Beyond Sol

I really like the core of this game. The combat is fun, the base building is shallow but fun. The missions are fun, the first 50 times.... The problem I have is that there just isn't enough of anything. Not enough variety in ships, missions, zero story, diplomacy is almost non existent. After a few hours you will start to notice so many quality of life things that are missing that you have in other games. Such as: - No minimap (the only way to see enemy fleets approaching is to open the map screen which prevents you from doing anything else) - You can only control one fleet and one flagship. You can't swap between multiple ones. so if you're off attacking someone and your home gets attacked you have to go all the way back. - The AI just grows at an insane rate. Faster than I could possibly keep up. - The missions become a grind. Flying around collecting things, fighting pirates, over and over. This game needs more before I can recommend it. I hope the devs stay on it though because at its core it has a lot of potential.

Edited 7/4 - Happy 4th Americans! Pretty good so far. Almost 8h gameplay I can tell it's worth the $16. First Actions - Spent 30m getting out of debt. (I suggest salvaging, you get lucky with a merchent ship and you're good to startout) - Dropped my city, started getting small flow of income. - Starting particpating in battles with other cities vs. Pirates (don't want to choose sides yet b,c I dont want an enemy city to wreck me) - Got a small city and 4 sectors to my name. Money Tip I've learned - I use my income/min as an upkeep. I make my real money from mining planets and selling them at my local market + friendly AI market. Doing this I get +5 relation from the ai I trade with while keeping my local market prices high. If I'm lucky I'll find a very cheap resource at an AI market and sell it at my market if I can sell it for more. Developers have stated that they will be doing WEEKLY updates, so looking forward to that. In it's current state you will get $16+ worth of enjoyment. Once more and more content gets added every week you'll enjoy it anymore in addition you're giving the devs more financial fuel to make the development better. Game CLEARLY has a lot of potential to be simplistic but at the same time complex. If devs come out with frequent updates I'll be playing this game for a while. (Note: If you pick up this game, when you buy a ship, don't click it unless you want to buy it for sure.)

Holy crap is this game ever addicting. Like to create your own space empire? Check. Like to upgrade said empire? Check. Like to tool around and create wicked fleets? Check. Like to rule the galaxy by creating strategic outposts and alliances, and then betray them at the last minute to snatch power? Check. This game is very, very good. This is a very good space simulator that revolves around strategy, diplomacy, tactics, managing economies and upgrading in order to survive among different AIs. The gist of the game: You are given the options to rule the game via 3 different victories: diplomacy, economy or war. You can create a world based on different variables (size of map, number of AI, learning curve, handicap, etc) and then you are placed in a hex-based map with AI. You are able to create a city easily by following a set of arrows that point you in the right direction to build the city. Once established, you can expand the city via radar outposts, mining outposts or military outposts. The key is to create a good economy by mining nearby planets either by setting up mining outposts or running mining runs in nearby asteroid belts. By building outposts in adjoining hexes you are able to expand your overall territory and increase your economy by charing a tariff based on the territory you control. The pros: There is a very good learning curve with this game. The devs have incorporated a number of very clever responses by the AI. As you expand your territory you will likely piss off nearby AI who will declare themselves hostile to you and repeatedly try to destroy your outposts. Similarly, I've had AIs try to attack me and I've responded with my fleet and destroy them along with their outposts. The AI will then abdicate for a short time by offering you war reparations. If you repeatedly deny them then this incurs the wrath of other nearby players. You can customize most likely ANYTHING in this game. Being extremely modular, you are able to tack on a variety of different components to your bases. Each individual component is upgradable if you have the cashs and the minerals. Similarly you can upgrade your ship, its weapons and system along with your fleet and fleet size by upgrading things like your hangar. Once you have a sizable fleet with sizable cargo bay you can advance pretty far. The game balances itself out because neighbouring AI will fight each other, thereby preventing any one AI by leading and winning. You can easily play the same game for 5-6 hours with AI tied neck to neck.You can also lead early on and forget about neighbouring AI who suddenly declare themselves hostile and then proceed to blow your city to hell with a massive fleet. The game's myriad upgrading possibilities force the gamer to balance creating an empire, defending it, expanding it, creating economic pathways, upgrading those outposts, creating and managing fleets and attacking, while managing alliances. The graphics are decent and are created with the Unity engine. For most systems this game shouldn't be a problem. The accompanying music is spacey and adds to the atmosphere of the game. Cons: Building components to your base isn't always easy and takes some manoeuvering around. It would be nice to have it easier. If you annihilate someone from the game IMMEDIATELY all of the other races consider you a warmonger and still send their entire fleets after you in hopes of destroying you. This is one drawback because in war people will not necessarily fight against you if you kill off another AI. This communistic aspect of the game is a drawback and I hope it gets addressed later on by the devs. Still playing it after purchasing it 40% off. I am excited to continue playing. edit: I am recently experiencing consistent fluctuating frame rates from 11 fps to 41 fps despite having a solid rig. It makes piloting ships across the map difficult given how laggy it becomes. Hopefully the devs will address this because it is starting to become a tad irritating.

