Date played: March 12th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10
Firaxis is easily one of my favorite developers of all time. Games like Civilization and XCOM have always been excellent, so I keep a close eye on anything Firaxis puts out. Sid Meier's Starships is a game about piloting a fleet of starships through the galaxy, engaging in turn based combat.
The big thing that makes this a lot different than Civ is that you only get to control the fleet itself. This isn't a game about sending multiple fleets on giant wars, it's about controlling that single fleet. There are planets, cities and improvements to the planets, but the real meat of the game is in the ship battles. The other stuff is mostly just to gain resources to upgrade my ships and technology.
I really like what I've played so far. The combat is pretty deep, though It's been a bit too easy. Of course, this is my first game, so I left the default "Easy" difficulty on, so I think next game I will crank it up a notch. The bulk of the game is played on a grid where units of my fleet navigate through asteroids, planets and other obstacles to fight enemy ships.
Depending on how the ship is equipped, many different actions are made available. For example, my flagship is setup with some extremely powerful long range lasers, a couple of short range guns, one torpedo, a stealth module and some sensors. It has strong engines to power all this equipment and modest shields and armor. Another of my ships is setup as a very fast attack ship that can also deploy small fighter ships from it's cargo bay. There are tons of ways to upgrade the ships, though it will take a bit of time to find a setup I really like.
The missions are rather straight forward, but fun. Kill all enemies, reach a target or escort a ship have been the main ones so far. There are other factions in space too that compete for conquest of the galaxy, but I haven't really tried out the diplomacy options yet. I really like Starships. It combines elements of turn based combat that I love and the awesomeness of space and galactic conquest. It also keeps itself simple, fast and easy to play, which I appreciate.
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10
Firaxis is easily one of my favorite developers of all time. Games like Civilization and XCOM have always been excellent, so I keep a close eye on anything Firaxis puts out. Sid Meier's Starships is a game about piloting a fleet of starships through the galaxy, engaging in turn based combat.
The big thing that makes this a lot different than Civ is that you only get to control the fleet itself. This isn't a game about sending multiple fleets on giant wars, it's about controlling that single fleet. There are planets, cities and improvements to the planets, but the real meat of the game is in the ship battles. The other stuff is mostly just to gain resources to upgrade my ships and technology.
I really like what I've played so far. The combat is pretty deep, though It's been a bit too easy. Of course, this is my first game, so I left the default "Easy" difficulty on, so I think next game I will crank it up a notch. The bulk of the game is played on a grid where units of my fleet navigate through asteroids, planets and other obstacles to fight enemy ships.
Depending on how the ship is equipped, many different actions are made available. For example, my flagship is setup with some extremely powerful long range lasers, a couple of short range guns, one torpedo, a stealth module and some sensors. It has strong engines to power all this equipment and modest shields and armor. Another of my ships is setup as a very fast attack ship that can also deploy small fighter ships from it's cargo bay. There are tons of ways to upgrade the ships, though it will take a bit of time to find a setup I really like.
The missions are rather straight forward, but fun. Kill all enemies, reach a target or escort a ship have been the main ones so far. There are other factions in space too that compete for conquest of the galaxy, but I haven't really tried out the diplomacy options yet. I really like Starships. It combines elements of turn based combat that I love and the awesomeness of space and galactic conquest. It also keeps itself simple, fast and easy to play, which I appreciate.
