Recent reviews by Minoris

Awesome little gem with a short playtime, but I actually got more fun out of it than any other game I own. I mean it: it's a very funny and enjoyable game, worth every single cent even at full price.

Try the demo, and if you think you might like it, then buy it in a heartbeat.

Boy...

This is a tricky one.

I'm not going to NOT recommend it. It's a good game, that's for sure, and I don't regret buying it. I've only played 7 hours so far, but there's no doubt I'll sink in some more hours so... yeah, it's a good game.

But it's really not as marvellous and great and perfect as some reviews suggest. For one thing, this game does not have "awesome random events". The game IS one gigantic random event. There's really nothing you can do that you are SURE will bring in positive or negative outcomes. This total lack of control feels refreshing at times, but it's more frustrating than anything else in my opinion. Some randomness is good, but to me, things get old pretty fast when everything works on a dice roll.

Other than that, the game is pretty hard and unforgiving. Good change of pace, considering the amount of titles that get thrown at our face where actions have no consequences. So don't get too attached to your crew... you'll see them die soon enough.

So... yeah. I like this game. But it's not the game of the century. It got so much praise that I guess I'm just a tad disappointed. Actually, I see it more as a time killer, kind of like Eufloria (yes, I did just compare FTL to Eufloria. Go figure).

But hey, that's just my opinion. Grab it for 2 or 3 bucks on sale and make your own opinion, you probably won't regret it.

Ah, GalCiv2... Memories...
I sank so, so many hours into this game. I owned it on CD before losing them and having to buy it again on Steam. And then sank in some more hours, for good measure.

So, what makes this game awesome? It's often compared to Civilization, but in space. Yeah, that sounds about right... but it's not totally true either. See, GalCiv has many things Civilization does not. Unique tech trees for every race: check. Unique gameplay for every race: check. Being able to customize every single ship: check. That's right, no Warrior vs Warrior here. You can build your ships however you like with the ship builder and put whatever weapons, armour, modules and engines you damn well like.

The political system is also well tought-out and doesn't feel out of place. Want a bigger economic bonus? Go Star Democracy! But what's that? Oh yeah, we're a democracy now, I can't just declare war on a whim... Alright then, let's ask what the parliament thinks. They approve? Oh yeah, let's kick some alien butt, baby! (If your approval is too low, good luck getting your people to follow you into war. They have other priorities you know.)

Okay, enough talk. You're a strategy fan? Need another 4x game to sink time into? Get this game and thank me later!

Edit #2: I'll just leave this here.

http://steamproxy.net/groups/SDVC

An unofficial StarDrive group, where discussion is open and not censored. The Steam forum is pretty heavily moderated and the developer has a habit of deleting threads and banning people left and right before and during a big sale, so this is where people go to talk about the game however they like and not risk having their threads deleted because they didn't like the game.

***

I bought this game when it was in Early Access and... I thought it was amazing. Full of promises and ideas. Back then, the developper was promising updates pretty much left and right. Multiplayer was to be added to the game. Rare resources, laying mines, better diplomacy, being able to make joint operations with allies; all of these things were to be added to the game... But none -- NONE -- were implemented. The game you can buy right now is very much the same game I bought in Early Access, minus a few bugs. Hell, some core features such as the freighters are still buggy...

So, that being said, is this a good game? Well, it's an okay game. I spent several hours on it so obviously it's not totally terrible. But the thing is, most of these hours (I'd say two third of them -- yes, that much) was trying mods and messing around waiting for the content update to come. When the Developper announced that he screwed up and decided the game was done and could not be updated anymore because of engine limitations, I stopped playing altogether.

To make up for it, the owners of StarDrive will get a discount on his next title and access to some kind of multiplayer mini-game is going to be free. The thing is : his next game is going to be a turn-based strategy game. I bought a real-time strategy game. His next game is going to get as close to a MoO2 clone as he can. Good things for the fans, I guess, but that's not what I bought.

So, to sum things up: this game is half-finished, features are lacking, it lacks polish and is very, very rough around the edges and is developped by one of the worst indy dev ever as far as PR and "I care for my customers" are involved. There are better games out there to spend your money on.

But hey, that's just my opinion.

***

Edit #1: the multiplayer mini-game has been abandoned as well. Yes, that is yet another fail to put on Zero Sum Games resume. Also, that discount I was talking about? The one the owners of StarDrive will get? That will just be a Steam coupon with an expiration date. Great, eh? Way to tell your customers to hurry it up or screw you, Zero. Way to go indeed.