{"id":9135,"date":"2013-05-23T10:17:22","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T14:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/?p=9135"},"modified":"2013-05-23T12:37:23","modified_gmt":"2013-05-23T16:37:23","slug":"distant-worlds-shadows-is-out-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/distant-worlds-shadows-is-out-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Distant Worlds: Shadows is Out Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Distant Worlds: Shadows | Matrix Games - Slitherine - CodeForce\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/distant_worlds_shadows3.jpg\" alt=\"Distant Worlds: Shadows | Matrix Games - Slitherine - CodeForce\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/p>\n<p>CodeForce, Matrix Games and Slitherine have just released <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/distant_worlds_shadows\" target=\"_blank\">Distant Worlds: Shadows<\/a>, the third expansion pack to their real-time space 4X strategy game, Distant Worlds.<\/p>\n<p>The Distant Worlds series has come a long way since its debut on March, 2010. Starting out as a\u00a0<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/distant-worlds-review\/\" target=\"_blank\">mediocre experience<\/a>, it was later <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/distant-worlds-return-of-the-shakturi-review\/\" target=\"_blank\">enhanced with Return of the Shakturi<\/a> (the first expansion pack), and, finally, CodeForce&#8217;s work and willingness to listen to the community, culminated in an <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/distant-worlds-legends-review\/\" target=\"_blank\">excellent experience with Legends<\/a>, the second expansion.<\/p>\n<p>Distant Worlds: Legends is the best space 4X gaming experience currently available. If not, the best of all time. So, I was pretty curious to find out what CodeForce and Matrix Games have been doing for the past 18 months or so, the time since Legends was released.<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/distant_worlds_shadows_raiders_large.jpg\" class=\"thickbox no_icon\" title=\"Distant Worlds: Shadows - Pirate raiders\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Distant Worlds: Shadows - Pirate raiders\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/distant_worlds_shadows_raiders1.jpg\" alt=\"Distant Worlds: Shadows - Pirate raiders\" width=\"590\" height=\"330\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Well, now is the time for the Age of Shadows, an era way before the events of the previous Distant Worlds&#8217; installments. Shadows includes the following new features over Legends:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Pre-hyperspace gameplay:<\/strong> Option to play before the discovery of hyperspace travel;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Play as a pirate faction:<\/strong> Choose between 4 different pirate playstyles available, each with their specific victory conditions;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Boarding and raids:<\/strong> Capture ships and bases with the new boarding mechanic and raid ships\/bases\/planets for loot;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Expanded ground combat:<\/strong> New ground combat tech tree; new ground combat resolution screen; different troop types (infantry, armored units, planetary defenses, special forces); new ship captains;<\/li>\n<li><strong>New techs and facilities<\/strong>: gravitic weapons, tractor beams and additional planetary facilities;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Better performance:<\/strong>\u00a0Updated and improved graphical engine;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Promised improved AI and new difficulty settings;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Modding support kept.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More details on our preview <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/distant-worlds-shadows-preview\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/distant_worlds_shadows_ground_combat_large.jpg\" class=\"thickbox no_icon\" title=\"Distant Worlds: Shadows - Expanded ground combat\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Distant Worlds: Shadows - Expanded ground combat\" src=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/distant_worlds_shadows_ground_combat.jpg\" alt=\"Distant Worlds: Shadows - Expanded ground combat\" width=\"590\" height=\"330\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Concerning DRM issues, Distant Worlds: Shadows&#8217; comes with a key code as only form of DRM as I can see. You use at install time and then re-download the game as many times as you like and need.<\/p>\n<p>Now, will Shadows significantly improve an already deep and exquisite gaming experience? Will it live up to the extremely high expectations of Distant Worlds&#8217; hardcore fans? Will it manage to seduce and bring new people to the 4X genre? Is this third expansion really worth it? Find out in a few days when we publish our review ;)<\/p>\n<p>So, our review isn&#8217;t ready yet, I need a few more days with the release version, but if you decide to go right away and buy this expansion, Distant Worlds: Shadows is available for purchase exclusively at the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/distant_worlds_shadows\" target=\"_blank\">Matrix Games website<\/a>. The Shadows expansion costs you around $19.99\/\u20ac16.99\/\u00a314.99 ($5 off regular price says Matrix). The <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/distant_worlds_full_bundle\" target=\"_blank\">full bundle<\/a>, currently with a 40% discount, costs you around $70\/\u20ac60\/\u00a350 by my math (plus VAT depending on where you&#8217;re from). Note that you need all previous installments (base game and the first two expansions) to play Shadows.<\/p>\n<p>Find the launch video preview by Matrix Games below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BW-SZh3akew?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CodeForce, Matrix Games and Slitherine have just released Distant Worlds: Shadows, the third expansion pack to their real-time space 4X strategy game, Distant Worlds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1668,"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":[74],"tags":[86,184,181,540,327,1146,285,185,117,573,231,229,120,542,30],"class_list":["post-9135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements-and-rumors","tag-4x-game","tag-codeforce","tag-distant-worlds","tag-distant-worlds-legends","tag-distant-worlds-return-of-shakturi","tag-distant-worlds-shadows","tag-expansion-pack","tag-matrix-games","tag-pc-game","tag-real-time-pausable","tag-real-time-strategy","tag-ship-design","tag-single-player","tag-slitherine","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\/9135","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\/1668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}