In short, Stardrive is the best descendant/clone of Master of Orion 2. Its theme and mood might be derived more from the Star Trek school, but the philosophy that runs through its spine is, undoubtedly, from the amazing Microprose title, the king of the 4x genre of the nineties- along with a pinch of Galactic Civilizations and Sins. [June 2013]
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.
Already better than Stellaris when it came out early access. This game is between a 7 and 8 it lacks some features, some content and optimization but it's an interesting game and I had a good time playing it, gave it a 10 because maybe players got angry when the Dev decided to stop fixing and adding content to the game but for me it was a good purchase.
Pros
- Innovative ship design, that adds depth to combat.
- Innovative planetary logistics, you can make transports to automatically bring and take resources from a planet to another planet.
- Races are interesting and unique.
- Space combat is great.
- Some cool events.
Cons
- Dev abandoned support for this game it had so much potential.
- A.I. can get easily OP if you leave them be and it's very hard to beat or near impossible to beat.
- The game could use more vents and story.
- Frame drops, crashes and poor optimization on big battles.
I been wasting a ton of time(fun time) in fact about 365 steam record hours(not steam play throw in many more hours). I simply love this space space strategy game. its almost like old school turn base but its real time. so use pause alot when clicking on some things. reminds me of starcontrol and starcontrol two. But you can built a empire!
Ship design is for me the heart of the game, ship hulls are different for different civilizations. The fun part is how you use different components into the ship design to beat the other civilizations. since they have access to the same tech research as you. seeing your superior designs destroy them!! LIke a fleet of meat into your meatgrinder!
For example my favorite is the Kulrathi aka bearmen their ships might not be the fastest(not too many engine slots, you can put in different type of engines into that slot). but their fighter are the largest in the game. I love putting in fighter bays(they spawn fighters(free fighters)) into all my Titan ships(they are the largest hull type every civilization gets, each civilization has different sizes and shapes of that hull). I love putting in remnant shields onto the fighters and tons of weapons and no wrapdrive only thrust. They can be respawn from the carrier. Park the carrier slightly farther away from the fighting. wave after wave of fighters just destroy anything in their path.
With many patches later they fix the Remnant quest. Also remnant tech is always the most powerful in game. There are a few mods out there but the ones that still out there is fun.
It looks like StarDrive isn't completely finished at this time. The game is addictive and can keep you busy for hours and hours. Despite that, StarDrive lacks some features to really shine. If Zer0 Sum Games manages to fix these flaws, StarDrive can become a star in the sky.
I love SciFi. And I can’t get enough of games like Sins of a Solar Empire. And that leaves me frustrated when I look an StarDrive and its’ wasted potential. It is ambitious, but fails to deliver on too many levels.
Beyond the technical problems — which are significant — in its current state, StarDrive is a collection of neat systems and cool ideas that fail to form a cohesive game.
I didn't give it 10 because it is perfect. Or because it is amazingly re-playable. But because for the first hundred hours it is perfectly flawed.
Ship building is fantastic, battles are fantastic, Ai is flawed although well thought out and the levels are interesting enough to give you a different experience depending on who you spawn near.
A perfect 100 hour game.
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 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.
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: 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.
Not a finished game and the developer will never fix it. Tries to be MOO2 and fails at it.
You're better off getting the 2nd game. Which comes closer, but still no cigar.
This game could have been awesome. Instead, the developer half-baked this game, took the money and ran off to build a sequel with even less content. The game remains unoptimized for even the best computers, has numerous computer-crashing bugs/glitches, and an unfinished quest line.
Like many early access games, this one failed to deliver what it promised.
SummaryIn StarDrive, you will design your own race to lead into the stars. You will find new worlds to colonize and conquer, meet strange aliens to trade with or war upon, and implement strategies to promote trade within and growth of your interstellar empire. Expand your military forces by researching new technologies and ship designs. And, w...