Galaxy Squad
This game is fantastic, get it, you won’t regret it. It has a little FTL and a lot of X-Com, and IMHO is faster and funner to play. If you like single-player, turn-based, strategic, tactical, team-based, isometric shooters, with a bit of pressure to keep you moving (ala FTL), e.g., running from the Federation Police after your big heist, then, for the price, you can’t beat this game. It is definitely a one-more-click kind of game and I stayed up three nights in a row until 4am playing. There are a few minor issues/bugs, which Oleg, the Dev, is fixing quickly in patches (three in just the first 14 days).
– Real player with 73.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Space Sci-fi Games.
TLDR: Galaxy Squad is a multilayered, rogue-like space RPG with tactical turn-based battles. While it shows promise, lots of work still needs to be done.
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I like the idea of “multiple layers” in gameplay. i.e. there is a strategic map layer, an exploration layer (space docks, where you re-supply and get quests, etc.) and a tactical combat layer. Not many games do this (probably due to the challenge and amount of work), and fewer do it well.
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The LoS combat system is functional, but needs work and refining. Combat and survival in this game is HIGHLY dependant on LoS and moving from cover to cover. Ignore this and you will get your a** shot off. Often.
– Real player with 30.9 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
Read More: Best Space Base Building Games.
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
Concealed Intent
It seemed like such a good plan, at first. A beam-equipped Heavy Drone to act as a sniper, a Probe to keep track of enemy movements, and a Laser Drone to keep the enemy occupied with its pulse laser. But now? All that’s left is my Corvette and the Heavy Drone… and that isn’t even mine any more. The enemy ship’s Usurper system hijacked my sniper, and turned it against me.
I got lucky pulling in close to the enemy Corvette, and landing a powerful volley of pulse laser fire, forcing them to retreat for repairs. By falling back, they allowed me the opportunity to collect the data core we had both come to retrieve. Now I just have to hold out for long enough to jump out.
– Real player with 30.0 hrs in game
Very very interesting little game. Quite unique in ym exprience. Interesting though generic campagn but still of adequte length. It shines in it’s Skirmish mode which is excellent. The turh based mechanics are primo, it’s stealth mechanics can be fun. Overall quite an enjoyable experience and I recommend it highly. The Developer seems to be sticking with the game and seems both responsive to feedback and appreciative of support. (Oh to have more good devs, or at least ones that seem to care about their games for the long run on this mess of a game hub known as steam, the practices of valve and store itself not the client..lol) . IF you’re into any of the genre’s it hits upon, turn based, tactics, stealth, space tbs ect,ect…then it’s certainly worth having in your collection and a game worth supporting.
– Real player with 17.9 hrs in game
Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space?!
I tried to keep this short but it didn’t work. Sorry. There’s actually a lot to say about this game in which potato sisters travel through space with their fluffy space cat.
I wanted this game because it looked cute, and I’m a sucker for a fat cat. I vaguely assumed, from the cutesy character art, that it was a game aimed at a young audience; but like I said, fat cat. 200 hours later, I would not let a kid anywhere near this, and it’s become one of my favorite games of all time. I know potato people (and their vegetable brethren and sistren) in space sounds bizarre to say the least, but don’t let that put you off. This game is hilarious, wonderfully crafted, endearing as heck, and even manages to deliver some pretty solid cosmic horror.
! Think Cthulhu and fellow horrors from beyond. Yes, in a game about anthropomorphic potatoes.
– Real player with 231.9 hrs in game
Cute game, has its issues, but it’s fun overall.
PROS
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Visuals
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Space exploration, make weapons, hire your team, play turn based ship to ship combat
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It seems rogue like at first, but it is much less random and easier, with some difficulty spikes at bosses
CONS
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The humor is a bit too “young” for me, it’s probably aimed at anime fans
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One single run lasts way too long. It took me 50 hours to beat it once because i approached it as a rogue game and over planned things, ended up with 3 millions credit and thousands of ressources. If you play this i’d recommend you don’t try as hard to “be ready for all situations”, the game is actually much easier than expected, and i realized after beating it that it had a save system, i thought dying would mean the end like any rogue, but it actually auto saves very frequently.
– Real player with 74.3 hrs in game
NetSpace Saga Ep.1
When the crew of the Black Coffee Class C Transport ship finds themselves with no cash and no fuel, they have to ask for work from an old, unpleasant acquaintance, which unchains a series of events that will change the fate of the Solar System, making them unlikely heroes.
Fight your way against aliens, zombies, robots, androids, AI’s, sicarios, and more while meeting hundreds of characters in the Asteroid Cities, vInternet (a Virtual Internet that has gone mad), and Deep Space. Rescue three girls in danger and learn Satan’s true name, while uncovering a terrible conspiracy.
