Strategery

I love 4X strategy games. Especially turn based ones. One reason Civilization is my favorite game series of all time. In addition to the new Civ expansion coming this spring, there are another few strategy type games I’m keeping an eye on.

Legends of Pegasus

I recently read about Legends of Pegasus the Space Sector blog, which is a good one for hearing about space strategy games, as that is their purpose. Reading about the game I was immediately reminded of Star Wars: Rebellion and Galactic Civilization 2.

The game is a classic turn-based strategy title. The only difference is that encounters take place in real-time. This means that if you encounter an enemy faction, you’ll switch to a real-time combat at the end of the turn. Instead of loading an instanced combat map however, the combat takes place right where the enemy ships met. So you may end up fighting next to your settled or upgraded planets, leaving them as well as structures in the orbit open to real-time attacks. Resulting changes to the game environment will be reflected in the following strategy phase.

That sounds pretty cool. It’s a classic turn based 4x game, but combat is done in a real time tactical event. That was one of the coolest things about Rebellion; controlling your ships and directing them how and where to attack. For the time, it was really advanced stuff. I’ve been looking for a game that did that as well. Never got into Empire at War for some reason.

But from the sounds of Pegasus, it might achieve that same feel. Make your strategic move, hit the turn button, fight the invading fleet. The fact that you have to defend your orbital facilities adds an element to the mix as well.

The game contains a ship editor which players can use to freely create their ships. The available components depend on what you’ve researched so far. Based on the general body size (e. g. Corvette or Destroyer) players will equip their ship with different modules. These modules have special purposes. Players can e. g. opt for military equipment to achieve better armoring and more weapon slots or research equipment to improve sensors and scanners. This basic setup offers slots for different components like weapons, drives, scanners etc., which are added by simply dragging and dropping them on the ship. The different components equipped determine the ship’s abilities. As players become technologically advanced, they can specifically target the different systems of an enemy ship. If a ship is hit, all equipped components will suffer damage, impacting and eventually destroying their function.

While this does not sound nearly as cool as the ship editor in Galactic Civ 2, it sounds like the ships will be more versatile. In GC2, you just had to pick between attack, defense and speed. There were a few more modules, but those ended up being special ships. The last expansion added a few cool features like the warp bubble though. With Pegasus, it seems like it will be less about designing how the ships looks (sad) and more about having a ship’s function be tweaked (cool).

I look forward to giving this game a try when it comes out.

Faster Than Light

I also heard about this game on the Space Sector blog.  It’s a bit different in that it does not appear to be a 4x game per say. You have a crew, you explore space, you upgrade your ship. The graphics look simple, but that’s okay.

• A setting of intergalactic war:  The player is tasked with a mission vital to the survival of the Galactic Federation currently threatened by a nearly victorious rebellion.
• A story that engages, but does not dictate player experience:  The setting provides direction but the real story of FTL is created by the player and it evolves organically during each play-through.
• An arms race: The locations and enemies grow increasingly dangerous over the course of the game.  To survive you will need to find and purchase equipment; hire and level up crew; and upgrade the ship’s systems.
• Exploration is key:  Every location you Faster-Than-Light travel to contains a text based event.  This includes scenarios like attempting to help an infected space station pleading for help; slavers demanding your surrender; hunting pirates through a nebula; and surviving an uncharted asteroid field.
• A random galaxy:  Each play-through will feature different encounters, events, choices, and results to your decisions.
• Permadeath is at the core of FTL:  Knowing that your crew’s lives are in your hands and that each battle could mean the end of your trek fills the player with a sense of urgency and desperation that adds importance to every decision.
• Sleek and focused gameplay:  FTL focuses on the development of your ship, recreating the atmosphere of space operas without the countless menus and confusing interface that frequently go hand in hand with ship management and galactic sim games.  Currently each game lasts between 15 and 90 minutes.

All of that reminds me a lot of StarFlight. I loved that game and if this comes out as an upgraded version, I’d be happy. It’s a Kickstarter project, but has already achieved it’s funding goals, by quite a bit. Might be a perfect game for short play periods, where you just explore and advance your ship and crew.