Publisher: Lighthouse Interactive
Developer: Kerberos
Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista; 1.5 GHz Intel Pentium or comparable AMD Processor; 1 GB RAM; 128 MB RAM DirectX 9x compatible video card; 3 GB hard disk space; DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card; LAN or 56 Kbps Internet connection
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now

It’s been a strategy-filled few weeks for me. I’ve been fortunate enough to have multiple RTS titles come across my virtual desk as I stroll from game to game; it’s no secret that I enjoy empire building. This time around, I had the pleasure of reviewing the 4X strategy game Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection, a turn-based, science-fiction epic set in a universe with star-spanning empires, raging space battles, highly advanced technology and interesting civilizations with which to interact (and annihilate).

As this collection is a re-release of a significant amount of material, it’s quite hefty in terms of playable races, tech trees and alien menaces. There are six available civilizations to play, and I must give full credit to Kerberos for going the extra mile in avoiding an “X+1 for this race” differentiation. Each side, while having its own culture and appearance, also has its own unique method of traveling the stars. These differences are more than just cosmetic; each one plays radically different than the others because it doesn’t travel in space in the same way as its rivals do. The Liir can order their ships to travel to any destination within range using their faster-than-light (FTL) drives, but the Hivers must move at slower speeds until they set up a jump gate in the system, after which travel takes place almost instantly. The end result is that empire building is a significantly different experience for each race. Playing the Hivers does nothing to prepare you for playing the Zuul, and playing the Zuul offers you no help in playing the Liir. The replayability from this mechanic alone is almost worth the price of purchase; the strategic options it opens up are also worthy of wrapping your brain around, for these differences keep things interesting.

The second interesting aspect of Sword of the Stars is its randomized tech tree. When I was reading the manual, I really thought I was going to hate this part of the game. After all, with randomized techs, what’s to stop me from getting “bayonets +1” while my enemies develop anti-matter torpedoes? As it turns out, the tech tree is actually quite wonderful. First off, there are core technologies to which you always have access, so you never miss out on the most important developments, such as better power systems and drives. Second, each race has different chances of getting the various techs. This means that most of the time the sides will end up with some substantial differences in their technological development, but you can never devise a strategy from turn one that assumes a certain race will have access to a technology. Third, and perhaps most important, the tech tree is not strictly linear. There are innumerable interdependencies between various techs. Just to give one example, Artificial Intelligence can be potentially reached from the following technologies: Drone Wing Management, Expert Systems, Holographic Tactics and Combat Algorithms. So, if you miss out on Artificial Intelligence from Expert Systems, you might get lucky and get a chance at researching it from Holographic Tactics. This ensures that any research strategy you create must change as certain paths to progress close while others open up.

Further twisting the 4X basis for the game are the alien menaces. Aliens are in some ways just your average random threats used to spice things up. However, they each have their own bizarre agendas, some of which can derail a standard game of conquest. The Von Neumann starts out as a minor annoyance that wipes out your ships and attempts to steal resources from your planets, but as time goes by, and if they manage to gather enough resources, they become much more dangerous, fielding tougher warships and even building their own planet (thus adding a new star system to the map). On the other side of the coin is the Peacekeeper Enforcer, a very powerful and dangerous menace, or at least dangerous to those who continue to fight while it’s around. The Peacekeeper Enforcer will only attack those who build more warships or who deliberately initiate hostilities. If you do not have the military strength to take down the Enforcer, it’s best to adopt a pacifist colonization strategy until it goes away. These menaces, and others like them, not only give players something against which to unify in the late game, but also demand the creation of some effective long-term strategies to deal with them.

It terms of economics, Sword of the Stars is somewhat simple. Resources are abstracted into money and industrial points, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that there is no strategy to the economic side of the game. In my first few tries, I failed to realize how important trade was and just how expensive colonization could be. As a result, I spent my empire into a black hole by founding colonies that cost too much to terraform, too early in the game. On the other hand, since resources are abstracted, there is less needless busy work required to build up your economy. You just have to pick the right planets to colonize or conquer at the right times and budget the correct amount of shipbuilding resources to trade, balancing all of that with your research and military needs.

I really enjoyed my time playing Sword of the Stars, and I can tell that the game has matured a lot as expansions have been added to it. The closest thing to a complaint that I have is that the AI doesn’t seem to grasp the strategic importance of alien menaces. While it does its best to fight them tactically, the AI never seems to modify its overall strategy to deal with these threats, resulting in some odd late-game behavior (the AI refuses a cease-fire even as System Killers destroy many of their most populated worlds and Puppet Masters steal their fleets). Aside from that, the game is solid, and boasts a tight multiplayer mode as well. While its graphics are starting to show their age, at $29.95 the collection is well worth the purchase price.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation: