StarDrive

 PC
User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 385 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 221 out of 385
  2. Mixed: 75 out of 385
  3. Negative: 89 out of 385

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  1. Yosa
    Jul 17, 2015
    6
    This is an unfinished game, the developer went on to do a second iteration witch is more in line with turned based games; in stardrive you will experience crashes, I have followed up on why the game crashed on it last iteration and have hit an obcsure loading error of resource files, its not that the files arnt there, the game fails to load or read the path, its lazy development thatThis is an unfinished game, the developer went on to do a second iteration witch is more in line with turned based games; in stardrive you will experience crashes, I have followed up on why the game crashed on it last iteration and have hit an obcsure loading error of resource files, its not that the files arnt there, the game fails to load or read the path, its lazy development that creates an environment were such errors will always occur. There are apologist remarks of the engine has limitations , well Im not familiar enough with the software in question to endorse that.

    On a positive note-

    I believe the lack of turn based element and ship design game play was one of the best aspects of this game, hell it should be a standard in all games of this type, its worthy of praise and is the reason I liked this game to begin with.

    Game breakers-

    Game breakers include the you lose event(yes a message will pop up saying your empire died at random times); this is supposed to be related to the ai researching a quest event, its **** and had I been aware this could happen I would have disabled it, had there been an option(options in this game don,'t exist).Of good mention is the volcanic event witch nearly destroys you're planet, this is supposed to be a rare event, it only happens predictably on every planet in the map throughout the session.

    Mods help this game immensely, but ultimately the game gets put on the back row of the ones you want to play on a bored evening.

    I recommend this game based on its unique lack of turn based and moduler ship building.    … Expand
  2. FGM
    Jan 10, 2015
    7
    Not such a bad game. I had a mixed impression at 1st but over all 7/10. UI is terrible and micro-management which is essential part of the game becomes very hard and slow in later stage. Specially the planet part, once you figure out fleet management and resupplying button it gets a lot easier, but colony management and no alerts management is a mess (-2). Sounds are awful but music isNot such a bad game. I had a mixed impression at 1st but over all 7/10. UI is terrible and micro-management which is essential part of the game becomes very hard and slow in later stage. Specially the planet part, once you figure out fleet management and resupplying button it gets a lot easier, but colony management and no alerts management is a mess (-2). Sounds are awful but music is nice (0). Gameplay is fairly good but tech trees could be longer and AI more engaging when it comes to diplomatic relations(-1). Overall a fairly solid game that delivers a new and interesting experience in space SIM genre. Recommended. P.S. I would love to see an update for larger maps.… Expand
  3. stefrank
    Jan 19, 2014
    5
    I left a review when this game was in beta talking about what great promise it had and how, with polish, it could be fantastic. Around that time, for whatever reason, the developers decided it was a finished product and priced it accordingly. It's unfortunate that this game will never see it's full potential. Regardless, It's still pretty fun.

    Some of the high points of this game    I left a review when this game was in beta talking about what great promise it had and how, with polish, it could be fantastic. Around that time, for whatever reason, the developers decided it was a finished product and priced it accordingly. It's unfortunate that this game will never see it's full potential. Regardless, It's still pretty fun.

    Some of the high points of this game include:
    -The inclusion of real time pausing management, allowing it to be played as an RTS or turn-based game
    -Ship design
    -The race design, allowing you to pick custom perks and detriments to your civilization
    -Large scale space battles
    The last of these being the game's real strong suit.

    If you are a fan of 4x strategy games, you will likely be disappointment by the lack of depth. The UI is poor, resource management the same, and ground combat is pathetic (and required). All these issues serve to detract from the overall game experience, which begins to feel like an RTS with some 4X elements tacked on.

    The full price is steep considering the lack of depth compared to other, similar strategy games, but the assertion that there's nothing good to be found here is simply not true.    … Expand
  4. Gintea
    Sep 27, 2013
    5
    Most likely abandonware. The developer announced that he is done with this game in its (unfinished) state.
    To quote him (Zero) I think StarDrive vanilla is a fine game. I'm happy with it. I'll be patching it here and there as my whims take me. If you feel cheated by StarDrive, kindly scroll up to the upper right portion of your browser screen and click the "Logout" button. I don't want    Most likely abandonware. The developer announced that he is done with this game in its (unfinished) state.
    To quote him (Zero) I think StarDrive vanilla is a fine game. I'm happy with it. I'll be patching it here and there as my whims take me. If you feel cheated by StarDrive, kindly scroll up to the upper right portion of your browser screen and click the "Logout" button. I don't want to hear it."
    So promised features are missing and most likely wont be delivered.
    However even without being completely finished, the game is not BAD.
    If you just need your small 4x fix you get nicely done graphics, good music and some quite enjoyable game mechanics.
    If you can bear with the existing memory leak and lag in late game and dont care about it not being feature complete you might even have a great time.
    ...and then you might consider to re buy the game in its new incarnation, it has been announced it will be basically redone on a new engine (full price for everyone). Yay?    … Expand
  5. m0skit0
    Sep 16, 2013
    7
    This game is a blatant MOO (Master of Orion) clone and it doesn't hide it (why would it, the first 2 MOOs are the best space 4X games ever). It took everything MOO did right (oh moving those little men from one assignement to another) while introducing interesting ideas (for example Store/Import/Export options), operational area for ships... But it lacks in improving some things: shipThis game is a blatant MOO (Master of Orion) clone and it doesn't hide it (why would it, the first 2 MOOs are the best space 4X games ever). It took everything MOO did right (oh moving those little men from one assignement to another) while introducing interesting ideas (for example Store/Import/Export options), operational area for ships... But it lacks in improving some things: ship design is horrible (even MOO2 had a better interface for ship design), fleet creation/management is buggy, space map interface is buggy and lacking features (limited zoom, very hard to tell what's going on when full zoomed out...). This is a good game but somewhat still looks unfinished. I bought it when it was on Alpha, then passed to Beta, then to Release without very much changes and still some known bugs unfixed.

