There’s a short tutorial that will show the very basics of the core game elements. The game’s music seems to vary from a somewhat bombastic and operatic style to more melancholic sci-fi themes. Music is catchy but nothing that would win awards. Combat graphics get the job done and can sometimes look nice to see in action when a large number of fleets engage each other. The ship sets are good looking but will rarely stand out on their own. These icons are clear and crisp, but there is very little reason for the player to zoom in and when un-paused very little time to do so as well. There are a few ship sets in the game, but the ships don’t really look that different between their respective sizes within the same set, and these are much harder to appreciate as you’ll only be able to tell them apart on the closest zooms. However, the game is usually played at the “icon” level.
Graphically, the game has nice planet and star models at closer zooms. This will be discussed later in this review.
Despite these mechanical differences, they do very little to help with the immersion of the game. With the other you don’t actually settle planets, instead using a mother ship to store the majority of the population and building habitats to exploit worlds directly from orbit. One of the two more unique options will have you build your population and teleport them to their destination, not needing food or water to develop (a purely mechanically Lifeform). This is sort of nice as too often in games like these races play exactly the same, so these mechanics do help mix things up a bit. There is even one that changes how the player designs their ships. There is the default version with several variations that changes some aspects of how you play the game (by giving you an extra mechanic to manage that in turn confers bonuses when managed well), and two that significantly change your play-style. These tend to be a fixed category that influences how each race plays. There are only two categories that significantly impact the game: your selection of FTL and your choice of the type of “Life” you are. You can choose your government but this only plays a role in your starting bonuses. Races can be customised but it’s more of an all or nothing change. The game also has no limits, though a pop-up will appear to warn you that you’re probably exceeding modern computing technology to run the game. Each galaxy can have their number of stars individually selected. Want three separate cluster groups and two spirals? You can have it. You can have more than one galaxy, and there’s several shapes you can choose for each. When setting up a new game the player can choose the race to play, the number of opponents and their races with their difficulty set individually, and set up the galaxies. The player can also enable the Remnant super ship “alternative victory” condition. The game also supports intensive modding. It also offers a sandbox mode, where the player can test designs or pre-make ship designs without needing to fully experiment inside of the game so as to not bog down the gameplay.
As mentioned, it offers both a single-player and multiplayer mode. The game gives the player a good amount of choice. Someone’s enjoyment of Star Ruler 2 will come down to how important immersive elements are versus solid gameplay mechanics. This is due to the lack of immersion and atmosphere, and while solid mechanics can take a game far, it is not a substitute either. Though many of these issues can be considered nit-picks, they add up to a point it does impact the overall enjoyment of the game.
However, these ideal things come with a price, as some of these perks may be the problem itself for some players.
Star ruler 2 custom race free#
Even the ship customizer lets the player define the ships’ shape and the position of its modules completely free of restraint. Build planetary thrusters and take a planet for a spin. You can set up dry docks to build super-sized ships that would normally be beyond your reach, or setting up orbital shipyards that can have a dozen worlds supporting it so that it can build these same titans in a timely manner. Want to build artificial planets, build Ring Worlds, blow up planets, or blow up stars? You can. This game lets players do things they can only dream off in other 4X games. The game offers a fully customisable ship designer and is pause-able, with the ability to issue orders while paused and the means to control the speed of the game. The game is a 4X/RTS hybrid that tries to reinvent many of the traditional concepts of the 4X genre by having a unique diplomacy system and a different approach to planetary management and expansion. Star Ruler 2 was released on Maby Blind Mind Studios.