![]() I only wish I could have spent more time doing that overall, and since that is an under-utilised portion of the game, that’s a bit disappointing. However, the combat is very good, and quite addictive. Sometimes you rush out to save a friend, or aid your allies, but most of it is pretty average. There was nothing particularly gripping about the story either. I often felt a bit lethargic playing the game in the over-world map, waiting for turns to complete so my units could move or my technologies could develop. Undiscovered map locations are uninteresting to look at, and I never felt thrilled by the prospect of venturing towards them. I never felt compelled to explore the map itself, outside of seeking out my next fight. Numerous times during my upgrading I got very bored reading through the extensive list of descriptions. The graphics overall are about average for this time of game, and honestly, that’s okay.īut the biggest question on everyone’s lips will be- “Is it fun”? The answer is yes, and no. There are a wide range of colours for all the menus and skill and tech trees that remind me of ‘Sins of a Solar Empire’ which is never a bad thing. The graphics, while a bit muddy and squashed, are colourful – I do love a colourful game. The score itself is fine, and there is some decent voice acting, though the ham is well and truly present the majority of the time. I even had a glitch where there was no sound at all, and it took me ages to notice because I had tuned everything out unintentionally. Sound design is decent with regards to combat, but in the over-world view it just becomes repetitive and inaudible after a while. This is when the game shines brightest, and its impressive to have such a deeply thought out and strategic combat system almost playing the role of after-thought in an already rich game. You can choose to put units behind cover, into the open to bait enemies, or even group them all together to gang up on individual enemies. You can even use an over-watch line of sight mechanic, where your units will protect others when enemies advance. If you’ve played XCOM, you’ll be familiar with the gameplay. From special abilities to weapons and tactics. Oh yes, first you will need to upgrade your hero with yet another billion different customisation’s and weapon preferences. Rather than playing numbers, you play tactics! Prepare your army by merging your forces, then prepare for well thought-out, but buggy strategy combat. ![]() You can start playing an entirely different game! Yeah, manual combat adds an entirely different dynamic to combat. The actual combat, of course! You can auto resolve it like a standard turn-based strategy, or…. Okay, you’re getting the hang of it now! It only took you until turn thirty-five after a couple hours, but you’re getting it now! And then you can annex sites for more resources and more strategic placement of your forces, be they exploratory scouts or entire armies. Take away this, to increase this, and lower this. However, there is great depth in everything, including balance. Were it so easy, you’d have the knack of that in no time. What do the people want? The best I can tell is that you need to redistribute your resources from food and harvesting, to perhaps recreation. Just when you think you’ve got a hold of your Empire civil unrest breaks out in your colonies! I could write a small thesis on how many different things you need to keep track of. Unless I failed horrifically in navigating my way through the numerous menus and technology trees, I soon realised that this sort of game takes a level of dedication that many people simply will not commit to. And in the tutorial, make sure you go in with an open mind, because you’ll be told how everything works… once. Upgrades within upgrades within upgrades. I have never experienced a strategy game with more mechanics. Sounds simple, but could do with a touch more depth, right? Well this is the point where the developer hears your request and dials the complexity up to fifty. Explore the map, fight the baddies, and build your ecosystem. As a space aged turn-based strategy game, you do the usual. ![]() Normally I recommend starting with a tutorial, but unfortunately the tutorial here hurts the overall flow of gameplay. That said, from an outsider’s perspective, this could be one of the most densely filled strategy games on the Xbox to date. While it is effectively a re-skin of other Age of Wonder titles, I have the benefit of it being my first entry played – therefore the positives and shortcomings are all fresh for me and I don’t have to be biased one way or another to other titles. Where does one even begin with this turn based strategy monolith? If you were to combine XCOM and Civilization, you might get something that moderately resembles Planetfall.
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