Horizon

From the screenshots and video, I was excited to see another entry into the 4x genre, however, after playing for 20+ hours I have come to the conclusion that this game is not really ready for "non-beta" release. There are just so many things that are not ready, not implemented, not documented or explained, that it is simply not an enjoyable experience. This review was written with the current "release" version of the game as of February 9th, 2014. So, the list : --Build Queue-- Non existant. You mean you want to build 3 of mother ship 1, 2 of mother ship 2, and 4 of mother ship 4? Not gonna happen unless you manually go back to each planet where ships are building and do that manually. Not only is there NO build queue, you are locked into 4 ships of each "class". 4 scouts, 4 transports (including colonizer), 4 cruisers and 4 motherships. What does that mean? That means you can only have 4 ship designs of each type and if you want to make a new one you have to over-write another one. Those two aspects of basic functionality being missing or kludgy really reminds of games from 1980. --Combat-- This is probably the most tedious space combat of any of this genre I have played in a long while. I started playing games on the commodore VIC20/Commodore 64, and I've played quite a few of these over the years. It is just very convoluted and tedious. Want to turn your ship so your weapons face a target? Good luck! Click on the screen and it may rotate 1/8th of a rotation...PER TURN.... Which may or may not be the direction you wanted. Targetting in combat is flaky. If an enemy ship occupies the same square as one of yours or very close to it? You can't target that enemy, at all, by anything. Zooming in or out does not help and all you can do is move that ship which now means you have pointed one or more of your weapons away from combat. --Quests--- Its hard to call these things quests. You get a random message, about something that happened that you may or may not be anywhere near ( it tells you your "fleet" flew by XYZ even though you had no ships anywhere near there, ever.), then when you try to step through it, the next "step" may or may not exist, work, or even be understandable. "No Mr.Pirate, i want the REAL hammer!, Fine, come get it! meet me at XYZ". Go to XYZ, nothing. Survey entire system. nothing. Survey each planet. Nothing. Station fleet at XYZ for 3 real time hours, nothing. --Technologies-- Terraforming - This is probably the most confusing tech in the game. The "manual" has exactly one occurrence of the word terraform in it, and it is a sentence that basically says "Yup, it exists". What does it do? nothing. Researched to level 10 and those limited habitat planets arent improved. Sure you can now colonize "toxic" planets, but it is not at all clear if terraforming made that possible, or other techs. There is no information, the description in game says nothing useful, there is no method to initiate it no discernable effect from it, and the manual is utterly silent with respect to it. Weapons and other systems are normalized to the point of simply being clones of each other with a different name. Yes, there are minor "effect" differences, but again, like most systems/things in the game, you have no idea if it is really happening, working, or even implemented. --Ship design-- Aside from only having a maximum of 4 ship designs for each type before you have to over-write a previous one, there is no method to modify one design to the next as in a refit. In fact, the only "refit" in the game that exsists is that you have to fly a colonizer ship to a planet with a starbase before it can colonize again. lets say you have a cruiser with laser cannons on it and you want to instead have that existing ship re-fit with a newer design that uses plasma cannons. Nope, Can't do it. This is a base feature of almost every game in this genre. There is absolutely no customization. Ships have 8 "hardpoints" for weapons, 2 on each side, 2 front, and 2 at rear. There are no ship layouts as in its appearance, no anything except, put weapon here or not, make it light, regular or heavy. --Strange stuff, bugs, etc-- After playing for 10 hours, the Varaians (the ancient energy race and progenitors of EVERYTHING) are the strongest, largest, and most powerful empire in the galaxy and all of a sudden, without being attacked by ANYONE, they are simply "defeated". Poof. They evaporate. No one was attacking them (I am in all of their systems with an alliance with them). They just simply decide to stop existing. They had so much military power that the very few times anyone aside from me (with an alliance with them) wandered in, just a couple of their ships utterly wiped out whatever flew by and then bam. Gone. This was the third occurrence of this happening to a race, they just decide they don't want to be in the game any longer and poof. There are more issues, oddities, and things (most notable documentation) missing, but this is long enough already with enough specific examples. This game is simply not ready for prime time yet. I applaud a new indie developer for trying to break into the market, truly, i realize its a tough thing to do, but even with that said, it can't change the reality of what this game is and is not. I didnt go into it expecting a multi-million dollar budget production, but I certainly did go into it expecting something with far more playability.

