Ancient Space

 PC
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 56 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 37 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 56
  3. Negative: 12 out of 56

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  1. MayhemMike83
    Sep 24, 2014
    7
    Don't get your hopes up, it is not a new Homeworld!

    What you will get is a space themed RTS with unit building, light resource management (think CoH) and the ability to upgrade your mothership only between missions. The Campaign is a two edged sword, very difficult with seemingly impossible situations but also very rewarding if you manage to work your way through. The biggest    Don't get your hopes up, it is not a new Homeworld!

    What you will get is a space themed RTS with unit building, light resource management (think CoH) and the ability to upgrade your mothership only between missions.

    The Campaign is a two edged sword, very difficult with seemingly impossible situations but also very rewarding if you manage to work your way through.

    The biggest disappointment for me was the lack of a skirmish mode. Well there is a menu button which is called "Skirmish" but behind that are just 3 maps with missions attached to it, like a horde mode for example.

    Pros:
    +nice graphics
    +nice sound
    +difficult campaign
    +small but interesting map design

    Cons:
    -no skirmish mode
    -not very innovative/deep mechanics
    -pathfinding is a bit edgy    … Expand
  2. Daemon_XE
    Sep 28, 2014
    7
    This game puzzles me to great lengths. After following the game for a while, finally playing it is resoundingly disappointing. There are some excellent ideas here, and the genre itself is woefully neglected, so this entry has a lot going for it in that sense. It's just that it doesn't really play well.
    Visually, the game is absolutely stunning. The environments are amazingly well crafted,    This game puzzles me to great lengths. After following the game for a while, finally playing it is resoundingly disappointing. There are some excellent ideas here, and the genre itself is woefully neglected, so this entry has a lot going for it in that sense. It's just that it doesn't really play well.
    Visually, the game is absolutely stunning. The environments are amazingly well crafted, and the ship designs are in a fine balance of lending off known tropes along with genuine creativity. The music too, is quite nice. The tracks don't really do much by themselves, but sometimes do invoke feelings of say, the new Battlestar Galactica series, which is awesome.
    Alas, between the beautiful designs and nebula's, it's hard to see what's going on. I had a lot of trouble navigating the camera, which works in unpredictable ways. But that's only part of the problem. Despite faction colouring, I kept trying to control allied or enemy ships, thinking they were mine. I also lost many a ship for the opposite reason. It seems like a simple thing, and perhaps a more adept gamer than I won't have this problem, but it was very jarring to me. That, and everything ever clips.
    Talking about jarring, the Unity 3D engine seem to have a lot of trouble with this game. Which the visual effects are excellent, framerate drops were very frequent, even when keeping the 30fps refresh cap. I don't think the devs themselves are really to blame on this, and it never gets to be a proper slide-show, but it's not what I expected with my gaming pc. (i-7 860 & GTX 570 and the standard settings).
    The universe the game takes place in can be very intriguing though, and the story is functional but nonetheless enjoyable. The voice-acting is also superb, though it's hampered by a mediocre script.

    There is enough depth here for core gamers to enjoy. The resource system is simple and somewhat inelegant, but the units are well balanced and often just pretty bloody awesome. The bigger battles really do have this epic feel to them, and the campaign really pays off. My hopes are mostly for a few revisionary updates to streamline the UI and pace the progress of the missions a bit better. The promise is here, but the game design is just a bit too wonky at times to really make game excel.

    + Beautiful.
    + Captures the epic space battle really well at times.
    + Decent story.

    - Clunky controls.
    - UI.
    - Bad pacing.    … Expand
  3. Lutet
    Oct 10, 2014
    9
    I really enjoyed playing Ancient Space. Awesome graphics and challenging missions - that is what I was looking for. Very good ratio of fun to price. Great job guys!
  4. Plusz
    Sep 23, 2014
    10
    Nice & challenging strategy game, you must play it :). Interesting story, very very good looking (amazing space scenery & ships), nice gameplay & game mechanics. What could I say? Just watch it and see it for yourself.
  5. blade01
    Oct 6, 2014
    0
    Im angry!!!This game is not just unpolished, its not ready to be published.Many minor bugs, many major bugs and some game-stopping-bugs are still present.Even the tutorial is bugged for some players(use google), they cant advance in the cmpaign beyond the tutorial.Some(like me) are stuck in the second mission.Great work!!

    Visuals:The game looks great.The design of the ships is kinda    Im angry!!!This game is not just unpolished, its not ready to be published.Many minor bugs, many major bugs and some game-stopping-bugs are still present.Even the tutorial is bugged for some players(use google), they cant advance in the cmpaign beyond the tutorial.Some(like me) are stuck in the second mission.Great work!!

    Visuals:The game looks great.The design of the ships is kinda refreshing.Thats the strongpoint of the game i think.

    Sound:The voiceacting is ok.The developer claims this monotone, emotioneless talking in the game is intentional.If this is true, i dont know about that decision.While this is ok between the mission and in the briefing, its not right in the mission.When you lose something important and nobody seems to care its not that engaging.What i miss are great weaponsounds and a good music.Everything is average or slightly below.

    Gameplay:A real shame is that there is not much tactical depth in the game.You click something, it explodes, or not.There is a system in the game that needs you to match up your units strengths with the enemys ships.Bomber vs. larger ships and so on.Thats all.Some units got one or more abilitys, but all in all thats not realy deep when it comes to tactic.Between missions you can upgrade your units, but here too, its too shallow.+1 armor for my fighters, who cares about that?They die in an instant anyway.

    Conclusion:Maybe that game is better later in the game.But i cant play the game thx to a bug in mission 2(and im not the only one).So, i can only review what ive seen up to that point.And what ive seen is visually beautiful, but thats just the outer shell.There is not much inside i think.I will not update my review when they decide to fix the game cause ill be busy with other games i think.Too bad, you lost a customer for good.I will buy no products from this company again.    … Expand
  6. paul_
    Sep 24, 2014
    3
    I need to say - I'm dissapointed by game. Its very simple and only thing that game is strong in - is graphics and effects. I was expective something more like Homeworld - but no - I did not fount it here
  7. Veber
    Sep 24, 2014
    3
    A 2014 game that is far more simplistic than game released in 1999. That's right - aside from graphics, it doesn't even come close to complexity of the first Homeworld

    Needless to say, Ancient Space is a disappointment
  8. garlor
    Sep 25, 2014
    3
    why in the world are most space games played in 2D?, tthis is just another of those, quite a bland game, if you have never ever played an space combat game, it might be somewhat interesting, if not, avoid it

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 9, 2015
    65
    I was not unhappy playing Ancient Space, but I don’t feel like playing it again, because at some point during the 15-hours-long campaign, the gameplay got boring. [13/2014, p.68]
  2. Everyeye.it
    Dec 15, 2014
    75
    It's an interesting space RTS, but the sub sectors of the maps make them feel much smaller than they actually are, and the units' pathfinding isn't always up to the task. On the other hand, gameplay mechanics do work really well, and there's depth enough for the veterans to enjoy.
    Read full review
  3. Gaming Nexus
    Dec 4, 2014
    74
    A standard space-based RTS. Short, but also cheap, worth picking up if you are a fan of the genre or are just itching for some old-school RTS action.
    Read full review
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