    I understand a very small company made this, but this doesn't excuse charging 30$ for a clearly unfinished game. I would have loved to wait more in Beta and see these issues fixed.

    Still looking for a game that can rival with MOO2.    … Expand
  6. greywolf00
    Jul 28, 2013
    6
    Game isn't bad but it's not great either. It's an RTS 4X game which I'm not a huge fan of to begin with, but the slow speed of ships to go places, even when cranked up to x5 speed, is just too much. Sure, you can crank the speed up to absurd levels, ie 50x, but the game starts to stutter a bit. By far the best aspect of StarDrive is the ability to build ships. At first glance it looks justGame isn't bad but it's not great either. It's an RTS 4X game which I'm not a huge fan of to begin with, but the slow speed of ships to go places, even when cranked up to x5 speed, is just too much. Sure, you can crank the speed up to absurd levels, ie 50x, but the game starts to stutter a bit. By far the best aspect of StarDrive is the ability to build ships. At first glance it looks just like every other space 4x game with this mechanic, but it has an added layer of depth. If you make a huge, heavily weaponized cruiser but fail to armor the ship's power source, you just created some expensive space scrap. Unfortunately, the RTS approach again undermines this. The speed at which you can unlock new technologies (the tree is much smaller than other 4x games) often means you've unlocked a couple new upgrades by the time your ships get to where they need to be for combat. Not a bad game but I found it less fun than other games like Endless Space. Worth grabbing on sale if you enjoy RTS/4x.… Expand
  7. trevinc
    Jul 12, 2013
    7
    This is just a fun game! This is a game where you can have little experience with RTS games and still have fun. Though the tutorials could use some work. But it can play very deep for those veteran RTS gamers. Ship customizing can be a little meh at first, but later on, you can have some fun building some devastating ships!
  8. Ndi
    Jun 23, 2013
    6
    Like many other reviewers, I agree that the game has potential, but it is poorly implemented and executed. No tutorial to shake a stick at, no gradual introduction, nothing. Opens a screen with 4 million controls and only a hint and away we go.

    As a result, I wander around, looking for friends. You find powerful friends, you're set. You don't, it's hard and sweaty. Ship design is a    Like many other reviewers, I agree that the game has potential, but it is poorly implemented and executed. No tutorial to shake a stick at, no gradual introduction, nothing. Opens a screen with 4 million controls and only a hint and away we go.

    As a result, I wander around, looking for friends. You find powerful friends, you're set. You don't, it's hard and sweaty.

    Ship design is a chore. No templates. Lets you design a ship then refuses to accept it. Components are red but doesn't tell you why.

    Game is slow enough to be boring, but no slow enough to give you excellent tactics (a la TBS). Base design took 30 minutes to understand. Resources are limited, meaning you can just let loose and have fun.

    Basically, this game expects me to already know exactly what to do, but offers no insight to get me started.

    It could be a great game, but it's not. I see absolutely no reason to take this game up when SoaSE is out.    … Expand
  9. grazr
    Jun 6, 2013
    5
    You go into this game with a lot of hopes for indie innovation, but eventually discover that the game is incomplete, which is massively disappointing for the price tag. The side missions are broken and the games don't seem to end for hours after you've solidified your lead and win.

    Most of the fun comes from building your ships and seeing them in action, but you can't make the most of    You go into this game with a lot of hopes for indie innovation, but eventually discover that the game is incomplete, which is massively disappointing for the price tag. The side missions are broken and the games don't seem to end for hours after you've solidified your lead and win.

    Most of the fun comes from building your ships and seeing them in action, but you can't make the most of that fact until you unlock the technologies and chassis's, which is tediously slow to do because the economy consolidates research in with production and food. You need food to increase and maintain population and production to build things like your fleets or planet improvements, so research is always an after thought after keeping your empire stable. This makes playing small and medium maps very tedious as you wont get economies strong enough to take advantage of most of what the game really has to offer.

    Recommend your first game for each empire be set to easy and drag it out so that you can create your ship designs with an easily acquired and maintained economy, ready for more competitive games later. Replay value is limited to a couple games per empire until you're doing the same thing over and over with no real buzz that you might otherwise find in other games regardless of repetitiveness. This could be largely improved by allowing a customisation of chassis's with perhaps a limiting frame to maintain some empire specificness.

    Overall the game was fun, but each time i found myself eventually enjoying myself i would be stumped by a tedious mechanic. First it was an economy i couldn't stabilise until i had 7 moderately sourced and fully upgraded planets that could export. Scarey threats from AI that had no business making threats. Spies which remain a relatively hidden aspect of the game as well, a complicating mechanic i'd like to have an option to disable, not least because it's a needless nuisance to the economy for a game you'll buy largely for the combat.

    I feel like i've jumped from topic to topic haphazardly, but that's how the game feels, so many aspects affect other aspects of the game in a compromising way. Things that get in the way of what attracts you to it in the first place. Building your ships and sending them into battle. It's like they made the game and thought of 20 mechanics to prevent you from getting to what makes it so interesting.

    It still needs work or at the very least to be fixed and have some UI improvements and then individualising the AI would also make games more dynamic. Otherwise you might as well just play geometry wars.    … Expand
  10. FeedTheMonkey
    Jun 4, 2013
    7
    I think basically there is said the most to the game in all the reviews. But I would like to point the focus more to the circumstances of the development that has been done. So in general this game was developed by one person. If course sounds and graphics are a product of more than one developer but the code behind starring is basically a one man show.