Features of Episode 1:
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A modern take on classic gameplay!
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Turn-based Battle with Point N' Click elements, just like the JRPG gems of the past!
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An irreverent story with characters you will never forget!
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Save anywhere!
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More than 70 unique enemies!
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Meet hundreds of characters!
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10 or more hours of gameplay!
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4 or more hours of hilarious side quests!
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A dark, cyberpunk soundtrack by The Krundas!
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More than 40 levels!
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You can connect to vInternet anytime and explore!
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Use Chips to learn new abilities!
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Episodic story!
Project Elysium
Experience the ultimate survival challenge in this exciting wave-based strategy game.
Explore different maps and meet up with your friends to face the hordes of enemies together.
By using one of the many upgrade choices and map features you will be able to increase your power to defend yourself.
Use your money to open doors and clear debris, to explore more and more of the beautiful landscapes.
Choose between different difficulty settings to adjust the game to your own skills and try your best to unlock even the hardest achievements.
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
Stars in Shadow
Like many other reviewers, I am a MoO2 (Master of Orion II) fan, and my review will be mostly based on what Stars in Shadow (SoS) does better or worse than MoO2.
Pros:
- Tech tree – I found the MoO2 tech tree irritating with its division into fields that most races could only research one tech of, forcing the player to skip many useful technologies. SoS doesn’t do this, you can always develop all techs in your tree. The SoS tree view is well thought out and shows the relationships clearly, with most techs visible from the start of the game (a few techs are added to the tree by game events). A few developments are only available to specific races, which adds additional variety.
– Real player with 4191.3 hrs in game
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The Review:
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It’s nowhere near done but it already scratches the MOO2 itch better than any other space 4X game to date, including the recent remake which was ‘meh and didn’t really feel like it was designed by somebody who really understood what made MOO2 the game we can’t let go of but also the game that many of us would have liked to have seen improved on by a sequel or spiritual successor that didn’t drift as far away from the good stuff as most did.
For the record, I am one of those nerds who has not stopped playing MOO2 since it came out with 2-3 binges a year in more recent years. I’ve also tried a lot of other 4x space games hoping they’d match up or provide an equally worthy but totally new experience. So far I’ve been most impressed with Sword of the Stars which I loved for a lot of reasons but found it lacking on the longevity factor.
– Real player with 2449.7 hrs in game
Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
I don’t know where to start. And I don’t like that I can’t give a thumbs up AND thumbs down. But this will be a long review.
First, for a game billed as a strategy game, there is but one strategy. And that is to build enough ships to make seven ship fleets to protect each of the four quadrants of your map. This is not difficult with the exception that you play on the highest of three difficulty modes. Once you figure this out, this is where my biggest problems comes into play
- This is not a strategic game. It’s a reactive game because the Cylons always have the initiative. They will attack your fleet or your planets and you simply react to the attacks - the entire campaign, until the very end.
– Real player with 1824.5 hrs in game
“Sometimes you have to roll a hard six."
- Commander William Adama, Battlestar Galactica BSG 75
INTRODUCTION
While “Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock” it’s own game, the basic mechanics of the previous game “Starhammer: The Vanguard Prophecy” are there, with vertical movement now more refined and group moves, making the movement of fleets early on much easier. Players of that game will feel right at home, and if you don’t have the previous game, it’s a crime not to pick it up on a sale - it’s that much fun.
– Real player with 435.9 hrs in game
Final Theory
Final Theory is basically turn based space combat with different classes of ships pew pewing each other. It’s a great little game that keeps being updated and improved (so updating this review - again).
If you’re looking for an in depth space strategy, this is not for you, as it’s more tactical space combat at the core, however with the latest version there is now some strategy involved in how you configure your Fleets, based on the numbers you can have and the upgrades you have against certain hulls (Destroyer, Cruiser, Battleship etc.).
– Real player with 523.5 hrs in game
65/100 Challenging + Frustrating ..mmh, rather not play this without reading ;(
EDIT: ..NEW DLC Royal Navy (Dec 2020)
***PLAYGUIDE scroll down
decent game (runs on tablet/notebook) with quite some flaws, so the fun is limited and that´s why most players give up after some hours.
Not sure I keep on playing this, it´s a real chore ;(
Main Limiters are:
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only 1 move per turn (so wasting moves can be deadly)
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AI is quite good even at Novice level
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Frustration comes when you are head to head with AI and lose by 1 move to start Final Thesis Nuke ;((
– Real player with 80.8 hrs in game