Nexus: The Jupiter Incident review

The appeal of space combat can be traced back to the opening moments in Star Wars when the Star Destroyer roars over the camera, spewing laser fire at the fleeing rebel ship. In one unforgettable moment science fiction had become sexy.

Nexus does a brilliant job of replicating the cinematic excitement of battling spaceships. The vast-vista of space becomes a tapestry of dancing fighters, gigantic looming capital ships and criss-crossing laser fire.

When your zoom into the thick of the action, explosions light up space and violently shake the screen. Little details also impress. Take, for example, the way ships use their thrusters to navigate, or the way they translucently shimmer when cloaked. One things for sure, this is a very beautiful game

First Impressions

However despite the good looks, the initial impression Nexus gives is not a good one. For starters, the tutorial is poor and with only a few pointers provided on the opening missions understanding the subtleties of the control system is made quite difficult.

The pacing of the first third of the game is also poorly judged. For several missions you are given only one ship to control and very little to do strategically. The emphasis of these missions instead rests on the narrative, which unfortunately comes at the expense of an exciting or challenging experience.

Expanded horizons

However things open up a lot more when you are finally given a few ships to play with, and Nexus is granted depth as well as beauty. It’s just a shame it takes so long for this tactical freedom to come to the forefront of the design.

From here on in, save for the occasional dud mission, Nexus becomes a much richer gaming experience that offers some expansive and explosive battles.

Slow burn

Of course this isn’t the first time with seen a RTS set in space, with the Homeworld games also offering superficially similar space-age strategy shenanigans, but Nexus plays quite differently from Relic's title.

For one thing, the pace is significantly slower. Arguably a bit too slow at times; you often spend ages witling away enemy shields or crawling between navigation points, often for minutes at a time.

When the epic battles start, however, the sedate pace makes issuing orders much more manageable than most RTS games, although you’ll still need to use the pause button on occasion to orchestrate mass-manoeuvres or to get a better idea of the flow of battle.

Control panel

The control system is kept simple, even if the interface is overly cluttered. You can move your ships either via pre-set navigation points in the objective bar, or by setting up your own manually (which is a bit fiddly). Your ships can then be told to attack the shields, hulls or individual devices of an enemy vessel.

Much of Nexus’ strategy is derived from these choices. Do you knock out your enemies shields and then cripple their hull, or render them immobile by destroying their engines? Similar decisions need to be made about your own ships, as you can divert power resources to improve weapon, engine and weapon effectiveness.

Space bbservation

Although it’s refreshingly bereft of incessant micromanagement, the problem with this less-direct method of control is that it distances you somewhat from the unfolding action. You’ll spend more time watching Nexus than you do actually playing it, as once you’ve made your tactical choices the computer does the hard work for you.

There are other, more minor, issues. Whilst the music and sound effects are excellent, the voice acting is poor, especially the annoying ramblings of the alien Gorgs. The stealth element is also a little misguided, slowing down a game that’s already slower than a sleepy sloth crawling through treacle.

At its worst, Nexus is painfully ponderous and distantly detached. At its best it’s visually stupendous sci-fi spectacular with depth as well as style. The 2001 of Real Time Strategy if you will.