    And for this I cannot say this    I think basically there is said the most to the game in all the reviews. But I would like to point the focus more to the circumstances of the development that has been done. So in general this game was developed by one person. If course sounds and graphics are a product of more than one developer but the code behind starring is basically a one man show.

    And for this I cannot say this game isn't a success.
    For me it had from the start more funny elements than all other x4 games I have ever played until know. Beginning at the kind of how you navigate through the spaces and ending by the way you can design your fleets. All real innovative and great but yet no bug free features.
    Of course the balance is not perfect so the AI in my opinion starts much to aggressive. If you don't have suitable planets near your home planet it will be very hard to expand due to the aggressive au will fight for every useful planet.
    So for the rest it might be that after midgame you will end farming the planets. But until you get to the point this game really is much fun to play.

    So for further development I hope the game gets more balancing and more end game experience.    … Expand
  11. commonsense2013
    May 27, 2013
    7
    Honestly. I don't know how this game has such a low score for critics. Its not the most innovative space strategy game to hit the market in recent years but that doesn't mean its not fun. It has its fair share of bugs and flaws but overall its a good game. The game does provide tutorials but it is still hard to get the hang of. The ship builder is hard to get the hang of (for me anyway)Honestly. I don't know how this game has such a low score for critics. Its not the most innovative space strategy game to hit the market in recent years but that doesn't mean its not fun. It has its fair share of bugs and flaws but overall its a good game. The game does provide tutorials but it is still hard to get the hang of. The ship builder is hard to get the hang of (for me anyway) The game does disappoint in some areas but it's nothing like i expected it to be. I bought this game because of its moddability, which i love to do. Modding is a great bonus, for any game. Also, the sound the ships makes when they enter FTL is very satisfying, as are the diplomacy animations. Until the bugs and performance issues are ironed out, a 7 will do.… Expand
  12. Ohtel
    May 24, 2013
    7
    I have played every single Space game for pc and I have to say i was impressed with Star-drive, the ability to "create" custom ships and customize which direction they fire is a well thought out idea BUT.... the downside to this is they are made it look like Mine-Craft in the creation area and haven't really made it easy to use.

    The battles are amazing BUT it lags up if the battles get    I have played every single Space game for pc and I have to say i was impressed with Star-drive, the ability to "create" custom ships and customize which direction they fire is a well thought out idea BUT.... the downside to this is they are made it look like Mine-Craft in the creation area and haven't really made it easy to use.

    The battles are amazing BUT it lags up if the battles get to big... sometimes I can even finish a game because there is to much going on (reason I registered here to review this)

    I gave this game a 7, it isn't worthy of an 8 because of the bugs and lack of features BUT it does have allot of potential with an active hardworking dev at the helm..    … Expand
  13. Beanbag
    May 23, 2013
    7
    Stardrive is a solid 4x space strategy game. It doesn't bring anything new to the genre, but does incoporate some tried and true functions in interesting ways. The fully customizable shipyard was one of my favorite parts of the game, though others find it dreadfully complicated. Basically, if you're a fan of 4x space strategy games, you'll probably enjoy Stardrive.
  14. Crashs
    May 20, 2013
    7
    This Game clearly needs some work but its still fun, and still worth getting. Reviewers like Polygon and ign (who gave simcity a 95) are Morons and clearly have not played the game or are not getting payed for good reviews.
    i.imgur.com/1kV469G.gif
  15. Korkenzieher
    May 7, 2013
    7
    StarDrive has fantastic space combat mechanics. Its really cool when fast fleets clash together. Combined with the fully customizable ship editor its a game to remember. Also positive is that you can create your personal version of one of the standard races of the game. But the game has its dark sides. When to invade invade a planet with ground troops (only 2 troops types per race!) theStarDrive has fantastic space combat mechanics. Its really cool when fast fleets clash together. Combined with the fully customizable ship editor its a game to remember. Also positive is that you can create your personal version of one of the standard races of the game. But the game has its dark sides. When to invade invade a planet with ground troops (only 2 troops types per race!) the preparation for it is a lousy click-orgy. To be a really great game there should be more of everything... more tech, more ship types, more troops types, more races, more graphics a larger galaxy.… Expand
  16. Clams_n_Roses
    May 6, 2013
    5
    I absolutely loved this game. It's great fun, and is a real breath of fresh air. At the start.
    As many other people have said here, it just doesn't feel like a finished game. I noticed today my playtime has hit almost 40 hours on this, and yet not once have I ever played past midgame. Everything all happens at the start, all the fun of customising your species, choosing a direction,    I absolutely loved this game. It's great fun, and is a real breath of fresh air. At the start.
    As many other people have said here, it just doesn't feel like a finished game. I noticed today my playtime has hit almost 40 hours on this, and yet not once have I ever played past midgame. Everything all happens at the start, all the fun of customising your species, choosing a direction, getting the tech and building your own ships, it's really enjoyable at the start of a match, but by midway there's just nothing to do. The few tech options there are past midgame are really just rehashes of the starting stuff, the quest lines are broken and don't go anywhere, and even the AI just seems to give up; while at the start it fights tooth and nail for star systems, alliances are forged, distrust is sewn, but by midway it sort of just doesn't seem to care, and never grows or changes past it's initial few moves. So you're just left to grind away down all these star systems till you've won, with the excitement you felt at the start a thing of the past.
    I'd really love to see this as a full game, but I'm getting sick and tired of all these full price releases marketed as a full game when they're clearly just not finished.    … Expand
  17. Gnawer
    May 5, 2013
    5
    I bought this game right after release. It has some very nice moments, but everything feels unbalanced and unfinished. I can't help feeling I was tricked into pre-ordering and getting a beta version, instead of buying a completed product. Don't get me wrong, as a beta it would be amazing, but that's not what I expected.
  18. Glavius
    May 4, 2013
    7
    StarDrive is a 4x space strategy game played out in real time. These kind of games rely heavily on their AI, Ship Combat, Universe Lore, and Random Events to spice up the game. StarDrive understand this and attempts to deliver on this premise.

