Horizon

It's not a bad game. It's just not good. I would give a mixed review. Horizon has some nice moments. I personally like the super 90s/00s render videos, which feel nostalgic in a very nice way. It's cool that if you play with humanity, you start in the super early age of space flight, great for imagination and RP. Most of its gameplay mechanics do work - but way too complex and too unintuitive. UI is horrible, too many clicks for everything. Bad explained mechanics. It's like a 4x game from the late 90s / early 00s. But one, which has failed in many ways. It has it's moment, yeah, but not enough to recommend it. Still have to admit that the devs love their game and still do patches now (2023) while the game was released 2014. That's awesome and kudos for such support. If you like "old" 4X-games and want to try something new... maybe try Horizon. But in my opinion, there are many many 4X-Space-Games which are better and provide more then enough playtime so that you can avoid this with no guilty conscience.

A pretty decent space 4X game, although the route to victory is expansion (expect to get lots of complaints from the AI diplomats about your species "reckless expansion"), as this gives you production, money, research to get ahead of the competition - their is no "tall civilization" route to victory here. Their does tend to be one common choke point - you are soft limited in the number of military ships you can field at once by command points, which you get a few from the logistics technology, but eventually the bulk come from having a star bases above each of your colonies, but these are expensive and slow to build especially on new colonies, so you can have trouble keeping the border of your growing empire protected, until your early colonies start to fill out and suddenly you can start building entire fleets of large vessels to go around crushing your enemies. Each colony is limited in how many civilian buildings you can put on them, although in practise I didn't find it very limiting even on the small worlds because only the first two economic buildings tiers (trade and tourism cash generation) ever make sense due to the way the costs of each tier of building being 10-20 times the previous tier, but only giving a linear increase in the cash generated (so the first tier pays itself back in almost the first turn/year, the second tier is more like 10 years to pay back, and the third tier will take centuries to pay itself back), food production rarely needs more than one level, so even the smallest colony can have two industry and one research, and everything else can have two research, and then you get into the late game when you have hundreds of billions of credits to spend every year before you worry about pushing past those on more than a few key colonies. The research system and technology system is one of the better points, the way you discover new technologies (or trade/demand them from opponents), get a breakthrough to get them working, then usually have to refine them further to make them really make a difference. The one downside here is all the direct fire weapons are very similar, they have the same range, similar damage (that caps at tech level 4), a unique special at tech level 5, then the same as each other for all the higher tech levels. So generally you concentrate on one of these, and then maybe one type of missile/torpedo, and leave the rest of the weapons alone for the entire game. Conversely this limitation on the weapons does make the tactical combat side of things more competitive through the game, so you don't out tech the opponents so heavily that you can take down their battleships with your scouts. Each ship has four sides, which each have two possible shield/armour banks to get hit, and two stack of weapons (which all fire at the same target, making the groups of five fighters quite dangerous even to larger ships unless they are escorted by others to increase their point defence capabilities). The diplomacy is not terrible, there tends to be an obvious reason why your opponents hate you (or not), however the diplomacy AI is not linked to the strategic/tactical situation at all, as the AI is quite happy to declare war on you with no forces available to actually do anything, so basically laying out an invitation for you to invade. They definitely haven't heard the phrase "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win". The AI is quite good at picking out weak links in your defences and harrassing you by conquering your new colonies if you don't have adequate protection, but I find overall the AI quite weak - it doesn't expand fast enough, and thus it falls behind you in all aspects, so even if can steal low value colonies off you when you are careless, it can't really cope with the advantages you build up by growing faster. Overall I think it is an interesting enough variant on the genre, but you aren't likely to play endless games of it due to the somewhat linear way the game plays once you have the hang of it.

