StarDrive 2

If you like 4X strategy, this might be very interesting. It lacks multiplayer, but it makes up for it with many customizing options for single player games. Sometimes it lacks balancing, but the gameplay is still very compelling.

Stardrive 2 is a pretty good turn-based science-fiction RTS. An extensive tutorial takes you away to a fantastic milky way where you are a galactic colonist. At times, this game does not seem to lead anywhere, but with AI that acts up and awesome but difficult battles, Stardrive 2 challenges you and your strategic side to the max.

As it was with the first game, the future of StarDrive 2 depends on a single man – its main developer known as Zero. If he’ll give the game enough polish, it may become sparklingly brilliant. But the rough-cut diamond we have today deserves 73, and not a point more. [June 2015, p.74]

even though these systems achieve competency, they've been done before (and done better) in many other games. So any praise leveled at StarDrive 2 inevitably ends up faint when it's taken alongside other entries in the sci-fi 4X genre.

StarDrive 2 offers hours of entertainment to the lovers of the 4X space strategies, unfortunately spoiled by the unfinished parts of the game. Despite its healthy core, StarDrive 2 would simply need a few more months of development; cutting off some minigames could help the game as well.

Though its one-track mind and ruthless AI takes some getting used to, the robust mechanics, great interface and presentation are an incredibly impressive feat from a one-man studio, while sensational shipbuilding and fleet battles prove incredibly satisfying.

Both land and space combat lack punch, but there's a fun if predictable 4X game waiting underneath.

A better weapon balance, more victory conditions, more diplomacy options and ground assaults that are not at least completely soporific - there is still a lot that could be improved.

Even though the UI is clumsy the coordination of numerous planets is motivating while seeing your self-designed vessels blowing the enemy to smithereens gives you the extra kick. Too bad that a lot of weaknesses like rudimentary diplomacy options and restricted research makes this a very mediocre 4X experience.

The focus on extermination saps excitement and possibilities from the strategic level, and the tactical minigames don’t have the AI needed to make the ship-building system’s depth pay off.

StarDrive 2 is a good 4X game with very inspired gameplay moments.

StarDrive 2 would be an impressive 4X game. But its annoying tone, eccentric AI and the shallowness of the empire management casts a shadow over it. If we weren’t in the middle of an unexpected flood of 4X games, then its take on space conflict alone would make it worth playing, but at the moment there are just too many alternatives.

If you’re looking for a fun, clever little strategy game, you could do a lot worse than pick this up.

Combat is only a small portion of the overall experience, but the other aspects of the game don't particularly shine. It's as if StarDrive 2 is content in its adequacy.

StarDrive 2 does not dethrone Master of Orion 2 as the best 4X game in space ever made, but damn it gets close. It is almost as deep, it almost has the same rich atmosphere and almost that same inspired gameplay. That may not sound uplifting, but considering the bar we’re looking at, “almost” is a staggering achievement. No one has ever got - this - close.