Summary
Emperor of the Fading Suns lives
The Good
Emperor of the Fading Suns still lives and continues to grow.
It has in fact been modified drastically over the last few years. The game has evolved considerably since its inception! The designers released two patches based on the suggestions of the game's players, then some of the players themselves designed patches which alter how the game plays considerably. At this point in time there are four different patches developed by the players themselves named Nova, Hyperion, Reality and most recently Subversion. There are also now two forums for players to use in order to either engage in discussions about their games or to use as a way to find players interested in playing games via E-mail. A link to these patches can be found at Fadingsun.com. I should also mention that there are also various galaxy scenarios that exist on most of these patch websites which were also developed by the players themselves such as the Rebellion Scenario for Hyperion and Nova, The Hyperion Soren Scenario and The Fulcrum Scenario for Nova and Subversion. There are quite a few others as well but a full listing would take some time.
For those who have this game on their shelf they should pull it off and give this game another hard look. There are still some bugs but all in all the few that are left are well known and easilly played around.
The game play is still turn based but the slow down wall that existed in the original game at turn 5070 has been overcome as have a great deal of the initial bugs of the game. The patches have changed the way units function on some basic levels. The Nova Patch took away movement from emplaced guns and scepters along with a mirade of other small changes. Essentially each patch plays much differently from the others. The Hyperion patch seems to have found a way to increase the activity of the Symbiots in the game to a great degree and although the computer AI is still horrible that is easilly over come by playing PBEM games against living opponents. The Subversion patch concentrates on balancing the cost of units with the resources required to build them and links their maintenance costs directly to the cost to build. This would reduce the overall amount of units one can build, however, the patch also employs a new unit known as an Economic Advisor which allows fleet sizes to be increased as the units are produced. Since the units can be captured their loss can cause an empire's economy to collapse and thereby cause fleets to no longer be maintainable. This also would tend to shorten the length of games from almost never ending to being reasonably resolvable. Seems to make sense and gives the game a more realistic grounding. Turns can take time to get around but that is actually part of the greatness of the game it gives one time to plan ahead and contemplate the opponents possible moves and think of plans to counter them. I've had games that have lasted over a year and a half. Once the maneuvering gets started you itch to see who has done what next and to outdo them by coming up with your own expansionist plans all with the goal of overcoming everyone to proclaim yourself Emperor. A long drawn out process but a lot of fun. Hours and Hours of enjoyment derived from a $21.00 game. Now it also seems that the game can be obtained from the Underdogs for free. In any case when it was $21.00 it was quite honestly the best gaming investment I ever made.
The Bad
At this point some of the graphics are a bit dated. However, some efforts have been made to alter or enhance some of the graphics in the game by the creators of the Hyperion and Subversion patches. Both have their own alterations and some are very good. The music, if you can get your hands on the CD, bears mentioning. Its quite frankly hypnotic and meshes well with the theme of a gothic space game. The AI for the game wasn't that great in the past but thanks to the efforts of the creators of Hyperion and Subversion ways have been found to increase the activities of the Symbiots which greatly adds to the abilities of the AI. There are still problems to be sure and the AI is no match for a veteran. Then again a veteran would probably seek out other players to test his skills so the AI isn't too much of a drawback.
The Bottom Line
The game is a turn based strategy game with almost endless unit combination possiblities. The Subversion patch has also created ways to get around blocking buildups. Stealth transports and Stealth units allow for deep territory infiltrations and suprise attacks. The patch greatly increases a players need to fortify his defenses as no location is unreachable by his enemies. A truly interesting twist on an already great game.
