When this happens you stop getting the fun little missions and stop battling over Influence, and instead just start slugging it out with your neighbours. The game also very quickly reaches a point where every single planet is part of one empire or another. Otherwise, you’re just clicking to make numbers bigger, which you can then pour into your ships or your hilariously powerful Wonder constructions. Which is quite good, but also doesn’t offer much that’s new or different after an hour. In fact, barring a few key decisions – like whether or not to invade a rival – the entire strategic side of the game feels like a prelude to the tactical combat. The diplomatic screen, for instance, almost entirely boils down to getting a report on what the rival faction has been up to and what they control, and maybe offering them a peace treaty there’s no forming of alliances or diplomatic manipulation here. Sid Meier’s Starships is not, in any way, a deep game. The other, rather bigger problem, is one of depth. There are a few quirks and curveballs, like stealth ships or the arrival of reinforcements, but you can get to grips with how it all works within one or two engagements.Īmusingly, I think this screenshot manages to show off both of those problems in one go. You’ve got a few tactical options depending on how you’ve upgraded your fleet – if you have a light cruiser armed to the teeth with long-range weapons then you’ll want to keep it back, and you might have to decide between launching an attack or sending out a wave of lethal-but-flimsy fighters – but it’s nothing particularly taxing. Asteroids and planets provide cover, lessening or completely removing the damage done by incoming attacks, but you have to be careful about enemies flanking you as attacks do more damage from the rear. They can launch fighters, or fire a torpedo, or engage with weapons. You and the computer take it in turns to move your ships, and in addition to their movement, each ship gets one action per turn. The actual textures and models aren’t amazing, but I do love the game’s general aesthetic.īattles also follow the theme of keeping everything simple. Repeat until someone hits a victory condition, whether it’s to wipe out the competition or build Wonders or control a sizeable part of the galactic population.
Use those resources to research new techs and upgrade your ships. Upgrade cities and build improvements to get yourself more resources. Swoop around the galaxy like a demented metal condor bristling with weapons. The only trade-off is that ships bristling with armour and weapons move more slowly, but all that means is you need to spend some Energy on engines every once in awhile.Īnd that is basically the entire strategic game.
Upgrading armour gives your ships more hit points. Upgrading lasers makes your lasers do more damage.
You basically have every technology at the start of the game, but you can upgrade each one by spending your Science. Keeping with the “simple” theme, there are no tech trees or massive trade-offs in ship design here. Waste too much on upgrading your ships, and your turn might be cut short when you don’t have enough to repair them after a scrap. Ships are bought, upgraded, and repaired with the same resource, so Energy has to be managed far more carefully than pretty much everything else.
Get four influence points on a planet, and it becomes a permanent part of your empire. Completion nets you “Influence” and a reward tied to the difficulty of the mission. It might be to fend off Marauders, or to use only your flagship to escape to a warp point, or to capture and hold a number of outposts. Moving it onto a neutral planet triggers a mission – an event that chucks you into a tactical battle. Or lose, when some git on the other side of the known universe hits a victory condition.Īnd, well… if nothing else, it certainly succeeds at condensing all of these elements down into something quick and simple. Over the course of 30-60 minutes, you expand your burgeoning empire throughout the stars, build ships, level up tech trees, engage in tactical battles, play the diplomatic game with your rivals, and then win.
Sid Meier’s Starships is an incredibly light game, offering to give you a tactical and strategic experience in a fraction of the time a game of Civilization or Total War would last.