Horizon is a nice mid-core 4X space game. Is it worth the price? For me, definitely. For you, quite possibly. Why? In short, because under the simple interface there's a quite deep and engaging gameplay. Not MOO2-level deep, but, please, it's almost twenty years old, let's try to move on! (Who am I kidding?..) So, the basics here are done right. I'd even say the basics are healthy. Because after you play all races and find all the quests, research and dig everything, in other words, after you experience all the content there is, something still draws you to the game, compels to try to exploit its mechanics in some new way. It is fun playing with game after you played the game and that actually means something. I assume you read other reviews, watched videos, etc, so you understand what the game has to offer. Now, here's a list of things that can be a no-buy for you. [b][i]Please, keep in mind, it's all for beta version that is unfinished by definition.[/i][/b] - tactical combat is MOO2 style while battlefields are much larger (actually, the whole galaxy can be seamlessly traversed in combat mode). Old controls do not cope well with the new scale. - research is lackluster with little sense of achievement - no multiplayer at this point, no hotseat as well If that doesn't turn you off, well, you're in for hours of "just one more turn". We all know that one more turn is never enough.

[h1]FINAL REVIEW:[/h1] Let's start with the pros: [b][u]PROS:[/b][/u] [list] [*]That triumphant feeling of conquering an enemy [*] Alien races have good design [/list] However, that's where the good ends. And now, for the cons. [b][u]CONS:[/b][/u] [list] [*] With the governor system, city management is practically non-existant [*] With auto-resolve, combat is avoidable and pointless. Would've been better if it was done automatically like Civilization [*]Capturing planets does nothing to aid your empire once you reach a certain point in the game, aside from keeping it from your enemies [*]AI is dreadful. They will ask for an armistice and cancel it the next turn, repeatedly, over and over. Also, they repeat their moves in every other thing they do too [*]Once you hit a certain point in the game, you can start a colony and get it maxed out in 5 turns, because of how little the currency matters late game. You can easily defend a large system by spawning in motherships (more on that in a second) on every planet in the system in a single turn. This is something the AI is oblivious to, apparently [*] Other than a colonizer, there is no reason to get a single other ship than a mothership, as long as you have a shipyard [*] Tech system is confusing and serves no purpose. This includes designing your ship. [*] Games drag on. Games can go on for over 800 turns and have only 2-3 enemies defeated, with no end in sight. [/list] Overall, this game fails in most everything people look for in a 4X game. I do NOT recommend it. [b][u]SUMMARY:[/b][/u] [table] [tr] [th]Gameplay[/th] [th]Graphics[/th] [th]Replayability[/th] [tr] [td]Terrible[/td] [td]Passable (doesn't affect game)[/td] [td]Very low (for that to happen, the game has to end in the first place)[/td] [/table]

I am a big fan of space empire games and was hoping for this to finally break the spell of bad luck I have been having trying to find a game I can really enjoy to play (I think I am about 7-8 games and £100 down now with no real winner) Sadly this was not the case as I have not enjoyed this game, so much so that this is the first review I have been compelled to write. As a point of reference my favourite space empire games so far are Star Wars Supremacy and Imperium Galactica 2. I find the gameplay here impossibly difficult, there is only one basic strategy of expansion as quickly as possible which proves impossibe against AI oponents who seem to have an endless stream of better equipt and easily replaceable ships and space stations to which there is no defence. Combat usually comes down to numbers/technology and on a game that is not massively graphically interesting this means battles are dull and also very long as they are also turn based. Even when I manage to win a battle I find the opponants have so many more ships that any progress is nerfed pretty quickly. The tech tree is fine as you can discover new technologies (although this happenes randomly thorugh a breakthrough system), but it is difficult to see any positive results of better technology and it takes an age to research or build anything. The technologies mostly just improve something you already had rather than giving you a new item/building. The turn button will become your best friend in this game. Building a medium ship, say a cruiser, even at a reasonable point in the game with a few planets will take at least 20-30 turns and each turn equaltes to a year. This is a long time for anything to be build and means that unless you have at least 5-10 decent planets building a fleet takes so long to build if an enemy declares war on you suddenly you don't stand a chance. Graphic are suitable to the task but there is a lack of any real customisation on your ships other than put laser here and cannon here, you also can't really chose what core systems (engines etc) you use as the games just choses whichever you have reasearched furthest (this makes it impossible to create armadas of large, cheap ships). Planets also don't have any 3D models but just a picture of the building which is very behind the times and I expect a game in 2014 to be visually much better than games I played 10 years ago, this is not. Fleets are limited to 10 ships (for some unknown reason) but you can send more than one fleet into a combat zone. I don't see the point of the artificial limit on fleet sizes then as again this just means a lot of clicking to move all your fleets into one area. There is also not a lot to build on your planets, most planets are limited to 9 building overall, when you consider there are 5 different types this does not leave much scope for development. Like most games diplomacy seems to rely on the AI demanding things on a whim for no real reason and refusing any request no matter how reasonable or bennificial to them it may be. Also there is no espionage/spying aspect to the game. I want to like this game and can forgive some its less developed aspects if I had been rewarded with good, or even adaquate, gameplay. It is good good have a simple game, and in its defence this is a simpl,e game to understand and play, which is easy to get into unlike some 4x4 games which are very complicated. On a more positive note this game uses a credit system and most items/ships costs billions of credits. Its nice to see a more realistic game where a planet's output is not 120 credits and its costs 400 credits to build a unit, I do like a more realistic financial scale! Although saying that and back to the negative there is no way to really change you financial settings to improve morale/make more money other than a simple click button for each planet, not a great fine tuning financial system. Sadly though the lack of any real strategy/tactics along with the ridiculous pace at which the AI progresses in its technology and ship building means that I would steer clear of this game presently, if it was reduced to £5 it may be worth a purchase but at £11 I still feel cheated.