    AI The AI in StarDrive is both well made and full of horrible flaws. For example, the AI is great at building fleets, attacking and defending    StarDrive is a 4x space strategy game played out in real time. These kind of games rely heavily on their AI, Ship Combat, Universe Lore, and Random Events to spice up the game. StarDrive understand this and attempts to deliver on this premise.

    AI The AI in StarDrive is both well made and full of horrible flaws. For example, the AI is great at building fleets, attacking and defending its worlds, and has a good diplomacy system. You wont find the AI flipping between war and peace randomly in this game. Nor will you find it hiding from a fight. The problems begin to turn up when the player doesn't do what the developer expected. For example, it's a completely valid strategy for the player to build no military what so ever and go straight for the most expensive Titan class of ship... and still win. This comes from the AI not recognizing your extreme weakness in military affairs. If you don't "cheese" the AI it's a fun game. Just be aware it's not brilliant.

    Ship Design StarDrive has some of the best ship customization I've seen in a while. Want to build a ship full of shield generators and layers of armor around one BIG gun? Go for it. Or a ship with minimal shields, no armor, and stacks and stacks of phaser banks on it? Yeah you can do that as well. Designing ships is a lot of fun. Expect to spend quite a bit of time placing each module, determining where to put your power plants (which explode and take out nearby subsystems!), shield generators, weapons, and armor. If customization of your fleet sounds like fun this is your game.

    Ship Combat Ship combat is a largely hands off affair. Your fleet vs Their fleet. Expect to give the general "Attack!" order and then watch your ships fight bravely until one side is eliminated. Watching your ships catch fire as they take damage. Observe as enemy ships shields fail and their weapons start to go offline, is always fun. Their are many different types of weapons that each have their own specific usage. The ship combat is fun.

    Planet Invasion Grab your space marines and land them on the planet.. and just wait for your side or their side to get wiped out. It's a completely hands off approach where you just wait for one side to win. You can also just bombard the enemy population and re-colonize the planet if you so desire.

    Lore & Random Events Both of these are completely missing from the game. Random events DO exist but they never change the outcome of the game. Remember how in GalCiv 2 the Dread Lord could return and kill everyone? Don't expect that here. Also, the lore of the game is sadly lacking. Beyond some very basic single line bits of text nothing is ever explained about "who these people are" or what their motivations are. Also missing is flavor text about the shiny new weapon you've just unlocked.

    Conclusion StarDrive is a pretty good game. If you're a fan of 4x Real Time Strategy then StarDrive is a pretty good game for you. I personally feel that StarDrive should be sold at the $20 mark as while all of it's core mechanics hold up... it's a complete miss on the universal lore and random event packages. As such, StarDrive is a good game a content pack away from a great game. If you're looking for a new RTS game of empire building it's not a bad choice.    … Expand
  19. bcastl
    Apr 30, 2013
    7
    StarDrive is an ambitious project from an independent developer that's in fact just 1 guy! In light of that, it's quite an accomplishment.

    Pros: Great artwork, especially in the diplomacy interface You can design your own starships from the ground up Robust planet management interface Solid 4X game, and there aren't many of these Comprehensive faction creation process that allows    StarDrive is an ambitious project from an independent developer that's in fact just 1 guy! In light of that, it's quite an accomplishment.

    Pros:
    Great artwork, especially in the diplomacy interface
    You can design your own starships from the ground up
    Robust planet management interface
    Solid 4X game, and there aren't many of these
    Comprehensive faction creation process that allows you to choose the bonuses and issues your civilization will have.

    Cons
    Some UI (such as game speed, pausing) is missing
    Diplomacy is oddly limited, economic prosperity alone doesn't mean anything. You have to have things like artifacts, technology or colonies to trade to make other civs like you more.
    late game slow downs which really impact performance/enjoyment of the game

    As others have mentioned, it's stellar for an indie game and it has a lot of playability. Once the lategame stability issues are fixed and if people start modding it, it'll have a really long lifespan and a bright future. I'm also hoping for some sort of multiplayer mode (the kickstarter mentioned some sort of DOTA/MOBA/tabletop inspired game where you compete in quick matches with prebulit fleets)

    Overall, it's well worth the price, and I do not regret the $26 I put down to play it.    … Expand
  20. NichG
    Apr 29, 2013
    6
    StarDrive strikes me as a game with a lot of potential that at the same time doesn't quite get there. The artwork is superb and I love the fact that each race is given both a unique character as well as specific dialogue options to that race. The quirk of being able to use the diplomacy interface to actually just chat with the ambassador is nice and makes it feel a little like Star ControlStarDrive strikes me as a game with a lot of potential that at the same time doesn't quite get there. The artwork is superb and I love the fact that each race is given both a unique character as well as specific dialogue options to that race. The quirk of being able to use the diplomacy interface to actually just chat with the ambassador is nice and makes it feel a little like Star Control 2 and the like that its more than just business, but also exploration of the variety of a universe. The addition of the occasional dialogue event on discovery of a new planet adds to this as well, as does the Remnant subplot.

    The ship designer is this game's most complex feature. When working with big hulls you have an incredible amount of customization that can be done. Furthermore, the AI learns from your designs, which is a very nice touch. Since damage happens per-module and is spatially accurate, there are subtleties of the system in placement of everything up to the ship's wiring. This is StarDrive's true contribution to the genre a feature that I don't think I've seen in any other such game.

