When the developers of the acclaimed Homeworld series make a new IP (intellectual property) the gaming world takes notice. This has been the case with their newest game that goes by the title of Sword of the Stars. After previewing a demo of it several months ago I came back impressed with what I saw, but I wondered how the game would shake up once it was fully finished. Well that day has finally come and I have had the chance to immerse myself into this game. Read on to find out more!

When you hear the name: Sword of the Stars, what exactly comes to your mind? Well the first thing that came to my mind is an RPG game that has a sci-fi setting mixed in with medieval setting. Basically what I thought was King Arthur meets Star Craft. I then came to my senses when I found out it was built by the developers of Homeworld and realized that this would be a strategy game, and a 4X strategy game at that (more on that later). Just like the title says, this game takes place in the vast universe, and players will be able to explore various planets, manage huge empires, learn advanced new technologies, and try to become the ruler of the entire universe.

Like I said early, this game is a 4X strategy game, which means the players have four different objectives to accomplish in the game: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. There are many ways you can accomplish these objectives and it is up to you on how you want to do this. One thing that helps make this game unique is that there are four different races that you can take control over, which helps keep each play session unique and makes you want to come back for more. The races that you can become are: Hiver, Tarkas, Humans, and Liir, and as always each of them have their own unique abilities, strategies, and distinct advantages/disadvantages. The main difference between each race is their modes of transportation across the galaxies. If you want to know even more differences the only way is to actually play the game and see for yourself.

One thing that I dislike about 4X strategy games is the amount of micromanagement that has to been done in order to get anything accomplished. Personally I find that tedious work annoying and I would rather get myself into some heavy space battles and show my dominance there. Sword of the Stars takes the same approach, so instead of being bogged down with a lot of diplomatic, trading, and many other minute things, in this game you will get to do a lot of war battles, and this is what I like best.

Putting this much emphasis on the war portion of the game was a huge gamble, and it proved to be a double edge sword for the developers. There are only three difference classes of ships to build in this game: destroyers, dreadnoughts, and cruisers. From there you will be able to customize your ships weapons any way you want, and your enemies will never know what to expect. What really stinks about this is the lack of information; such as how do you know which weapons cause so much damage. When it comes down to starting to make some fine-tuned decisions the lack of information is really hurtful.

This game is a lot about combat and the developers know combat since they made the delightful Homeworld game. They borrowed a lot of elements that made the combat really fun but they forgot one thing that is very different from previous games. 4X strategy gamers demand and expect to know what goes on after a battle. The problem is that there is no health bars so you never know how badly your ships are damaged unless you look at them. Also there is no summary after a battle so this makes it really hard to know what to fix up before the next attack that will be only moments away.

Since there is a lack of health bars in the ship how do you know how badly damaged a ship actually is? The way that you know what shape your ships are in is by looking at them and checking out the damage they took during the previous battle. Everything else about the game is good, but there are other games out there that looks a lot better so this game will get lost in the shuffle if you are looking for a graphics-heavy game. The explosions in the battle are not as spectacular as they could have been either.

The sound for this game has been done with a lot of thought in mind in trying to keep this game somewhat “authentic.” I know what you might be thinking that there are made-up civilizations in this game so how can it really be authentic? Well the developers made sure that they found voice actors that got into their characters to make them feel different and their voices fit their outward appearances.

In my opinion, music in a game can make or break it in the long run. This is because if you are forced to listen to something for hours on end, it might as well be something that you like and that keeps you wanting to play, instead of something irritating and bland. Thankfully the developers have a decent soundtrack that will keep your eyes occupied for hours while you play the game. The sound effects used for this game also fit the genre and setting that you are playing in.

Sword of the Stars is rated for everyone

The system requirements are as follows:
Microsoft Windows 2000/XP
1.5 GHz Pentium/compatible CPU
1 GB RAM system memory
128 MB RAM
DirectX9 class video card
4x CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive
Broadband Connection for Internet play

Gameplay: 7.3
The lack of variety of units is hurtful, but not as much as the lack of information when selecting parts for your ships or after a battle has been fought. This is information that you really have to include in a game like this.

Graphics: 7.9
There are other games out there that look better then this game. The explosions are lackluster though. The damage modeling on the ships is a nice touch.

Sound: 8.1
The sound section is done with some flair. The voiceovers that the developers use and the music really fits the entire mood of the game.

Difficulty: Hard
The game is only as hard as you make it to be and 4X strategy games are usually some of the more difficult games to get into, but once you do you will find yourself hooked.

Concept: 7.6
I liked how the developers wanted to really expand this genre of games and make it better than any of the previous games. While this is a really good thing, the developers should have worked out some more of the finer aspects of the game to make it even better.

Multiplayer: 7.1
Playing a multiplayer 4X strategy game online is just an insane idea and only the most hardcore people would undertake this task as it is will be a very tedious and long played-out game. It is a nice touch allowing the AI to help take over if you have to step out for a bit.

Overall: 7.6
I had some good times with Sword of the Stars game. I just wish that some of the smaller quirks were fixed so that this game could have been so much better.