Early access so I'm thumbs up'ing it, but I do have some issues with the game at its current state. After about 5 hours, it seems like I've experienced most of the game. I can continue to grind up my city size and expand my borders some more, but it seems pointless to do that since, as far as I can tell, there is no way to kill your enemies. I had an AI city pop up a few sectors outside my borders early on, so of course I had to show him who's boss of my little area and beat him up. So, I destroyed all of his fleets, took over a couple of sectors and he surrenders, giving me a bit of cash (note: Its a forced accept surrender, you cannot decline him). I've done this now on about 4 seprate occasions, except instead of taking over his sectors, I just beat on his city because he is completely surrounded by me. He has 3 sectors left that are spread out, disconected from his city (shouldn't be recieving the tax from those then right?) but everytime I get his city pretty well destroyed, he surrenders again. So I've gone through the process of destroying his city center and as many population buildings as possible in a mad rush to try and finish him off before he surrenders and I have to wait another 20 minutes to try again. This really wouldn't be an issue if I could subjugate him or otherwise force his compliance, but since I can't I feel the need to keep trying to kill him since he is literally an enemy stronghold inside my borders. Overall, game is incredably fun, definitely has a lot of potential. List of suggestions that IMO would greatly improve gameplay though: - Ability to destroy your enemies cities or otherwise pacify them permanently! - AI comanders for your fleets. Let those massive stock of reserve ships patrol your borders so you don't have to personally respond to *every* minor pirate/enemy incursion. - Repair option for the ships in your fleet. Right now you can ghetto it by puting them into the reserve and taking them back out, but it doesn't seem like thats intended. - Asteroid mining base! Lets put those asteroid sectors to work! - Trade convoys, you can go to distress beacons and see the NPC convoys, why not have our own going around for us to protect? Maybe have them delivering the resources mined from planets instead of them auto arriving? - Don't let players build their city center on a planet, or at least warn them! I thought I was being clever having my city on a planet I wanted to mine, but instead it made it un-mineable! Overall, great game and well worth the money. Looking foreword to seeing the future content!

An exceptional micro 4X with hands-on gameplay wherein you have to react to a dynamic and exciting map. Grow your city-state while exploring the map, gathering resources, dealing with nearby rivals and much more. This is a VERY fun game in both single and multiplayer, and if you liked games like Drox Operative, for example, you'll very likely LOVE this. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6K1_LepsaN9X6NNYcHHH1GN3Bah7N7r-

This is one of those early access titles that are so much fun that you end up checking for new updates every time you open steam. I simply cannot wait for what the future holds for Beyond Sol! Pros: Being developed by, Praxia Entertainment, a Canadian team that used to work for Bioware; Beyond sol has all the elements of a great top down space shooter, combined with the hardcore strategy elements of a 4x empire building game. Throw in some massive fleet battles, tower defense and even some economic simulation, you will find this hard to put down. You begin the game as a lone cruiser pilot in a small region of contested space and you goal is to quickly build a city where people in the region can live, shop, work etc. You will need to expand your territory by building radar and mining installations that will gather minerals tariffs for your growing empire. While your empire is growing you may also explore the universe freely and without restriction, mining, hunting, performing services for other cultures, salvaging, and even outright attacking your neighbors, if you so choose. There is no restriction on what you do. Your ship can be upgraded and customized in a variety of ways depending on what corporations you have living in your city. You can buy new corporate ships to fly with you or to defend your cities and stations as well. All things considered, Beyond Sol is amazing already, and it's not even finished yet. I can't recommend it enough! Cons: This is an Early access title, so it, naturally has a few issues. I have found some bugs when starting new games where some of the previous game data will carry over, creating some confusing information, like incorrect research and ship levels, more money and minerals than normal etc. The game is also incomplete and there are simply many ship customizing option that are simply just not available yet. The procedurally generated area you begin in is different every time and always interesting, however, there are no options yet to customize it. None of these issues prevent a player from playing the game and enjoying it thoroughly.