    My complaints with the game are more to do with the actual mechanics of play. Managing the economy and planets feels punishingly micro in a realtime game where you already have many things vying for limited attention. The fact that fleets have a tendency to not arrive at the same time also contributes to this problem, as well as the lack of ship pathing that is aware of system gravity wells (so ships sometimes just get slowed down on the way to a fight because they didn't take a slight detour). I don't really think the realtime adds anything to the game, but it costs it a lot.

    The other problem is that the content that is there is like a preview of some bigger game that has yet to manifest itself. The dialogue option to find out about the various races is a neat touch, but there's really only one such option per race. The planetary discovery event is neat, but there's only the one (and its not completely implemented). The tech tree is very short and is kind of front-loaded (it takes a long time to the get the first few techs, then suddenly you're getting new techs every few minutes).    … Expand
  21. Tugboat
    Apr 29, 2013
    7
    This game is thoroughly mediocre with one really great aspect. All technical issues aside it feels lacking in content. Just open up the game creation options menu and you will be greeted by a complete lack of customizability that you normally find in a 4X game The research tree does not have much depth. There are not a very large number of ship classes. The weapons, equipment and planetaryThis game is thoroughly mediocre with one really great aspect. All technical issues aside it feels lacking in content. Just open up the game creation options menu and you will be greeted by a complete lack of customizability that you normally find in a 4X game The research tree does not have much depth. There are not a very large number of ship classes. The weapons, equipment and planetary upgrades are adequate but not very interesting .

    StarDrive is mostly patterned after MOO2. With Galaxy sizes fairly small compared to a game like Star Ruler or Space Empires. Played at normal 1x speed it is real time but paced very very slowly. Many people will end up increasing game speed.

    Again it is adequate if not great in all areas except one. That is shipbuilding. Shipbuilding is one of the greatest strengths of StarDrive. No you don't have cosmetic control like Galcriv where you can build your ship out of 3D parts. But you do have a great deal of control over the actual abilities of the ship. The locations, facings and firing arcs of everything you place actually matters and is modeled in in-game combat.

    I'm not sure StarDrive is worth $25-30. I would say grab it in the bargain bin unless you are a huge fan of the genre. Hopefully mods can address the lack of content.    … Expand
  22. nighter-3d
    Apr 29, 2013
    5
    This game isn't really perfect. at least not in its current "beta" form.

    Economy is badly explained and for the new player it becomes near impossible to balance industry vs research as industry often gives more tax income then research(especially on richer planets) causing it to be very difficult to squeeze the best bit of research unless you have poor planets where research is    This game isn't really perfect. at least not in its current "beta" form.

    Economy is badly explained and for the new player it becomes near impossible to balance industry vs research as industry often gives more tax income then research(especially on richer planets) causing it to be very difficult to squeeze the best bit of research unless you have poor planets where research is profitable. it becomes a juggling mess

    The worst part however is the dreadful A.I.
    Initial behaviour is ok. it expands, it keeps to its nature (they get random "goals" like military,expansion and such), however once you get to the inevitable part of War the A.I's behave erratic and infuriating and im not talking about the one you are engaging with (their troop movement tends to get delayed reactions as the ai is apparently unable to cancel a earlier order, result is they failing at defence, but that's it), No its the factions surrounding the ones you are invading that gets annoying. The moment you clear a planet and it starts changing to your control EVERY single empire nearby IMMEDIATELY sends a Colony ship to that planet and if the planet's production isn't fast enough to build a colony before a colony ship arrives it gets stolen, worst is that when it does get "kill-stolen" and your forces are occupying that planet they declare war claiming "you are attacking our system". i didn't pay attention and i got declared war by half the galaxy cause they all are unnaturally greedy.... WTF?!? apparently i have to have a colony ship at my intended target and one at every planet in that system cause if i don't 5 colony ships appear and hang around like vultures.

    The last problem is the huge list of Incomplete features, For example "Open borders" doesn't mean Squat. they are still gonna parade around your system anyway and happily steal one of your systems (while if you do the same they go "HOW DARE YOU" and continuously call dibs on everything). another broken feature is the interaction with the "pre-space civilization" which is apparently incomplete.

    The game has potential. the graphics are awesome, the ship designing is a nice and challenging feature (fleet has little importance tough), but underneath the hood where it matters it comes over as buggy and mediocre. and although they may claim its still "BETA" it is NOT defined as such on steam so i feel lied too having played this game.

    i hope they refine the AI greatly cause atm its only making me go "WTF" over and over and over...    … Expand
  23. Stilljester
    Apr 29, 2013
    7
    This is the best 4x game since Master of Orion II. That being said, Moo2 still sits upon the throne.

    StarDrive is a worthy heir. Obviously a labor of love, this indie gem was developed by a small crew with very little money behind them, and the result is a perfectly gorgeous 4x game. It feels like this is what master of Orion 3 was trying to be. The RTS aspect is engaging, but you    This is the best 4x game since Master of Orion II. That being said, Moo2 still sits upon the throne.

    StarDrive is a worthy heir. Obviously a labor of love, this indie gem was developed by a small crew with very little money behind them, and the result is a perfectly gorgeous 4x game. It feels like this is what master of Orion 3 was trying to be.

    The RTS aspect is engaging, but you can also pause to fine-tune your build queues. The universe is an exciting place to explore you can find artifacts that permanently improve your racial abilities, and even make first-contact with an industrial-level civilization. Like any good 4x game, a variety of strategies will lead you to victory. The artwork is gorgeous.

    One thing I appreciate about the design is that the game remains challenging throughout. As your empire grows and absorbs other empires, alien races do the same, usually remaining at roughly the same size as yours. Also, in MOO2, at a certain level of technology, a single player designed ship could easily massacre 10 computer-designed ships of the same tech level. Not so in StarDrive.

