The demanding price for this game is unreasonable by the extreme end of the sprectrum. Those with even the slightest interest, feel free to disregard as this game really brings nothing new to the genre. If this game is much better suited as a flash game on Armor Games / Newgrounds. The RNG in this game is shoddy and no customization.

"..deeply tactical and highly visual experience.."

This description cannot be any further from the truth.

From the outset, I like this game. It does what it sets out to do very well. That said, I won't be playing it because it's not my style of game. It's not a space 4x game but a casual simplistic strategy came set in a space theme.

What the game appears to be from the advertising is a simplified, casual, 4x turn-based space strategy game. It isn't. I could really enjoy a game like and keep playing it for a lengthy period of time. It needs to have just a few more mechanics and a few more complexities to be a 4x. For example, there is no eXplore in this 3x game. That goes along with no research, no empire management, no ship customization, no planetary development. Well, heck, it's not a 4x game at all! That's my one warning, you will be very upset if you buy this expecting that (yes, I know it says it on the store page advert, honestly I don't know why they would advertise it as such). Let me explain what it actually is.

It's a space themed table top strategy game. It's Risk with space ships on a check board. No more complex than that. It's not a 4x, not Endless Space, nor MOO, nor SOTS, nor Stardrive, etc. It's a bad decision to advertise it as this genre. You have a checker grid of planets with each having a set number of Resource points. Capturing the planet means you gain those resource points each turn. Each planet can construct ships and the cost is subtracted from your resource bank. You have cards with some strategic value, i.e. your ship will suicide next battle and kill itself and all enemy ships, which can also be traded for resources. There are essentially two races, the Empire and, essentially, rebels/Pirates. They have different play styles whereas the Empire has stronger ships, combat strength and health, they take longer to build and more resources. The Pirates have weaker ships and take less turns to build. So the pirate early game is sprawl as fast as you can before the Empire starts coming. The ships are each different resource costs, turns to build and stats. The battles are simply graphical representations of the stat calculation. It's like Civilization 5 where you have one unit attacking another, animations ensue, and the victor remains. That's the game. That's all there is.

It's a deeper checkers in Space. Perhaps that's unfair. It's a very complicated Checkers game in space. Think of the genre as on a range of complexity from a tabletop stragegy game to your traditional, archetypal, 4x PC game like MOO. Within the table tops you can go from as simple as checkers to as complicated as Risk. Your 4x games, I would say Endless Space would be the simplistic title, MOO/Sword of the Stars in the middle and the spreadsheet game of MOO3 as the most complex. This game falls squarely in the complex table top game category and doesn't even touch the simplistic 4x scale. That's what you're buying. Don't expect a simpler Endless Space or even a casual 4x title because you'll be disappointed.

What it does though, it does right. The UI is crisp and looks good, the ships look good as does the space background. Next to no game breaking bugs so far after 2 hours of gameplay and multiple play throughs. Your games will last from about 10 minutes - 45 minutes. It's very much a pick up and go strategy title. For me though, it's still space checkers -- where you can own tiles you were on and build more checkers on them and each time you jump another player there's a battle based on numbers. I'd recommend this for casual players and table top players, not necessarily 4x players. There is a little polish lacking, it's day one after all, with some stuttering in the panning and some funky zoom decisions (click on planets to move around map, forget panning or zooming). Also, damage on ships is hard to see or even even keep track of since it's not represented graphically or shown on the galaxy screen nor battle screen. The other reviews criticised the game for having a scout take out a cruiser, fair enough, they can when your cruiser has 1 shield point left but you'd never know it during the battle. That sort of detail isn't quite polished in yet. I think $15 is a fair price point, $20 is pushing it in its current state, but maybe when it gets more polished and maybe with a little more content.

I only played single player, There is no story line to discover, Though it gives you the option of team play, there is only one winner at the end (and having the computer win when you helped it sucks). There is no tutorial, This feels more like a phone app than a computer game. For $20 I expect playability from simple games that is at least comparable to a popcap game. Maybe it was meant to be played multi-player, but I was very disappointed.

Not quite ready. I've noticed a few things with this game off the bat. Every turn it gives you a summary of the action in the last turn and the statistics were not telling me about the ships I lost. Combat is simplified kind of like the Civilization games, this combat is a little confusing; much of the time it will show my ship destroy the other one and find out it had destroyed my ship as well.

I do like the game and with a little work these things will probably get smoothed out in a few patches until them I can't recommend this to anyone.

Lastly this is not a 4x game, there is no research and there is no diplomacy I could find.

I have played the games off-line most of the time. So my numbers of hours played is not that accurate.

So, let's talk about what I liked about the game first.

1. The gameplay - it's a reminisence of chess, checkers and game of the generals. If you like playing board games and if you want a game that will challenge your strategic mind, then this game is for you. The gameplay mostly involves you pressing buttons in-game but pressing that button requires a lot of thinking first. "Will this benefit me later on?" "Is this the right choice?"

2. The A.I. - damn, the A.I. is really frustrating to beat. I thought I was already most of my games only to realize I was suckered by the damn bots.

3. The music - Suspense. I feel like I am in outer space duking it out with them aliens.

4. The art - The game does not really on graphics too much. But it has some artworks that (may not blow your mind) will you appreciate the game more.

What I hate about it.

1. Lack of female presence - No female characters!? Whuuuuut!? Well there's the female brood mothers but I can't really tell if they're female! Comeon guys. You can easily add a female character in the game. You can just draw it you know.

2. The music - I like how the feel of the music makes me think of space. But damn... I didn't know that outer space can be so repetitively annoying.

3. No tutorials - The game is complicated. I was able to realize that it's all about pointing and then clicking and conquering planets after 20 minutes into playing the game. But that 20 minutes irked me so much that I actually prayed that the game does not exist. I mean, comeon.. This game is complicated, how much of a complication is it to make a tutorial that involves gameplay? Nobody reads written tutorial (they have those). I didn't read it.

4. Price - that price does not justify anything. It's not a competitive price. Change it somewhere lower and you will surely have more people buying the game

5. Multiplayer - There's an option to play Multiplayer. But it's useless. Nobody plays the game online. Damn. I was hoping to play with someone online but damn.

So... There. That's my review. Do I recommened it? Yes. I do. But be wary, watch youtube videos first to check if you will like the game once you have it. That price is not really making me happy. It's a good thing I snagged the game for free.

Final verdict: 5/10

This is a pretty cute game. Don't give the game a negative review just because you expected something else.

As the game description says. It's a CASUAL 4x Turn-Based Strategy Game. Think of it like a board game. Just because you heard a 4x there don't think of Master of Orion or Endless Space. Read the whole description. Watch screenshots. Watch videos.

Basically there are 4 factions each with 4 leaders. Each factions have different ships. The game is played like the old Hexxagon game where you take planets one by one by using the ships that you build. There is 1 resource. Each planet can give you from 0 to 2 points in that resource. Ships are also simplified. You have attack and hp. Combat is also automated.

Besides this, you can also draw "cards" that you can use at your advantage.

Basically is a game where you are trying to conquer as many planets as possible then try to defend them. It's a strategic game where you have to anticipate opponent's movement.

You can play with AI or with other Humans. You can play 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, 2v2v2, etc.

Again, think of it like a board game. I sometimes like this games. Just pop in, play a couple of games. Keep my brain focused.

I made a video where I explain the game in greater detail here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ONQoxIf7pM

Again. It's not the game's fault that you expect something else.

P.S. There was a SAVE game bug that got fixed. YOU CAN save your game!

Not a bad little casual strategy game, its focus seems more based around a quick game here or there rather than a full in depth experience though manual saving seems to not be a thing in this game that could have been a welcome addition.

The graphics and sound are nothing to write home about but for this game it does serve it purpose I feel.

From what I have heard there is a patch coming very soon that will address some of the community's feedback on the game and I am curious to see what this patch will bring to the table.

