This is one of the most underated 4X games ive played. Ive put way more than 112 hours into it before i had steam. The combat controls take a bit of getting used to but once you have those nailed this game will eat hours of your life.

Planet management and the tech tree are easy to understand but the tech still retains depth. After an 8 hour long game you will still have lots of tech still to discover.
Whilst the graphics are a little dated it really doesnt matter once you are playing and you are immersed. Combat is enjoyable to watch especially when you have 3 massive dreadnoughts trying to face off against an entire enemy fleet.



This is a really solid game one of my favourite random buys ever .Its worth every penny and if you see it in a sale definatly grab it!

Classic game, runs great on older cpu's, and has almost infite replay value. Much better than newer games coming out.

If you like space battles featuring fleets of custom ships, buy this game.
If you like colonizing, conquering, and converting other factions or races, buy this game!
If you have ever wanted to be the undying sage presence that guides an ancient race of space-faring birds as they subjugate the far reaches of the abyss, tearing through the galaxy on the quest to restore their empire to it's former glory, BUY THIS GAME!

A surprising favorite among 4X games. I've put 90% of my time into this game before getting it on Steam, and I still come back to it now and again. Everything about SotS is cut down to its best aspects; empire management is user friendly and simplified, but still a powerful way to gain an advantage, while combat is straight to the point and engaging. You will never spend twenty minutes meticulously planning your next turn. Instead you'll be rushing to make new designs and push production, scraping together fleets to push your advantage and stave off annihilation.

If this game had better publishing, it would rank among the classics. And once you think you've played it out, just try the ACM mod.

A truely epic space 4X game. Turn based, but with real time combat inbetween turns. Find your way through a huge tech tree that changes with each race and play through.

Pros:

A very deep strategy game combining slow paced turn based strategy with battles handled in a tactically rich real-time, so fans of either should find something to enjoy. Gameplay is smooth, Intuitive, and mostly bug-free at this point.There is seemingly limitless customization with a wealth of ship designs and weapons systems to implement all with their own strengths and weaknesses, countless tech options allowing you to customize your playstyle depending on what research you choose to specialize in, along with each playable race feeling truly unique in their playstyle. Multiple scenarios to play through with differing victory condition based on your race and/or faction within that race.

Cons:

The sheer amount of information on the screen and choices to make can be a little mind boggling at first but is fairly intuitive and doesn't take too long to learn. Graphics are a bit dated at this time but certainly acceptable. Music is forgettable but maintains a pleasant atmosphere in the game. The AI doesnt scale particularly well however often remaining pretty easy on any difficulty but you can offset that with handicaps while setting up the match. RNG tech availability can leave a game terribly unbalanced if you're extremely unlucky. Lack of a true 'story mode' may turn off some players.

Overall a solid game that has given me hundreds of hours of entertainment long before it was available on steam,

Best space 4x game I have ever played. Each race travels differently. Every game has a different research tree. Awesome random events. Only issue is automating battles with drones and balance of some weapons.

Probably the best x4 I've ever played. No kidding. It's almost like Stars! without the micromanagement. The only problem is that the servers are down, so you'll have to use hamachi (eww) or something for multiplayer.

Very fun game with random tech tree to spice up each playthrough. The combat is well paced going from simple to complex as you research new guns and toys for your ships. The trading feels a little overpowered.

This is a great 4x game. It has a few shortcommings, but overall its a highly enjoyable game worthy of many many playthoughs. One would figure that the sequal would be awesome... but this one is good.

Basically Rome Total War in space. Only less buggy and you don't have to worry about ♥♥♥♥ing squalor(Diplomacy is still lacking, but who has time for that while commiting genocide on bird/fish/dog/ant/whateverthe♥♥♥♥tarkansare people?).

Combat plays kind of like Star Wars: Empire At War, only MUCH more in depth. You can pin point exactly where you want your ships to fire and with what weapons. Every weapon has it's own use and even your basic destroyer class ships still have their uses end game.

The research tree is race specific and semi-random, so although you do have a few technologies you can count on being there, don't always expect to get that Anti-Matter Missile Upgrade. However you can still salvage technology from enemy ships, so not all is lost. The tree itself is vast and makes you feel like you're playing pokemon(GOTTA LEARN THEM ALL!) for scientists. Unfortunately, finding out how something is effective requires either a google search or trial and error.

I play on a Dual Pentium 2.3 ghz laptop with an integrated graphics card(♥♥♥♥ you Intel), and yet so far I have yet to hit a spot where framerate becomes an issue. However once an AI controls a large territory they take longer to figure what they do(so I assume) and so you get a 30 sec to 1 min delay in turns. Which is extremely frustrating when you are just trying to skip turns.

