Into the Void

I was compelled to review this game due to all the harsh criticism. That being said the game definitely has issues but all in all it is definitely a fun sci-fi battles/4x game. Not that cheap makes it better, but it is $2, and well worth that price. The Good The game has great background music, reminds me of the haunting sci-fi music from Ascendancy. The graphics are very good to great, in my opinion. The three levels of view from universe, to system to planetary/ships are very nice. The planetary views are my favorite-- they all look really well done and alive! The stars make you feel like you are there and your ships will burn up if they stay in orbit too long. The story driven campaigns and quests are good. Not great but not bad, just good. I am glad they are there as opposed to other 4x that are bland, no story etc... Granted the stories are quirky, but they add liveliness. Its obvious the devs/writers had some fun. You even get choices in some cases though the results are not very different. The battles and effects are enjoyable, though some complaints to follow. Please be aware that Newtonian physics are not adhered to exactly in all effects, c'mon really! I don't understand how people can complain about the explosions not being realistic etc- they are pretty cool. Finally, its fun to build your ships with the latest equipment and nail biting when they are engaged in a battle. Sometimes its easy though other times its so close and you lose ships. The Bad Every group in this game, I think they are all human, has the same type of ship designs. Different ships with different equipment capabilities would have been nice. Battles- not sure if the design was not finished but attacking specific systems seems to have no effect. I destroy an enemy ship's weapons and its still attacking at full force. Though it seems as more systems are destroyed that the ship's life is quickly shortened; would have been nice to see obvious effects of a damaged/destroyed ship system. Ship design - some equipment seems to effect your whole fleet such as fuel tanks, when applied to one ship. While other equipment applied to one ship only effects that one ship. No battle fast forward. No diplomacy, alliances etc. it seems everyone attacks me when I get to close to their planet's orbit. 27 hours in no one seems to care about the planets I own... maybe later. The Ugly Definitely some bugs, nothing I couldn't get around though. One bug forced me to delete my Steam cloud saves. I was caught in an endless loop of never ending attacks when I attacked a planet. Waves of enemy attacks kept coming for ever and ever unto I realized it was a bug. Mouse bug - further into the game the mouse becomes lost in some inter-dimensional time warp. It becomes uncontrollable, especially when designing ships. I have to hit the Windows button on the keyboard to escape to the desktop and then get back in the game to have it act normal again. All in all the game is fun for $2. I keep coming back to design ships that can win battles and complete campaigns/quests. The battles are pretty repetitive except for the fact that you are not sure what level of ships you are facing and whether they will survive... and that's what brings me back. I would score it 6.5