Great game. Really hard to describe. Its heavily based on the old Master of Orion series. However, unlike Moo2, its ... simple. Its a much faster playing game than the other spiritual successors like say Interstellar Space Genesis. While still having all of the features that make Moo clones great. (turn based combat, interesting research etc.) This one is very easy to dismiss but it kind of strikes the perfect balance between everything. Really great space 4x to grab on sale, just be prepared to deal with some WEIRD mechanics. (Who tf thought the worker percentage was a good idea? Just do it like MoO... ) Honestly its the game I play after work when Moo2 and Dosbox aren't getting along.

in my opinion this is underrated. I had a lot of fun turn based space combat and 4x gameplay

Play Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars instead

Updated in 2023.I enjoyed the theme and tactical combat.Look forward to H2.

Really enjoyed it some years ago, will give it a try again now as the developer is still activ on this. Very underrated!

When i saw updates for this game, i was curious. Then i checked the developers forums, --> http://forum.l3o.com They are currently developing horizon 2, and that's the only reason on why there are "fixes for horizon 1", they are probably back porting the fixes from the fixed coding in horizon 2. the fixes are in my eyes 7 years too late. The models are obviously up-touched for horizon 2, and not made with the intent of enriching anyone experience inside the first game, especially not when they are charging the owners of the first game when they were up-touched developed for the second game. So in my eyes, players of the first game are being charged for the development of the second game, it's just lol in my eyes. The game is rated at 57% on steam, and well reviews on other pages are far worse, the 57% rating is a well deserved one, spec considering that the game was left in a very buggy state. The game itself is also way overpriced for a indie game i can buy 3-6 indie games for the same price and entertain myself for hundreds of hours, this i played a couple of times from start too end, maybe 30-40 hours or so it's got very low replayability. So if the developer think they can get my money by back-porting some code from horizon 2, and charging the old owners that helped you out with supporting you as a indie dev. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice no thank you :)

A thoughtful blend of classic 4X charm and modern accessibility. Horizon doesn’t try to reinvent the galaxy—it refines it. For fans of traditional turn-based space strategy games, this title offers a slower, deliberate approach that puts exploration, diplomacy, and technological progress front and center. What sets Horizon apart is its commitment to atmosphere and its love letter to the golden age of sci-fi. From the moment you begin charting unclaimed star systems, the game encourages you to think like a leader, not just a commander. Whether you're forming alliances, navigating first contact scenarios, or managing the inner workings of your growing empire, there's a satisfying rhythm to the way Horizon unfolds. It rewards long-term planning and rewards patience—traits that genre veterans will find familiar and welcoming. Diplomacy, in particular, shines. Races feel distinct not just in their appearances and technologies, but in their behaviors and motivations. Negotiating peace, war, and trade deals carries real weight, and the branching narrative events give the game a living, responsive feel that’s more dynamic than it first appears. Combat is tactical and turn-based, giving players full control over ship positioning and fleet engagement. While not the flashiest visually, it’s layered with strategic depth for those who enjoy fine-tuning ship design and maneuvering for optimal effectiveness. The tech tree is vast and rich, offering multiple paths to galactic supremacy—military, scientific, diplomatic—each with its own appeal. Research feels meaningful, unlocking not just raw power but new ways to interact with the universe around you. It’s clear that Horizon was crafted with care. The UI may be a bit dense at first, but once you get your bearings, it becomes second nature. It's a game that rewards those who invest time into learning its systems and experimenting with different playstyles. In short, Horizon may not be the loudest or flashiest 4X game on the market, but for those who miss the days of thoughtful, immersive space conquest, it's a hidden treasure. It's a peaceful yet compelling journey through the stars that feels both familiar and refreshingly unique. If you liked my attempt at making a professional review of this game, please leave a like for this review and if you think I should continue doing professional game reviews, then click on "Award" in the bottom right corner. Thank you!

The game already had many bugs, and other issues but to add insult to injury they add a 'deluxe edition' dlc that's just a graphical upgrade with no real content and expect people to pay for it.Talk about trying to milk a project for all it's worth. Look I'm not stupid, I know dev's need to make money, and i'm fine with DLC that provides some content but this should have been free and they should have fixed there game rather than abandon it for several years and then come back and try to make a few quick bucks. Def will be cautious buying anything from this company again.