- Install and Menus:
Clean splash screen and menu's were straightforward although had few options.
No full screen windowed, went to alt-tab and game client was minimized. I use 2 monitors and this is a fairly large drawback. I went to use the windowed option as a work around and game crashed. Okay, started it back up and tried again same result. No real error to report although I did grab a screenshot, I can't attach to this post as a new poster it appears to trigger the spam filter. It just closed the client and had a dialogue box saying "Pandora has encountered a problem and needs to close. Please contact support." I did a quick look on the forums and didn't see anyone else having this problem and I have a driver update that I haven't done that so will try that later and continue on in fullscreen for now.
- Gameplay
I spawned as the military faction, not my usual style in this type of game (I usually go for the builder/tech types). But I'll stick with it.
Interface is very reminicent of recent Civ games. Easy to understand and clear tooltips.
Options at top/bottom of screen are easy to overshoot and scroll the map down.
First few turns and establishing new bases straightforward, nothing new but solid so far. The tech tree doesn't give away what exactly you get from research so am picking up techs a bit haphazardly.
Noticed stockpiling different resources instead of having them generated only. This is the first real innovation I've seen compared to other games and can already tell I'm going to enjoy it.
Discovered my neighbor and had a dialogue option for her, she seems to be an aggressive religious type. Tried to trade techs but she wouldn't have it. Did not set up a treaty as I will probably attack her fairly soon, once I can set up another base and bring some troops to bear.
First Operation built. Was told to "select it and fire away". Selected it and found was not able to "fire away". Not sure of the use that it is supposed to have but right now it is useless to me, and a waste of production.
Found out how to use operations (right clicking unit after left clicking in operations window). This is not intuitive, possibly either have a tooltip to indicate that it should be used, or add in to the help menu for exact instructions.
Turns progressed and since I was playing on the default difficulty was able to conquer a nearby faction fairly easily. They had a base I did not want, but could not destroy (built it VERY close to another base of mine). Most AI's will try to expand even in the late game when the resources to get a base up to current standards are not worth the cost in troops to defend it. Not really a gripe, as this is my experience with other games and may not be the case in this game. Either way the ability to raze/destroy a base would be nice.
After conquering the nearby faction was glad of the stockpile of resources as I now had quite a few food and minerals (over 100 each) and was at a deficit per turn from the rioting bases. I like how it ties some things together as a empire and leaves some for each base.
- Overall
So far for a beta it is surprisingly smooth, although I'm not sure how close to finished it is.
I have been listening to the in game music for awhile now, and it is okay. I am going to turn down the music and leave on the effects and play my own music from this point forward. This isn't really anything against the music, I do this in other games when possible.
With terrain features that give a bonus (+50% tech or +50% credits) it would be nice to know if that is global or for that base, it seems to only be for the nearby base but it isn't clearly stated.
I'm going to take a brief break and come back in a bit but wanted to post these thoughts first.
