Lo and on that day the smug space dinosaurs and fancy seahorse bankers became friends.Stars in ShadowDeveloper: Iceberg InteractivePrice: 24.99Platform: PCMonstervine was provided with a code for ReviewI’ll start off with what I think the game does well. As advertised the story is actually pretty interesting and all the factions have fairly neat personas even if they are just ultimately your standard archetypes dressed up for the occasion.

Jan 19, 2017  Stars in Shadow is a really solid strategy title, and that it comes from a new indie team makes the title's accomplishments all the more impressive. However, this is a game built by a small team and there are some technical hurdles, a lack of multiplayer and a.

To not spoil too much, the basics are that thousands of years ago there were the great races that ruled the galaxy; the dinosaur like Ashdar, the weird snake monsters Gremaks, and Humans. They were all light years ahead of where you start out, but then the Great War happened.

It is pretty sparse on details, which is probably in their favor, but this war hit the galactic reset button. You play as one of the varied races that are vying for dominance as interstellar empires begin to emerge once more.I generally liked all the playable races even though I only played a full game with The Ashdar Imperials. When setting up a game you have the info dump of backstory on each race and get the lowdown on their archetype mechanics wise.

There are also various non-playable minor factions, usually pirates or slavers of human or gremak origin. There are also native races though they seem to serve as very little function outside of planet flavor.

I also rather like the friendly ‘you got bugs’ box.The other main thing that I found really well done was the turn based combat. While the way it is set up doesn’t make much sense science wise, it sort of ends up playing as a multi layered chess game. How you outfit your ships and the balance of ships included in your fleet is super important and can decide whether you win or lose a battle before you even begin. Once in combat, you have to think strategically with your movement and how and when you use your ship’s abilities. For example, if you are fighting a ship that uses a lot of missiles, you aren’t going to want to full broadside them on your turn or there will be no defenses to stop their missiles on their turn. This matters a lot more in the early game sadly, as the ’super laser’ tech branch eventually makes all other types of weapons ineffective.A quick caveat on the tech tree as this kind of falls in the middle for me.

I really like the way it is structured. It is very Civilization-like in its structure with the added bonus of having some techs have multiple unlock technologies, so if you don’t want to bother with infrastructure you can just barrel down and get capital ships through a different tree. Unfortunately, you also don’t have much direction and can’t really plan ahead.

For example, I played my first game as humans because the game said they were the hardest and I am a super elite 4x game reviewer (spoilers, I got wrecked even on medium). Somewhere in that tiny mess of a galaxy is me getting wrecked.During this game I got into a big war with the Yoral (space yeti dwarves). We had pretty much equal size fleets and roughly equal tech (they were a tad ahead). My fleets of pirate killing veteran light cruisers splashed helplessly like a galactic magikarp against their battlecruisers and heavy carriers. Every turn they would kill multiple ships of mine with their railguns, weapons I had access to but had no ships on which to put them. This was because the game offered no guidance on what leads to what. I ended up finding out, as my empire crumbled around me, that you must first research bombers and fighters, before you get access to the capital ship tech line.

These sorts of problems I feel are indicative of the big problem with this game across the board, there isn’t enough there. There is some customization, but not enough. There is some economy and internal politics stuff, but not enough. There is some galactic politics between factions, but there not enough.

There is some resource management, but not enough. You get the point.I often found myself clicking next turn over and over as much when I had a vast galaxy spanning empire late game as when I had one planet taking 8 turns to build a factory.

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In a 4x game there should simply be more to do. You have natives that pretty much do nothing but make you sit a tank on them until they stop being unhappy. You have a resource management system that is so poorly balanced that the only thing you ever run out of is metal and no matter how many millions of mines you build you’ll never have enough. Contrast this with the fact that no matter how big my empire got, I couldn’t run out of food or money even when I tried. I spent multiple hours trying to starve and run out of money.

There isn’t the depth there to make any of your choices feel like they matter much. You can literally go all Empire, build a ’Dredd Star’, and start blowing up planets and it doesn’t make your people unhappy or affect your diplomatic relations with other factions at all. A totally original, never before conceived, planet destroying super ship that is in no means a moon!Speaking of the Dredd Star, I feel that is kind of the perfect example of the other problem I had, especially starting out, this game feels derivative as hell. Mechanics and design wise it seems very much like a game that has taken parts of various other 4x games and sprinkled pop culture references on top. This even applies to its much touted ‘unique’ art style. The ship design is a poorly disguised knock off of FTL and even some of the races look very similar to things from other games (e.g The Yoral look like the snow things from Borderlands, while the Orthin look rather similar to a Stellaris playable race model).The Final WordOverall, this is a serviceable game and fun to play. Veterans of 4x games will likely walk away disappointed, especially considering other recent fair.

