ArsGeek

This first look is going to be a bit bleary because I was up way to late last night (this morning?) tooling around the galaxy getting my sorry TEC butt handed to me by pirates. It’s been a long time since I can honestly say I’ve been so captivated by a game of this type that I’ve lost track of time. I also feel I need to publicly thank my wife for reminding me that I should sleep before heading off to a full day of work.

Now the RTS genre is not my first pick for game play heaven but the folks at Ironclad have done something right here. Really, the game isn’t just an RTS - it’s an RT4X game (real time + eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate).

The game flows, it’s engaging and it moves at a pace I can enjoy and that allows me to tweak my empire as I see fit without feeling like I’m listening to the Jeopardy theme song. What exactly have they done right? At first blush I can list several things I really enjoy about this game.

• User set pacing - slow, medium or fast. A boon to those who aren’t into twitch RTS games.
• you can zoom in and out at will. Take a look at the whole star system! See that zit on your commandant’s nose!
• The interface, after about a half hour of use becomes very easy and intuitive. This is incredibly important for games of this type and they’ve gotten it right.
• Tree. I’m getting to really love this easy to use, explorer style menu of systems, ships and structures.
• It’s pretty and it sounds good.

I’ve wended my way through the tutorials (which I’d highly recommend) and then played several different scenarios, including a map I created sans pirates. If I had one complaint, it would be pirates. I don’t think they are necessarily implemented badly and I can see their point but I just don’t like them. Thankfully the map editor (really more of a series of choices you can make) is simple. It took me all of five minutes to create and start playing on a pirate free map.

The game encompasses three races, the TEC (humans) the Advent (post-humans) and the Vasari (aliens). All three of these offer unique tech trees you can advance through.

Speaking of tech trees, I like the way they are implimented here. You’ve got military technology, civilian technology, logistical upgrades and artifacts (which can assist an many different areas). Your ability to advance through your military and civilian tech trees is based on both resources (of which there are three types) and the number of research stations you’ve built throughout your empire.

Research allows various types of ships to be constructed, weapons to be upgraded and technologies implemented to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Some tech areas can be researched more than once to bring additional benefits.

Then there are the ships. Capitol ships, the largest you’ll get, can be improved on by bringing them into combat and having them gain levels. As they increase in levels they can acquire and improve special abilities.

There’s a lot of depth to this game - of which I’ve just touched the surface. I can easily see where replayability will not be a problem, through the creation of unique maps, the fact that games like these just play differently each time and that user created mods are encouraged.

One more tidbit that I find wonderful about this game. There is no DRM involved. When you purchase it you’re given an activation code which allows for updates, patches and upgrades but you’re never treated like a criminal by the folks who are selling you the game. Way to go Ironclad!

I’ll be sure to have a full review of this title, building on what I’ve written here in the near future - that is if I can find time to peel myself away from the game to write about it. If you don’t want to wait, go grab yourself a copy!

This game reviewed on an @XI Gaming Rig.

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