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

Critic Reviews

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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.
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  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.
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