Iceberg Interactive recently announced their latest offering in the space 4X genre, a title by the name of Dawn of Andromeda developed by Grey Wolf Entertainment. The game is a pause-able real-time space 4X strategy title. Combat will also be in real-time (no word if it they are instanced or straight on the map or any details on the level of control the player will have). The game will also feature several of the traditional trappings of the genre: such as diplomacy, researching techs, planet management, and will allow the players to customise their ships.
The more noteworthy mentions are the option to play an asymmetrical start, with races already developed with a head start and others showing up late to the party. The game will still let players start games with a symmetrical start that is more common to the genre. The game will also offer scenarios which will be a more focused experience with pre-established conditions.
Here is the reveal trailer:
Features (from official press release):
- Explore, expand, exploit and exterminate in this real-time space strategy game, featuring real-time combat in a dynamic and ever-evolving galaxy.
- New factions and characters can join the fray mid-game; artefacts, ruins, anomalies and a huge variety of fascinating elements are scattered throughout the galaxy and can yield new research opportunities. Various characters such as outlaws, merchants and others roam the galaxy.
- Asymmetric gameplay. Not all races discover space travel at the same time, some may have yet to discover it, some may have already built a mighty empire, and some races may be naturally stronger than others. However if you’d rather prefer a traditional 4X experience and start an entirely symmetric game, it’s up to you.
- Pre-designed, customizable and randomly generated races, each with their unique backgrounds and traits.
- Accessible gameplay, featuring a highly-intuitive User Interface.
- Eras; unique scenarios, each with a pre-designed galaxy and background stories which you can play as one of the existing factions, each with their own victory conditions, traits, challenges and ongoing conflicts and relationships.
- Choose between researching pre-fabricated or randomly generated ship designs, or alternatively research and discover ship parts, allowing you to create your own unique ship designs from them.
- In depth diplomacy system. Create or join coalitions, make allies and enemies, but beware, each action you take can change how the rest of the galaxy will view you. Destroying an entire planet, or just praising or denouncing another race, can have a deep impact on the balance of the entire galaxy.
- Reduce micromanagement by appointing governors to your colonies and council members to your empire, all of whom can be leveled up. Each come with their own unique traits, happiness and experience.
- Multiple, customizable victory conditions, which can even be set to vary for each faction, making for unpredictable friends and foes.
More information will be released in the coming months on their official website before the game hits Steam’s Early Access.
It should be noted that the CEO of Grey Wolf Entertainment is the same developer that was behind Lords of the Black Sun, a game that has received the second most critical review I’ve ever written. Naturally, the developer may have learnt from their past mistakes and might offer something more worthwhile this time, but it can be understandable if some fans of the genre that were disappointed by LotBS may be more skeptical. Here is the comment by the developer addressing this very issue.
As always SpaceSector will keep you informed and if possible offer a review of the game when it is released. The game will be available on Steam’s Early Access sometime in April of this year with no information given on its official release timeframe.
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Seems interesting. I very like the aesthetics of the game and the sleekness of the interface as shown in this footage.
I hope the ship designer will be interesting (a la StarDrive).
Wait and see I guess.
The races seem very very familiar for some reason, I can’t really pinpoint where I’ve seen them but it is eerie.
Also Early Access? Meh.
Did anyone get an Endless vibe off this? The UI and the Eras were fairly unique to the Endless franchise and it does feel that’s what Grey Wolf is aiming for. Everything else is bog standard in a 4X but that’s not necessarily bad.
Unfortunately, it looks like we are getting static tech tree again and there’s no mention of AI. =/
“Asymmetric gameplay. Not all races discover space travel at the same time, some may have yet to discover it, some may have already built a mighty empire, and some races may be naturally stronger than others.”
Interesting concept, but considering that most RTS’s struggle with balance issues, “asymmetric gameplay” will aggravate that common problem. I’m betting that feature won’t make it to the release version.
I always forgo early access; I’d rather not get burned out on a half-finished title. I’ll wait for the fully-developed and patched version before trying it.
Nothing in the game screams at me either.
