{"id":11608,"date":"2014-11-05T12:54:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T17:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/?p=11608"},"modified":"2014-11-10T11:45:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T16:45:03","slug":"ancient-space-review-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/ancient-space-review-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Space Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ancient<\/a><\/p>\n

Ancient Space<\/a> is a real-time space strategy game, in the same vein as the Homeworld series of games that are focused primarily on its single player campaign. This is CreativeForge Games’ first game ever, with a second project successfully funded through Kickstarter<\/a>. From what the trailers and store pages tell us about the game, this certainly looked like an ambitious project, featuring voice actors from Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek Enterprise and Firefly. So, did Ancient Space live up to its own ambitions?<\/p>\n

Well, that’s what I am here to tell you about.\u00a0Ancient Space has a heavy focus on story and exploration, so I’ll try to avoid mentioning the plot where I can, that way you can keep the surprise.<\/p>\n

Astronomical requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n

From just the screenshots and videos, we all know that Ancient Space is obviously a good looking game, but such looks come at a fairly steep cost. The minimum requirements for this game are quite high, requiring a minimum of 4 GB of RAM. For those of us here who are used to playing simple looking and low hardware requirements games, such as 4X games, some requiring only 1 GB of RAM or even 256 MB of RAM – this might be outside your hardware power range. Graphics card and CPU requirements are similarly higher too, this is certainly not a game that you can expect to run well on most machines.<\/p>\n

Now, before you say, “I’ll just go into the options and turn down the settings!” I have to show you something.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient<\/a><\/p>\n

There aren’t many options to turn down. When you launch Ancient Space, you get a small launcher that lets you adjust the graphics settings, but again, there isn’t much variety in settings. Graphics quality is…just graphics quality. You can’t turn down shadows separately from textures, or anti-aliasing for that matter. It’s only the graphic settings that are like this, the audio settings let you control the volume of things like combat, environment and music independently of one another. I tried to turn the game down to low so I could get a better frame rate, but even then I still barely managed to get twenty frames a second. With such high requirements, that I couldn’t even play the game on the lowest settings, it looked like Ancient Space was going to get a very short review.<\/p>\n

A New Hope<\/strong><\/p>\n

With no other choice, I went round to my brother’s house and borrowed his computer to try and play the game. Where my machine failed, his succeeded – the game was running smoothly on the highest settings. But then I noticed something a little odd in the rendered background of the main menu. There wasn’t any anti-aliasing, even on the highest settings. For a game with requirements so high and one that prides itself on looking beautiful, I found that rather strange. With the ability to play the game, I was able to start my review proper.<\/p>\n

The game features a skirmish system, but it doesn’t feature a random map generator or anything like that. No, instead you’ve got three preset missions to choose from, and that’s it for the skirmish settings. There is no multiplayer either, showing just how focused the game is on the single-player campaign. The difficulty settings range from normal to super-hard and there is no easy setting, but there is a hardcore mode, which stops you from going back on any of your choices, like the Ironman modes found in both X-Com: Enemy Unknown and Europa Universalis 4.<\/p>\n

As one would expect in this kind of game, the camera can be moved in any direction and units can move up and down in full 3D when maneuvering, there is certainly no “pizzabox” universe in Ancient Space. When on a mission, the game map is divided into a number of sectors, the only way between which is through wormholes; you can’t travel from one sector to another if there’s no wormhole in the way. This naturally creates a bottleneck, but in my opinion this is actually a good thing since it adds an extra layer of defensive thinking to the game, even if such strategies will never be used against a human opponent. Each sector is divided into a number of smaller groups that contain capture points, which we’ll get to later.<\/p>\n

The Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

The story is told through pre-rendered cinematics and through the campaign, though there is plenty of lore in the officer selection screen for the player to read. I can’t go into much detail about the story, I don’t want to spoil the game for anyone who is capable of running the game and plans on buying it, especially since the campaign is the entire purpose of the game, but it’s definitely interesting!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The story is really where this game truly comes alive – without the developers having to work on things such as networking code or map designing for single player skirmishes, all their attention could be poured into the plot, and it shows. The story and the dialogue of the characters is well written and thought out, but is given to the player carefully so they don’t get lost in the setting, though there is plenty of information for a curious player to find in the background of most cinematics. Again, I will not go into much detail, but the developers certainly believed the game could stand up on the virtues of its single player campaign alone, and I definitely agree with them.<\/p>\n

