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The Game:
Star Chamber is a multiplayer strategy game with a central server, which means for the most part, there is always someone around willing to die by your armada. There is no plot to the game beyond conquering your enemies, instead they concentrated all their efforts into creating an easy to learn yet complex strategy game.

The game uses cards to represent what actions you can do. You select a deck of cards and you get five of them available, at random, at any one time. You use your cards and units you can build to achieve one of three objectives that will win you the game. The first possible objective is to achieve a cultural victory. This is done by gaining 30 points of “destiny,” which you gain each round you control an artifact planet. Second, you may achieve a political victory by winning three power plays at the council election. Votes are taken at the end of every 6th turn and how many votes you get depends on how many people you have at the star chamber, which is a “planet” on each map. Finally, you may win the old fashion way of military victory by flat out conquering your opponent. These three objectives make dynamic game play, as some opponents concentrate on one single objective while others maintain a balance. Each objective has a secondary effect as well, by focusing on artifact planets you gain more tech, tech points are used to deploy cards. The more expensive cards have much greater effects. By focusing on votes you can gain “alien support” for bonus destiny and “Peacekeeping Actions” in the form of peacekeeper ships, which are basically free cruisers. By focusing on military you can often times hamper your enemy by blockading planets or destroying transports. This simple design allows for a great amount of flexibility in strategy. Coupled with the fact there are hundreds of cards, the possibilities are near endless.

The Good:
Star Chamber is easy to learn with a good tutorial and single player training missions to help you out. The interface is utilitarian and easy to use, though a bit drab. The card system provides so many different strategies and methods to use that simply forming new decks and tweaking your current deck can keep you amused for hours. Since no game is ever the same, replay value on Star Chamber is among the highest of any game. I often found myself playing against the same person five or more times in a row without it feeling at all the same as before. In part this is thanks to having a variety of maps and the randomness of the deck, as well as trying to predict the actions of your competitor. Once you are comfortable in the game a ranking and tournament system allow you to really show your strategic prowess. There are many varieties of tournaments, such as common card only, new player, and veteran styles. These events are extremely fun and if you are good enough, a great way to build your deck without spending much money. While the number of competitors are limited by the fairly small population the game maintains, I was almost always able to find a match within a few minutes of arrival.

The Bad:
Star Chamber has some cosmetic problems as well as some deeper issues. Strategy games are rarely known for their graphics and sound, and Star Chamber is no exception. While the card art is fairly good, the rest of the game is a bit drab and the sound effects are by far its weakest point, reusing sounds for many cards, some of which make no sense at all. However, cosmetic problems in a strategy game to me are hardly worth mentioning, we play strategy for strategy, not for flashy graphics. The deep issue came out in the transition between beta and regular play. In the beta mode I had access to all the cards and a fair amount of new and inexperienced (much like myself) people to battle. When it reverted to regular play I found myself with a very limited number of cards and a lot of veteran players, who both had more experience and a larger deck. Buying cards can be expensive. This means that getting into this game can be hard, especially when you spend so much time losing. My advice is, if you go into this game for real, go in strong and buy a lot of cards to get the bulk discounts they offer, that way you will only be lacking experience instead of having gaping holes in your planned deck. You can expect to spend a minimum of $40 in my opinion to have enough cards to trade/create a decent deck, though you may want to up that to $50 and buy a box of cards (36 packs + 6 tournament tickets).

The Conclusion:
This game is a multiplayer strategy collectable card gamer’s (CCGs) dream come true. For those many people who enjoy Magic and other collectable card games the price of cards is barely anything and the strategy of the game is as good if not better. For those of us who enjoy strategy games primarily over CCGs, the game is still a blast, but be warned that you may have to spend some money to level the playing field. For the non-hardcore strategy fan this game may be a bit out of your league, as the competition is very tough and the social aspect of the game is a bit weak. Since the demo is free, however, I would recommend anyone who enjoys strategy games at least give it a spin, if nothing else but to see something a little different from your usual strategy wargame.