Ancient Frontier
The voice acting and storyline start off really really bad. But like a fungus it grows on you and now I’m quite liking it. I had originally complained of it being awful, but a few missions in, the dialogue between missions starts making sense in the style it’s presented and after a while it comes into it’s own and you start to appreciate these characters making the journey with you.
Botom line it’s pretty fun. There’s plenty of RPG elements, battle damage and mission consequences carry over from one mission to the next and there’s a nice tech tree and progression for all things from ships to ship components to crew. I’m enjoying the ways I can use a few ships with tech and crew or just a large fleet to go about my missions. There’s a lot of random elements that can happen so there’s replayability too. You can go about the campaign mission a second time using different ships, techs and strategies and there looks to be a few unique mission choices that you can do differently.
– Real player with 79.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Space Sci-fi Games.
Turn-based tactical goodness… in SPACE!
For a game out of nowhere, Ancient Frontier offered me a highly pleasant surprise. Good turn-based tactical games are not overly abundant to start with, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy on a whim. Something I rarely do, but boy am I glad to have done so.
The game is all about the tactical missions. There are two main campaigns, which apparnetly can take around 100 hours to play through. No multiplayer or skirmish mode.
Missions bring you varying quantity of one of the three main resources (“material,” “fuel,” and “research”). The first allows is used to buy new ships or components and repair battle damage. Aside from being required as well to purchase new ships, the second resource is an all-important balancing mechanism. Since each ship class (and modifier components) alter the cost of deployment for each mission. Take too many expensive ships too often on missions, and you will run out… which will probably end your playthrough. The last allows investing in upgrades to each ship class, or to research new and more efficient modifier components.
– Real player with 66.3 hrs in game
Mecha Tactics
a complex mechanics driven hidden gem 3
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Space Party-Based RPG Games.
Only played a few minutes
I like the 4x game with Mecha idea,
but it needs a Tutorial of some sort
I have know clue whats going on
or how to play I know this game has potential
but in think it needs to go back in the oven for a bit.
Any ways not bad for less than the cost of a cup coffee
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Taurion
Welcome to Taurion. A Fully decentralized MMORTS.
A Fully persistent sandbox MMO that runs unstoppable and autonomous.
Prospect, Mine, Refine, Build, Fight, Craft, Trade and work with other players to build your empire.
Backstory:
Over the years the governments of the Earth became increasingly hostile and fractured. Alliances were formed and broken. Eventually 12 factions emerged in a semi-stable world order (or houses as they are now known). By this time the scale of weaponry available to the 12 factions was too powerful to use without exterminating all life on Earth. Consequently, when WWIII erupted, it wasn’t a kinetic war. It was an information and propaganda war that lasted well over a century. Intelligence agencies had taken over news and entertainment and shut down free speech entirely. Every piece of information, or rather disinformation, was curated. Nobody knew what was true or what was false.
The absence of a meaningfully informed population left the megacorporations free to do as they pleased. With regulatory capture, they simply pushed through laws and regulations that benefited them and their shareholders in the short term. The constant flux of “truth” in the disinformation campaigns made long term planning nearly moot, and also made it easy for the megacorporations to create and push their own narratives.
Environmental standards were dismantled, and all laws regarding genetic engineering were erased. Biotech companies produced ever more genetically modified plants and animals that required ever harsher pesticides, herbicides, and stronger antibiotics.
Slowly the Earth was poisoned. Superbugs became more common, wiping out millions of people, nevermind the costs to domestic animals and wildlife. GMO plants became invasive species, destroying pristine environments and disrupting ecosystems. People became sicker and sicker as agro chemicals poisoned their water supplies while fisheries suffered as the lakes, rivers, and oceans were poisoned. Species were going extinct at alarming rates.
Eventually there was a crack in the social world zeitgeist and people began to reject government and corporate narratives that were clearly the opposite of reality. Mass protests turned into riots that were mostly crushed by government forces and private security forces hired by corporations. But for every casualty, the movements attracted 10x more people.
Behind the scenes the intelligence agencies ramped up misinformation campaigns against each other, blaming other factions for domestic and international problems. Following suit, the megacorps began environmental campaigns to support protesters against their competition.
Social cohesion in large urban centres was breaking down. Logistics chains for food, fuel, and consumer goods were crumbling. Protests got bigger and bigger and spilled over into suburban areas as well and degenerated into city-wide riots and looting.
