The PC game Sword of the Stars (aka SotS) is billed as a simplified space strategy game a la Master of Orion ![[WikiPedia]](http://www.mikeyp.com/css/external.gif)
, but it actually plays a lot more like an updated 3D version of Spaceward Ho!, or perhaps Ascendancy without the planet micro-management. This would be a promising game concept, except for a frustrating galaxy view and confusing battle mode.
Like most space strategy games, SotS is set in a galaxy where you begin with a starting planet, and expand outward by colonizing other planets, meeting and fighting other races, etc. The galaxy map is rendered in 3D, which looks very nice, but forces the camera to be locked to a selected planet. This means that there is no way to get a decent birds-eye view of your conquered territory or fleet locations. Worse, all planets look the same at a medium zoom level, making it very difficult to judge the distance between planets. Acendancy did this better eleven years ago, and I wonder if the SotS developers ever studied it. Fortunately, SotS includes a "spiral" galaxy type, which is a bit flatter than the others and easier to deal with.
The battle mode is supposed to offer a Real Time Strategy fleet battle, but the controls and ship responses are confusing enough that the only strategy seems to be an AI-controlled Weinberger Doctrine - which is my favorite wargame strategy anyway. But it is a shame they didn't evolve the intuitive 2D combat used in the excellent game Weird Worlds: A Return to Infinite Space.
I love to support indy developers, and this product was clearly put together by some skilled programmers. However, at $39, I paid way too much for this. When this drops to under $20, it might be a worthy "laptop game" for old Ascendancy or Spaceward Ho! fans. Just be sure to buy a downloadable version so you don't have to worry about the annoying disk-based copy protection. For me, I'll just keep playing Ascendancy in a DOSBox.
