First Impressions
Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:16 am
The first 5 min was mostly installing, the trailer and starting a game. Installing was fine, went well. Updates loaded correctly. The trailer was ordinary, One liners with a black background is pretty old tech. The font and futuristic style of the screens have also been around a long time - a new take on the futuristic style would be preferred. This font is quite hard to read as well. You then start a game and it looks mostly like Civ with very similar mechanics.
After 30 mins, you have started a base or two. You create things not really knowing what they are or their impact. The main problem is you don't know what you are trying to achieve. There has been no explanation of the various victory scenarios or hints on how to achieve them. The workshop lets you make mistakes that you don't realise. I accidentally changed the former to a trooper type and then had no idea that I needed to make a former, or how to build one. I don't think you should be able to change the type of the initial workshop items. Nevertheless, it is all pretty smooth. The very brief descriptions on the new techs does not help. Only after playing the game through do you realise what the scientific jargon actually gives you. The initial contact with the native wildlife is quite nice and a good way to learn how to fight.
After 1 hour, you probably meet your opposition. They seem to be unnaturally aggressive on the default settings. They will declare war on you without having any idea of what resources you have or you base location. This seems unlikely. It is also quite a bad strategy, because its pretty easy to defend your base, so you wonder why they bothered. You start to find out that pollution and morale are important but usually too late. It would have been nice to know about them and their cumulative impact before then. There seems to be only 3 type of victory, which I found limited and reduced replayability. It would be more fun and challenging to have others.
After 30 mins, you have started a base or two. You create things not really knowing what they are or their impact. The main problem is you don't know what you are trying to achieve. There has been no explanation of the various victory scenarios or hints on how to achieve them. The workshop lets you make mistakes that you don't realise. I accidentally changed the former to a trooper type and then had no idea that I needed to make a former, or how to build one. I don't think you should be able to change the type of the initial workshop items. Nevertheless, it is all pretty smooth. The very brief descriptions on the new techs does not help. Only after playing the game through do you realise what the scientific jargon actually gives you. The initial contact with the native wildlife is quite nice and a good way to learn how to fight.
After 1 hour, you probably meet your opposition. They seem to be unnaturally aggressive on the default settings. They will declare war on you without having any idea of what resources you have or you base location. This seems unlikely. It is also quite a bad strategy, because its pretty easy to defend your base, so you wonder why they bothered. You start to find out that pollution and morale are important but usually too late. It would have been nice to know about them and their cumulative impact before then. There seems to be only 3 type of victory, which I found limited and reduced replayability. It would be more fun and challenging to have others.