Shattered Suns review

Clear Crown Studios promises a revolution in real-time space strategy games with Shattered Suns, but doesn’t explain how double-right-clicking to move your units is supposed to make combat any more interesting. This still feels as badly paced and difficult to control as any other poorly made space RTS.

The game’s economy revolves around space stations, which control research and production. You’ll hate the space stations. First off, you can’t assign them to a control group, so you have to scour the galaxy for the one you want. Second, it may be easier to dock your car with the international space station than to micromanage the docking of your ships. Third, research is unbearably slow, there is no progress bar, and since the sound cuts in and out (besides the repetitive “instant messenger” sound that won’t shut up), there’s no notification that your research is complete.

Each station has its own tech levels and supply pool, so if you use the ship designer to create your own ships, you run into infuriating barriers. Want to build your elite destroyer at multiple stations? Too bad, Captain, you’ve got to amass enough resources to research it (slowly) all over again. Ergo, supplying your stations is a major component of gameplay - and supply logistics aren’t a lot of people’s idea of a good time. Considering that combat is as dull as the ship graphics, and that you can’t even share the experience due to lack of multiplayer, Shattered Suns’ $40 asking price is seriously overambitious.

PC Gamer scores games on a percentage scale, which is rounded to the closest whole number to determine the GamesRadar score.

PCG Final Verdict: 36% (don’t bother)

Sep 24, 2008