I've played with the AI on normal difficulty and default economic settings and so far I've been able to take on empires twice my size(probably due to me beefing up my economy then research end game tech a little early and I did finish around 400-500 turns so not the quickest by any means). The time limit can be a curse when you are trying to comb the area for enemy units or simply trying to glass a planet.

Great game, definitely something for those of you who want to conquer the galaxy, plenty of race variety and scenarios to make you replay this game.

i like it make another *throws glass*

old school
in depth
Space Strategy
FUN

The best space 4x game there is. Total War... in space! In the turn based strategy layer you explore and colonize worlds, research and build spaceships. When two fleets meet you get real time battles.
This game has great depth, where you have to manage refueling and repair, try to counter your opponents using techs on a tech tree that has random branches missing every game. You have to deal with random events and epic Grand Manaces and AI rebellions that can be far more dangerous than your opponents. The races are really different, each with its unique travelling method, strenths and weaknessess.
All this is presented in a faily easy and intuitive way. An epic game.

I had to buy this game again in order to review it. My hours played does not include the older Steam version that isn't sold anymore.

This is hands down my favourite game of all time. Therefore I am actually going to take time writing this review.

Ridiculously deep, engaging gameplay that can allow for 250+ hours for a single large game - a game filled with desperate struggles against merciless and highly adaptable AI in long late-night/early morning sessions. A very nice physics engine allows for some interesting RTS battles with completely customised ships bristling with esoteric weaponry - from the humble red laser to giant space revolvers that shoot asteroids that glass planets.

With a quasi-randomised tech tree system and 6 different races that each play completely differently, it is easy to spend thousands of hours on this game and still not experience everything it has to offer. Multiplayer is just as good - coordinate with a friend or compete against them in 4X/RTT combined gameplay. If you thought multiplayer games of Sins of a Solar Empire or Civ were long, this game is somewhat longer, but rewards you with deep satisfaction during and after play.

Overall it is similar to the Master of Orion series of games if you remember those, but also feels akin to Total War with the RTT combined with turn-based strategy, and the depth of control available during battles. Most of the time you are trying to expand, tech up and survive in a turn-based 4X type strategic map.

However, if one of your ships encounters something hostile, you are given the option to fight manually; this is often very rewarding, you are able to visually assess the ships, including tech level and weaponry, and to also destroy them with extreme prejudice (or not if you prefer). The RTT game engine allows polygon targeting, allowing you to aim shots at precise parts of their ships - snipe off their turrets or shoot out their engines so their inertia causes them to crash into a planet. The level of detail simulated allows for incredibly fun and often unpredictable fights. This is not like Sins, where ships have simple health bars and succumb after a set number of hits; exactly what and where you hit things is of great importance - hit a tanker in the fuel tanks hard enough and be rewarded with a satisfying secondary explosion, sometimes disintegrating the ship and everything small within a large radius.

Visually, it is quite dated now, something that they tried to fix in the sequel, which is somewhat buggy and sometimes broken. However, this original is very well polished, and I would highly recommend this gem of a game to anyone with half a brain and some patience.

If you do end up enjoying it as much as I have, the sequel may be worth trying, but be prepared for a general feeling of lack of completeness that is absent in this original. I wouldn't fault the devs too much for that, Paradox wanted them to release at an incomplete point and it was do-or-die for the studio. It has come a long way since release but the devs aimed a bit too high and fell short. This does not mean it is terrible, much fun is to be had, with a lot of new things to be tried - if you have the patience and an SSD to cope with the *occasional* CTD - (occasional is a relative term).

TL;DR: this is a very good and underrated game, buy it (it is also cheap), play it. Don't buy the second one if you are new to the series unless you are a masochist with too much money.

So my friend introduced me to this game as he wanted more friends to play with. It was an old game (relatively) and I expected a few laughs and not much else. I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for Civilization in space. I didn't ask for all the lore and all the different races and ships. I didn't ask for interesting space combat and with ship by ship construction and pretty high level strategy. They even forced multiple maps down my throat with a tech tree that is randomly generated from game to game! It was horrible. Terrible. I didn't want this.

On a more serious note. The game is fun, as usual especially with friends. Has a pretty good learning curve, interesting races with tons of lore to read. Every race plays different and is interesting in what they are good and not good at. Good mechanics and has actual space battle where you control the ships in 3d space. It can be a bit daunting at times and for some people it might get boring if things get slow. However I very much liked this game. Certainly gave me some sleepless nights staying up to play it. Graphics are solid. No real complaints, though games do tend to go very long.

