Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Kerberos Productions
System requirements: Windows Vista/XP, Core2Duo or better CPU, 512 MB graphics card with DirectX 10 support, DirectX 10 (February 2011 or newer), 2 GB RAM, Vista-compatible sound device, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: RTS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Fans of 4X games spent last summer waiting in anticipation for the release of Kerberos’s Sword of the Stars II. Given the excellence of the previous installment in the series and its expansions, expectations were high as trailers were released and the developers teased their fans with tidbits about the game. After wrestling with it for hours on end, it’s clear that SOTS II doesn’t live up to the hype. In fact, it doesn’t even live up to the basic promises to be expected of any game that had an original release price of $39.95.

SOTS II, in the tradition of the series, includes basic 4X gameplay. You still explore planets and systems, build your empire, negotiate and fight with other civilizations, and ultimately try to dominate the galaxy. Ship building, planetary development/colonization and maintaining trade are the norm for most civilizations. Like its predecessor, SOTS II gives each race its own unique method of faster-than-light travel, meaning that building a Hiver empire is, by definition, a very different experience than building a Liir empire.

The sequel also takes a page from the original and implements the randomized tech-tree that worked so well in the past. While most civilizations have potential access to most technologies, you can never be sure from game to game what exact technological possibilities exist. In addition to researching new things, players also conduct feasibility studies to determine what potentially profitable research paths are available. Even if you play the same species three times in a row, you might end up developing differently each time, thanks to how the tech-tree works out for you. It was a feature that worked so well in the original, Kerberos wisely kept it with only minor tweaks with some new research possibilities, such as the feasibility studies.

Planets and governments are now much more important than they were in the original game. The actions you take with regards to your empire’s domestic and foreign policy can impact the morale of your citizens on individual planets, but it also changes they way your government functions. There are several potential government types you can assume based on your actions, everything from anarchism to military juntas. Instead of forcing you to accept a certain play style for a specific race or scenario, you can adopt a natural evolution of domestic politics based on your choices in the game. Crushing minor races or making your space habitats friendlier to other species all impact your government type and the benefits it provides.

Before I go any further and begin pointing out the game’s many flaws, I must be honest and indicate that I specifically put off reviewing this game for a number of weeks because of the troubled release that SOTS II had last October. I normally wouldn’t do such a thing, but the release version of the game was so bad it was unplayable. There’s a reason why refunds were offered for those who purchased the game, even through Steam. As such, telling you that the game was in what appeared to be an early beta state two days after release wouldn’t have told you anything you didn’t already know. Now, months after release, the game has been patched several times, and it’s still plagued with problems. I don’t mean that you notice bugs if you play it for a few hours. There are so many problems that even as I write this, I’m not totally sure whether some issues are bugs or features. For example, when starting a new game, you select a map. The interface has buttons for increasing or decreasing the number of players, the number of starting planets, and the number of starting technologies. Currently, no map seems to support changing these values. Is that a bug or a poorly implemented feature? I can send Hiver ships on missions to plant a teleport gate in a new star system to enable colonization and exploration. But the fleet I send just builds the gate and then teleports home without doing anything else. I can’t find a way to force the fleet to stay in place and conduct other missions, which wastes valuable game turns and jump gate capacity because I have to resend the ships to the unexplored star system to conduct survey missions. Bug or feature? There is a button on the new game interface labeled “Scenarios,” just like the original game, but pressing it does nothing. Bug or missing feature? Even in terms of the game’s main menu, something is amiss. For the past four months there has been a greyed-out cinematics button on the interface. Bug or missing feature? Considering how important narrative is to this franchise, I’m surprised that nothing has been done to correct this issue one way or another.

These issues are just the tip of the iceberg. These kinds of problems have induced some players to complain that the original release of SOTS II was more or less a beta copy of the game. They are, in fact, wrong. I’ve done beta testing, and the inability of the opening menu to register mouse-clicks properly, as was the case during the first few patches, isn’t even beta-quality work. The only reason I’m not angry with Kerberos is that they have publicly apologized, and they did the right thing in offering refunds. We’ll probably never know what happened with the release of SOTS II, but it wasn’t worth the purchase price on release day and people who pre-ordered it were right to be angry. And as of now, it still isn’t worth buying because it still appears to have all kinds of problems. I’m very disappointed in Sword of the Stars II, and I can’t recommend that anyone pay the $39.95, even in its present condition. If you want a good 4X strategy game, go buy the original SOTS instead.

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