So, I was poking around on Steam today and I saw this game listed with a discount. I have been in the mood for a space game lately, but nothing has really piqued my interest. I took a look at the video and was impressed by the polished UI and pretty ship battles, but I was confused as to what sort of game it was exactly and the mention of an Alpha and pre-ordering made me wonder if I would get a playable game when I hit the buy button.



Well, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Six hours later I looked down at the clock and did a double-take: so, bravo on a really fun Alpha! Here are my impressions;



1) The game was quite intuitive, and most of the time I could figure out what I needed to do with relative ease. The "Help" screens were well executed and informative when I needed them, but I could often get by just glancing through them.



2) The UI is really well done. Not only is it beautiful to look at, but it packs just the right density of data in there. The layout in the System View is particularly nice with all the right data easily visible, but not cluttered: The lovely planetary graphics lined up in the center with overviews on top and production queues neatly arranged on the bottom. Just as lovely is the Planet view, the art here really is quite good and it is a treat to see a planet spinning with it's moon slowly orbiting. The galaxy view is clean and effective.



3) Space Battles. I had no idea what to expect here, since I didn't really know what kind of a game it was: I had a bit of an "aha" moment when I learned of the phased combat system. The combat "cards" are a slick idea to keep things simple and add an element of guidance to each phase of battle. I think it's an excellent mechanic for a game like this, where you may not want to play an entire RTS game in between turns.



4) I really enjoyed the idea of defining my own ship models. It was icing on the cake when the game numbered version modifications of my models and allowed me to easily upgrade to the newest versions from the fleet screen: Very cool. It felt like a real war to have a development path for my ship models, with older models mixed throughout the fleet, but still of a same type as far as logistics and upgrades. It felt right to define a whole new ship design when I got a new hull unlocked.



I understand this is an Alpha, and that the game is not complete, so in the spirit of constructive feedback, I will lay out the things that left me somewhat wanting, who knows, maybe they will be added to the game or have already been discussed. Here we go:



A) The planetary exploitation is rather one dimensional at the moment, when I started clicking around there I was really hoping that I would be shaping the planets to my needs, maybe even teraforming them. Some more options or even an exploitation development tree would be fun, since I would like to be able to personalize the lovely planets a bit more. On that note; maybe some of the system upgrades could appear graphically as satellites or space stations orbiting the various worlds.



B) After a dozen space battles or so I felt like I didn't have a whole lot of options tactically. Maybe I needed to unlock some more "cards", but I felt like the battles needed just one more layer of depth. Something simple so as not to over-complicate things: Maybe the player could select a formation to start the battle in, or pick a special "maneuver" to play once per battle. Bonus points if the maneuvers available to choose from depend on the composition of your force. For instance, if you have a corvette, maybe you can do some sort of "kamikaze", or if you have multiple battleships or cruisers you could do a "line-of-battle".



Conclusion:



Fun game and well made: I am glad that I bought it! Can't wait to see how it turns out in the final. Sorry for the long post but I was inspired

" On that note; maybe some of the system upgrades could appear graphically as satellites or space stations orbiting the various worlds. "



I Agree, it would be fantastic !