In the same way that the Civilization and Total War series give players the chance to establish and manage an empire in Earth-based environments, StarDrive 2 presents the opportunity to extend an empire to the stars, colonizing planets, meeting new species, and waging war to establish dominance of the universe. StarDrive 2 perhaps comes closer to Total War than Civilization, though, as it contains real-time battles, but instead of horsemen and knights, players use a variety of starships and space-faring vessels.
Before you start a game in StarDrive 2, you are given the choice of nine different races to play from. Of course, there’s the human element, who are a typical middle of the range option with slightly higher than average aggressiveness, but the other eight options offer a fair deal of variety, in both appearance and characteristics. There are bears, bugs and wolves, as a quick sample, and these have various underlying factors, from being reliant on the slave trade, to being exceptional farmers. What’s more, if you’re unhappy with the build of a particular race, you can customize it, but weighing up negative traits against positive ones. For example, if you want to start the game with extra wealth, or with above-average mechanics, you may have to leverage your abilities, by also choosing to be slow breeders, or poor farmers.
As well as figuring out the setup of your chosen faction, you’re also given the choice to customize the game-world too, from the number of systems and the distance between said systems, to the occurrence of fertile or mineral-rich planets. You can also increase or lower, or even remove entirely, the presence of space pirates, who will randomly attack your fleets, convoys or colonies. There’s a genuine sense that the player is allowed to choose the type of game that they want to play, whether they merely want to explore a galaxy, engage in diplomatic relations with other species, or merely have an all-out war against alien races.
Ultimately, the goal of StarDrive 2 is to establish a galactic empire, through whatever means necessary. Planets vary in size and climate, which in turn affects how much of a population they can support, and whether or not they’re better suited to farming, production or research. For planets that are unable to support themselves in terms of food production, you can establish trade routes, which allow fertile planets to support more barren colonies, where research is completed or where your starships are built. StarDrive 2 does a great job of giving the feeling of building a true empire, with individual elements coming together to form a cohesive whole. In a similar fashion, the removal of one of these pieces can cause the whole thing to come tumbling down, as I found when I lost a farming planet in a particularly far-flung system in one game, leaving my research and production colonies to starve. Within a number of turns my entire system had collapsed, and I quickly learned the importance of not over-stretching my resources.
Most of your time within the game will be spent flicking between three or four main screens, and thankfully the navigation in StarDrive 2 is both smooth and speedy. The basic view consists of a galaxy map, much like that found in the Mass Effect series, and from here you can see the extent of your galactic empire, with your borders represented by a blob of your faction’s identifying colour. Zooming in allows you to focus on a particular system, with a number of planets orbiting a central star. This screen provides information on the fertility of a planet and its climate and allows you to more closely manage your fleets. Clicking on a particular planet allows you to manage an individual colony, from their build queue, to labour allocations and military forces. Above all of this you can also view the Empire Management screen, which presents a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of a planet, as well as what each planet is currently building or working on. This screen proves incredibly useful for coordinating the efforts of your entire empire and becomes increasingly important as your empire grows.
Aside from managing your empire, StarDrive 2 also gives you the chance to navigate the galaxy, in true explorer fashion. Dotted throughout the universe are wormholes, which function as shortcuts from one area of space to another, but you won’t know exactly where it will lead you until you enter it, meaning you could end up discovering a valuable anomaly at the other end, or you could exit right in the middle of a hostile civilization, and provide them with a backdoor to your home world. Anomalies, which were just mentioned, provide a number of different functions, but play out as a choose-your-own-adventure styles narrative, and can provide you with a number of rewards, from advanced technology, or chances to buy items.
Of course, StarDrive 2 wouldn’t be much of an empire building game without the chance to annihilate your enemies. Battles take place in real-time, from a top-down view, and there are a large number of varied warships and fighters to choose from, which is only further by the Shipyard feature. Here, players can customize already existing ships and even create their own, using a grid system to allocate and place resources such as weapons, engines and ammunition. This system proves to be quite in-depth, as you need to be able to manage power consumption, ammunition storage and engine capacity, all while choosing from a wide range of options, such as multiple types of laser cannons and engines with different outputs and power requirements.
For those of you thinking that StarDrive 2 sounds great, but incredibly overwhelming, considering all the different mechanics in play, then rest assured that the experience itself is incredibly user-friendly, especially for newcomers. The game starts with a comprehensive tutorial, delivered by a friendly and patient teacher who actually has a personality, something rarely seen in videogame tutorials. I found that this allowed me to take in more of what he was saying than I would do otherwise, and I definitely retained more information than usual for such a detailed tutorial. Thankfully, throughout the game, the sheer amount of information is organized and presented quite well. This is added to by the fact that hovering over almost everything in the game presents a pop-up that delivers both in-universe information, as well as outlining its in-game purpose.
StarDrive 2 is a deep empire-management experience that isn’t afraid to welcome new users into its world and gradually introduce them to its mechanics. Though an initially overwhelming experience, an excellent tutorial aided by well-organized information eases players into establishing a galactic empire, and intriguing mechanics and varied races make for an emergent narrative that will keep you playing for hours at a time. StarDrive 2 offers more of a solid experience than anything revolutionary, but what is included has clearly been made with care, and fans of the genre will find a lot to enjoy.