For a game essentially developped by one programmer over one year, this is excellent little gem. It's a shame it didn't sell as well allowing for further development and content. It still however makes a great blend of two genres, namely 4x type strategy (real-time) and space action. You control a ship (which you can equip and swap for another ship) flying around the solar system trying to get your orbital city to dominate other such cities present in the system. You aim to dominate your solar system either through a diplomatic, economic or militaristic victory. Only then will Earth (Sol) name you the leader of said system. There are constant events or mini-missions around you which keep you busy, as well as the occasional pirate encounter which is fun, because the combat is exciting and has depth depending on how you are equipped and which ships you add to your fleet. The game plays similar to League of Legends rather than a traditional top-down WASD, but this works in its favour. Definitely a great experience when playing multiplayer (Port-forwarding necessary), and all in all a positive experience. Hopefully they come out with a sequel or some sort of expansion.

Fairly basic but good grand strategy RTS. Nothing spectacular but will keep you busy while you try to do the achievements. I played SP, but MP also available, although at this point the community is nonexistent. Good: Stable (Unity), OK Graphics, decent UI, forgettable but acceptable music, no game-breaking bugs, an AI that does the job, fun. Bad: Weird design choice (Permanent profile that carries over) leading to extensive grinding to build it up w/ some of it related to achievements. No encyclopedia. Tip: Use the Tamarin Freighter and build a lot of Radar stations. While not overly expensive, there's no reason to not get it on sale.

I'm giving this game a qualified thumbs up. As it stands game is 6/10, and by release it will obviously be at least a little better. Some people will like Beyond Sol some will not. If there were a few easy fixes, then the game would be palatable to a wider audience. This game has you build a city in space, mine resources, establish outposts, and fight pirates and ultimately, other factions, in an attempt to dominate the solar system. You build a fleet of ships, each which have different roles, strengths and abilities. The game is in early access but runs smooth and there are only a few minor bugs. You can stll tell it's early access, however, because there are still missing features, such as ship systems. The plus for this game is RTS ship fleet battles within a single solar system are not very common. Yes there are 4x games, but this takes place in a single system and you really only command one fleet, although you can set up other defensive fleets in starbases. So it's much more tactical than a traditional 4x strategy or even 4x RTS, although it does have 4x elements to be sure. So not only has the game found a niche that is uncommon, it also requires strategic thinking and advance planning. You can only build one city, so initial planning while thinking 10 steps ahead is more important here than in a game like Sins of a Solar Emprie or the Galactic Civilizations series (and really this game feels a lot different than those.) The upgrade paths (to the extent they've been implemented) are well done and the best fleets will include a balance of ships. The game is a grind but most of the time the grind is ok as events that pop up are interesting initially, although they do get repetitive after a while. I have four gripes about the game. The first one is you can't pause the game in singleplayer, you can only exit and re-enter the game. Simple enough to do, but when you re-enter, your ships start over at home base. This is both an annoyance and an exploit - you can just exit the game and re-start to get out of a losing battle. My 2nd gripe is zoom in/out is not documented (you use the + and - key) and zoom itself is very very limited. You can zoom in far enough, but this game really needs the ability to zoom out more. It is not uncommon for the range of your ship weapons to extend beyond the borders of the screen on maximum zoom out. This in and of itself is unacceptable. My 3rd gripe is you can only manage your home city when your fleet is in the city. This makes no sense. Why must I dock my fleet in the city to buy and sell city commodities? Or upgrade the city. I should be able to do that independently of what my fleet does. I think it would be nice to have more than one city and more than one fleet, but I understand the intentional limitation here as the one city/one fleet rule keeps the game more tactical and intimate, instead of going the route of the more generic, 'epic' feeling 4x space RTS with multiple bases, fleets, etc. My 4th gripe is the game is a little light on content right now. However, this will likely be solved upon the game's full release. It remains to be seen whether all the features, once added in, will be enough to flesh out the game adequately. Really, if these guys could could fix the first 3 limitations (I imagine the 4th will be fixed upon release) then the game would be solid and good. It really wouldn't be hard to fix the first 3 issues, not hard at all. If you can put up with these annoyances the game is worth it. If you can't then it isn't. I like the game overall so I'm giving it a thumbs up.