The first time I loaded the game and tried out a match, I
was stomped flat in no time. My enemy came at me with 100 angry robots,
stomping my one measly factory into dust before crushing my commander. Reboot,
try again, similar results. I had watched some of the tutorials, but I was
determined to learn it on my own. Eventually I had to cave and turn down the
production rate of my enemies in order to get any troops on the board. I played
for a few hours, and found it to be a fun game even if I never accomplished the
fabled planet smashing. Looking back, I am not sure if the finer commands had yet
to be implemented or if I just had not yet learned them, but I do recall
feeling as though I had to frantically click at all times to keep pace with
even the slowest enemy production.
The game-play is a big zerg-y in my opinion, which isn’t a
complaint, merely an observation. For some reason I had expected it to play
more akin to a Command & Conquer game opposed to the Warcraft/Starcraft
mode, but no matter. The style was what the developers chose, and I just had to
readjust my expectations.
These wars take place on a planetary system level. With some
nice tools you can take the time to create your own systems, adding multiple
planets and moons around a star, changing orbital height and direction, planet
type and size. You can also have a random system populated for you. I enjoyed
building my own, but found the random generation to be a strong tool, creating
some equally enjoyable systems to play in. While loading into the game, you
choose which planetary body you will set as the home base, and once in the map,
you get to choose from a few different initial locations on the planet. This is
a great tool allowing you to adapt to the procedural generation of metal nodes.
The build system runs off of two resources: Metal and
Energy. Metal is generated by adding structures that look much like an oil
drill on per-determined nodes. Energy is created by placing power plants. Both
resources are constantly renewing, adding more of these structures increases
the rate at which they are generated. The nodes at no point run out of metal or
energy to generate. To increase your maximum stored energy and metal, you can
build storage units. When creating units or buildings, it draws from this pool
in real-time, so as long as you have spare you can temporarily outpace your generation.
Ideally you want to set it up to balance or constantly grow your pool, but
desperate times…
The general mechanics after that are pretty standard, in
terms of unit construction and advancement. Commander makes the first unit
building that can create more builders, which can create advanced buildings.
The advanced buildings can make advanced builders to create the highest tier.
I set the game aside after a few hours, and let it sit and
age a bit.
That’s one of the nice parts about alpha and beta build
games. If I am not thrilled with them immediately, I have the option of letting
them age, watching them develop and trying them again after an evolution or
two. Games came and went, and PA took a back seat in my mind, until one day I
noticed on Steam’s front page an announcement that the Galactic War mode had
been added, a grand single player campaign. I “dusted” off my copy, got it
reinstalled (now a computer upgrade and refresh later) and patched, and loaded
in. I jumped into the new Galactic War mode and was introduced to a new
galactic map setup. You worked your way through a web of paths to different
systems, each allowing you to search for tech to customize your commander. Once
you find a system occupied, you fight, and it brings you to the mode I had
played before. This time, I found the controls to be more intuitive (could
still blame the prior experience on me). Ctrl + 1-9 created groups & 1-9
recalled those groups. Clicking and dragging when building creates lines of the
buildings. Shift clicking queues up what the builder will work on next. With
this knowledge in hand, my base shot up from the ground, and I had a force of
50 vehicles in no time, and I set out to find the enemy. Crushed them, no
problem. No need for upper tier tech, just first tier tanks doing what they do
best.
I’ve played through a few more fights, getting to a boss
system, which is where my game now stands.
I still have yet to experience the joy of crushing a planet
with another planet, but the orbital units add a nice third dimension to the
game. Even traveling to other planets within the system is beautifully
crafted, requiring the unit to pass into an interplanetary orbit before
rendezvousing with the target planet and settling into orbit. I look forward to
learning more tips and tricks, and getting to harder fights which will require
the high end of the tech ladder.
Someday I will de-orbit a moon into its planet, ending my
enemy….
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-Sociopathic Score-
Though I have yet to succeed at this, smashing planets
together like marbles, regardless of collateral damage is pretty much the
definition of Sociopathic Behavior
-Sophomoric Score-
I get a childlike joy at the zerg abilities. And did I mention
planetary bowling (see above)?
-Strategic Score-
The tech tree is pretty basic still, so you can’t really over-think what to focus on next. Given Land, Air, Sea and Space units, I can
see a balance point based on strategy forming, but it is still a zerg game at
heart. Makes you think, won’t require Mensa memberships...
-Mac
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