Sword of the Stars review

If, like me, your only experience of 4X 'til now has been the occasional drunken dalliance with an Aussie beer brand, then you're in for a bit of a treat with Kerberos Productions' Sword of the Stars.

To the initiated of course, 4X stands for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate, an abbreviated acronym alluding to the multi-faceted, megalomaniacal gameplay on offer in a subgenre of the turn based strategy category. In Sword of the Stars, the 4X on offer is distinctly of the space based variety, with you playing as one of four races bent on galactic domination.

For the unadventurous, there's the role of playing as the humans, while the more exotic races comprise the bug resembling Hivers, the lizard-like Tarka and the fishy Liir. Aesthetic differences aside, the four races also differ in the way they shuttle themselves about the cosmos, which lends the game interesting strategic depth.

The humans, for example, possess one of the fastest methods of transport available, a node-to-node jump system, but it is inflexible in that it won’t let you change direction on the fly. The Hivers, meanwhile, play tortoise to the humans' hare, as they are only capable of sub-light speeds, although they do gain access to Borg-like warp gate ships that allow them to jump from planet to planet, as long as they’ve got a warp gate ship at either end of the journey.

Dalek tendencies

While the other Xs may disagree, the main aim of the game is to exterminate, which is facilitated by building a fleet that makes the Spanish Armada look like an outing at the local boating pond. At your disposal is a gamut of ship types, ranging in purpose from utilitarian types such as refueling tankers to all-out war machines.

What's more, you have some say in the design of your ships, as you are able to mix and match three different sections of the super structure, namely the command module, main hull and engine, and you can also choose what armaments to equip before sending them out to commit inter-galactic genocide.

SotS' gameplay comprises two distinct elements, one strategic and the other tactical. The strategic side of things takes place on a three dimensional star map. From there, you'll decide your overall strategy, such as what planets you wish to conquer and in what order, as well as handle other aspects such as technological research, ship design, build queues and the economic focus of your conquered worlds.

Keeping up with the Joneses

Naturally enough, researching new technologies is paramount unless you're looking to become space debris whenever you bump into any of your enemies, and like most other parts of the game, its simple to grasp yet challenging to master. There are a variety of technology trees for you to research varying from weapon designs to engine types to biological enhancements, and researching some of these can open up further areas for study.

The conundrum lies in trying to decide which the best are for any given moment, and this is complicated further by the fact that each time you play a new game you will randomly be assigned different researchable technologies by the AI, which means that you can't just come up with one winning design or spec and stick with it.

Nuke the entire site from orbit

Unlike some other games, planetary conquest in SotS is handled from space, with a simple click on one of your colonization ships decking out an uninhabited planet in your own colours. Taking over contested planets is a wee bit trickier, being resolved through a battle in orbit around the planet, which is where the tactical side of things comes in.

A bit like the Starfleet Command games, the tactical battles are played out on a two dimensional plane, but the graphics do a good job of making it seem like you are flying and fighting in three dimensions. Depending on the size of the assailing and defending forces, you’ll partake in something ranging from a one on one encounter to an epic clash, fought out in real time. You can select and issue detailed orders to individual ships or your entire fleet during these skirmishes, targeting individual ship components for destruction, or if you prefer a more hands-off role, you can opt to allow the AI to auto-resolve the conflict.

One of the things that can make or break a game of this type is the complexity of the interface, but thankfully SotS has little to worry about in this regard. In addition to keyboard shortcuts, the whole thing can be manipulated by mouse, and the level of depth to the interface is kept simple so that you are never more than a couple of mouse clicks away from the strategic star map.

Ships? I see no ships

That said there is room for some improvement. A visual cue to identify ships that have ran out of fuel would be a decent addition (at present you get an audio warning, but when you have 20 or so different fleets in transit it can be tricky tracking down which is running on empty), and some sort of hull integrity indicator on enemy ships during tactical battles would be another worthy consideration.

Cool graphics is probably something you wouldn’t be looking for in a 4X title, but the visuals during the real time sections are certainly more than serviceable. Ship designs are imaginative, well detailed and diversified according to race, and there’s a versatile camera that lets you zoom in to see individual ship armaments open fire, or you can pull back for the big picture. Much of your time however, will be spent gazing at the galactic star map and various menus, but these are tastefully coloured and well laid out.

My god.. It’s full of stars

While the turn-based tag may be off-putting to some, Sword of the Stars is an easily accessible and enjoyable game that deserves more than a niche audience. In spite of some minor ambiguity as concerns the control interface, it's a game that has a fairly shallow learning curve, yet promises much in the way of long term amusement for those who don’t like their 4X to be too taxing.