Intelligent Game Reviews

The original Reach for the Stars is a game that a lot of people haven’t heard of. But back in the days of the Apple II computer it was one of the pioneers in the 4X strategy genre (exploration, expansion, exploitation, extermination) that later saw such classics as Civilization and Master of Orion. Developer Strategic Studies Group warped back to the future and recently released an updated remake of the computer gaming classic.

Basics of Play

Reach for the Stars is a turn based strategy game. In it you control one of a goodly number of different races in an attempt to control the universe as it were. The game requires you to explore the universe around you and find suitable planets for colonization, establish and build up colonies, develop technologies, build defenses and starships and fight off the other races attempting to do the same.

You can play a predefined campaign, standalone scenarios or create a random scenario. The campaign and standalone scenarios are very hard, even on the easy difficulty setting. That’s because they demand you play a certain way. There are no alternate strategies possible other than as rapid expansion to new planets as possible while constructing fleets to defend yourself. There is really no way to play a defensive game while building a technology edge, or play a diplomatic game trying to balance opposing forces while you grow. Instead the game forces you to grow, grow, grow and kill, kill, kill all the way along the line.

The game is played on a star map, no surprise. But oddly the map isn’t labeled well and the universe in Reach for the Stars exists on the surface of a sphere. Imagine a map with no edges or corners. Go far enough west and you are in the east. Go far enough north and you are in the south. Even stranger, the same star can appear on the map in more than one location! I can’t tell you how hard this made keeping track of where my colonies were in relation to the enemy and how to navigate from place to place or even stage my fleets “forward” for best defense of the realm. Ugh.

The game interface is one of the worst parts of the game. There are some good ideas in it, but the implementation doesn’t cut it. Essentially there is a control panel that has “wings” that pop out depending on what panel you are on: technology, fleet selection, etc. But the wings and panels are too large and cover far too much of the star map. Even worse, it’s nearly impossible to get a good look at what is happening in your empire at a glance.

Even more questionable is the way development of your colonies is handled. In general construction is handled on an empire wide basis (both for constructing starships and planetary improvements.) This is confusing because you can’t easily control what gets built first or where it is constructed. I’ll be blunt, I hated this design decision. I wanted to be able to easily see what each planet was doing and control it entirely.

On the plus side of the ledger there is a very flexible random scenario creator. You can determine victory conditions, game length, species and technology trees to include, the state of war between combatants, size of the map, number of systems, etc. This more than makes up for the somewhat lacking campaign mode and the moderately limited number of predefined scenarios.

As mentioned above the game is played in turns. You set build queues, issue movement orders for your fleets, issue combat commands and click next turn. Combat is resolved at the start of the turn as you are in the same system as another player’s forces. Oddly all races are automatically at war when they meet, but you can retreat from combat and if both players do you may be able to negotiate a treaty with another power (good luck.)

Once combat is engaged you select a formation for your forces and a desired combat range and click go. The battle interface shows some weapon fire and some explosions as ships are destroyed and then you do it again or retreat. It’s all very simplistic, you have no control over where ships go, when they fire, etc. After a few games I gave up on this interface and simply resolved all battles strategically. Overall the “tactical” combat system seems bolted on and adds very little to the game.

The diplomatic interface has similar issues. You can, in theory, have various relations with other races but I rarely found any of them willing to do anything more than try to exterminate me. From time to time in the campaign allies were possible, but this seemed scripted rather than AI controlled and in nearly all of the scenarios you were in all out war with all other factions from the get go. Maybe diplomacy exists primarily for multiplayer?

There are a lot of races in the game, each with a different technology tree. Well, at least that’s how it looks at first glance. Each race has different preferred environmental conditions that do have real impact over what planets are suitable for colonization or invasion. But the technology trees, despite lots of colorful names, really boil down to Engine 1, Engine 2… Engine n, Beam Weapon 1, Beam Weapon 2…. Beam Weapon n, etc. There are no interesting weapons, novel strategies with weapon mixes, etc. And that’s really too bad.

Ultimately I was disappointed more often than not by Reach for the Stars and I think most space 4X fans will be too.

Multiplayer

While turn-based multiplayer games with the length of Reach for the Stars are mostly unsuitable for Internet play, Reach for the Star nonetheless provides this option. Performance was fine, but you end up waiting around far to much to make multiplayer more than an occasionally interesting diversion. Had it not been included the game would have been no worse for it, and the fact that multiplayer exists doesn’t make the game any better. This would have been development and testing money better spent on an improved game interface and graphics in my opinion.

Graphics, Sound, etc.

Graphically Reach for the Stars is very much a mixed bag. There are some nice things, but it is fairly plain overall. The star map is rather bland and units are shown merely as icons rather than as stylized ships. The various subscreens are more colorful, but the queues of items all have a sameness that grows less attractive the more you look at them. Combat was also on the bland side, with simple weapon effects that don’t really get very interesting and often difficult to differentiate ship types for each race.

The musical score was pretty good, though unspectacular, and limited in length and variety. Sound effects were mostly nonexistent and those that did exist were simply generic for the genre. The cut scenes in the campaign were not bad, but they weren’t spectacular either and I would not have missed them if they were not included.

This is not a trivial game by any means… the construction mechanism alone is enough to make most seasoned veterans scratch their heads for a while. Unfortunately the manual doesn’t do a very good job of explaining things… while the interface is covered completely, the game mechanics and the technology tree get very little discussion. Overall the manual is really lacking in both information and clarity where the information is available.

The Verdict

Sadly Reach for the Stars stumbles in ways that make it simply behind the times. Outdated graphics, some questionable design decisions, and a poor interface don’t do justice to a basic game concept that could have been among the better offerings in the genre. But as it is, the aging Master of Orion is still the reigning champion of space based 4X games and I can only really recommend the game to someone who enjoys this genre and wants a little variety.

Reach for the Stars Screenshots

The interface uses an odd spherical galaxy where there are no corners… it can be confusing.	Build queues are handled very well for planetary improvements and technology research.
The combat interface feels largely bolted on, though your decision can impact the results.	Keeping your fleet up to speed technically is a challenge since though you can design your own ships you can’t upgrade older ones.

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