Sword of the Stars is a 4X strategy game developed by Kerberos Productions and published by Lighthouse Interactive. 4X Games seem to have fallen out of favor these days, so it was a pleasant surprise to find one on the market. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this genre, 4X stands for “explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate”. For a time there were quite a few 4X games, but they are few and far between these days though some of the classics still have a hallowed place on my shelf.Kerberos is populated by veterans from the development of another classic, Homeworld: Cataclysm. And they appear to have another classic with Sword of the Stars. The premise of the game is simple enough (like most 4X games); explore the galaxy, expand your empire through colonization and conquest, and destroy your enemies. Along the way you will need to do some research so that you can expand more quickly, efficiently, and in those not-so-rare situations where the planets you find are inhabited, you can exterminate the native population.
Another aspect of the game that is interesting is the real-time 3D battles. Now you have to think on your toes and pay attention to the combat. Combat is entertaining, nice looking, and a lot of fun to plan in advance. What does that mean? Well, you can setup formations for your fleets for the upcoming battles. Attacking a planet? Setup your fleet so that your bombardment ships are up front. Fighting an enemy superior with one type of weaponry like missiles? Setup your formation so that your point defense ships cover your flanks and front of your formation. This is a novel concept for a 4X strategy game and one that adds a lot of depth to this game and a lot of enjoyment. I found myself building fleets with specific purposes, redoing formations often, and keeping a lot of ship designs on the books.
Another innovative concept SotS introduced was the concept that different races travel between the stars in different manners. For example, humans use a system of nodes which are similar to jumpgates/wormholes that connect star systems into a lattice network. The Hive, on the other hand, travels between the stars at sub-light speeds and then builds stargates at their destination. Once built, ships can travel between two star systems that are equipped with a stargate in a single turn. And then the other two races use a manner of travel that is similar to warp technology. What this does is creates a situation where each race has a completely different playstyle due to their method of travel and therefore expansion throughout the galaxy. It also means that the star systems that are in the “back” of your empire may not actually be safe from attack simply because they are far away from other star systems.
A new twist on diplomacy in SotS (and one that forced me to go to the forums to figure out the first time I played) is that you can’t automatically speak with other races that are not of your own. You must research their language before you can speak with them. And you must engage in combat against them (even if no shot is fired) in order to initiate any form of contact the first time.
Sword of the Stars is an interesting 4X game that defies common expectations of the genre. For starters, it does not force you to micromanage your colonies like most other games that have preceeded it. In fact, there are no buildings to build on your colonies, simply “infrastructure” and terraforming, and then orbital defenses (and in the case of the Hive, gate ships). The main focus of the game is on ship building, fleet management, and exploration/expansion/colonization. This allowed me to enjoy the combat more and worry less about if I was wasting resources building a structure on one planet that might or might not be useful in the long run.
One of the unfortunate parts of the game is the audio component. It is simply not that great. For example, the voices for the Hive are annoying at best and the music is uninspired. The other races also have similar voice components that after a while tend to grate on your nerves.
In addition, I felt that missiles tended to overwhelm most battles and play too great of a role. Not so much due to their power but due to their extreme range and the quantity that you face. Especially when assaulting worlds that are defended by 10 light and 10 medium defensive satellites all armed with missiles. However, it does force you to focus your research on ways to stop this threat such as point defense or heavier armor. And perhaps that was the goal of the designers.
Overall I really enjoyed Sword of the Stars and it is definitely a game I will continue to go back to for some time. It doesn’t replace some of the classics that are on my shelf, but it has its place nearby and perhaps once the modding community gets hold of it the game may have some longevity.
