Star General

I still have the original CD somewhere. This was a quirky game back in the day. Everyone was burned out by all the "....General" series games back in the day, like Panzer General series, People's General, Fantasy General, Civil War Generals, Pacific General, Yo Mammy's General...etc. I recall when this game out, it was up against a lot of bigger, more popular strategy games that went on to become huge legendary-class games, and overall in comparison in the strategy game field, "Star Generals" I recall hearing/reading, was regarded as "behind the times". It came out in 1996/1997-ish and major, major classics came out in those years (look it up). And yes, even then, Star General DID feel old, slightly rushed, but it had a great charm about it. It felt like a "light"-version of Empire of the Fading Suns and was stable and worked well. It felt like the devs gave up trying to make something prestigious and "cerebral" and just wanted to make something fun all could enjoy. And it worked. It has a forgiving great feel, effects, was always super-stable, with nifty cut-scenes, sound fx punctuating both the action and UI brilliantly, and...the soundtrack. THAT SOUNDTRACK. Epic synth/techno music with...SAXOPHONE?! WAT U SAY?! How much more skeezy 90s avante-garde can one get? The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission. It's just incredibly original (I've never heard anything like it ever since) and bold, and is just utterly absolutely dope AFH sounding. It was and still is totally fun, easy to get into, and chill, and jump into epic, massive space and dynamic ground battles. It was like: "OK, I got these other games, but I have to think too much and I just want to jump in to something fun and to the point, and have some fun." (we called that "beer and pretzel games" back in the day) and this was great every time. Working late? Coming home at 1am or 2am in the morning? Feeling the itch to play something but want no drama and just want to dive in and get immersed? Feeling like it's 1989 again and need that sax laid on heavy? Answer: STAR GENERAL. The game has a rough old interface but it's not hard to learn. You can play custom scenarios OR just make your own which elevates it to a 4X game mode most "XXXXX General" series games didn't have. So this game is more of a hybrid. The focus is on combat, strategic uses of your ships and resources, being a bit "realistic" in assessing your empire's ever-changing situation. The diplomacy is there, extremely basic and almost not there but it's something. You have to truly understand and assess your capabilities, those of your ships, and that of the enemy and their assets. Or you are borked. For example, in one playthough (still ongoing), I encountered a race (lol forgot their name) and my battlecruisers can plow through their ships but their battleships are best in the galaxy and slaughter even my battleships. So I have to up the tech level on my battleships and even then, they are tougher. What comes into play though is the dynamic of "laser" and "missiles". This is extremely important because the game realistically assesses lasers will "insta-hit" and missiles have greater range and bigger bang,but require travel time. Thus, if you send a ship with powerful lasers against a ship specializing in missiles, it factors in the range, and how the enemy ship's chances for firing his payload off before it gets lazor'd. (Ever see The Expanse? Watch the scene where Earth uses orbital railguns to try and take out Martian stealth missile silo stations and how it came down to timing and calculation, and how one was able to get fire a salvo at Earth before the railguns took it out. This is very much the concept in many Star General space battles - just minus graphics depicting it, instead you get "sounds".). Ships with powerful lasers can destroy a ship with missile-focus before it can fire, unless the ship has shields to withstand to fire it's salvo. In some cases, missile ships do more damage. It's all a bit rock-paper-scissor-y. Capabilities, logistics, all play a major role in the intergalactic slaughterfest that is Star General. Are you a Star General or Star Noob? You have to really play this game smart, it's simple looks can be deceptive. Or just try and zerg everything heheheh. There is more a learning curve with the 4X-style mode IMO. Like if you start with multiple worlds, you have to go to each of them and to each spot where buildings can be built (don't worry, selection is small) and build them (it's instant so really, it's "placing them" but takes up money). This can be tedious. And frustrating if you forgot to also build orbital stations that can build ships. You can't really undo any of this so you're stuck, at best, you can build more if the slots are available. If the enemy invades where you are exposed, well, it's going to be tough war. But when you master the simple things like this for setup, it's basically "brewski and pretzels"-time and war of attrition maybe. It's war. It takes longer than a couple of days. Prep for the long haul. Most wars in this game are battles of attrition. What do you do to gain an edge? How to you gain the advantage? Can you outsmart the enemy? Buy the game. Play it. Let's see. Special kudos to the devs putting this old vastly underrated gem out there. Everything works and runs great, no technical issues and great to revisit, with the nostalgia and all, some good ol' gameplay.

[u]IMPORTANT[/u]: Read the following sentence out loud right now: [b]"I will read the manual while playing this game for the first time."[/b] This game is really fun if you have the time for turn based strategy. Played a ton years ago. The game is split between space combat and ground combat. It borrows heavily from the book series "The Fleet" by David Drake. All units have a bit of rock paper scissors to them. Read this out loud, again: [b]"I will read the manual while playing this game for the first time."[/b] There is no real tutorial but there is a simple mission for Fleet which is easy and gives you the basics of the game. You can find the manual located on the store page here on steam or by Googling it. Music and sound are great, art is okay. The GUI is extremely dated but functional. For ~$4.00 USD, this game is easily worth a weekend of fun. The game has a scenario builder and diplomacy for big games and has a story/lore missions so it is very replayable. Have not tested multiplayer. If you are undecided on this game... read the manual first. [b]TL;DR: RTFM[/b]

This game is every bit as awesome as I remember it from back when I was a kid. Still as unforgiving too. It's one of those games you actually gotta read the manual to figure out (the best!). Definite appeal for Grognards, fans of old SPI games and for those with the general appreciation of strategy games of the era. Plus...that space sax music...

I highly recommend this game. Star General is the most unique and well developed of the 5 Star series. The races have enough variation that they each offer unique gameplay options. there is less unit variety in ground combat, but there is still more than enough to provide plenty of options, including deploying nuclear weapons.

Absoluter Klassiker, habe ich damals hart gesuchtet :)

EINES MEINER LIEBLINGSSPIELE, OF ALL TIME.

This game is not for everyone. When I picked it up back in the 90s I was expecting starcraft in a different skin and as a kid was definitely disappointed. Revisiting it 25 years later I can actually appreciate it's slower pace, methodical turn based action. Since picking it up I've sunk over 60 hours into the game. There are 24 scenarios (no story but that's okay) Small battle scenarios can be over in an hour. Large battles can last 8+ hours depending on how methodically you play. Each race plays mostly the same but some have exclusive units. If you do decide to pick this up I'd recommend reading through the manual first before starting it up.

A fun old school turn-based strategy game of the General series by SSI.

7/10 venerable but still highly playable DOS era hex based strategy game, with a clunky interface, lack of dynamic controls and very limited in game tutorials or tool tips. There is still quite a bit of fun to be had here even beyond the nostalgia value, but you will certainly need to read the manual and have a bit of patience.

Я очень надеюсь на своем веку увижу ремейк этой великолепной планетарно-космической пошаговой стратегии.