A GLIMPSE AT THE STARS!
A Review of Stars! 2.0
by Mark W. Frantz
Computer games have come a long way in 15 years. The graphics have improved exponentially, sound has gone from tiny beeps on a speaker to CD-quality soundtracks. And in this day and age, it is the rare game that succeeds without the Super VGA graphics, full motion video, and 16-bit sound effects.
But once in a while, a game comes along that sacrifices the graphics and the sound effects for pure strategy, and in the process, establishes itself as an instant classic. Stars! 2.0 is such a game...
Since the game has no sound, and relies on its interface and game concepts
rather than hi tech graphics, Stars! Can be run on almost any machine with
Windows 3.1. The only recommendation I need to make to run the game is a
color monitor, but you could surely play it on black and white. I say this
because Stars is a great game for laptops. It's a relatively small program,
doesn't need much to run, and is GOSH DARN addicting!
Stars has the plot that just about every other conquer-the-galaxy game has. You start off with a planet, and some ships, and from these humble beginnings, you are to forge a galactic empire and achieve victory over your enemies. You achieve this by colonizing nearby worlds, amassing many minerals, researching new technologies, and building your fleets to attack. It's really straightforward.
To begin with, the game offers A TON of customizable options. You can set
the size of your galaxy, the density of the stars, the proximity of your
neighbors. You can even create your own race with six different pages of
customizable options. Of course, you can always you the prebuilt races, but
hey, that's no fun! The race builder is the most powerful..uh..race builder
of its kind. The amount of options you have available to alter is
staggering. And this is all BEFORE you start the game.
Once you do begin, scouting becomes your first priority. Just about every race starts with a scout, and it's in your best interest to get a good look at your neighboring planets. Like Civilization, all the other planets are mysteriously blank until you explore them with your ships. Once you locate a habitable planet, you'll probably want to send a colonizer to begin a new colony. Build a new colony early. You'll want to expand as quickly as possible.
Once you've got that other colony up, you'll need to delve into remote mining. This is my personal favorite aspect of the game. You send specialized mining ships to mineral rich worlds to mine the minerals you need to build things. Then, using the easy to understand ship controls, you set up a route for a transport to follow, picking up the minerals and then dropping them off at the nearest colony. It reminded me of Railroad Tycoon. I found it gratifying watching my mineral piles grow.
Once you begin to amass minerals, you'll want to push into research and development. Setting aside parts of your colonies to research, you learn newer technologies, that offer better things to build. There are six different fields to research, each having 26 levels of technology. The new technologies allow you to build bigger and better ships. This system is a lot like that of Civilization.
Soon, you'll begin to notice your neighbors. There can be up to 15 of them,
so it can get very crowded. Unfortunately, there are no diplomatic
opportunities. You're at war with everybody, no matter how nice you think
you are. But no to worry, your research teams have come up with some good
weapons and defenses by now, so you begin to build your Doomsday fleet. In
the meantime, your minelaying ships are laying a webwork of space mines
around your territory, destroying your enemies, or at least slowing them
down while you amass your fleet.
So you need to design your fleet. You bring up the ship designer. This is pretty standard fair, but it's quite customizable, allowing you to build a wide variety of vessels, from the mighty Battleship to the tiny scout. You can even change the names and the pictures. This is good stuff. Certain ships are specialized, like the B-52 bomber. It has no shields, but can carry many bombs which you can use to remove enemies from planets. These specialty ships create a need for unique management in order to protect them.
And then you attack. Although you cannot handle the actual battle itself, you can customize a battle plan. The battle plan allows you to change the way certain ships react to enemies. It is an interesting feature that alleviates some the repetition that fighting out all of the battles by hand would offer. Destroying ships with greater technology than your own offers the possibility of finding some wreckage that would boost your research. This is neat stuff.
But how do I win?, you ask. Well, there's a victory condition screen when you begin, that allows you to set what the player must do to win. If you want the player to be a resource building fool, than check the Production victory box. Or check the Galaxy Dominance button if you're a war monger. You can even change the percentages required on these options.
This game is so customizable, so replayable, so much fun, you can't be asking if there's more. But there is. Up to 16 human players can play by email or modem, offering brand new possibilites in strategy. And there is human diplomacy involved.
I must commend Jeff Johnson and Jeff McBride. They have created a game so
massive in its depth, so large in complexity yet so simple to use, and a
game of pure strategy that relies on its own merits to succeed without the
help of glittering graphics and killer sound. Thorw in an awesome tutorial
that will help both novice and veteran, and you've got an instant classic,
and I recommend it for anyone who likes this genre of games. Bravo!
Gamer's Zone Scorecard
| Product: |
Stars! 2.0 |
| Company: |
Star Crossed Software
|
| Cost: |
$34.00 |
System Requirements:
IBM-PC or compatible, MS Windows 3.1 or higher, mouse
Breakdown:
Fun Factor 5
Graphics 5
Interface 5
Replayability 5
Overall Score:
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