+/+ Unique take on research.
+/+ Simple ship building UI.
+/+ First encounters with alien species is handled very well.
+/+ All six species have unique play styles and lore as well as provide unique opponents to fight.
+/+ Micromanagement decreases with game length.
+/+ full 3 dimensional star maps (with many choices included a ‘2D’ star map for those who prefer 2D).
+/+ Games are very customizable.

+/- Turn-based star map with real-time battles (kind of like Total War in space).
+/- Economy management is relatively simple.
+/- Graphics are nothing to write home about (not that important for a 4x strategy game IMO).

-/- SotS lacks a sufficient tutorial and the UI fails to present all relevant information.
-/- Sound effects range from average to bad. Some may even find them offensive.
-/- Lacks steam features.

Verdict: 8.8/10. SotS is a very impressive and unique take on the 4x genre. The developer managed to create a game design that scales the micromanagement with empire size. The ship design is one of the best I’ve seen in a 4x game (Star Ruler would be my only contender). The game has a steep learning curve and requires some forum reading/let’s plays to gain a moderate understanding of the underlying mechanics. If you are willing to invest the time, you will find a lot to love in Sword of the Stars.

An extremely in-depth and large-scope turn-based space empire building simulator. It gives enough freedom to feel in control but does not get bogged down with a ton of menus. Though it looks a touch dated by now it is still easily the best I've found in the genre. (There is a sequel, and there are a LOT of reasons I'm writing a recommendation for the original instead of that).

I'd probably call this game a cult classic, but I don't even think the following it has would extend that far. Which is a shame, considering how epic this game is. Honestly I can say if you want a 4X space strategy game, get this, and ignore the sequel.

Why? You might ask, surely the sequel is better! Wrong, it had a terrible, terrible launch, released in a bad unfinished state, to the point where even clicking the new game button would crash it. Which isn't the developers fault, i'd like to add, they suffered the same problem that plague's most games today, the publisher forced them to push it out the door.

But back to the original topic. SotS is addictive and more importantly, fun. Six races to choose from, each with their own quirks and style of play. You can set up a galaxy with a number of options, ranging from amount of stars, to the galaxy shape, the size of the stars themselves, the distance between them... basicaly you can create any game you like and choose who you want to play and play against.

It has a randomised research tree, every game. So don't get comfortable with those awesome beam weapons, come the next game, you might be unlucky and not get that tech. There are some essential techs that every race gets, every game, like the very basic laser or mass driver tree. But each race has different probabilities of getting access to the much more advanced technologies that are in the various trees.

The empire management is... basic, you colonise planets and they develop on their own, terraforming till they are suitable for your race, and building infrastructure. Some planets are so hostile that you can't even colonise them, although there are technologies that you might get access to that can improve the hazard they impose.

Ship design is another interesting and fun part of the experience, as you pick different sections and weapons to put on your ships. Maybe you'd like a ship fully loaded with missles? Sure, go ahead, just be mindful that if the AI has a lot of point defense, that ship will be nearly pointless. So a lot of designing can revolve around what gets thrown against you, or what you come up against.

Then, theres the random encounters... which is an option you can fiddle with in the game settings when you make the galaxy. Basically, it is what it says on the tin, a random encounter can range from a asteroid shower, which can wipe out a new colony, to getting attacked by slavers. But there are special types of encounters, which often turn out to be dangerous and can take massive fleets to stop. I'll give you an example of a grand menace I encountered in a game I played, The Peacekeeper. This dude comes into the map and travels to the center of the galaxy and makes a speech, telling you to stop all hostilities with each other and stop prodcution of war ships. Break these rules while he's on the map, and he attacks you. Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong, this guy is... holy mother of god frightening, he will literally tear your fleets to shreds, no matter what tech you have. Luckily, he doesn't discriminate and will love wailing on the AI as much as you if they step out of line.

All in all, Sword of the Stars is an impressive, and addictive game, that is starting to show it's age graphically, but the fun factor and replayability keeps me coming back to it. I deffinitely reccommend this title to any 4X fans, and especially to space strategy fans. It's an easy to pick up game, thats difficult to master.

Truly an amazing game. It is really interesting, you never run out of things to do. The only problem I had with the game is that it takes a bit to master... The tutorial is not very detailed, but with a few guides, you should have no problem.
I would definitely recommend it to anyone that wants to play a good strategy game.