Whether one loves the Civilization series' most recent entry,Sid Meier’s Civilization VIIor doesn’t much care for it, havingmore optionscan only be a good thing. It’s even if those making those new optionsalreadyknow how to make a decent strategy game.
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If you want to build an empire that stands the test of time, these Civilization 7 leaders are the best people for the job.
As it turns out, a new project was just announced that fits these conditions pretty well. It’s called Stellar Reach, and it’s being developed by someone who used to be a developer at Creative Assembly. It’s not only a new sci-fi take on the Civilization 4X formula, but it’s also aiming to do it on a true-to-life scale.
The background of Stellar Reach is that humanity has finally reached the interstellar age and has managed to expand into a resource-rich but very distant region of space. In this region, so far away from Earth and its governments, the normal rules do not apply, meaning that everything is up for grabs. Whether the player’s faction does it through technological superiority, cultural dominance, or sheer force of arms is entirely up to them. All paths are viable in this place so far away from the cradle of humanity.
Choose a faction and use their strengths to dominate the sector.
Stellar Reach will feature eight different factions once it eventually launches, with each lending itself to a different strategy. What those factions are called and how they differ from each other is still unknown for now, but what is known is that they’ll all have to successfully deal with the same pressures and issues if they want to ensure their survival in this very hostile part of the cosmos.
The first of these is building up and maintaining industry, since it’s no longer men that keep the economy going, but machines. A growing empire thus needs agreatnumber of machines to maintain it, but even an absolute army of machines is of little actual value if they’re all of poor quality. If one doesn’t want to find themselves dominated by another faction eventually, they’ll need to find a way to strike a good balance between quantity and quality.
In addition to managing their empire’s machinery, players will also have to contend with their citizenry. While they’ll be able to mold their societies in a number of ways, citizens will nevertheless need to have their needs met, lest they fall into unrest and stagnation. Empires can only last so long once the average citizen starts to seriously dislike their quality of life and the leaders responsible for it.
Keeping the empire’s citizens busy and/or drummed up for war likely won’t work for very long either.
Underpinning both of these aspects of empire in Stellar Reach is the economy itself. Players will not only need to ensure that their faction is financially solvent but also wealthy and strong enough to hold its own against its many competitors. Investing in technology, exploration, the military, and development, both industrial and cultural, are all vitally important, but players will need to take great care to avoid over-investing in one and wind-up under-investing in the others. Down that path surely lies destruction.
Stellar Reach is being developed by an experienced former Creative Assembly developer by the name of James Miller. He’s spent the last ten years getting Stellar Reach ready to show to the 4X fandom. Miller described his game and reaching this point in development like this:
“Stellar Reach entered development over 10 years ago. Since then, the game has grown beyond its original vision and is crafted with more depth and care than I originally expected for it.
And, I’ve grown with it. A decade of hard work, experience, mistakes, and passion has finally brought this game to the point of being my first independent title, something many of us developers wish for.”
Stellar Reach is set to see release in September for PC, and 4X fans cancheck it out now on Steamif they wish. Be sure to check back here for more details as they become available.
Review: Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
Civilization VI takes all of the elements from the Civilization franchise, improves on them and produces one of the most unique games in the series.