It’s tries to play safe and ticks every conventional boxes in the 4X space shopping list while adding nothing new. From what I’ve read, this game will need a really REALLY outstanding beta result for people to sit up and pay attention. With EA, unless you have a solid reputation, it’s best to go loud or go home.
I mean, by the end of the article, I’ve already forgotten the game title and can only recall how the studio name was vaguely interesting. =P
Pausable real-time? That’s competing with Distant Worlds Universe, and that’s going to be very tough.
I’ve never managed to get into Distant Worlds to be honest. The learning curve is way too steep for me and that is by looking at a lot of guides and LPs. I just never managed to enjoy myself playing it and I never know what to do when playing.
The asymmetric gameplay might be interesting if done right (big if). But the rest honestly just looks totally generic and meh.
I have huge doubts about the amount of depth, detail and interesting gameplay you can possibly achieve with RT everything. Distant Worlds pushed the envelope with the RT-everywhere concept and pretty much fell flat on its face and broke once you exceeded about 700 star systems and new combat messages began to closely resemble rapid machine-gun fire.
Looks like another batch of mediocre titles coming for us in2k16:)
Except Lord of the Black Sun wasn’t ‘just a bad game’. It was one of the worst generic 4x’s I’ve ever played. Anyways off of with the negativity let’s convince ourselves this one will take the fight to stellaris!
I think you could make your blurbs on these games data driven–
4x — y/n
Real Time — y/n
Diplomacy — y
Moo2 clone — y/n
Distant Worlds clone — y/n
multiplayer — y
produced by someone who did so-and-so — y
made by the team that brought us such-and-such — y
Andromeda, Orion, Universe, Star in title?– y
I know you are just doing your job–but so little time, so many 4x space games.
I hope to see a 4x game with very good exploring oppertunities. Crazy monsters, that will take a whole fleet to finish. With devastating alien weapons and next to a standaard tech tree. I miss that feature in 4x games nowadays!
Just a heads-up that this is essentially the same company that made (and later abandoned) the lackluster Lords of the Black Sun, just under a different name. Consider yourselves warned.
hmm, that’s indeed a fair warning. Thanks for the heads up.
It’s also fair to add that he claims to be the only teammember from the old company working on this one, so this may be a completely different story.
I’m willing to give anyone a second chance, but I will wait for the reviews after the game has been released. :)
Fortunately, a no-name studio spruiking a generic 4X game wouldn’t make enough initial sales to cover the rent in today’s market.
Unless I’m seeing rave reviews coming out of the 3 game review sites and half a dozen youtubers I follow, I’m not even going to try and remember its release date.
Nice warning. I’m definetly not getting that off of Steam when it’s out if you know what I mean *wink wink*. Not until I get a clear picture of its worth.
I should probably clarify: I’m not knocking the guy’s new game here. If Dawn of Andromeda happens to turn out great, then awesome. A good 4x game is a good 4x game, and I’ll usually pick it up regardless of the source.
It’s just that given the developer’s track record, it pays to be wary in this case. Like you guys, I will wait until well after release, and to see what sites like SpaceSector and Explorminate have to say about this one.
I just saw that Dawn of Andromeda is in closed beta. Will Space Sector be in that, and will we get a preview of the game?
That’s up to Iceberg.
Also, we won’t know right away either since preview copies don’t usually go out until later in the beta phase. A lot of times beta’s have testers sign NDA which can range from, “you can’t tell anyone,” to, “you can talk about it but no in game media (video or screenshots) can be shown.”
Even if a game critic does get into the closed beta they are also tied by the same NDA. Usually getting the green-light to do a preview later into the testing cycle. Sometimes they are excluded until that point, other times they do get into the beta to help with the feedback but they have to wait before they can release a preview.
Their reasoning makes sense, depending on the stage of development, the developer or the publisher don’t feel confident the product would give a good impression even if the reviewer knows it’s unfinished. So they save it till the product is more up to standard.
There is also a marketing angle, you want the previews to come out at a window that will raise the game’s awareness and help ‘hype’ it up towards release (assuming the preview offers a positive impression).