    The game is deeply engaging, and once you've mastered the controls (which, by the way, the game doesn't help you with. They are not intuitive.) it's immensely fun to play.

    In some ways, it might be easiest to describe where the game falls short:

    -The User Interface, as other reviewers have noted, can feel desperately clunky at times. It seems the designers could've taken a few cues from RTS games that get it right. The most obvious example would be using Starcraft's "ctrl-click" to select all ships of one type in the vicinity.

    Another example, you can tell a freighter to "Trade Production" meaning it will collect production from planets you told to export, and deliver it to planets you've told to import. But there doesn't seem to be a way to tell the the ship to "go to earth, pick up 15 production, and deliver it to Venus." If the AI decides it would rather take the production to another "importing" planet 15 light years away, there doesn't seem to be a way to tell it otherwise.

    -Diplomacy is simultaneously better and worse than other 4x's. Better because you have the option of folding a friendly empire into a federation with your own. This makes it feel like your relationship may be going somewhere, as opposed to forestalling the inevitable war. Worse, because it seems that a lot of fairly basic diplomacy options have been overlooked. (Really? I can't trade energy credits with another empire?)

    -Lovers of Master of Orion will have to adjust to allowing large amounts of automation to keep their empire going. The universe is expansive, and you simply can't keep track of thousands of ships and hundreds of colonies in the end game.

    -The graphics are missing some BASIC, KEY options. How about some lower-polygon models? reduced effects? Thank goodness my video card allows me to deactivate anti-aliasing for the application, because you sure can't do it in-game. I bought this laptop 2 months ago, and its fairly high-powered. I run Starcraft with max video options, Planetside 2 with medium. Until I figured out how to adjust the display through my video card, this game was starting to look like a slideshow.

    -The tech tree is not very deep. For instance, no matter how much you research, once you've put lasers and shields on your fighter craft, they will never improve for the rest of the game, because there are no other energy weapons, engines, or shields small enough to fit on them. In fact, often times it seems like you've got all this room to load cool devices on your brand new ship hull, but not a lot of cool devices to fill up all that space with...

    All in all, a very worthy effort. I'm glad I purchased it, and I will spend many, many hours on this one. I'm also glad I got it at a discount, because I feel like it comes up a little bit short of true greatness. Unless they spend a little more time fixing these issues, in 10 years, people will still be comparing 4x games to MOO2, not this one.    … Expand
  24. ln42
    Apr 29, 2013
    7
    Star Drive is a real time 4x game with many similarities to the turn based Galactic Civilizations. It is still in its Beta phase so expect balancing issues, bugs and some unfinished features. It is hard to predict how good the game will be once it's released as there are still many issues that need to be adressed, mostly concerning the ground combat, performance and AI.

    The economic    Star Drive is a real time 4x game with many similarities to the turn based Galactic Civilizations. It is still in its Beta phase so expect balancing issues, bugs and some unfinished features. It is hard to predict how good the game will be once it's released as there are still many issues that need to be adressed, mostly concerning the ground combat, performance and AI.

    The economic side of the game is pretty simple, each planet has a population cap and base food and production multipliers and can be enhanced by building improvements. Unlike in GC there is no happiness and it does not cost money to produce ressources and food, instead the taxrate takes a share of all the production and research credits, making the economic system much simpler. The core focus of the game lies in rapid expansion, logistics and combat.

    The Shipyard, the tool to design your own ships, is the most unique feature of the game. The shiphulls have slots for different components laid out on a 2D plane, more then 1000 for some of the largest ships and only 10 for the smallest. The components placed on the ship don't simply add up to a total HP, defense and firepower rating like in Galactic Civilizations, their position plays a great role in combat. Shots hitting the components damage until destruction and are then taken out of combat until they are repaired, generators cause secondary explosions that damage surrounding components and when the last bridge component is destroyed the whole ship fails clever ship design makes a huge difference, good designs can be vastly superior to the designs the AI uses, at least once frigates and cruisers become available.

    This also makes the different races with their individual ship designs fundamentally different, the Vulfen Imperium for example has pretty small ships that can be turned into cheap heavy hitting, but weak destroyers whereas the Opteris have huge ships with many slots for armor plates that can't be used for guns, making them last for a long time under heavy fire, but slow, hard to miss and less firepower for the money.

    The downside to the shipyard is that it is possible to build vastly superior ships compared to the AI. Larger groups of cheap Vulfen frigates equipped with low tech weapons can have enough firepower to destroy everything the AI may have to offer during late game, and thanks to the possibility to adapt to the designs the AI usually uses even before a war starts gives human players a huge advantage, regardless of how good their designs are. Currently there is a serious lack of challenge in the game once you survive the early stage.

    Another thing that reduces the difficulty is the lack of declining productivity increases with larger empires like in civilization where happiness is a serious issue. There is absolutely no reason not to colonize a planet; the worst that can happen is that you simply won't get anything out of it.