Waste of time. I can't really think of anything I like in this game. The techs are boring because they are balanced to the point of repitition. For example, all the engine techs give you the same speed bonus per level. They only have slight variations in power/size but it means you really just stick to researching 1 engine the whole game. You don't seem to ever discover a tech that is truly "better" which makes it uninteresting. Seems even more so for guns. For example I start with laser cannons and then suddenly once I reached a certain level of laser cannon I discovered plasma bolt cannon. OK now I can kick some ass right? It has the same exact qualities as the laser cannon! Same size, cost, damage and the same perks, though maybe the perks come at slightly shuffled research levels than laser. Boring!!! The game does have a tactical battle feature but it's pretty tedious. You can't automatically have ships flee, the rotation mechanics are busted (doesnt seem to rotate ship direction I want to). Then there is the annoying tendency of the tactical battle view to watch neutral ships wander around space near your colonies. Something is really weird with the game economy. I was truggling with money at the beginning and then suddenly I was drowining in money. I look at the stats graph which shows graphs comparing all the races and everyone got this sudden sharp cliff up at one point, what is that all about? Oh and allies don't seem to mean anything. I ally with races, and then I get declared war on by others, and my allies never show as enemies to the races I am at war with. Just me. I feel like I wasted my time with this title. Back to Endless Space for me.

This game is the small cousin of "Endless Space" and "Galatic Civilization II" and big brother of "weird world: return to infinite space". For the first game from this diligient Indie Studio it's not bad but it's still got tons of room for improvemnt. They have released a lot update to fix many of the issue they had when first launch but there are just a lot things that cannot be fixxed from patch. 1. Vidoe/Graphics are quite well done. Some of the alien planet video is just simply wonderfully beautiful. And i can tell the animator of this game really enjoyed their work and made jokes in some of the videos. 2. Music is a little subpar. But for indie game it can still be tolerated. Please improve this if you can for next game. 3. Gaming interface is quite linear and it doesn't feel 3D at all. It's a universe so it should look like one. If you turn off the grid the universe interface just look like a mess but if you leave the grid on it doens't look good at all. 4. Tech is weird for this game too which you don't really get a tech tree. You reach base on % of you send in 6 types and you can focus on 1 specific tech one it become available. IT's just too much of a random chance. You need a Major Breakthough for a tech to show up and you need another Breakthough to start finnal getting advantage of it. 5. Race balance is really bad. This game is a colonization sim so if you can live in poison/metal planet from start you gain huge expansion advantage. Since tech research is based on random breakthough. If you play a race that's not native to bad enviromental planet you will have to cross your finger and hoping terreform research pop for you. There is a guide here on steam that shows you exactly how you break the game using these none-balanced ability and with that guide. The game become super easy but without it. if you play regular human on those high difficulty you will have a lot of trouble. The Achievements in this game is actually really simple and straight forward. But it does take you to play many games to grind them. 2 of those main story mission that will give you a normal ending. 7.5/10 and i do recommend this game for 4X lover. I raised the score from 6.5 to 7.5 because it's indie studio's first game but please improve and make better games.