Peak violence happened when the Jodon faction launched a limited nuclear strike against the Tydroid corporation’s main production city, Berlin, in order to satisfy public outcry that was flamed by a disinformation campaign from the Yonic corporation, Tydroid’s largest competitor.
Rather than continue the violence on Earth, the various factions and megacorps launched strikes against each other’s satellites in order to disrupt communications and push their own narratives.
The situation had become desperate, and in 2247 the 12 factions formed a discussion group called “The Houses” to bring an end to the worldwide violence. For several years they debated and discussed, until in 2251 they arrived at the conclusion that they’d all failed humanity, and that the Earth was doomed, poisoned beyond the point of no return. They would need to head for the stars if mankind were to survive.
Building starships to transport colonists would take 20 intense years, but not everyone would get to go.
Selection of people who would go to the stars took place under the authority of the technetronic elite in the 12 Houses. Only the best and brightest would have a seat reserved for them and their families. Billions would be left behind on the poisoned, dying Earth.
As the selections progressed, it became increasingly apparent to those that would be left behind that they weren’t going to be chosen. Human rights protests across the planet turned into full scale riots with many casualties. The world was thrown into chaos and society began to break down (even more).
But for the colonists all that was left behind. They would drift into cryosleep for a seeming eternity only to wake up as if no time had passed. There would be weeping as some cryopods had failed during the long journey, leaving only crusty bones and ashes where a living human should have been.
Three of the 12 Houses, House Jodon, Reubo and Ephrati, would colonise planets in 3 nearby solar systems in a distant sector of the galaxy. The fates of the other 9 Houses are unknown.
THE PLANETS, THE SIGNAL, THE MISSION…
Three of the 12 Houses, House Jodon, Reubo and Ephrati, would colonise planets in 3 nearby solar systems in a distant sector of the galaxy. The fates of the other 9 Houses are unknown.
THE PLANETS
House Jodon landed on and colonised Lionis. This volcanic planet has 1 side perpetually facing its sun, making only a thin band around the planet habitable. Nevertheless, rich and fertile soil along that thin band would ensure their survival.
House Reubo landed on and colonised Aquarion. This planet is over 97% covered by water. Adapting to their new environment would require innovative solutions for land use and infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, science and innovation are highly valued by the Reubos who pride themselves on being rational and practical.
House Ephrati landed on and colonised Verdis. This lush and green planet is inhabited by many predatory animals and dangerous foliage.
THE SIGNAL
Several years ago a strange and indecipherable signal was received. It was clearly created by intelligent life and was traced back to a planet orbiting a nearby brown dwarf star. Speculation was rampant. What or who created it? What did it mean? What did it say?
Each House prepared small scouting missions to investigate. This was no mean feat as resources for interstellar travel were highly scarce. Expectations were similarly high.
THE INVESTIGATION
Initial reports from the missions were impressive. The planet was rich in natural resources beyond their most hopeful expectations. Mining operations would be wildly profitable and would alleviate strict resource rationing back home on Lionis, Aquarion and Verdis.
It was the Ephrati who first discovered an ancient tower, presumably built by the same intelligent life that sent the signal. The tower stood high, disappearing into the clouds above.
Venturing into the tower on foot, the Ephrati expedition team marveled at the architecture and strange symbols and pictures carved into the walls, floors and ceilings. But it was one in particular that caught their attention. It was written in an old Earth language. “Taurion.” Who could the beings that built this be? And why would an old Earth tongue be written in here? Speculation, conjecture, and wild conspiracy theories were rampant on the net.
Other ancient buildings would also be found scattered around the planet.
THE MISSION
Back home each House prepared to send people to Taurion. Excitement was high and people eagerly began training for the challenges that would await them on Taurion.
Read More: Best Space Real Time Tactics Games.
Spacer: Legacies
This is a fun turn-based, hex-grid ship combat game. The ships are somewhat similar between classes of the same type (they do all come from the same tech background, so I give it a pass) but the story missions themselves are fun, and there’s randomized missions you can take from stations to improve your standing with them, make extra money, and salvage some loot if you’re lucky. Your pilots all come from the story line, so there’s little sense in wandering off the beaten path for more than a few missions until you have all of them. They also come with their own ships, so you’re not scrambling to scrounge up the money for another ship b/c someone invited themselves in! They also level up and get better as they take more jobs, so there’s incentive to bring them along.
– Real player with 36.0 hrs in game
Fun game, very reminiscent of battletech.
Some suggestions after playing it for a while, though.
