Windows

Emperor of the Fading Suns

Если вы все еще сидите и читаете эту статью, это значит только одно - вы поклонник квестов. Потому что все настоящие стратегоманы уже давно должны бегать по городу в поисках игры. И это правильно, ведь в EFS есть все, о чем мы мечтали долгими зимними вечерами. Разве только нет возможности создавать собственный дизайн юнитов, как в MoO 2; нельзя здесь и назначать управляющих, как в Pizza Tycoon. Что ж, постоянный поиск совершенства - и есть смысл нашей жизни, а жить нам еще долго. Впрочем, некогда мне с вами философствовать, у меня тут планету громят, так что...

Allerdings artet eine Partie bald in harte Arbeit aus. Selbst wer mit »Universal Warehouse« spielt, kommt um umfangreiches Truppen- und Vorräteverschieben nicht herum. Die Computergegner sind nicht die allerschlauesten. Meist dauert es geraume Zeit, bis sich ein Krieg gegen andere Häuser entwickelt, und dann ist man meistens selbst der Angreifer. Der Endkampf auf Byzantium 2 entschädigt für alle Mühen – Ungeduldige werden aber gar nicht erst soweit kommen.

Emperor of the Fading Suns is a very fun game; it will be enjoyed by many a serious strategy gamer. In fact, I can already see many of its fans fuming over this review. In spite of the epic story and depth, the game, when it comes down to it, will alienate the average game player. It has a steep learning curve, weak AI and not enough eye candy for the typical real-time strategy gamer. However, if you enjoy turn-based strategy games and like to have a great deal of control/management detail within a game, this could quite possibly be your game. This is a good game that could have been a little better, but it is certainly good enough to have a dedicated following and SegaSoft seems determined to continue to enhance it.

While this game’s overall score sat between 3 and 3 ½ stars, I thought it earned the higher score because it was solid in the categories that I felt were most important, interface and gameplay and intelligence and difficulty. Most turn-based strategy gamers will agree that FX, music, and graphics might be important in these games, but they are really secondary. What is crucial is that the game be both fun and challenging at any level. While there are elements of this game that could be improved in those areas, I believe that Emperor of the Fading Suns deserves to be counted among the best turn-based games out there. The game provides ample opportunity to try different strategies in varying scenarios as one of five houses. Playing one game I would see how far trading and treaties could take me and in the next I was at war with everyone. Each time the game was different and each time it was fun to play.

Emperor of the Fading Suns does something that is getting increasingly hard to accomplish: It breathes life into the stagnating and repetitive genre of space-conquest games. The game seemingly came out of nowhere - burdened with a cumbersome name, a publisher with no reputation for this sort of game, the worst ad campaign in recent memory (two ducklings and a cat sleeping in a basket... you figure it out), modest graphics, and a belated entry into an already over-crowded field. That it has emerged as a strong contender speaks volumes for its fundamental gaming quality.