Sword of the Stars 1.

It's a pretty darn cool game, well for a nerdy space rts any way. Best things about it so far: Random tech tree, there are some things that you always seem to get (You kind of need stuff that makes you travel between planets faster) but it's different enough each time, which is very cool, you might be forced to play differently every time even if you only play as the same race, pretty good way to make the game's life span longer. Random encounters, I've come across things that I've expected to be normal space battles and then it's turned out to be something I just didn't expect and even though I got completely destroyed and lost a load of ships I was just sitting there thinking this is pretty damn cool. Customizable ships you get different parts for your ships and you can pick parts from what you've researched and then name that craft. Fuel, your ships run on fuel and they won't get far without tankers, if you run out of fuel thats it your ships just sit where ever they ran out of fuel, you can build fuel tanks and send them out to your ships and then refuel the tankers and ships at colonies, which is a good way to limit how far you can fly from your base and forces you to expand. Though later with better research you can develop better engines and not need fuel as much. You need to be tactical in this game, it's not enough to just click on stuff and watch the fire works, you'll 100% fail like that, you need the right balance of ships and need to use them correctly (Torpedos look to be a must for dealing with large ships).

Graphics are ok, nothing too amazing. The game is pretty hard to get into but don't give up, I think it's going to be quite rewarding.

I think the game is only £5.99 till the second of Jan I'd get it if you want a decent space RTS, but don't get Sword of the Stars 2 it's a broken game at the moment, it's being fixed but won't be ready for a while yet.

Sword of the stars 2 still isn't where it should have been at release, I hope it's not the death of the series Sword of the Stars 1 is really good. I started playing again yesterday and I'm afraid I'm only just learning the subtle stuff like using point defence weapons to stop tiny ships and missiles form destroying your larger ships, before I used to get destroyed by random encounters with swarms, they have lots of small ships and I had nothing to defend myself against them. I still don't really get the diplomatic stuff I've not exactly tried to either, maybe I will at some point.

Sword in the Stars 2 Enhanced Edition has been released. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET THEM HAVE FIXED IT'S PROBLEMS!

Can't afford the game at the moment anyway, going to have to wait till next month if it isn't still broken.

Edit: So far it looks like the game is close to being as it should have been, it's about a year since release I think. So while the release was completely screwed up, credit has to be given for them not giving up on the title. The Enhanced Edition is free like the Witcher 2's Enhanced Edition upgrade.

Just bought Sword of the Stars 2... I hope it wasn't a mistake.

Ok well the combat is deeper, before there were two ways to tell, your ship had a growing number of spark things coming off of it or if you go to the tactical screen it had a colour change for your ships health. This time you can take damage from different sides and it has this nice display around your ship, you can see where the worst of the damage is and try to spin your ship so to protect the damaged sides. The ability to spin your ship is very nice, but it means a lot of micro management.

The galaxy you fight in was bigger in the first game but it was pretty dull, all the planets were pretty much the same, and thats all there was, planets, when you went into combat you were in the orbit of a planet. This time there are solar systems and the combat takes place within that system so you see all the planets and the sun. In the first game combat could be very slow, now while the area is bigger it's actually faster, if you aren't in range of an enemy the game will speed things up by giving you chance to "teleport" forwards in a sense. The combat looks pretty sweet as well, I've only been in one conflict with a swarm (Horrid little ships that would destroy you in the first game) very cinematic.

The problem with the game is that it's very confusing, I know the first game pretty well now but I'm totally lost in the second game, I think I will actually need to use a tutorial (I think there was one in the window that pops up when you start the game).

I think this could be the game for anyone with an interest in space RTS's, it had a very rocky start but I think it could be worth getting now. There is slight lag at the end of your turn, but it's nothing too bad.

Ok played a bit more and I'm understanding it a lot better now, they've made movement a lot more complex than it needs to be it takes forever to understand I still don't really. Movement is like a yo-yo, you send ships out on missions and they return once that mission is complete, if you want to move ships to another system you have to right click on the ships and select relocate, that sends them to another inhabited system. For some reason I can't relocate some of my ships any more, I don't know why that is yet, I can send them on other missions.

Research has changed from the first game, in the first game it was random what you got, in this game I believe you get everything BUT on certain research has a chance to fail. It's a more interesting way of doing things more involving than just not having stuff.

The game is slower now, for example to build a new ship you have to first create the design, then you have to go to the build menu and create the first prototype, you can only make one but once it's done you can make as many as you like. It's quite interesting really in the first game you would just make design after design just updating little things, in this because you have to build each prototype first it makes you wait till you have enough new tech to make it worth while. You can become much more attached to your ships which I think was the reason for most of this, you can name each one and that name will be on the side of the ship when in combat and a production number so you'll know how long you've had that ship.

I think this maybe the space RTS I've waited 14 years or so to play. It's so full of depth, it's a shame that it's so difficult to understand but it's worth the effort.