The golden age of RTS
The year was 2000. A lot of new space strategy games came out during that period, among them this marvellous jewel. Empire builder at its core, it has many different aspects in the macro and micro management. And not only that, but it also offers a "campaign" mode where you will receive missions regularly to improve your gameplay. This is truly a gem among all.
The good:
- City builder with liberty on where tu put your buildings (effectively making it harder for enemy tanks to conquer your planet)
- Engaging missions that keep you immersed in the game
- Full control on space and ground battles
The bad:
- Combat grids not in 3D
- Information and Interface can be at times hard to manage
It has everything you want from a space strategy game: Ship designing, research, fleet builder, spying, you name it. But it also has city builder, where you can take on building and managing each of your colonies (with a city map, mind you) to get a full immersion into the managing part. Not only that, but whenever you have space battles, you can also enter the simulation and order your ships to move around a 2-D grid, avoiding enemy fire when their HP is low and flanking the enemy with your destroyers while your cruisers charge head on. Also, an interesting part of the battle scheme is that you can build tanks to invade enemy planets, and you command these tanks to destroy the defensive capabilities of the planet you're invading. It is a complete game in every aspect. Add some research and recovery missions, a clever voice acting, and you have one of the best space RTS in gaming history.
An immersive experience
The first time I tried this game, I was 16 years old. I simply loved it (but, I'm a sucker for strategy games and others, so...) not only for its variety, but also because I could plan accordingly to the missions given to me. It was a bit hard to learn the use of the interface, and it's a little awkward at first, since there are no quick accesses into the different areas (no double clicking on planets, for example) but the learning curve is not so steep as to drop the game in frustration. It was really fun invading a planet and commanding my tanks to destroy that laser fortress that was obliterating my "cannon fodder" tanks to history. Spying was another part of the fun. Get your spies to train and they will level up along with each successful mission, making their next one a bit easier, but mind you, not every spy is able to perform every mission (infiltration, sabotage, gathering info, or simply counter-intelligence) since they have their own attributes.
13 years later, and I'm still in love with this game. I imagine a current game with these aspects, and it would totally rock, even though the niche is too small for these kind of games (the true gamer has lost against the NFSs, the NBAs, the CODs and the MOHs of this world)
Ipad conversion is awesome, it retains the spirit of the original in pc, and it's quite fun to use with the touch screen (helps a lot more with the difficulties in managing the interface). My reccommendation is: If you like space RTS games, get this one, you won't regret it!