Homeworld Remastered Collection
PLEASE SEE EDIT AT BOTTOM, ORIGINAL REVIEW IS POSTED IN ITS ENTIRETY FROM RELEASE TO CURRENT STATE
Sadly, as a HW player since the first game came out, (Back in 1999) I cannot recommend this game.
The first time I played Homeworld, I was a young boy about 8 years of age. My grandfather introduced me to the game, and whenever I go see him I will still play LAN games against him, on the same two disks that we have always played on. Now, with that being said, at 8 years of age I didn’t really understand tactics or how to win, the main objective for me was to build a heavy cruiser and try bum rushing the enemy mothership, praying that my prized cruiser didn’t get salvaged in the process! As I grew older and understood the game more, I enjoyed it more as I began using formations and tactics to alter the outcome of battles, some of which were against slim to none odds.
– Real player with 168.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy RTS Games.
Homeworld remastered collection
Homeworld is one of my favorite games, when i heard it was coming to steam, i immediately bought it (and it was the reason i got into steam) and when i got my first game, i couldn’t be more excited.
By playing both remastered and classic versions, i can see all the improvements they have done, and unlike many remasters out there in popular games, this one actually improves some gameplay mechanics rather than just giving some crispy new graphics.
Classic version
– Real player with 93.3 hrs in game
Imperium Galactica II
One of the most addictive games I’ve ever played. On one level I hate this game because of the amount of hours I’ve sat glued to it, getting my a_s_s kicked over and over again (my actual playtime is higher since I played this before it came on Steam). I’d say if you have problems with losing all sense of time when you play games, and might lose an entire week, then tread carefully with this one.
The good:
Overall a very compelling simulation.
The game is filled with interesting choices and trade-offs…
– Real player with 411.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy Classic Games.
I have finished the game. In Steam version.
There are bugs that I encountered these:
-While you are in enemy planet ground battle , if you see a construction state of any Defense Tower, ground units wont listen you and attack it automatically.
-Sometimes ordering Fleet to attack to somewhere doesnt work, You need to press Alt or Ctrl , Reason is , It is a move command setbind and stucks randomly
Review:
This game maybe have not graphics but THE CREATIVITY is the best thing in this game
You can play in Ground and in Space
– Real player with 177.7 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
Read More: Best Strategy Sci-fi Games.
“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
Nexus - The Jupiter Incident
I liked this game and it was fun while it lasted, but a malfunction in the core won’t allow me past the first part of the last mission. So I cannot recommend a game I’m not allowed to beat. Once the game gets to the Noah Colony it gets pretty good for a while. Then it tails off at the end leaving a mediocre taste in your mouth. If you want more you can continue reading.
At the end some problems become apparent. Your ships remain un-upgradable just stacking points on, the Angelwing was god-like at the end. While others wither to your backlines because of a real deficit. Then you get a few ships late in the game that never really live up to anykind of hype. Wonky AI that will take a ship attacking another behind an ally not allowing your ship to fire. Mission with the convoy after arriving at Noah Colony, I’m looking at you.
– Real player with 148.9 hrs in game
Nexus The Jupiter Incident is one of those games that you wish had gotten popular simply because it deserves a sequel and copycats. It is a stunningly atmospheric game with highly complex, yet easy to use space combat. It is a Space Opera in the truest sense of the word.
You start the as spaceship captain Marcus Cromwell in command of the Stiletto out on the fringes of the solar system on patrol. Things quickly pick up speed however as aliens, wormholes and other outside forces conspire to put you smack dab in the middle of an epic conflict between various hostile alien armadas and a lost remnant of humanity. As you progress through the game your own fleet grows in size and power, new characters join your side and you will often get little role playing elements in the missions letting your chose how to proceed.
– Real player with 87.1 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
Star Ruler 2
Well, this is long overdue, and I still feel I’m going to do it wrong, but… better do it now and try to help out, I guess.
So, I’m going to start this review off with a bit of background information to explain just why I think this game, despite some shortcomings, might be the best thing that has happened to the 4X genre since its equivalent of sliced bread:
Its predecessor, Star Ruler, was characterized by the devs as ‘a mod for its engine’, with SR2 being said to be even more so. Indeed, if you stripped away all the stuff that could be read in a human-comprehensible form by something as simple as Notepad, the only thing left aside from the core engine’s binaries (which presumably handle files, graphics, sounds and all that backend stuff no sane or insane modder would need to tamper with) would be textures, models, sounds and particle systems. (And you can change those, too - you just need proper tools to handle all of those except the particles, which are handled by a built-in particle editor.)
– Real player with 1071.0 hrs in game
I whole-heartedly recommend Star Ruler 2. My full 2900-word review can be found here: http://www.mercedesmace.com/blog/review-for-star-ruler-2
Highlights:
What I appreciate about SR2 is what I loved about Endless Space, SoSE, Star Drive: it’s the sci-fi 4x that we love, but the mechanics are different at a fundamental level. I’m not sure I’ve played a game before SR2 in which the varied win-conditions are so integrated. The “currencies” of the game are effective at all stages of play: some technologies can be researched using energy, cash, or influence; artifacts and some ship components require excess energy to activate/build; cash can be used on the diplomacy screen, energy during some diplomatic actions; some combat modules require energy to activate; diplomatic actions allow access to some resources (not currencies; see below), or enable actions that affect currencies; currency, resources, and diplomacy can all facilitate system defense.
