The Viceroy

I dont really write reviews, but this game is worth it. I like economic games and sci-fi, but this game really is unique, I've never seen a game quite like it. You essentially have system to rule with a randomly generated set of disasters you have to combat to progress. The way rebels are dealth with is really good, it forces you to spread your forces, as 'occupying' space makes people happier and thus less likely to give rebels funding, but if you dont protect areas they get even unhappier because of rebel fleets and send MORE money to them. It's one of the most unique and interesting games i've ever played. It may need some tweeks to make it more difficult, but its great as far as i'm concerned.

Another fine piece of work from this sadly extinct company. Has a very boardgame-like feeling, as buildings/projects/cures are set like "cards" over the "tile" they improve; and with all the advantages of the computer making all the myriad calculations for you. Random territories ensure high replay value, despite the limited set of challenges, as not only them are drawn at random, but also previous beneficial buildings and projects, unrelated to the challenge. That affects the way you must min/max (min/maxing is too a key aspect of After the Empire, which happens in the far future of the civilization used as background for The Viceroy). Add to that a very rich setting, a decadent eons-old great Empire and several factions trying to get the most of the disasters or rebuild a crumbling society. In fact, golden material for a scifi pen-and-paper RPG campaign. And beware, this is no military strategy game... combat is rather simple, although ship designing is not that unconsquential; careful watch of how the Rebellion crafts theirs, and counter them, can make a difference. It has a disappointing aspect, and is the lack of modding capabilities.

So, I'm not someone who shy's away from complicated games. I've put many hours into many economic simulators. This game is not complicated though, nor really complex. It is obtuse. It's not easy to find information on anything, including what your goal is. I guess it's something to do with rebuilding planets? But it's boring. Most of the time it's just pressing next turn waiting for enough money to buy something. When you buy it, what does it do? Who knows! Maybe there is a good game under here, but I would recommend your money goes to games that are actually fun to play. This one is pretty poor.

This seems like a pretty good game. It's not perfect, and yet, it urges me to master it. It's interesting. It doesn't FEEL like a superb game, there's a lot about it that feels quite low-rent, but I still want to carry on playing it. Not many games do that for me these days. It's a game that you think "I really, really, really want to understand what I'm doing" Which is just as well, because for someone of my lowly intellectual functioning, I am basically forced to click things until numbers get bigger (and sometimes lower), and hope for the best. I DO recommend the game, but make sure you know what you're buying - it's not what I expected it to be, but in hindsight, I'm so glad it wasn't.

What the game is not: 4x (lacks expansion and exploration) Colonization Conquest The game is a economy sim build up the economy in the given region and make it as wealthy as possible and reducing missery. Once you have finished administrating a region you hand over its control and to fix a new region. Missery is happiness up to a specific ammount. I like how I can oppress, and make the rich richer to appease my masters. The worst part of the game is its UI. You will often be doing a ton of clicks that could be simplified with a macro interface and spread sheet of all districts. Want to build a new building in all districts 100 right clicks, and a 100 down arrows. While its very pretty and does display the numbers well its very bad at doing mass improvements, and finding specific provinces. The other bad is how easily it is too exploit. Military, economy, and research exploits. Once you understand how these work the game is a lot simplier. The 2 main obsticals in the game is bureaucratic overhead and rebels. Bureaucratic overhead is you playing against yourself reducing tax income, and increasing development cost. Want to make this district less poor that will cost a lot of money and increase overhead. Money you tax that will come out of your peoples hands that they cannot spend on capital. You cannot just build everything everywhere you will easily fail so you have to make desisions on what you do. Rebels are a easy game problem mostly where overhead is a late game.

If you like messing around with economics and trying to keep a decaying group of planets together, this game is good. Alot of management. This game is not 4X.

do i recommend this game to people like me, hell yes! but... there are micromanagement issues and a lot of things are not explained to the point that i can understand what it does unless i figure it out through playing and experimenting, dealing with some bug also gets annoying but i think they will be fixed pretty quickly... that said, i think this is a great gem of a game, rough but definetly worth the price and then some, do check youtube and other places for reviews to understand the limitations of the game before you buy it, i love this game so much already but you may not :)

good

Although I very much like the concept behind this game, the game itself is both overly complicated, and very simplistic. First, the complexity: There are lots and lots of different numbers, and the game is very bad at teaching you what they mean. The tutorial is in the form of a voice over that explains a few things about each screen the first time you open it. Everything else, it expects you to go to the in-game university to learn about. I have never done this, as it appears that it can only be used in-between games, when there are no longer any good cues about what's important to learn about right now. The result is, after playing several games, doing well in a couple and doing terribly in a few, I still have very little idea what's going on at any given time. Nor can I really tell what actions will make things better and what actions will make things worse. As for the game's simplistic nature: at the start of each game, you are granted control over a territory with various problems. The cure to each problem is the same: research a specific technology, and then go to the affected area and build "cure: [problem name]." All there is to the game is "wait for money to come in" "build a building" and occasionally "build or move a fleet to put down some rebels." Over time your money will increase or decrease, your population will grow or shrink, and the rebels will gain or lose influence based on the current conditions. There are some sliders you can adjust which change the rates at which you gain money, or are allowed to build new ships in your fleet, but they also do other things, the consequences of which are obscure until after you've done it. The result is a game where you have very little ability to determine what actions are good or bad at any given juncture, and taking any action feels exactly the same as taking any other action.

A few years ago I recommended this game, but having looked into Goatee Games a bit it seems to me that they've dissolved. As such, no more updates to a game that needed them. The game suffers because the UI needs overhauling - a lot of clicks that, while help to make sure you don't screw yourself by building too many buildings in one go, adds up over time and can cause repetitive strain. The graphics are decent, and don't eat up a whole lot of resources on your PC like some games would. There is a story to the game, too, but it's more contextual for the game's setting than Final Fantasy caliber. Think Civilization: Beyond Earth level, but better implemented. There is one song, and while it adds to the flavour of the game a bit, it's still repetitive after a while. If you're playing, turn music off and listen to something of your own. I recommend the Stellaris soundtrack or anything Jake Chudnow makes. Overall, I can't recommend this game. At £15, it's a little expensive, and the developers haven't updated it in a long time. If you're looking for a starter economics sim, [i]maybe[/i] I can recommend it. I do like this game, I really do. But I can't honestly recommend it.