Combat – and the game in general – is very, very pretty<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Ancient<\/a><\/p>\n

Units move smoothly from one place to another, turrets move around on the larger ships and the music and audio have had a lot of care put into them, with the music sounding reminiscent of Battlestar Galactica, and the featured voice actors really put their talents to good use. But I realized as I watched my tiny little bombers take on a large ship that battle chatter is completely nonexistent ingame. Your pilots carry out your orders in complete silence, not saying a word as you order them about, or when they’re moving in to attack. Instead, you simply get a voice over about units lost and the like, which I find rather sad. One of the many good things about Homeworld was hearing your pilots speak, not just when ordered but on their own. Something as simple as “Friendlies under fire, moving in.” did wonders for the universe, since in my opinion it made it feel more vibrant and alive. You weren’t ordering around automated ships, they had pilots who could talk, and even though they had admittedly little variety in dialogue, it still made things feel more real. And, in a game as story focused as this, making the universe feel real and alive is incredibly important.<\/p>\n

When it comes to ship battles, things happen quickly, giving the player little time to make use of the active abilities on their ships and little time to bask in the beauty of the graphics engine at work. I actually had trouble taking the second screenshot since the battles ended so quickly I barely had time to get my camera in view of the action and by the time I took the screenshot the battle was almost over! Units have a number of active abilities and different formations that in turn affect the unit’s offensive and defensive values, so an offensive formation could, for example, increase all attack values by 25% but reduce defense to pay for it.\u00a0It’s very easy to tell what a ship is strong against, the game shows you this information whenever you select the unit in the bottom right.<\/p>\n

Combat feels to be well balanced, and the roles of units is made extremely obvious by the strength pips that tell you the unit’s speed, armor and attack power against the different ship types. Unfortunately, the population cap is quite low, so we only have a few ships to use and that’s made worse by the fact that larger ships can take more slots than their smaller counterparts. And a neat little after thought – whenever a ship explodes, it leaves a pile of purely cosmetic wreckage for the player to gawp at.<\/p>\n

\"These<\/a><\/p>\n

Economics and Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to economics, the player has two main resources, three if they count the population cap. The first resource, and the one that will be used the most, is energy. Unlike other RTS games where energy is generated by the player building reactors and the like, in Ancient Space the player gathers<\/em>\u00a0energy by setting up energy stations on top of capture points on the map – which reminds me of the way Relic Entertainment handled the excellent Dawn of War franchise of games.<\/p>\n

Energy is used for pretty much everything, but you also have your second resource: Tritium, which is really just the standard fare and is gathered in the same manner as energy – by building tritium extraction stations on top of tritium clouds on the map. which makes more sense than being forced to build energy collectors on top of energy…deposits? I don’t know either. Energy is used for your normal units, tritium for the specialized ones, and you capture the points on the map by securing them with a small engineering ship called a Rover, which builds a little station there. Once that’s been done, you can then build things on to the station, such a a turret for example. Other than this…there is no base building.<\/p>\n

Technology is as simple as going from tech levels one through four by pushing a button on the Ulysses carrier\u00a0and clicking some units to upgrade them to higher versions – the rest you earn through the campaign…which I can’t tell you about.<\/p>\n

Tactical map –\u00a0Why isn’t this in more games?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the features that I liked the most as I was playing the game was the tactical map, a feature that should seem familiar to the anyone who played the Homeworld franchise of games. By hitting the tab key, you can bring up a special sector wide overlay that makes it possible to get your bearings on the battlefield in sections, and honestly, this feature should be in far more games than it has appeared in.<\/p>\n

\"Tactical<\/a><\/p>\n

The tactical map shows the position of all objectives, your units, the position of all known enemy units and anything else of interest for the player, and it makes navigating the maps and keeping track of the situation a breeze. Seriously, this is a feature that should appear in a lot more games than it does, and I can’t but wonder why it doesn’t appear more often. After the player completes a mission, they are taken to the mission control screen where they can outfit their fleet with upgrades that affect the unit’s base stats, as well as being able to pick new officers. The officers, you see their portraits in the bottom left on most of the screenshots, have special abilities that you can use to turn the tide of battle across the entire sector, and have big profiles of lore for the player to read if they are interested. You also have the ability to outfit the player carrier, the Ulysses II, with different modules that affect its stats in the same manner that you can put upgrades on your regular vessels.<\/p>\n