However, people new to 4x gaming or who want less ’menu porn’ will likely get a lot out of this game. It’s fun but could be so much more.– MonsterVine Rating: 2.5 out of 5 – MediocreStars in Shadow Review.

Stars in Shadow has reminded me just how subjective art styles can be. I’m a huge fan of the comic-book-like aesthetic that SiS employs, but since the game was released, I’ve noticed that most 4X fans are pretty split on it.

I’d say most 4X fans either like it or don’t really have an opinion, but there’s a vocal minority that really dislikes the “cartoonish” look.That being said, I really, really like it and appreciate that it’s consistent along every facet of the game. It really does have a comic-like feel (which makes sense, as Jim Francis, aka Arioch, is a webcomic illustrator and has a comic called ), and I think it makes SiS stand out with a unique look and feel.

There’s just one minor (MAJOR TO ME) thing that I don’t like aesthetically and I’ll explain that later. I’ve mentioned in previous podcasts and reviews that I prefer the colony management system of Master of Orion 1 over its sequel. Simple, yet substantial decisions appeal to me more than building every building I have access to everywhere that I can. SiS manages to combine elements from both games for easily one of the best colony management systems in the entire 4X genre.Each colony has a limited number of slots available for infrastructure improvements, depending on the size of the planet. These limited slots require the player to preplan their colony builds and also creates some cool opportunities for focused output from colonies with unique modifiers. For instance, a planet with a special resource of rare metals would be a great planet to make a bunch of mines on, as that would greatly add to your overall metal production.It gives way to some hard choices and does away with the “build everything, everywhere” mentality that too many 4X games fall victim to and that I personally despise.

Tactically Sound Combat. I don’t care what other developers try to tell me, turn-based tactical combat, especially when it’s fast and frantic, is FUN. I truly believe that some of the best moments I had in games like Master of Orion and Master of Magic were when I barely led my fleet or army to a narrow victory on the battlefield, despite how much I love the grander strategy layer of 4X.That being said, Stars in Shadow has done a fantastic job of bringing back turn-based tactical combat to space 4X. It’s fast-paced, (usually) quickly resolved, and meaningful to your war efforts.

Not only that, but it’s fun to see how your new ships function in battle and being able to control them in this way feels satisfying. I have been told too many times by 4X developers that I don’t really want turn-based tactical combat.

Well, yes, yes I do. Especially when it’s balanced as well as Stars in Shadow’s combat in its speed of completion and its level of tactical requirements.So, please, if two guys can do it (mainly just one programmer, really), then you can, too, other 4X developers! (cough Amplitude Studios cough cough) Have It Your Way. They’re not exactly the quickest to respond (I’m pretty sure they have full-time jobs), but Ashdar games have been incredibly open to making changes to their game at the behest of their fans, even if it’s just adding options. Two things that I’ve campaigned hard for, the option to right-click to close menus and the option to remove fleet destination lines, were both accommodated and genuinely make the game better for me. These borders were added as a result of player feedbackI’m not the only one they’ve listened to, either (and hell, it may not just have been me complaining), as they’ve received good, constructive feedback about a few of their design choices and have legitimately improved the game based of that feedback. It’s not often that you see this level of interaction and it’s freakin’ great to see and witness the benefits of.

Well done, Ashdar! Unique and Alien. As anyone who knows me and what I like in a 4X game can tell you, I appreciate faction/race asymmetry more than most. I really want each faction to feel distinct and each playthrough to feel radically different, depending on the faction chosen. SiS does a great job of this.One of the factions, the Ashdar Imperials get access to a hyperspace gate from the very start, which allows their ships to get anywhere in their range within one turn.

Or, you have the Phidi that have exclusive access to a mercenary market that allows them to buy combat ships, but they’re limited in other ways. As another example, the Humans don’t start with any colonies but instead are given better ships to start with and a colony ship. All of these asymmetric starts are explained through their backstories and it does wonder for the game.That sort of asymmetry gets me really excited and encourages me to play as many different factions, thus increasing replayability beyond your normal 4X game. Few games have done it better than SiS and I hope to see more of it as they introduce new races. Development That Doesn’t Stop. While glacially slow, Ashdar Games have continued to work on Stars in Shadow even almost three years after release.

The changelog for the development build isn’t necessarily something to write home about, but it’s still being updated even as recently as a couple of short weeks ago. While there is certainly an attempt made here to be “different”, the diplomacy is, at best, wonky, and at worst, broken. Diplomatic exchanges focus primarily around the use of influence. Influence is used to establish embassies, make research pacts, and create alliances. Once you have the influence required to suggest any of these agreements, one simple click is all that’s required to make it so.

