, PDX Interactive fails at almost every, single time. Every update that “fixes” bugs only temporarily patches them or just changes them to be slightly more bearable. For instance, every claim of late game lag being fixed might as well be ignored. You can choose a tiny galaxy, and you’ll still have lag in the late game. Pop changes or whatever other crap they’ve put it in hasn’t fixed much of anything. But what it has done is break mods, introduce new & more upsetting bugs, and piss off the community. They also released some stupid launcher so they could shove ads in my face when I launch the game, but in doing so also broke mods by introducing frustrating & upsetting mod order issues. Literally never was an issue before the launcher, now I have to shuffle mods around to hopefully not crash when loading saves. Which you might as well just delete your old saves if the devs release an update, because its going to break.
– Real player with 700.2 hrs in game
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
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
Kwarn Armada Tactics
Kwarn Armada Tactics (aka KAT) is a unique mix of strategy and action.
KAT’s gameplay is focused on an ingenious system of units formations : each of your units has lines of action that can strengthen allied units or destroy opposing units. Place smartly your units to create powerful formations which will counter your opponent’s assaults !
Choose among 6 generals the one that will lead your troops on the battlefield. The general defines your armada’s general strategy : massive assaults or fast attacks, impenetrable defence, ruses or diversions, guerilla warfare or destabilization…Each of the 6 generals has 3 powers able to turn the battle to his advantage : powerful drones prototypes, opposing units capture, camouflage, speed or power boosts, etc.
Choose among 27 units the best combinaison according to your strategy ! Heavy units, equipped with shields, allow to crush a defence formation !
Light units are able to dodge enemy’s attacks and are perfect for harrying your opponent! Medium units are balanced and will form the core or your armada ! Transport units allow you to bring units to the heart of your opponent’s armada or to create a diversion !
Customize your units with equipment to caught your opponent by surprise and take advantage! Equipments can be installed on some of your drones and can be used at any time during the battle : the bomb transforms a unit into a suicide bomber, the teleporter transports a unit in the middle of the enemy defense, the virus sabotages the enemy defenses, the bastion turns a unit into a fortress, …
Fight your opponents in ruthless duels ! Each battlefield is full of surprises: whether it is a violent snowstorm that immobilizes your units, asteroid fields that threaten your troops, or pirates capable of capturing your units: each battle promises to be unique and surprising ! The AI of the game has been the object of a particular and constant work in order to make it redoutable : able to choose among dozens of tactics and hundreds of formations of units, the AI represents a real challenge and makes each general really different.
Finally, quick play allows you to set up an immediate battle through 14 game modes, against the AI or another player on the same device.
KAT’s visual aesthetics is inspired by comics and turns the gaming experience into a real journey into a dark and captivating science fiction universe.
Features :
-
An absolutely unique, simple, tactical and nervous gameplay
-
Large tactical possibilities : 6 generals, 27 drones and 10 equipments
-
Long game length : a campaign mode , 14 game modes and quick play against a challenging AI or two players on the same device
-
A unique and captivating universe told with a comic book style
Space Empires II
i like the space battles
– Real player with 642.9 hrs in game
Well, I didn’t expect to see this on Steam! Classic “beer and pretzels” 4X game, rather simplistic compared to later Space Empires games but still fun to play. The UI is a bit clunky, particularly when it comes to issuing ship commands and building things, and pathfinding through warp points is nonexistent. I wish you could play online against other humans, rather than just locally or vs. the AI; the AI doesn’t seem to be too good at the game. But it’s a fun game to play if you just want to relax and conquer the universe.
– Real player with 6.4 hrs in game
Aries
Full disclosure: If you couldn’t tell by my number of product reviews and seeing how I received the game for free, I am a backer of Aries from when it was on Indiegogo. Despite this, I feel it necessary to be completely honest while writing a review for it.
The game is in early access and has many features yet to be implemented and plenty of bugs. However, after playing the game for awhile, I can confidently say that in its current state, Aries is still fun and scratched that 4X strategy itch that I had for so long. I love the Total War series and Warhammer 40k and this game is like the combination of the two. I enjoyed both the space and the ground battles. I am also digging the steampunk-like aesthetic the game touts.
– Real player with 25.3 hrs in game
i cant recomend this game.. it is an ok game i guess..
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game