Horizon is an imperfect product. It's better than many of the generic half-baked 4X games which are flooding the market as disposal-ware, but there are some very real drawbacks which limit the enjoyability of the game. For newcomers to the 4X genre who are looking to sink their teeth into a strategy game with some structure and a relatively low learning curve and don't mind the dated graphics, I'm giving this game a thumbs-up. For veterans of the genre, who are well-versed in games like Endless Space, GalCiv II and III, Distant Worlds or the Sword of the Stars franchise, I'm giving this a thumbs-down. For starters there are some very unique strengths to this game which are stand-out from the rest. Although almost every 4X game features the same exact tropes (types) of races, Horizon manages to give the in-game civilizations a sense of substance and personality which many other games lack. The in-game universe may not necessarily be as flushed as Endless Space, GalCiv or SotS, but the races present in the game are tweaked just enough from their stereotypes to make themselves unique---and the uniqueness of these races lend themselves to an almost genuine interactive quality. Species traits are certainly more than just window dressing, but the mechanics from one species to the next are mostly identical (unlike, say, GalCiv or ES, but much better than the generic games on the market). The research and development process in the game is a refreshingly unique take on R&D systems. Unlike most games, where R&D focuses on one single tech at a time, Horizon has a system similar to the research points and tech levels structure found in Paradox's Hearts of Iron 3---with a measure of blind development to make things even more interesting. The way breakthroughs are often realized isn't through normal R&D channels, however, but by finding artifacts and other neat little details hidden throughout the stars. Exploration directly leads to new technological development, which makes the R&D system a lot more dynamic than most other 4X games out there. Unfortunately, the R&D results don't feel particularly "real" in-game. For the vast majority of them, they are simply stat-modifiers. Advancements in construction technology will make colony-building construction faster, but it won't change the buildings which are available. Advancements in weapons and propulsion will add new weapons and subsystems which can be deployed, but ship-types are fixed from the start. Just as planetary development is strictly linear for each class of building, so too is ship design and deployment. Ships are limited. Significantly. In contrast to some of the generic disposal-ware games on the market, 16 unique ship-models, limited to four variants in four size-classes may seem like a nice spectrum for deployment. When contrasted with the dynamic models presented in Endless Space, or the complete from-scratch construction system for GalCiv II and III, or the custom-function design approach used in Sword of the Stars, ship design feels incredibly flat. Ship design is very strictly limited to a handful of weapon placement positions and placeholders for whatever systems are available for use. All four hull sizes and variants are accessible to the player from the start, no additional R&D required. It wouldn't be so bad, but the models for these ships look extremely dated once they engage in combat. The graphics look like they would be perfectly comfortable in the mid 2000s, but even against some of the generic disposal-ware 4X games, they look dated. Similarly, it's a very nice touch that Horizon has animated cut-scenes for first contact moments and other milestones, however, these cut-scenes too look like they are from the mid 2000s as well. In summary, Horizon is a very mixed product. Some components feel incredibly well thought-out and they look great. Other components look rough, even dated, and seem to be poorly conceived and weak in implementation. Ordinarily, I don't care about sales----usually, I'll argue that a game is either worth buying full price, or not worth buying at all---but this is not a product worth paying full-price for. And the conclusion? If you want a straight-forward 4X game with some meat but not the level of complexity which the best-in-class games demand, then Horizon is a good solid choice, as long as you don't mind some of the graphics and other limitations. If you're a veteran of the genre, looking for the next breakout product, this probably isn't it. If Horizon has a sequal or a complete overhaul to ship design and deployment, and creates new cut-scenes from scratch, Horizon could start moving towards its' potential. The potential is here, but it has yet to be realized.

It took me two weeks and 94 hours to finish this game and it was absolutely captivating. The learning curve was steep at first and leveled out nicely as the hours went by. The reward for sticking with it and learning the intricate ship design, alien personalities, complicated quest lines and how to play and dominate was excellent. At the end of the game I felt like I had accomplished a grand conclusion to a great adventure. This first time I played through the normal "campaign" mode. I plan to now experiment in the free form game as different aliens. Wonderful game. Fun combat, rewarding gameplay, not for the faint of heart. Classic 4x.

Horizon is a space turn based strategy game. If you like this genre you will definetly enjoy the game. The story behind this is the usual, conquer your galaxy while other alien races will try the same. Additionally, you will have a few missions so you can make other races happy, these missions provides relation boosts and possibly alliance with the race offered the mission or just make them to return their home galaxy and so on. you can create blueprings, equip ships with weapon types you prefer, improve and terraform your planet, research new technologies. The game isnt the best from this genre neither the worst, but it has a charm and enjoyable.

Horizon is a bit like Master of Orion 2.5, but in a good way. My recommendation: buy it when it is on sale, that'S what I did. Otherwise it is overpriced. Pros: - Very Realistic Research System: - Each Tech can be refined in 10 levels meaning that an "outdated" tech like nuclear engines can be much better than a lategame tech like graviton engines depending on how much reseach you already put into each one. - Techs appear more or less randomly depending on you focus. - Nice "retro"-feel with a lot of little videos when you discover something or meet an alien race... similar to Master of Orion 2 - Good tutorial - Decent space battles (graphics not so much) - realistic Ship Design system: - if you improve an installed tech it will be automatically refitted to existing ships / designs - if you change a design (change a component) you need to retrofit manually Cons: - Don't expect any eye candy, graphics are 5-10 years behind mostly - Quite bad intro which almost made me uninstall the game right away... - Chessboard galaxy map, meaning you sometimes need to navigate around enemy systems if you want to get behind them 7/10 Overall