My first experience of Pandora

[NickMUK]

I finally got around to installing the beta this afternoon. It was nice and straightforward, although Win8 blocks the installer, but this is easily remedied.

Five minutes:

The menus all look nice and familiar, and upon starting the game I liked the short video of the landing ships and a vey brief and simple story "only finding rocks.." which was really good. The UI and hex based map is a familiar sight as I have played Civ4/5 for years and Pandora has not deviated far. Perhaps it is a little more plain but I often like the simplicity which fits nicely in sci-fi. The Audio is nice, there's something a little nostalgic about it, but as it kind of reminds me of some older titles from the late 90's I am uncertain it adds to the game. The controls are intuitive and familiar, the hotkeys are ideally chosen; I like the fact there is a next turn button and a "force next turn" button.

Ten minutes:

Having chosen my tile, I'd founded my colony. Research is always my top priority so I got started on that, research seemed good, I liked the tech tree however some of it seemed quite jumbled. After researching for a short while, I had to go to the workshop; this is something I have not seen in a game since Warzone 2100. To be honest I wasn't a fan, I seems like a complicated way of producing units and I don't think it adds much to the game; certainly not in the early stages that I have played.

I also had began exploring the map. I particularly admired the vibrancy of the landscape. The fungus and the hives, looked great and added a much needed splash of colour. The thick forest also looked good. I came across some ruins, and much like Civ I received a bonus, and even found sunken ruins, a great touch. I didn't locate any "Natural Wonders" as seen in Civ; I know as an explorer/Earth scientist myself, if I ever get to Mars or another planet I will be out looking for anything like that.

Thirty minutes:

A little more exploring and I am still yet to be attacked by any aliens. I have only attacked once myself, as all encounters were predicted as defeats. I also came across my neighbours (Solar Dynasty) who have expanded hugely, far more than I'd imagine possible. They decided to declare war on me after about three or four turns which seemed very aggressive as I had the game set to very easy. The diplomacy window seemed very basic when you compare to other games of a similar genre.


Thoughts so far:

I have played a little over thirty minutes and so far I like the visuals, the overall atmosphere is good but not great and the intro was, for me at least, spot on. The gameplay so far has been somewhat disappointing, I didn't like the workshop idea, the music just didn't seem particularly great and I don't know about the AI. I realise I am being quite critical, maybe I am trying to judge it on terms with Civ which clearly it is not intended to be. I'm interested to see how this game grows on me over the next hour or two of play, but at the moment I'm afraid this is not a game for me.