Sword of the Stars is a sci-fi space opera style game set in the distant future. Four races battle it out for power, and you choose which side to align yourself to - be it the humanoid Solforce, the reptilian Tarkas, the insectoid Hivers or the mysterious, aquatic Liir. You find yourself in the middle of a battleground, and you have to really rush your techtree up (which takes a lot longer than you'll be comfortable with) to even hope to survive. The tutorial and manual do their best to illustrate a basic means of survival and progression to you, but you'll mostly find yourself working things out on your own, which isn't easy in a game of this type.Having said that, games in this genre are never very user friendly to begin with, so if you're a big enough fan you will manage to delve deep into its universe, and should be able to extract some good times out of it. Like most games of it's type, it has no strict 'story mode'. It just gives you predefined scenarios and a reasonably in-depth back story to let you make your own stories, which can be quite entertaining at times, but it eats up a large amount of time and for a quick burst game it just doesn't fill it's niche.
The route you take in the scenarios is an extremely varied one, and you'll never experience the same story twice, as your progression and inhabitation of the solar systems can take whichever route you want - whether you go for the safest approach or the daredevil but more exciting approach, is all up to you. The game splits itself into two main modes: the turn-based exploration mode, where your fleets bounce around between the different planets, and the realtime combat mode, which, although a nice addition, never really captures your attention. You'll find yourself setting the lowest possible 'max combat time' when you set your game up, and even that's infuriating if you get jumped by enemies when you don't have any combat ships of your own - there's no 'flee' option, or 'fast forward', so you'll just be sitting around waiting for minutes on end wondering where your life is going. The combat viewpoint is also a drain - they've chosen to put it into a third person, 3D style camera mode, but the graphics and horrid controls leech any real depth or excitement out of this. The fact that you'll often be oblivious to where your opponents are, because of the camera, is also a major kill-joy- you'll be waiting around looking around for any little sign of a hostile, who's probably whizzing around on the other side of a planet.
All in all the game is more elitist than I could handle. Big fans of the genre would definitely extract enjoyment out of the game, but the fact is that in a market with Galactic Civilizations II and other similar games, you'll find yourself wondering was there ever a need for Sword of the Stars? It's an interesting look at the style, but it falls short in almost every way against it's competitors.
I'm 14 and I'm a student. I've always lived in South London, and don't plan on changing that anytime soon. I enjoy poor horror movies and good comedies. I love MMOs and FPSs mostly, but I play pretty much every genre there is.