- Add a “Retreat from side quest” option. If I answer a distress call with my two corvettes and a frigate, and I find a convoy defending against four frigates, half a dozen corvettes and a battleship sitting on the gate, I’m going to have to tell the convoy to turn around and go home. Sure, there are some missions worth dying over. Making sure three shiploads of toilet paper make it through pirate space isn’t one of them.
– Real player with 31.5 hrs in game
Star Shift
The year is 2357. Humans have explored the stars and colonized many worlds under the authority of the Earth Systems Alliance (ESA), a government controlled by powerful interstellar organizations. An alliance in name only, it is in reality, a brutal empire.
The Earth Systems Alliance (ESA) is embroiled in a civil war with a faction known as the Novus Federation. They are made up of former ESA colonists, corporations and military personnel who oppose Alliance rule and actively undermine ESA activities.
Both sides have committed war crimes on civilian populations. This has destabilized the balance of power in the region, creating chaos.
FEATURES:
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Tactical Battle System (Fleet/Army battles)
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Over 100 playable characters
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Epic Space Opera Storyline
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Branching story arcs
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Over 100 hours of Gameplay
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Base/Empire building
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Active Time Battle System
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Multiple side-quests/short stories
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Starship and human combat
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Class/Job System with trainable skills
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Amazing soundtrack from various independent artists
Inspiration for Star Shift:
Star Shift takes it’s inspiration from many notable games and tv shows, but also tries to keep it fresh with our own style.
Some Examples include:
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Suikoden 2
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Mass Effect 1
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Star Trek
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Final Fantasy Tactics
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Xenogears
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Stargate
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Chrono Trigger
Join Our Discord to be part of the development process:
Star Shift also has partnerships and crossover content with other games. They are listed below.
The Killer Gin:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1164480/
Centauri Sector
Tags: Shootemup & Bullet Hell
Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library
TLDR: Upon closer inspection is more like a collection of minigames merged together into an experience that lacks cohesion in terms of pacing and difficulty, and in my case, failed to entertain, did not engage my in any way and left me a bit frustrated and underwhelmed
Review: You have an overland map… red planes show up… you click in their direction and intercept them. You get a shootemup instance sometimes it is way too hard. The game has you press a bunch of keyboard shortcuts to switch power from your engine to your weapons or shields FTL-style but this time around it is the janky keyboard version, and on a shootemup with no pause it is not as great as it sounds. Also the game tells you to retreat if you are losing which is also done by shortcuts… and chances are you will wanna wittle down ennemies a bit and flee before coming back. Upgrades and menus seemed well explained enough in tooltips but even though I bought escort ships they werent with me to fight… must have done something wrong. Instead of getting score you get prestige points and morale points which act as your cash, and basically your lives if morale is too low you lose the game. There are also instances where waves of ennemies come and you gotta spawn turrets tower defense style. So aside from all the keyboard shortcuts to remember the strenght of ennemies can be hard to assess at a glance, the game feels really slow but you die very fast and I think in the end the hardest part of the game is deciding which event to go adress which ones to retreat from, all in the hope of keeping your morale points afloat. Maybe there is a good game in there for someone who really enjoys all these minigames and genres and wants to multitask across them but in my case it was not my cup of tea. People compare this game to a flash game… or a collection of flash game, and there is some truth to it but in its defense I felt the game just had a tiny edge more visual polish and fleshened out interface to elevate it, ever so slightly above those… I stopped playing after my third space battle but people who keep playing say the game runs out of content and just throws the same stuff at you over and over again
– Real player with 6.1 hrs in game
*this review first appeared on TechZwn.com at http://techzwn.com/2015/07/centauri-sector-review/
Centauri Sector is the debut game release from indie developer LW Games. It’s a sci-fi space combat game with most of the action taking place as a top down 2D shooter, but there a few unique twists that set this game apart from others. This has the potential to be a great game, but in its current state it also has the potential to be quite frustrating.
Centauri Sector takes place in the far future where humanity has expanded into space and engaged in galactic civil war. One faction, fearing annihilation, flees to the far end of space to settle in the Centauri sector. After decades of peace, unknown pirates appear in the Centauri sector, disrupting trade and attacking planets. Your job is to defeat the pirate threat and save the day.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
Ancient Frontier: Steel Shadows
This is a fantastic little gem of a game. Very moody and thematically perfect for the tone it tries to set.
