Sword of the Stars

"An excellent game for the "casual" 4X strategy fan"

Sword of the Stars breathes new life into the lagging 4X strategy genre, and is a solid purchase for any strategy fan.

Graphics:
The graphics in SotS are not top rate, but they are pretty enough, and plenty functional. The strategic star map is fully 3d, with sparkling suns and spinning worlds. Ships in the tactical view are well-stylized and rendered. There's not much else to say about the graphics, but most people buying this game probably aren't sticklers for graphics anyway.

Sound:
The sound and music are well done, and always appropriate. Each race has its own voice overs, and this adds a lot to the atmosphere. Battle sounds are accurate enough, but nothing special. Each race also has its own battle music, and the only complaint I have is that this music gets a bit repetitive after a while (there's only one "song" for each race).

Gameplay:
Ah, the gameplay. This is what really matters in this genre, and SotS brings to the table a system that is easy to learn, yet has plenty of depth for anyone willing to explore it. You won't find any complicated stats windows or enormous planet building lists here. SotS successfully attempts to move away from the "graphical spreadsheet" disease that has plagued several other recent 4X games.

Each planet simply has an amount of resources, a size, and a base climate. When colonized, these factors create an industrial output number, and you get a slider that determines how that output is divided between income and ship building.

Ship design is a big part of the game, and is also quite streamlined. Players choose a ship class (destroyer, cruiser, or dreadnought), then pick a command (front), mission (middle), and engine (end) sections. Different sections have different hard points for weapons, and some give other bonuses as well. For example, the Fire Control command section gives weapons greater accuracy over the standard command section.

The tech tree is diverse, with many branching technologies and random discoveries. In each game, players will eventually have access to all of the "base" technologies, as well as options to research a number of techs chosen randomly from an expanded list. In one game you might have Shields, but in the next you might get Artificial Intelligence instead.

Battles are fought tactically, in real time. The controls are similar to those of any other RTS, but the Newtonian physics of the engine take a bit of getting used to. When ships meet on the battlefield, all sorts of torpedoes, beams, and cannon-shots are exchanged. Ships can have individual turrets and sections targeted and destroyed. In fact, the targeting can be done on a per-polygon basis if the player wants to get fancy. Ballistic weapons are physically accurate, and will ricochet off armor at the right angles and bounce between close ships. Lasers will reflect off of reflective armor if they hit at the right angle. It's a joy to watch huge beam weapons carve gashes into ships, and they explode real nice too.

Sword of the Stars is a great buy for any fan of the 4X genre. It also has some appeal for RTS fans, as well as anybody turned off by the huge micromanagement required in earlier 4X games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/06