Favorate Space Civilizations Game Series
Posted: 2003-05-20 02:20am
Some of the recent threads here have piqued my interest in the genre, and I've started looking into the various competitors that have sprung up over the years. Which game is your personal favorite?
Of the one's I've seen, I'm most impressed with Galactic Civilizations for being such a clean and streamlined design. Space Empires IV impresses me too with its sheer depth, but it seems to lack an element of personality and be a tad more complex than it needs to be. The MOO series has been going steadily downhill as much as I can tell, and I never got into Imperium Galatica.
Of the smaller titles, the one I have the most fond memories of is Ascendancy. That was one of the first games I played, and I remember being absolutely mesmerized by the originality of the alien races and the general atmosphere. I'm told the AI sucked, but I never really cared because I was a crappy n00b at the time.
Starships Unlimited is a relatively recent title. I've played the demo and it seems to be retro to a degree I've never liked. The interface looks entirely too much like a spreadsheet. I'll look it over ...
Other titles sort of in the genre:
Star Control. I never got into it as much as anyone else here, but I've maintained a quiet admiration for its galactic spanning scope, variety of alien races and general "Monkey Island in Space" character (maybe that's a bad analogy). It's a shame there hasn't been much progress on this front since II came out something like than a decade ago.
Wing Commander Armada. Not really any of the above, but a sort of space strategy game, where you built fighters, mines and fortresses, trying to bring down your opposing side's base and carrier. Can be considered an early forerunner of the Battlezone-style hybrid of combat and strategy. Like many of these game, it no longer runs on my computer. Well, a memory manager came out that supposedly would, but I haven't had luck with its previous incarnations.
What's your top game? What features would you like to see in a future incarnation (assuming MOO3 doesn't kill the genre).
Of the one's I've seen, I'm most impressed with Galactic Civilizations for being such a clean and streamlined design. Space Empires IV impresses me too with its sheer depth, but it seems to lack an element of personality and be a tad more complex than it needs to be. The MOO series has been going steadily downhill as much as I can tell, and I never got into Imperium Galatica.
Of the smaller titles, the one I have the most fond memories of is Ascendancy. That was one of the first games I played, and I remember being absolutely mesmerized by the originality of the alien races and the general atmosphere. I'm told the AI sucked, but I never really cared because I was a crappy n00b at the time.
Starships Unlimited is a relatively recent title. I've played the demo and it seems to be retro to a degree I've never liked. The interface looks entirely too much like a spreadsheet. I'll look it over ...
Other titles sort of in the genre:
Star Control. I never got into it as much as anyone else here, but I've maintained a quiet admiration for its galactic spanning scope, variety of alien races and general "Monkey Island in Space" character (maybe that's a bad analogy). It's a shame there hasn't been much progress on this front since II came out something like than a decade ago.
Wing Commander Armada. Not really any of the above, but a sort of space strategy game, where you built fighters, mines and fortresses, trying to bring down your opposing side's base and carrier. Can be considered an early forerunner of the Battlezone-style hybrid of combat and strategy. Like many of these game, it no longer runs on my computer. Well, a memory manager came out that supposedly would, but I haven't had luck with its previous incarnations.
What's your top game? What features would you like to see in a future incarnation (assuming MOO3 doesn't kill the genre).
I agree with Keevan about the MoO2/Pax idea, but I'd add the customizability of Reach For the Stars. I must play Space Empires though....