With all that in mind…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ancient Space<\/a> is certainly a good game and CreativeForge definitely deserve some applause for doing so well on their maiden release, but, and this is a big but<\/em>,\u00a0most of the gamers for this genre simply won’t have the computer power to run the game well enough for it to be played and enjoyed. And that’s a real shame as they’ve done a marvellous job creating a fun experience and a good, solid atmosphere. But, with hardware requirements so demanding, few will actually be able to see the universe the developers have made as it was intended to be seen, and the lack of multiplayer or any substantial skirmish functions whatsoever seriously hinder replayability.<\/p>\n

In a game where exploration and mystery are the most important things, what is there to see after you complete the game once? But even if you only ever playthrough the game once, it’s certainly going to be a memorable experience.<\/p>\n

The best way I can describe Ancient Space is more like a graphic novel, or cinematic game. The entire experience is in the plot and in the story, and everything else is just a vehicle to get that story to the player.<\/p>\n

And in the end, there’s nothing really wrong with that. This is one of those games that, while few can actually play it, those who can will definitely find it fun to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\"Ancient<\/a><\/td>\n\n

A<\/a>ncient Space<\/a>\u00a0(PC, Mac)<\/h3>\n

Available at:\u00a0GamersGate<\/a>,\u00a0GMG<\/a>,\u00a0Steam<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon<\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n

\n
Space Sector score:<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
7.8\/10<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
good<\/div>\n
(about the score system)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
The Good:<\/strong><\/p>\n
    \n
  • The game is a visual masterpiece and even on the lower graphic settings the attention to detail is astonishing. Watching turrets rotate before firing and seeing missiles leave their launch tubes is certainly a great sight to see.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The music is high quality, with thirty three different tracks in the game files and three variants.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Unit sound effects, such as weapons fire and ambience are also great. Some of them are quite like Battlestar Galactica, so if you like Bear McCreary’s work, then you’ll certainly enjoy Ancient Space’s soundtrack.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The story – the true heart of Ancient Space and not the gameplay – is excellent. I can’t say more without giving away details like a drunken Game of Thrones fan. But I’d certainly say it’s good enough to make the game worth buying, even without multiplayer or proper skirmish gameplay.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The game is genuinely enjoyable, while most of the effort went into the story and the universe behind it, enough time and man hours were spent to make the actual gameplay, the combat and the economics, fun to play, even if they have a few flaws.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Bad:<\/strong><\/p>\n
    \n
  • The game’s graphics are a doubled edged sword, one that’s being held by the blade. They set the requirements so high that most people simply won’t be able to run the game well enough for to have an enjoyable experience. That outright cripples this game, in my opinion.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The low unit limit puts a harsh cap on the maximum size of battles. Of course, the small battles you will be having will look great, and having a huge battle could probably set a supercomputer on fire, but it can render certain unit types impractical to use, simply because you need other ships more.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Since the game lacks multiplayer or proper human vs AI skirmishes outside of the campaign, it is missing a lot of replayability.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Chris Salt, otherwise known as CaekDaemon on Space Sector and on numerous other forums, has grown up around strategy games and has a seasonal taste in games, with genres coming and going like the weather, but a constant remains, his love of strategy games in all forms. He loves writing in all forms, reviews, books and the occasional forum game or AAR, and would love to write more reviews and previews and more for Space Sector.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ancient Space is a real-time space strategy game, in the same vein as the Homeworld series games that are focused on its single player campaign. This is CreativeForge’s first game ever. Here’s our review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56],"tags":[670,914,1432,278,188,117,231,172,519,120,30],"class_list":["post-11608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-3d","tag-campaign","tag-creative-forge-games","tag-mac","tag-paradox-interactive","tag-pc-game","tag-real-time-strategy","tag-rts","tag-sci-fi-strategy-game","tag-single-player","tag-space-strategy-game"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}