Review and anti-grumblings!

[Gliese]

Well, hello there. I bothered to register for one of these forums after having been very disappointed by a bevy of games in the past, being somewhat burnt out on the whole internet thing - but on a wild gamble, I decided to get Horizon when it went live on Steam, not having heard of it before...

(Probably because of the whole not using the internet debacle. Apparently, being a hermit has downsides!)

To my surprise - the game was pretty much perfect, or at least will be with some more potential and the ability to mod. Allow me to elaborate, because players (and readers, and viewers) are many, is but feedback is priceless - or so they say. Or so I say!

First off, the elephant in the room; I was not and am not a huge fan of the second MOO game. I felt it was far, far too micro-heavy, and the moment you 'won' at the economy, you won the game. To me, the first installment had more sense of exploration and heart, even though both really did boil down to just being wargames. And I liked - or wanted desperately to like MOO3, for taking so many steps in the right direction. Admittedly, they were preludes to a running tackle into terrible, terrible decision making - but I could see what the game wanted to do; and this will factor into my review.

Horizon is one of those games that has it. That moment where you - or perhaps just me - are thinking rather smugly that you know everything about the game when the Tantik show up and humiliate you by stealing your newspaper and using to ratchet up the pollution on your new showcase world. Where you've got an ace strategy that falls apart only to lead to a new, perhaps more interesting strategy - and where instead of having one simple and best approach, you might find several, even dozens of viable paths through the game.

It is quite a rare thing in any 4X, all the more so in a sub-genre that has a tendency to ape one of the more unfortunately broken games in the series. Where I grew bored with Subterannean Unification halfway through my second game of MOO2, I've already spent a truly embarrassing amount of time playing different combinations of species and bonuses. Where I was puzzled and disappointed that after colonizing radioactive rocks and turning rocks into planetoids, I couldn't remove 'toxic' nature from planets, the way planets are handled here feels extremely enjoyable. Where I'd grown up with easily editable doom wads and a certain game left me in the cold, the hope of eventual modding support means that I'm pretty sure this game will quickly become one of my favorites of all time.

The humor is fun and funny and the game never takes itself too seriously (I especially loved the Varaian ending), but at the same time the species design is interesting; I especially liked the Lezgoon and Har'kan. The sound score is quite enjoyable, especially the space ambiance, and the creature and ship design is imaginative and thus infinitely better then the ever-popular flying square populated by more strangely similar humanoids. Not that there aren't humanoids if that isn't your xenosapient of choice!

My only real thoughts would be that an idea to play beyond a 'victory' condition or 'loss' condition would be interesting; perhaps some sort of observer status, as I enjoy seeing what I did wrong or right, and trying to learn from it; perhaps more planet types if - and I hope it does! - the game does well enough to merit an expansion at some point, and other things that add difference between the species, though I am unsure as to what would do that well, when the system as it is works fairly well - to my opinion.

In short, great job, everyone - may your efforts be recognized by more then my exceedingly grumpy self, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on Horizon and any future efforts!

[eidolad]

Got something there with the "play beyond victory" concept: 2nd victory chance for your "ascendant" race to figure out how to go "dormant", or to build a one-way warp gate to the Andromeda Galaxy, etc.

Things missing from this game I'd luv to see in an expansion:

Heroes/commanders with some RPG trait development. Then, to piggy back into the "dormant" victory, you could have a chance to place your favorite commander into stasis to be discovered by another race.

...which would spawn an alternative game start...you taking over a fledgling race.

Oops...looks like the losers of the previous game also set their hero into stasis as well. And they are VERY interested to meeting you for a rematch.

[Gliese]

Really, any extra victory options would be icing on the cake - but I really like the idea of a kind of 'play until you lose' grudgematch, where your opponents eventually start having all their past-defeated champions ally against you the moment they hear you're in the neighborhood. I don't know how I feel about too many RPG elements; they'd be nice on their own, but I wouldn't want them to overshadow the more 4X-y bits of the game.

[RobHuntingdon]

Actually, you can remove the toxic status from your worlds. It's slow (as it SHOULD be, this is an entire planetary atmosphere we're talking about here, folks!) but all you have to do is set the ecology setting to "clean" and wait about 100-200 turns.

That said, I have to echo that while I really do like the game, I more than 1000% agree with you about the need to allow modding. There are plenty of things that are very good, especially for a small indie game like this. But the imagination of two people -- no matter how brilliant -- can never exceed the imagination of a HUNDRED (or possibly even more) people playing with things.

[eidolad]

off topic: I cannot get that byline: "Tarry here, my merry men, whilst I seek what adventure await in yonder greenwood; but look thou listen for my call, for I will blow my horn if I become hard-pressed."

...out of my head. I'm going to try it at the next happy hour. There's got to be some real social use for this phrasing.