Its a turn based strategy game very similar in gameplay mechanics to games like X com, Fire Emblem, and other turn based fare, only instead of commanding characters, you command ships, ranging from quick but deadly little fighters, to huge battle cruiser/carriers that come with disposable “body guard ship” as well as a few other surprises that were quite pleasing. Its truly an addicting title, with great music, recently added passable voice acting (some of its really good, such as the pirate queen and her entourage, including one guy who does a minor role as a pirate who sounds like a pro, to others which sound a bit plain and uh….not-so- pro. Its a mixed bag, but thats ok because it really helps with the immersion anyways).
– Real player with 154.6 hrs in game
Having played the original Ancient Frontier, I really welcomed the new addition of Steel Shadows. Everything in the game is improved over the original and it is clear that the developers listened to the players and thrown in some of their own ideas for good measure.
New and good things:
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new faction and ships, which previously were unavailable;
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new feel (pirates);
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new side mission types;
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new graphic assets;
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new story with a mix of characters old and new (nice for the veterans of the original, but the newcomers won’t feel
– Real player with 113.9 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
Into the Void
I might have gotten this for free… if not it was from a cheap 1$ bundle.
The game is a space exploration type of game with turn based combat. Although you can raid and attack planets, that battle is compleately automatic and you don’t even get to see it. Space combat can be played by AI or yourself and can’t be skipped.
There is a research tree, where you unlock different ship types, weapon upgrades, shields, various boosts and more.
You can own planets and get resources from them, but to be honest it’s much quicker to just fly around the galaxy and colect resources from the planets and raid them. I don’t think they are worth the resources to build mines on them, and you can’t build much on them anyways.
– Real player with 40.1 hrs in game
I was compelled to review this game due to all the harsh criticism. That being said the game definitely has issues but all in all it is definitely a fun sci-fi battles/4x game. Not that cheap makes it better, but it is $2, and well worth that price.
The Good
The game has great background music, reminds me of the haunting sci-fi music from Ascendancy. The graphics are very good to great, in my opinion. The three levels of view from universe, to system to planetary/ships are very nice. The planetary views are my favorite– they all look really well done and alive! The stars make you feel like you are there and your ships will burn up if they stay in orbit too long. The story driven campaigns and quests are good. Not great but not bad, just good. I am glad they are there as opposed to other 4x that are bland, no story etc… Granted the stories are quirky, but they add liveliness. Its obvious the devs/writers had some fun. You even get choices in some cases though the results are not very different. The battles and effects are enjoyable, though some complaints to follow. Please be aware that Newtonian physics are not adhered to exactly in all effects, c’mon really! I don’t understand how people can complain about the explosions not being realistic etc- they are pretty cool. Finally, its fun to build your ships with the latest equipment and nail biting when they are engaged in a battle. Sometimes its easy though other times its so close and you lose ships.
– Real player with 39.9 hrs in game
Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander
This game at first may appear like a turn-based RPG, but it is actually only like that during combat and some mild leveling). Overall, this game actually plays more like a real time strategy… just, without the real time and more actual strategy. That might seem confusing, but hear me out. It’s actually really smart and makes for an extremely enjoyable game.
A majority of this game is recourse gathering and management/base building. Sounds like an RTS, right? Just replace constructing buildings with construsting rooms inside your mothership, and that’s what this game is. You build units (granted, a much smaller number of units than in a typical RTS) to farm recourses so you can build more units (captains and ships), contruct more rooms on your mothership and purchase upgrades. The only catch is, time isn’t always moving. Whenever you’re in your base looking at upgrades to buy, rooms to build or ships to construct, time stops. Then once you’ve done your maitence, you manually unpause time to resume progress. You can pause time anytime you like as well, so can do things like select each of your ships and tell them what to do while time is frozen, then unpause and have all of them begin their tasks at once. Most things take time to complate - a ship moving from planet to planet, an upgrade being research, a ship being built - so these things will only progress while time is unpaused. The result is a game that plays very similarly to an RTS, but gives you time to plan, breathe, and strategize. So, this game can ultimately be described as an RTS with less RT and more S.
– Real player with 27.3 hrs in game
Edit: On top of what I wrote here, I have now crashed TWICE in the final boss fight, both at points when I was winning. On top of everything else, this game is a buggy POS.
This is one of those games that is a really good idea, and has some really good mechanics, but in its current state I just can’t recommend this. The basic premise is a solid one: you manage a starbase in the midst of an invasion by a species of very hostile aliens. You have to manage your starbase a la XCOM, do turn-based combat with the alien invaders both in space and on the ground, and manage your various officers.
– Real player with 26.2 hrs in game