14 DAY TRIAL // A defensive fleet sits by idly as pirates harass a planet. Some tactics tweaks are required. Maybe I need to design new fleets? Or is it a better idea to pay some protection money and focus on economic development? Meanwhile, let’s add some stations to speed up research.
Distant Worlds 2 is being put together by Code Force and published by Slitherine. It’s set to launch on the PC on March 10 of this year. This is a very deep, space-based, real-time with pause strategy title that challenges players to guide their chosen race through a perilous galaxy.
Players can choose research, develop planets, design ships, assemble fleets, conduct diplomacy and espionage, tweak empire-wide variables, and more. Gamers who love the genre can deal with all the minutiae themselves to optimize how their race deals with the dangers of the universe.
But Distant Worlds, since the first game, was known for offering automation tools. Get the computer to deal with fleet engagements while you focus on colonization and research. Only play the diplomatic game while advisors engage with everything else and offer suggestions.
The concept seems to work, although a ton of playtime is needed to see how viable such an approach is. Even with automation, the game is filled with tons of information and plenty of decisions.
Distant Worlds 2 is the kind of game where you never want to zoom in too much. Not because the ships or planets look bad but because it’s hard to lose the big picture view of one’s corner of the galaxy. The development team has done a good job of presenting information, but it does take time to adapt to the torrent of details. The soundtrack is pretty good for a space strategy game, but it does become repetitive while the rest of the sound design is underwhelming.
Conclusion
The biggest potential issue with such a massive game is the time and energy it takes to get comfortable with the gameplay. Even when I automated elements of the experience, I had to first get a general idea of how it interacted with the rest. Distant Worlds 2 does a lot to make a complex game accessible and I really want to try out all the races and different strategies when it launches.
Preview code provided by the publisher.