    Conclusion: This games core mechanics have a huge potential, but are also part of its biggest weakness players can systematically outsmart the AI. Other then that it's a lot of fun developing strategies and ship designs. Assuming most of the current issues get solved and a multiplayer mode implemented this could become a great multiplayers game, and I'm really looking forward to its final release. If you like the Genre, but don't want to be part of a closed beta (and don't trust the developer to properly finish the game) you should keep an eye on this game and wait for its release.    … Expand
  25. K1ller
    Apr 29, 2013
    6
    I preordered the game two month ago and I was really surprised by it. However the longer I played the more flaws I have discovered.
    Some people praise the ability to design own ships. Yes, it sounds cool. But how come noone mentiones that you have to fill in EVERY SINGLE space on your ship. I mean wtf? What if I do not want to? Why do I have to have more expensive and heavier ship? How    I preordered the game two month ago and I was really surprised by it. However the longer I played the more flaws I have discovered.
    Some people praise the ability to design own ships. Yes, it sounds cool. But how come noone mentiones that you have to fill in EVERY SINGLE space on your ship. I mean wtf? What if I do not want to? Why do I have to have more expensive and heavier ship? How come noone mentiones the total luck of an upgrade possibility? You have a new weapon researched? Cool. Now go to the ship design and replace EVERY SINGLE one manually. You must be kidding. I would accept this in beta, but not in a full version. But wait, full version is just a renamed beta. Oh, nevermind then.
    Now we go to AI. First let me tell you that AI can not design its own ships. Yes, you hear right. It can use preset designs and designs you created, but it can not make it own ones. Quite a flaw in a space strategy, do not you agree? Diplomatic AI also needs to be tweaked more. It has the same flaw as most cheap AIs. Are you weak? To the hell with you, we declare war. And what if someone wants to play peacefully? I am rich, I am technologicaly advanced, but just because I do not build thousands of ships like a moron I am bad? And even if I manage not to angry anyone by my small military, I will definitely make them angry by travelling through their space. And I do nto mean their systems, but the game has a thing called subspace projector which allows your ships to travel faster. But by some strange logic a space around it is considered a race territory. And as the AI spams these projectors like crazy, later int the game you simply have to cross their space. The most funny thing is that I consider this a total useless technology and I have never build a single one projector.
    Speaking of technologies, the technology tree is really and I mean really short. It does not take long and you have researched everything. I was hoping that in a full version it would be enlarged. But as I mentioned, full version is just the beta with a changed name.
    As some others mentioned here, the game is on a good way, but richt now it simply lacks the depth. And it became really boring for me after a short time. There are no events in the galaxy (only really stupid subspace flux preventing all war travel and happening way too often). In the end it ends up with you spamming ships like crazy because it is what everyone else is doing. No way to win otherwise. Which is quite sad. Even in Master of Orion 2 you could win by wiping out Antarean homeworld and to do that you did not need the strongest military. So my recommendation is wait. Wait a few months to see if the game is improved. Right now you would be buying a beta version for a price of a full version.    … Expand
  26. Spacebears6766
    Apr 28, 2013
    6
    To put it simply, the game is not done. I bought the beta version on steam and have enjoyed the product. I cannot tolerate that the game is being marketed as a "finished" product now that the release date has passed. Some races have yet to receive their full ship line ups and it is obvious that the game is just not done. While I have no problem pre-purchasing a game to get access to aTo put it simply, the game is not done. I bought the beta version on steam and have enjoyed the product. I cannot tolerate that the game is being marketed as a "finished" product now that the release date has passed. Some races have yet to receive their full ship line ups and it is obvious that the game is just not done. While I have no problem pre-purchasing a game to get access to a beta I expect a released product to be finished. The release date should have been pushed back or some outside help brought in to finish the game up if the April 26th release date was really that important.
    Overall the game has a nice concept but the execution seems a bit lacking. I would still recommend this game to any space or 4x fan but be warned, it is definitely not a finished product.    … Expand
  27. saz
    Apr 28, 2013
    5
    I'm a big fan of 4x games. It's impressive there's only one person on the project. Sadly, you can tell. It needs more cooks in the kitchen. In it's current state, it's more of a fringe game. Most players will find the UI frustrating and incomplete. Many features like a scroll out button or hotkeys to take you to your home planet are just missing. I wasn't interested in building customI'm a big fan of 4x games. It's impressive there's only one person on the project. Sadly, you can tell. It needs more cooks in the kitchen. In it's current state, it's more of a fringe game. Most players will find the UI frustrating and incomplete. Many features like a scroll out button or hotkeys to take you to your home planet are just missing. I wasn't interested in building custom ships and there is a bad gap for included ship designs. If you research a new tech, you'll have to create a design to use it.He's doing an in service to his game and to those purchasing it, by keeping it all the work and inspiration in house. These games really need big teams. Hopefully not that it's gone retail, he can add some staff.… Expand
  28. Furrygopher
    Apr 28, 2013
    5
    What is this games unique selling point?

    It's ship and fleet editor, far more powerful than any other similar game on the genre at the cost of high complexity, forgivable considering the niche that likes this is the games target audience. But where the let down comes is in the question- How is this unique selling point implemented? how does it reward me for skilled use of it? how    What is this games unique selling point?

    It's ship and fleet editor, far more powerful than any other similar game on the genre at the cost of high complexity, forgivable considering the niche that likes this is the games target audience.

    But where the let down comes is in the question-

    How is this unique selling point implemented? how does it reward me for skilled use of it? how does it punish me for poor use of it?

    Respectively the answers are badly, no reward and no or next to no punishment.

    Only total failure at ship design is punished by the game, insufficient powerlack of an engineNo shield etc these tend to leave your ship crippled or easily crippled, partial failure is easily overcome, build a second ship of the same class and outnumber your foes in battle.

    Success in designing a ship that can go toe to toe with three ships gives you the reward of not clicking 2 more times on the build order. Your empires economy rides roughshod over any reward or punishment the design system when it ought to be the other way round, empire management is not this games key feature.