– Real player with 787.0 hrs in game
ENDLESS™ Space 2
Edit2: Running in a max sized galaxy that is now fully colonized down to the last planet and has eight well-developed factions at war on around turn 675. Still playing, only complaint is that the ‘end turn’ gets a bit bumpy due to so many ship battles being resolved in the background - but it’s still far faster than in early access. The AI is serviceable, good on 3 factions, meh to idiotic on the rest - Riftborn are by far the hardest, Vodyani are the dumbest always puttering around one system, definitely needs some work. No game killing bugs thus far thanks to that last patch. Enjoying the competitive/cooperative multi-faction quests, I’d like to see a lot more of that in future content.
– Real player with 1806.8 hrs in game
TL;DR: This title is -by far- the best 4X on the market. Each aspect, exploring-expanding-exploiting-exterminating is a constant challenge on higher difficulty levels in single player and multiplayer can be quite the expierence if you like very quick thinking and immidiate punish of mistakes. Each race is very different, demanding rather unique playstyles but offer a different strategy option. Best UI i have -EVER- seen. Right click to go back. Brilliant. I look dumb now trying this in other games. Collour coded sheets and unified symbols. A pleasure. A lore-universe to be hooked on and the occaisional humor to keep it fresh. Go Sophons! For Science! One Sentence: Its worth every penny. Guaranteed.
– Real player with 484.8 hrs in game
X2: The Threat
X2: The Threat is the continuation of the X saga and is, for it’s time, the quintessential space game. That is not to say it starts off that great. Most people will quit after a few hours of gameplay and label it a mediocre experience and they’d be right to do so, X2 is not a game that impresses in the beginning, it is a game that requires tremendous investment in time and effort before you start to understand and appreciate the scope of the game.
As the game starts up you’re treated to some low quality cut-scene with poorly modeled people trying to cover up their lack of animation, you’re then booted into the game with little instruction on how to do anything and a tutorial that is so completely useless at actually teaching you anything it might as well be a deterrent to keep new players from learning the game.
– Real player with 200.7 hrs in game
An hour or so into the game, I’m given a transporter ship and a mission to ferry some civilians from one sector to another. Accompanying me is my employer’s daughter, Saya (who bears an uncanny likeness to Alyx Vance). Just as I’m approaching the last jump gate separating me and my destination, Saya’s voice crackles over comms: “…I think we’re being followed…I swear I saw a pirate ship.” We pass through the gate and my heart sinks. A dozen pirate ships were waiting for me. I hand the controls over to the ship’s computer and hop in the aft turret to lay down some desperate cover fire. The intelligent auto-pilot system gracefully and effectively dodges the brightly colored emmisions from the enemies' gamma impulse rays as I fire wildly into space.
– Real player with 79.2 hrs in game
Space Pirates And Zombies 2
Quick note
The mixed rating is because the devs could not add
multiplayer into the game due to major issues.
The devs made a fairly long detailled post about this, but it was removed.
So here’s the short version for wy it was cancelled :
After updating the game engine (Unity),the devs realised that unity completely changed how multiplayer works, thus all work done on multiplayer before that was lost.
They wanted to upgrade to the newer engine to improve performance and the long term compatibility with the new systems coming in the next few years. (Performance was indeed much better after the upgrade.)
– Real player with 454.5 hrs in game
Space Pirates and Zombies 2 is representative of one of the least-chosen paths a sequel can take. Rather than refining and rehashing the original, SPAZ 2 attempts to branch off on its own with an experimental spin on the original’s gameplay. In some ways, this is a welcome change. In others, it hasn’t gone so well.
Gameplay in SPAZ 2 is split cleanly between a strategic layer, a Mount & Blade-styled world map the player flies around, and the tactical layer, where their mothership does the actual fighting. Between fights, the player can assemble, strip down, or rearrange their mothership with collected parts. AI-handled captains follow similar goals with similar means all across the world map, forming their own relationships as they go along.
– Real player with 126.6 hrs in game
Battlevoid: Harbinger
A Video review is available here https://youtu.be/eZNjjyKKlyg
Do you like well written fleshed out stories and intense narrative?
Well bad luck, there will be none of that!
Do you like cutting edge graphics and photo realistic image quality?
HaHaHa, nope.
Do you like actually paying for game when without a doubt there is a flash game somewhere that provides a similar if not potentially more fleshed out experience for free?
Hang about, wasn’t this going to be a positive review?
Battlevoid Harbinger is a grindy time sink.
– Real player with 160.7 hrs in game
What can I say about Battlevoid: Harbinger? When it comes to playing the game, the first thing that comes to mind is the old catchphrase from the board game Othello: “Easy to play, difficult to master”.
The overall premise is fairly simple: you fly around a galaxy, completing missions, collecting resources (Scrap and Technology), and outfitting a small fleet of ships. The longer you play, the more challenging the enemies become, but the rewards are commensurately greater as well.
Now, when I say “small fleet of ships”, I do mean SMALL. This isn’t some Grand Strategic Space RTS on the order of, say, Homeworld, Sins of a Solar Empire, or Stellaris. You start out with a single ship, and at most you’ll have three ships under your command.
– Real player with 35.7 hrs in game