The AI player cannot deny you.​All too often, it makes me feel very little investment in the process, as you can just spam these requests once you’ve accumulated enough influence. You can actually go from normal relations to as far as allied in one turn. It feels very detached for me.Also, you can use influence to sue for peace during war. However, it doesn’t stop your AI enemy from immediately attacking you again next turn. There’s no cooldown, there’s no minimum length to the peace treaty, etc. Sure, there might be a diplomatic penalty, but that has little bearing on the grand scheme of the game. It feels jarring and decidedly not fun.All of these issues are compounded by how easy influence is to accumulate and how it’s not used outside of diplomacy, save for buying slaves and ships as two of the factions, so there’s little to balance my decisions with.

Frankly, the whole system feels like it needs a serious overhaul. The good news is that Ashdar Games is well aware of it and is currently hard at work tackling it. I’ll certainly report on it further when that update is released. Bliiiinded by the Blue.

Yeah, I know, this seems a bit petty, but GOOD GOD does SiS rely too much on the color blue, aesthetically speaking. So much so that I really feel it takes away from an otherwise fantastic-looking game. The menus are blue, the strategic map is blue with some more blue, the tactical maps are mostly blue, and the whole damn UI is blue.

SiS could really use some variety to its strategic maps, much like Endless Space 2, where there are about 10 different maps and some mesmerizing color choices to boot.It sounds a bit strange until you consider just how long you look at that same blue strategy map in a 4X game. I’ve put some 80 hours into it since release (and probably another 20+ before that) and it just starts to turn me off.This is such an easy fix that I can’t imagine that it won’t be done. Hopefully soon. Maybe tomorrow?

Genre Issues Remain. Imagine that, a 4X game with a late-game problem. As you may know, and as I’ve documented in my opinion piece, the 4X late game is usually a mess. Stars in Shadow suffers here, too, as the tech tree tends to dry up a little earlier than most games and there’s not much excitement in the end game, either. No super units, nothing new to discover, no changes to gameplay, or anything to keep you interested.It’s something that definitely needs a hard look after diplomacy, so I’m hoping that either DLC or future content additions will address this. I sure hope so, because I think I’ve only ever finished one or two games that went beyond a couple of hours in SiS as my interest begins to wane. Bait me with a carrot, please, Ashdar!

​ ConclusionIt’s hard to believe that those are my only real complaints right now, but the game hits a lot of the right notes for me. The game length is perfect for me, as I prefer shorter games, and it can be adjusted – by generating bigger maps and adding more AI players – to most players’ desires. Sure, bigger games will probably lead to getting through the research tree a little too quickly, but it still allows for longer games as needed. ​.

We need more excellent expansions like the Legacies expansion featuring the Tinkers!If Ashdar can properly shore up diplomacy and continue tweaking weapon and ship balance, SiS could be a game that I play for a good long while. It’s great for shorter play sessions and I love the turn-based battles. The great thing, too, is just how consistently Ashdar has worked to improve the game, so I can see it being even better 2, 6, 12 months from now.If you haven’t already picked this game up, it’s an easy recommendation for me. It’s perfect for space 4X fans that love asymmetric factions and good combat. It’s not expensive and is still being supported. A game like this should be selling gangbusters, but unfortunately, it didn’t sell a whole lot of copies. Still, the devs have stuck with it and have made it one of my favorite 4X games to date.Give it a shot.

It might just be one of yours, too!PSA: If you’re low on funds, consider joining our, as we have a giveaway going on RIGHT NOW (Sep 23, 2019) for copies of Stars in Shadow!TL;DR: Stars in Shadow has become an incredibly solid 4X game, especially if you enjoy shorter matches and enjoy or can look past the art style. If you’re allergic to the color blue, you might want to look past it, though. For everyone else, Stars in Shadow should be in your 4X library, full stop. You Might Like This Game If:. You enjoy tactical battles that are quickly resolved but involve a truly tactical mindset. You enjoy 4X games that don’t waste so much time with colony development but remain elegant.

You want to support the little guys. Ashdar Games consists of two people who continue to support their gameYou Might NOT Like This Game If:.

You don’t like the art style. It’s subjective, for sure, but I personally love it. You don’t like the color blue as this game has way too much of it. You don’t like diplomacy systems that can be easily manipulatedRob has played over 100 hours of Stars in Shadow on various gaming desktops, most recently his MSI Trident-X with absurd system specs.