Sword of the Stars (page 2 of 2)

You can zoom in to see individual weapons systems

You can zoom in to individual weapons systems

Communications Blackout

Players used to loads of tactical information will also find themselves disappointed by the lack of battlefield intel that Sword dishes out. There is very little information that's transmitted to the player, which is strange given the combat focused gameplay. It seems that while each civilization has figured out how to easily move between star systems and construct dozens of large-scale war machines, they can't exactly figure out how to give precise damage reports. Even worse, Sword features some of the most ill-conceived decisions ever made for a tactical combat engine.

Among other things you are only able to bring a fraction of your vessels into combat at any given time, with the rest being set aside as "reinforcements." This predictably leads to frustration - why is most of my fleet hanging back while only two cruisers take on a massive Hiver fleet? Any reinforcements that do arrive in time will be destroyed piecemeal, or worse, will not be able to get to the fray in time because each battle has a set time-limit - yes, apparently these vessels can only hold enough ammunition to fight for less than five minutes at a time. Together all of these problems add up to make quite a disappointing tactical combat system, one which relies more on gimmicks and highly unrealistic rules to make up for the numerous faults inherent in their own system. Why they simply didn't clone the tactical combat of Homeworld remains a mystery.

Seppuku

Though it's an interesting stab at the 4X genre, Sword of the Stars ultimately falls on its own blade. Certainly there are some excellent aspects to the game: this is perhaps the only game in the genre to actually make each race feel unique and balanced, for example. However, it isn't enough to compensate for the flawed tactical combat that lies at the game's core; nothing save a complete overhaul can redeem SotS from its current mediocrity.

A spaceship to make Prince proud

A spaceship to make Prince proud

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