The biggest drawback I find is the price tag and that is a bit steep but if your looking for something that you can just drop in and play then this could be for you

I found this game to be completely underwhelming. The store page could not possibly be more misleading about what you are getting in this game. This is not a 4x game in the very least. It is space themed checkers. The only win condition in the game is to control a majority number of the planets on the board. The default settings in game are that when you move to an unoccipied planet, you capture it. Generally I will have won the game long before any combat has happened between myself and an enemy faction. I feel completely ripped off by this game. It promised so much and delivered on almost nothing it says in the store page. Please save your money for something worth it, like a lottery ticket.

I've been really enjoying this as a casual strategy game.
It does what it sets out to do which is provides casual gameplay without some of the more tedious elements.
Some people seem to be comparing it to a board game and I think that's a pretty good description.
I think the gam ewould be greatly improved if we could customize gameplay a bit more though.
Overall, i really enjoy the hours i am playing it. So that's why i recommend it!

Don't buy this game. It's filled with bugs. I just had a multiplayer game where the first time the AI attacked, it ended the game stating that the AI had won, when it attacked one planet out of my ...30.

They only just added a singleplayer save function, it's incomplete and full of bugs and has been sold as a complete game.

It's not even worth $5.00 in its current state.

Buyers beware :(

Disappointed. I see potential, like a simple board game on the computer that could be simple and fun. But the UI is pretty tedious. The AI on every difficultly is terrible (which seems pretty unforgiveable as its simple math) and the cut scene battles are worthless.

Hey, it is what it is! I have only played a couple of games. But there ya go, in only a few minutes I played 2 whole games! I lost one and won one. Not bad for just starting to get to know the way the game plays. No, it is not a brainiac strategic monstrosity! But then it isn't that hard to learn to play either! It comes with a "board game" mode, and it appears to be meant to be played like one, all in one session.

Some complain about not being able to save the game for later play. Well, that may be the way the game is meant to be played-out, all in one sitting. *It would be nice, if later editions built-in more complexity and a save function. (*Game designers, please note). But for a game that lasts from a half hour to an hour, it plays pretty straight forward!

Without hesitation I give this game a thumbs up! But it might be best to keep expectations low, and catch it on sale. Heck of a game for $4.99!

So, Starion Tactics. What do I think?

Well, as far as your basic intergalactic turn based strategy games go, it's not too bad. It has a couple of obvious drawbacks, such as the lack of a save feature (although auto-save is a thing), and the fact that it's sometimes rather hard to keep track of what happens in every turn.

At the same time, however, the game is still being patched, and the strategy elements are pretty functional as they are, so I'm quite willing to recommend this product.

See also our video review on the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6lmFN7zxxM

Way to simplistic and limited for my taste. I think I will stick with Planetary Anihalation. This is a bit like an up to date tic tac toe / board game style concept. Not for me.

I like a deeper, broader form of strategy.

I didn't realise it was a board game and that is my fault. but even for a board game its pretty boring; finishing off an enemy is like an endless game of whack-a-mole, animations are stale and slightly confusing, and everything is just as super balanced as chess. It was a good try but i just can't seem to find an appeal for it.

Regret buying this game, played like 5 minutes and i want to quit.

Nothing tactical about it, buy a few units and start taking over planets with no tactical advantage. No building or tech structures, no real organisation. Just a click and watch game.

Oops big mistake. not a 4-x game and no worth the $

Awful game. The concept itself isn't bad. It's a strategy/card game. What makes it broken, is that is that it asks for prompts every time you construct a ship, or end your turn. Has no flow.

a 2 dollar game at most

this game works. i have found no major bugs but it's weak. two run throughs and I'm done, waste of my money and time. to be honest i won't buy this game at 50 cent.

this program does work and as a program it's fine. however as a game FAIL.

This game is so basic, it should be a flash game. $20 for this??! Should be worth the same as a phone app, because it plays like one - 1/10 (the one is because I still played a game to the end, though it's so basic, there's no point in playing it twice)