    The ship and fleet design system rates an 8 on its own and I would have no qualms giving that if the system had a payback. The game is desperate for a mode featuring a simulated battle on a tactical level rather than strategic level akin to a Tabletop Warhammer match you and a friend or you against the AI with 1000 point fleets a pre-fight design period then the combat where design skill then ship deployment is rewarded with success.    … Expand
  29. Arcturus519
    Apr 28, 2013
    5
    This game for the first hour of play, looks smooth and nice, you design ships, they fight, colonize worlds, everything you want. Then once you actually start playing the game you realize how important UI is. There are no good shortcuts to get to different areas. The ship building (and saving design) screen is insane. It makes you want to rip your face off. I want to update my ship with theThis game for the first hour of play, looks smooth and nice, you design ships, they fight, colonize worlds, everything you want. Then once you actually start playing the game you realize how important UI is. There are no good shortcuts to get to different areas. The ship building (and saving design) screen is insane. It makes you want to rip your face off. I want to update my ship with the latest tech and ...argh nevermind I don't want to play the game anymore.... I want to all all my planets and make sure they are about to be attacks, oh that's really hard too.. just so much going on... oh wait look all my production has been being dumped into space and wasted.
    The ship combat is great to watch and fun, but the game won't let you watch it because if you stick around to watch a fleet combat, your entire empire will crumble around you. (one turn should be a lot longer than 5 seconds, as fleet combats don't matter when you can build 6 fleets of the same size over again by the time your first fleet combat has finished. (and that's just from your homeworld, wait til you try and manage an empire?    … Expand
  30. Sc0tch
    Apr 27, 2013
    7
    This game is a bit of a mixed bag but I'd defiantly say I got my moneys worth on the purchase. I've enjoyed every minute I've played the game and I've played for about 100 hours so far so at this point I payed about 25 cents per hour of game play, which is pretty good for me these days. However, the game is far from perfect and is certainly incomplete. Usually I would never give 7/10 to aThis game is a bit of a mixed bag but I'd defiantly say I got my moneys worth on the purchase. I've enjoyed every minute I've played the game and I've played for about 100 hours so far so at this point I payed about 25 cents per hour of game play, which is pretty good for me these days. However, the game is far from perfect and is certainly incomplete. Usually I would never give 7/10 to a game that is incomplete but honestly, the core features of the game are so enjoyable and are enough to save the game. If the developer, which from what I can tell is basically one guy, keeps all the promises he has made about future support for the game then I will have to revisit this review and bump up the score.

    If you are a fan of the 4x space genre and enjoyed games like Master of Orion, Sword of the Stars and Galactic Civilizations then this game is right up your alley. I've found the ship design aspect of the game to be absolutely superb. It takes a little while to figure out how to put together a good ship but it's such a rewarding experience that it all felt well worth it. Seeing the improvement from my early more flawed designs to my later more efficient and effective designs was a very gratifying experience. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the computer utilize some of my ship and fleet designs as well. If you make sure to delete your early screw up designs and keep your save file filled with good designs you will get to experience an added level of challenge to the game when you come up against your own intelligence by facing your own designs in combat.

    The game's macro level colony and economy management is simple to understand once it is explained to you. Unfortunately unless you look up the specifics you are going to have to learn by trial and error. The game only has four main resources to care about production, credits, food and science. Your credit income which is used for espionage and rushing production is completely based on taxes which mainly come from production so those two resources are very closely linked. Production, science and food are all managed by sliders and are direct trade offs, in that the more you focus on one the less you will have of the others. I think the system works and is understandable once you figure it out. I've never found micromanaging resources to be very fun and this game made it fairly easy so I think this part of the game is great.

    Combat is pretty enjoyable in this game. It's really where you get to see your ship designs shine. The ships are designed with blocks on them that you place modules on. Each module has hit points and can be hit by enemy fire. If the module runs out of hit points it explodes. Fairly simple in concept but this adds so much to the design aspect of the game. There are lots of things to think about when balancing a ship for combat, for instance ammo storage, fire power, speed and maneuverability, warp speed, armor, shields, energy storage, ect... A huge part design will be placing your power reactors because when they blow they take a fair portion of your ship with them. Placing them where they are protected and can still provide power to the ship is a challenging and fun.

    The game is unfortunately incomplete. Some races don't have as many hull designs as they should and some of the scripted events are unfinished. At it's core everything you need for an enjoyable experience is there but a lot of finishing touches and polish isn't there. The game definitely seems like it could use more variety in terms of events as at the moment there are really only two complete ones and several incomplete ones.

    Summary

    Goods
    Solid 4x experience at the core of this game
    Ship design is excellent
    Combat is fun to watch
    Macro management of planets is understandable and simple yet important
    Features AI to takeover tasks you'd rather not handle for things like scouting, managing freighters or even colonizing planets (especially good while you are learning as it lets you tackle these concepts when you are ready rather than all at once)
    Unique and customizable races
    This game is really what you make of it
    Built in Mod support The developer has made a lot of promises about this. The mods I've tried so far are basic but do change things up a noticeably.

    Bads
    Incomplete The game still needs some things to be added and a fair amount of polish
    Learning curve This game has no instructions or tutorial so you have to learn on your own or by watching others (plenty of youtube videos out there.). Makes it a very bad starting game for those new to the genre.
    Gets tedious toward the end You'll win the war long before you finish conquering an enemy race. Would be nice if you could just force them to surrender after you destroyed all their ships and take their capital and good planets.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

45
#45 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
61

Mixed or average reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 26
  3. Negative: 2 out of 26
  1. CD-Action
    Feb 10, 2014
    60
    If you like games in the vein of Stars! or Master of Orion, you can sink into Stardrive for long hours. [02/2014, p.73]
  2. GRYOnline.pl
    Dec 9, 2013
    70
    Zero Sum Games has created a worthy addition to the 4X genre. What is more - modders are already creating more and more cool modifications for StarDrive. Ergonomics and gameplay rules should be more user-friendly, but the game itself is far from boring or tiresome. 4X fans will be pleased.
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  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Sep 19, 2013
    60
    For your first and second time, StarDrive brings a refreshing experience resembling Master of Orion. However, as soon as you understand its basic rules, the game is gone like through a Black Hole. [Issue#232]
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