Spacecom

I've bought the game yesterday, played it a few times, so I don't have a deep insight, but still this may help you in deciding if you could like this game enough to buy it. I feel compelled to do this review despite not having it played thorough and rate it, since a few people seem to give the game a bad rating because of its regional pricing - something that has nothing to do with the game's quality. So, the first impressions of the game is that it is minimalistic take in 4x games, reduced to fleet movement, basic solar system improvements and all the tactical genius you can summon up from you mind. The interface is very reduced to the absolutely necessary. There are no secondary screens, all relevant information is shown on the main screen and on smaller popup windows. Starmaps generally consist of solar systems with space lane like routes between them. Strategically relevant solar systems can be of one type - either producing, resource or repairing. If you build a fleet or an enhancement in a solar system, then resources are moved along the space lanes to the producing solar system, and can even be interdicted by enemy fleets, if they are inbetween the transports and their destination. Fleets are one of three types: Combat, Invasion or Artillery. The first fights other types of fleets and planetary shields ( I didn't fight Starfortresses sofar but my guess is you attack them also with those), the second conquers planets for you with the help of troops (which can also be built or unloaded), and the last type simply destroys a system/planet. The latter two types are vulernable in space combat and should be protected with combat fleet(s). Gameplaywise, you move you fleets around the map, invade planets, try to get resource planets for faster building and to build enhancements on your gained territory, repair planets to, well, repair your ships and construction planets as building sitres for new ships. It sounds a bit abstracts, but fits well into the overall flow of the game. Space combat is simply a function of numbers, but also combat exprience of the involved ships. There is a progress bar below each ship building up when combat starts and it does one damage to an enemy ship when that bar is full. More experienced ships have shorter bars, so apply their damage faster. You also need to take care when you are in enemy held territory, because your ships slowly take damage (representing supplies running short), so you need to plan your moves carefully. Single player consists of about a dozen missions, well built up to learn you the game, but you also have the option of Skirmishes against a varying amount of AI Players (depending on the map chosen). And I still haven't figured out how to change team colour. Multiplayer takes you online (no account required), into a game lobby where you can join or create a game. All in all this game reduces everything just to the right amount. A bit less would be too dull, and more could make it (with the current interface) too cluttered. But in the end this game offers so much strategical possibilities, despite its simple look and feels. I have to admit that I can't say much about the latter game stages or about multiplayer - haven't tried that sofar. I have mainly three complaints about the game, and at least two of those are more of a matter of taste actually. First, I don't like the (apparantly) focus on ranked multiplay - meaning you have a rank, showing how much you played, Leaderboard, etc. I am a casual gamer and I consider such things a nuisance. With the mulitplayer itself I have no problem, but this "spirit of always needing to be better" is also what turns me off games that rely to much on achievements. But that is just my opinion here. Second, I don't like the kind of "screen interlace" that flows through the game screen periodically. I know it is there to simulate bad connection/screens and should help you feel like you see a tactical screen on a ship or command bunker, but I would really appreciate an option to turn it off. Third off and this is my biggest problem with the game: not only is there no local multiplayer (*sad panda*), you also have no option to make your multiplayer games private/open or to set a password - at last from what I have seen. So, that's my first impressions of this sofar very nice game. My rating is a shaky 4, with a large amount being attributed for making the game so simple yet strategically interesting. It could be a solid 5 for me if it had local mulitplay, and if the designers would tell me how to change my teamcolor :/ I thought about giving it a 5 to offset the 1's and 2's of the "regional pricing crowd", but with 14 votes at the time of this review I hope that won't be necessary, and that the game will get a rating that reflects the game and not the circumstances of its pricing.