Tasty Risk-4X Hybrid
From Apezone, developers of the excellent games Starships Unlimited and Battleship Chess comes this new title--an interesting combination of the tropes of the "4X" genre (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) and the mechanics of Risk.
Risk is, of course, a fine game, and has been the basis of some well-conceived computer games (notably Lux Delux); but it is so familiar a style as to be somewhat jejune. Starship Kingdoms adds a high degree of interest by incorporating technology development, putting production more directly under the players' control, and pitching the game as a struggle between two "major houses," with much of the galaxy controlled by neutrals who may join the weaker side in the mid-game.
Technologies players can develop include beam and missile weapons, armor, and star drives. The outcome of a battle depends not only on the number of ships in the opposing forces, but also on their relative technologies. (Battles are played out in attractive 3D.) Each turn, players are faced with a choice between devoting resources to additional ship construction, or advancing their technology--trade-offs such as these often make for interesting gameplay.
One of the flaws of Risk as a game is that the strong get stronger; the more continents you control, the more quickly you can overwhelm your opponents. Thus, the end-game is often dull--the strongest mopping up the weaker. Starship Kingdom counters this by having the 'neutrals' join the weaker side in mid-game, thus rebalancing the game and ensuring that the remainder retains interest.
Starship Kingdom has a wide variety of starmaps, which ensures repeat playability, and is playable both as a single-player game (against an AI opponent), as well as online, against another live player.
The developer says:
The King has died without producing an heir. The Star Kingdom has fallen apart, with most of the worlds declaring their independence. Only you and one other noble house have declared their right to the throne. Take control of one of the houses and fight for your right to become the next Star King ... but watch out for the Indies ... they might decide to join the losing side at the last minute!
Features
- Interstellar combat between different types of starships
- Upgrading your fleet with new technologies to make them more powerful
- Investing in starship production and eventually get Supernova bombs
- Story and Challenge game play modes
- Play against another person, either over the internet or at the same computer
- Sit down at an open table in the game lobby and start playing online
- Lots of different maps to play
- Design and share your own maps using the built-in map editor
Reviews
"The first thing I must mention is: Somebody got it right! By this I mean that I've run into a couple of other indie "Risk in Space" variants and I've found they either move really fast (which detracts from strategic elements) or are so abstract that the fact the game is in space is irrelevant, meaning, what is represented could just as well be islands in an ocean somewhere. I found that this game has an excellent mix of fleet-based strategy (deployment, attack, building/research, and fortification) and allows the player the opportunity to watch his/her fleet go head-to-head with opposing forces (the big pay-off for all of the strategic thinking). This is a WYSWYG strategic space battle game that allows the player to choose among various opposing AI styles or allows one to go toe-to-toe with humans. In summary, I walked away from Starship Kingdom with a sense of satisfaction because finally, finally a good strategy game has been made for those whom lead busy lives."
- Bytten
"While Starship Kingdom plays a lot like Risk, it adds enough to the game to make it more interesting than a vanilla retread of the global domination board game. The game has more advanced strategies available to the player and more choices to make during gameplay. Which stars will you attack first? Will you concentrate on building ships or research (or both)? Which ships will you build? The game features stats to help you make these decisions, and one wrong move against the difficult AI will usually result in disaster. The random elements of the game, including the ability to create your own maps, make the game slightly different each time you play."
- 6/8, Out of Eight PC Game Reviews