StarDrive 2 (Hands-On) (PC) Preview

StarDrive 2 makes no bones about what it is: a Master of Orion 2 clone, and many games in the past have claimed this inspiration, but it is rare that a game does it well. To be clear, the first StarDrive was audacious, but flawed in a lot of ways, including a clunky real-time system; this game has gone back to MOO2 roots, is turned-based and nearly a perfect evolution of the title.

For those who know little about 4X space strategy games or Master of Orion 2, the game focuses on building a single planet up to a star-spanning empire, slowly upgrading planets, buildings ships, colonising stars, beating enemies - a genre that has spawned a lot of variations on the theme. StarDrive 2 follows the template of a turn-based strategy map, and a new real-time battle system, with a new change of ground invasions being a tactics game.

The good parts of a 4X are all here - customised races, tech to research, stuff to explore - but there are some notable changes. First, ship design is like the first StarDrive, but improved - namely it is simpler. Players put various parts of the ship on a blueprint, making sure there is power, armour, weapons etc. - there is a lot to pick here without being overwhelming, and various options to choose for a weapon, such as a bigger, stronger, but slower version, or short range, but fast variations. There is a natural evolution to the star map of 'key resources' that randomly show up on planets that give slight bonuses if controlled - a fun addition to give more strategy to just 'find most rich planet' in the past.

One big change is that the battles are real-time, which are actually pretty fun watching the mass missiles and fighters swarm everywhere. The negative of this is, once in battle, there is little to 'do' other than move ships into position, so it's a trade-off. Gone are the days of perfectly moving ships into perfect position, using advanced tactics of taking hits for other ships, and so on, but it is a fun pleasure watching hundreds of projectiles raining down.

Ground battles, interestingly, are a tactics style game of traversing on a grid, having each troop move and shoot using action points. Such a system might put off some fans, but despite slowing the conquests down, it is an interesting and fun 'mini-game' of sorts. The only major complaint (and this also applies to space battles), is the 'auto' resolve is typically disastrous. Five ships will nearly die to a single small one; if the player merely 'watched' they would predictably get out without damage.

At this point, StarDrive 2 is still in beta, and some aspects indicate as much, with spelling errors, a few times where text spills off the bottom, and some balance issues, but assuming it is fixed, these are not big problems. Having disliked the first StarDrive, this game is very good, and that is compared to a lot of other 4X games out there - it is nearly a perfect evolution of what Master of Orion 3 really should have been, and anyone who knows anything about 4X games knows what a compliment that is.