By – Mike Andre
Once upon a time, a game called Master of Orion 2 revolutionized the 4X genre. Since then, fans have been desperately searching for the one true successor to the king. I’ll be short: Yes, Star Lords may very well be the one.
For many fans of the genre, including myself, this year was one of the most promising ever. Sadly, Sword of the Stars 2 is still a long way from being fully playable; Endless Space didn’t quite reach the heights it promised; and Legends of Pegasus turned out to be a complete train wreck. To the surprise of many, Neogen2 Creations then steps in and announces Star Lords.
Right from the start, Neogen2 scores a few points. Due for release the end of the year, anyone who pre-orders the game gains access to the alpha. Not only does this show confidence in their product, it also shows they really want to make it good by seeking the feedback of the fans this early. This alone could be enough to turn a mediocre game into a good game at release but more than just promise, Star Lords is already very fun to play. The developers manage to bring a host of innovations to the genre, while still retaining the “one more turn” factor every good 4X game has.
The diplomacy portion is unlike anything I’ve seen in any other game from the genre. You have casus belli, which means you can’t declare war on another faction without a good reason, otherwise your reputation will suffer, forcing you to either think twice before unleashing your inner warmonger.
The reputation of your empire matters a lot, try having a string of not-so-reputable decisions and you will feel isolated from the rest of the galaxy. You can set embargos and even convince other empires to set them on other factions, creating blockades which can seriously cripple the economy of your targets.
You can also act as a whistleblower by warning an ally that someone is asking for support against them, negotiate your subjugation and then continue in the game, albeit as a vassal and with serious penalties, you can threaten to attack… These are just some examples, and Neogen2 says they will expand on those options even more as new alphas are released. Who knows what else they may include more in the game?
The espionage area adds even more layers to the game as well. You can order your spies to assassinate ministers from another faction, steal funds, sabotage their planets, and get useful information like how many funds they have; how they are doing economically; and how many ships and armies they have.
The great AI presents a good challenge and the developers promise it doesn’t cheat. It looks like they are telling the truth; personally I never noticed anything and if it did you could discover it easily thanks to the espionage module.
The well-designed planet management is incredible. You have to be careful with the security, health, and overall happiness of the population by using your building slots wisely. In addition, if you build too many factories the planet will go into overexploitation and its resources will slowly deplete. The best part about all this is that, unlike MoO2 where the game forces you to micromanage each colony, in Star Lords you don’t feel the need to. Even if you have 30 planets you don’t feel overwhelmed because you don’t have to babysit each one and you can access all the relevant info for each in the planets menu.
Neogen2’s gem still needs some polish in the interface department though. While most things are quick and easy to access, you feel it lacks a menu where you could access the list of every ship and fleet you own or needs to improve the research screen as it can become confusing when you have lots of technologies. Visually the UI is not up to par with the rest of the game, and while it’s not jarring it’s a shame because other than that it looks great. The good news however is that the developers already announced they are reworking the UI visually, as well as improving its usability.
Star Lords has everything to be one of the best 4X games to be released since Master of Orion 2 and maybe even become its successor. With some little tweaks here and there as well as a renewed interface, we may very well be in the presence of a classic strategy game.
You can pre-order the game and gain access to the alpha builds (and upcoming betas) for only 20$. Regardless of how it turns out to be at release, I can already say the hours of fun I’ve had the alpha builds were well worth the price, and I have the feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s hope everything goes smoothly for Neogen2 Creations.
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