Hyper Empire

This is not a 4X game. It isn't even a 1X game. Explore - There are no planets. You don't control any ships. There are "sectors" that are completely meaningless. Exploit - You get no planets or stars. You just spend money to increase a number on the screen that feels like you are playing an Idle Clicker game... Except an Idle Clicker game is more fun. Expand - Again, since you aren't going anywhere you aren't expanding anything. A number just goes up. No diplomacy, either. Exterminate - You kind of do battle with some random force that just appears to make sure you have to balance buying ships... But the ships you buy, you just have a number - no customization at all. Tech tree is just a complete joke - There are many that just give you a 1 time resource bonus - that's not any fun. The faith part is basically the same as tech except you spend a different resource - but similar choices and doesn't feel distinctly different. The trade lanes... The worst thing I've ever seen in a game. It is basically rolling a die where you have no control over anything - you don't even know the real % chance. You just get 2 choices, often where you can only take 2 different risky things. A random event will appear and you may gain something or lose something - no rhyme or reason. You can play 50 turns max and its game over... Kinda dumb? This is by far the worst "4X" claiming game I've ever played. And I bought Master of Orion 3... I have no idea what game the other reviewers are playing, but it can't be this one... I have 1800+ games in my library and have never asked for a refund for a game on Steam... until now.

Enjoying this game quite a bit. It plays remarkably fast, and there's plenty of variation to how it unfolds. Have tried three factions so far, and earned wins with two of them on normal difficulty. Normal feels alright so far - more losses than wins, and the enemy can surprise you a bit. The factions do feel different from one another, as do the ships. 4X without the grind. Some non-exhaustive positives and negatives: Positives: - Easy to sit down and finish a game in under an hour. - Far more variation in builds and approaches than it first appears. - Extremely quick battles with some non-obvious features to them. - Significant differences among the ships and how they work. - Good resource complexity for a short game. Negatives: - I mentioned 'non-obvious features' and 'significant differences among ships' above. This cuts both ways - things happen, and it can take a bit of trial and error, plus careful reading of what you might mistake for flavor text (e.g., description of the ships) to understand why. This is a very mild negative, really just the flipside of the game's surprising complexity for something that plays so fast. - So far, I've only been able to go for endurance wins - don't seem to have enough time to do the others. I might figure that out soon enough, but it would be nice to be able to play for the other victory conditions from the start.

Fun mix of 4x resource management and auto battler. The UI clarity does need some upgrades in places, but the game loop itself is very fun. I'm hoping this one ends up popular enough to get additional content because I'd really like to see what else will be added.

**Updated review Below** You know what. I'm gonna give this game a big thumbs up! I played the demo of this during NextFest, albeit somewhat under a drunken stupor whilst bored and didn't think much of it at all. But recently, I came across ReformistTM's 1 hour video on YouTube and was like, "Wow! What's this game!?" After about 15 minutes, it suddenly clicked. I've actually played this game! Upon watching the entire video and giving the demo a 2nd try, I finally purchased the game, and so far, am really happy I did! I may not have played other Fair Weather games. But from what I can gather, these guys are truly passionate about making Space Strategy games. The reviews of their previous games might be 'Mixed', but there's one thing I realise... It hasn't stopped them from trying to create a game that finally clicks. I do believe Hyper Empire is that game! From the moment I started the game, I decided to read the lore of the factions and universe the Dev has created. All whilst listening to a pleasing title music track that got this game off on the right foot. The developer here has decided to go back to basics. Nothing flashy, no attempt at style over substance. Just a bite size game with impactful spending decisions that make the numbers go up and make the autobattler visuals look like explosive chaos! It hits well and gives that dopamine satisfaction like a good game should. The 50 turn survival timer might not be for everyone, and this is how you will win most of your games. But there are 5 other victory conditions, which with more play time and play efficiency, can be mastered and achieved. This also contributes to some of the unlocks. Calling it 4X though is a bit of a stretch. As a fan myself, the eXplore is minimal, but the eXpansion, eXploit and eXterminate definitely is there, if in a mostly abstract way. I wouldn't call this a bad thing though. If you have a busy life and you've only got an hour or 2, this game is perfect. It has that "One more turn" feel to it, and I do believe that Fair Weather have achieved what they set out to do here. If you're on the fence. Download the Demo whilst it's still available. Watch ReformistTM's video here: https://youtu.be/2nFanS10TQM ....and then make a decision that way. By then you'll know if this game is for you or not. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **EDIT After 6 hours** OK, I don't just like this game. I love it!!! After 5 hours playtime, I had gained a victory or 2 with all the factions on Normal difficulty. The pirates required a slight play-style change and are probably the most difficult faction to play as, but slight faction adaptation is necessary to win at this level. So my next step was to move to a higher difficulty.... And Holy Balls what a game changer! Hard difficulty and above is where this game truly shines! Not only are you competing with more combat, a stronger enemy, bigger fleets and higher techs to compete against. But the decisions you have to make are tighter and more strategic. Choices are less impactful, and you have to actually consider options rather than spamming what you can spend resources on. Do you replenish enough to survive the next attack? Do you buy a station to get that edge the next turn? Do you take that risk on a trade route, wagering higher, or do you go low risk for a certain yet lower reward? Because that previous unstoppable hoarde of a fleet on turn 48 which could win you the game on normal difficulty isn't going to cut it. Victory isn't certain in any capacity, and that analysis Paralysis you thought was useful half way through the playthrough, actually just cost you the game! This just scratched a huge itch I was beginning to think was lacking in Hyper Empire, and I'm so here for it!

