Sword of the Stars
Sword of the Stars offers players a breakthrough gaming experience. It delivers wild gaming with epic online multiplayer battles across deep space! Choose from 4 playable races, and guide them through a massive galaxy as you try to establish them across the universe. Each race possesses its own unique language, ships, and technologies -- expand across the known worlds as you control cosmic empires, alien technologies and vast interstellar armadas.
Sword of the Stars Accessories
 Space Empires V
DarkStar One (DVD-Rom)
Sins of a Solar Empire
Space Rangers 2: The Rise of the Dominators
Supreme Commander
Galactic Civilizations II Gold
Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond the Sword
UFO: Extraterrestrials - Chaos Concept
X3: The Reunion 2.0
Europa Universalis III
Sword of the Stars Reviews
Unlike most games such as sins of a solar empire where every game almost always ends with same tactics, No sots game is ever really the same, random tech tree's, random events etc. Don't trust this review though go to the site and download the CE demo, give it a try you won't regret it. Sword of the Stars is a great game, it can take a while to get into it but well worth it. Also unlike alot of games you can logon to xfire and chat with the devs post on forums and they will respond. If you buy sots I highly recommend you get born of blood also or the CE edition if you can find it.
Your ships are very small, ~30m for destroyers, ~90m for cruisers and around 270m for dreadnoughts. This games most standout feature, however is the use of momentum physics in its real time combat. While the 3D star map does take some getting used to, the simple tech tree and simplified system development controls free the player to think about strategy, instead of micromanaging every single colony. Ships have to fight inertia when maneuvering, which can lead to some interesting, even disastrous combat situations with collisions and radical evasive maneuvers. Your early ships are never really obsolete and can compete even in the late game stages (albeit, not very effectively. Their constant attention to fan input and their efforts to improve their product are constantly making this game better and more fun to play. The game itself is set in the earliest stages of galactic exploration and conquest.
Still, they can slow an enemy advance or thin out the enemy fleet to allow your main force an easier combat) which says volumes for thought the developers put into the technology tree. It reminds of Master of Orion, rather than Master of Orion II or III. Each race begins without any real contact with the others, and default to a hostile reaction. Real time combat is exciting and more involved than just the rock / paper / scissors approach so many RTS games use. I would recommend this game to fan of the 4x genre.
After playing for quite a while I have found that this game is very entertaining and is hugely replayable. Each tech has multiple counters and there are no ultimate technologies that lead to instant galactic domination. The graphics in combat are superb considering the low end system requirements and the developers active participation on their game forum is truly remarkable. For size comparisons think about a WWII German U-Boat for Destroyers, Firefly's Serenity for a Cruiser and a modern aircraft carrier for Dreadnoughts.
The folks who do like it enjoy the colorful and intense battle scenes. There you go.that's it. They like simplicity in their battle interface. You get what you pay for in the long run. If you know what you like, and you know what this delivers, go for it.
It's simply a fun game, with some strategy and some arcade play, that demands a lot of memory (good luck if you have an older system to get beyond 30 star systems, the stronger ones get taxed at 75 star systems in terms of processing). If you don't enjoy working with 3D interfaces - you will not like this game. Oh yeah, lasers, phasers, EM pulses, graviton, positron, and-kind of right on weapons being exchanged by the combatants.
And, I don't care what the box says in specs, if you don't have 2 GB RAM, L2 Cache, and 256 video card - your computer will not like this game. I have listened and read quite a few reviews on this game. If it doesn't fit your bill, don't buy it, or cry over it. They aren't into heavy diplomacy sessions, or overly intense economic readings.
Here is what it comes down to in simple terms: If you like a game that gets in to specifics, quantities even going out two or three decimals, fine details in building a civilization - you will not like this game. They like simplicity in their scientific progress interface.
(Could never see graphics of ships). In general, this game is Reach for the Stars with bad graphics. After installing on my laptop and patching to the latest version. Basically, in the end-game, you can only play 1 - 3 turns between restarts. Imperium Galactica II was much more enjoyable. Bad programming execution.
Then the graphics lockup in the ship build screen and require a complete restart to get graphics back. Game requires a patches to play, but I could never get it to work on my desktop. It's not a good sign when there are three patches released within a year of release. I got the game to work until about turn 100+.
With the patch, the remaining faults are: (1) 3-D map is confusing and cumbersome, resulting in space ships and planets that simply cannot be found and (alas) making larger games pretty much unplayable; (2) inadequate documentation; (3) ambiguous tech (e.g., "increases missle damage" but doesn't say by how much); (4) no feedback during battle on damage to ships; (5) ships during battle typically do their own thing, with only limited user controls, which makes your tactics pretty much irrelevant. With a good internet connection and plenty of computer savy, a patch can be installed that makes the game playable okay / 3-stars but not great. This game is a "take over the galexy" strategy game similar to Masters of Orion. "Sword of the Stars" computer game is completely unplayable out-of-the-box. The user interface is easy to use and learn (if you have the patch), as advertised; and the plot ideas / goals are kind of fun. Few FAQs and Walkthroughs exist, and so cannot provide support to make up for the game's inadequecies. The problems are annoying enough, though, that this game simply doesn't have staying power.
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