There isn’t a lot of call for it I grant you but it was something I was trying to take advantage of in one game but couldn’t understand why it wasn’t there. This changed with an update focused on almost nothing but Diplomacy and added the open-borders treaty. When I first started playing many of the diplomatic features were spartan or the AI was very unbalanced on what they could offer you vs what you could offer them. ![]() These improvements are also why this review is coming at you a little later than usual. Without that change none of the other improvements could have been made. The decision to use the Unity engine was probably the best decision the developers could have done. I can’t say for sure but I think many of the problems in the original game were due to the engine. Sure, the previous game had its faults and was cut down in its prime but this is a superior game in terms of gameplay, engine and features. With that out of the way I can honestly say that StarDrive 2 is an amazing game. While I wasn’t an original backer, I did purchase the game early on and I was generally unhappy that things were broken and further upset that a sequel was in the works before the game had been fixed, when it had been promised it would be. These kind of improvements were missing from the original and it made many kickstarter backers feel betrayed for the lack of support. Speaking of improvements, since the games release there have been several updates to enhance, tweak or just plain revamp many of the games features based on feedback from players. All in all this was the only instance I was truly confused by the game and that is a major improvement. Once I did have it sorted I realized how much more strategic ground combat was and enjoyed it much more. I just couldn’t ascertain at what range the rifles would work so it was trial by fire to figure it out. The only difficult thing I needed to learn had to do with the ground combat. This time around there is only a mild learning curve, which made this a much more enjoyable experience. The previous game menus were clunky it was difficult to find specific information and there were sub-menus that just didn’t need to be there. This is a major inconvenience when you consider that taxes have a direct impact on your populations happiness and not all planets are going to be as happy with your regulations. Such as you can only set an empire wide tax rate so you can’t tax individual planets at different rates. The micromanagement features are not as robust as they are in other games. I spent several hours customizing ships, micromanaging my planets all because this game is much more intuitive than its predecessor. The biggest one for me was the ship building. This lack of engagement had me almost putting the game down early on.Īs I soldiered on, I found myself enjoying many of the advanced features. For a game that offers no multiplayer I expected it to have something other than conquest to keep me interested until the end but it doesn’t. The best way to describe it is that each game is a skirmish with random events to provide micro-stories but none of them provide an overarching narrative. All of these features allow you to choose how complex and how difficult you want to make the game but it also ensures each game is unique.Īs is tradition for most 4X strategies of this kind there is no story campaign. Once these details have been fleshed out you can than customize the map size (which is procedurally generated), the richness of the planets, how many habitable planets there are and a few other things. These traits ensure that neither you, nor your opponents, will be perfect. After you have chosen your race you must now decide what specific traits, be they positive or negative but never both from the same tree, your race will have. The way players will do this is by first selecting the race they wish to represent. That is the premise behind zer0sum’s new strategy-based game where you eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate (4X), StarDrive 2. There are Vulfen (Wolves), Owlwoks (Owls), Kulrathi (Bears) and more oh my! And during our time traversing amongst the stars, the universe has taught stars has taught us one insurmountable truth, conquer or be conquered. ![]() This description almost feels like an understatement when it comes to the other races we’ve encountered! Consequently we’ve come to know the universe is a strange and wonderful place. The speed of light was constant, too, at least until the StarDrive was discovered and we learned how to traverse the universe at speeds greater than light itself. In this world, the known laws of physics are just a starting point. In the world of games, though, we can stretch the rules somewhat. What if the speed of light wasn’t a constant? In the real world, until some clever fellow proves otherwise, that’s what we have to work with. As the old saying goes, “Physics isn’t just a good idea, it’s the law”.
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