In my review of Sword of the Stars, I gave players an interesting look into a game that did away with micromanaging of most 4x games. Mostly focusing entirely on planetary conquests and battles, it also had a nice graphical display and a decent user interface. Now we bring you the latest expansion Born of the Blood, bringing you a new race called the Zuul, a few new technologies and additional game mechanics.

Options abound in the custom campaign so players will still be able to play the Born of Blood they like. You can duke it out in limited space or play massive battles with hundreds of planets at your disposal. You can have up to five different races all competing to become the most powerful empire. There are also a number of new scenarios that will challenge your gaming abilities.

In Born of Blood, the Zuul make an appearance and is a perfect species for this type of game. They have very tough ships that are better than the other four races, but the Zuul have a problem with expansion and resource management.

The previous races had different ways of traveling to a system. The Zuul are just as unique. Their method of travel is called Rip Boring and makes use of Node Space, but Rip Boring simply causes them to tear holes in Node Space. The Bore Holes will heal in time, so the Zuul have to work to keep the connections. There is also a limitation on how many can be open at any time. While it takes a bit of getting used, there is some enjoyment in this form of movement.

The Zuul can board and kidnap population from enemy planets, forcing them to work as slaves. It makes for an interesting touch and boosts production rates, but you’ll have to watch the suitability of the worlds they are working on. The shuttles can also board during ship-to-ship combat and capture them. Besides these shuttles, there are a number of new technologies that will be of interest to fans of the game.

Born of Blood still has trouble delivering information, though. We still fail to see that when research is complete that nothing prompts us to continue researching a new technology so I’ve missed by a couple of turns having my scientists do anything. Automated combat still doesn’t deliver information like it should.

New visual effects add to the excitement when controlling your battles. I like the fact that you can see the firing weapons a lot easier. Explosions are amazing eye candy now. The Zuul ship designs visually blend well with the other races styles in the game. The Zuul voices are done to be effective with the intent that they contain a menacing quality to the game.

For me, Born of Blood didn’t add a heck of a lot to Sword of the Stars. It still is as combat-focused as the original, but that is what I liked about the game anyways — combat being the main focus of the game, diplomacy and the economy take a back seat. Random events also add to the excitement. For the reasons stated above, I don’t think Born of Blood will attract new players to Sword of the Stars, but original players may find that having a new race and new technologies along with a few new improvements will breathe some additional life to the game. Otherwise, you may want to take a pass on this expansion.