I find this a short but intense management game. There are six victory conditions with greatly different planning requirements. Endurance is 'just' surviving for 50 turns and you are free to do anything to get there. A military victory requires you to fight the first Sector Battle early enough to unlock the others in time to fight, but also requires enough fleet development to win that first Battle. A Science Victory, which I finally got on Hard this afternoon, seems to require the most planning. You have to earn enough early tech stages to then win through Heroes giving you free Techs, because you cannot catch up later, unlike with Hymns and the Ascension victory. However, there is also a big random factor. Trade routes can potentially deliver game-changing amounts of resources. But they usually fail, even sometimes on the Low Risk routes, and there is nothing you can do to make them safer. It's frustrating to have this element present and potentially so helpful, but without any influence on it. (Although the recent patch's notes said they are working on trade routes.) I also find the battles rather frustrating, because you have so little control over those either. I move my ships around into what I think is the best combination of attack and safety, then let them go to fight. I don't have any part of the rest of the battle, except when I try and use the carrier's special abilities. I can't even steer the carrier or influence its targets. Also, a standard carrier ability is tractor beams. On the one hand, they can't dodge enemy fire and can be quickly destroyed. On the other hand, since you can't aim, you might snag a capital ship and drag it right to your carrier to fire on it and potentially lose you the game. This game could possibly get repetitious, despite all the variations in the factions and the win conditions and the random trade element, because the core of it is working out how to build your fleet up and so keep your carrier alive in all the battles, which already gets pretty intense at Hard level. The devs are very active on the forums and have been putting out patches every week so far. When I started the game I had 5 lines of secret achievements to unlock. One I should have started after my first game, but that remained locked by a soon fixed bug. The other 4 I haven't even unlocked a clue to yet, assuming that is a thing. This is a game played in short sessions but has a lot of re-play depth built into it.

This game is atrocious; I thought it was supposed to be streamlined, so how come I don't know how to do anything despite reading all the tutorials and lore? I wish I could build ships but I don't have any fuel, too bad the game doesn't tell you how to get fuel and when I mouse over every single thing on the right side of the bridge there doesn't appear to be any way to get fuel. Everything is hands off and automatic to the point of ridiculousness, I have no idea where the trade routes are or how to protect them, or why they're getting destroyed, or why anything happens. The combat is boring, everything is boring or happens 100% in the background. You're better off just buying Fantasy Map Simulator and pretending it's in space. Absolutely does not capture the fun of 4X, I wouldn't even call this game 4X. I would call it garbage

very cool little game, especially if you need to keep getting up and down, no need to worry about pausing. my only gripes are that the units can be hard to select, due to small hitboxes, hiding behind the mothership, and moving a lot of individual fighters can be a pain (no click and drag). apart from the above points, if i could add/change anything about the game, i would add points to the tech/faith trees to reduce fuel cost of light fighters, which would allow the building of more if you choose to use those trees. i might also consider adding something to the pirate tree, where if the price of hunting is too high, you could spend, 10k or so faith or money to halve the data price or hunting. otherwise, i think i almost have it down, working on very hard mode now :)

Beat my first game in 38 minutes. Not really a 4x game. Heavy 4x theme, but no exploration. Its an autobattler, and each turn you choose what stations and ships to build. You only get one fleet. Its incredibly fun. Also these are super friendly and committed developers. Their past games have been more xcom with spaceships in a linear campaign, so this direction really surprised me. Great little game worth all of its ten dollars. I suggest watching Reformist's Youtube playthrough.

Honestly calling this game a strategy game is generous much less a 4x game. What the heck do I even do? What does 4x mean? Well it's simple. Explore: You don't really explore so much as click a sector and auto reveal. There is no exploration of the map. Expand: I guess if you consider click icon see number go up? There is no placement of anything. Exploit: Exploit what? There is nothing to exploit. You get icons that make numbers go up, there are no actual resources to exploit, just mana. Exterminate: Can you move? All I've seen is just a capitol ship sit there while others attack it.

Ok this game is amazing! 20 minutes in and im hooked, it truly is a great way to get your mind thinking fast. 1. The Lore of all the factions is pretty cool. 2. The ability to decide how your fleet is built is seamless and the choices provided make you feel like you have true space warfare authority. 3. It feels like Starfinder TTRPG's Space Battles with so much extras!!!! 4. It could use a tutorial playthrough but its self explanatory if you take time to read through everything. I definitley reccomend this game to anyone who likes RTS games and or board games. Personally this is going to be the game i play when i take a break from other games to reset my focus. Its challenging and fun