I had to buy this game again in order to review it. My hours played does not include the older Steam version that isn't sold anymore.

This is hands down my favourite game of all time. Therefore I am actually going to take time writing this review.

Ridiculously deep, engaging gameplay that can allow for 250+ hours for a single large game - a game filled with desperate struggles against merciless and highly adaptable AI in long late-night/early morning sessions. A very nice physics engine allows for some interesting RTS battles with completely customised ships bristling with esoteric weaponry - from the humble red laser to giant space revolvers that shoot asteroids that glass planets.

With a quasi-randomised tech tree system and 6 different races that each play completely differently, it is easy to spend thousands of hours on this game and still not experience everything it has to offer. Multiplayer is just as good - coordinate with a friend or compete against them in 4X/RTT combined gameplay. If you thought multiplayer games of Sins of a Solar Empire or Civ were long, this game is somewhat longer, but rewards you with deep satisfaction during and after play.

Overall it is similar to the Master of Orion series of games if you remember those, but also feels akin to Total War with the RTT combined with turn-based strategy, and the depth of control available during battles. Most of the time you are trying to expand, tech up and survive in a turn-based 4X type strategic map.

However, if one of your ships encounters something hostile, you are given the option to fight manually; this is often very rewarding, you are able to visually assess the ships, including tech level and weaponry, and to also destroy them with extreme prejudice (or not if you prefer). The RTT game engine allows polygon targeting, allowing you to aim shots at precise parts of their ships - snipe off their turrets or shoot out their engines so their inertia causes them to crash into a planet. The level of detail simulated allows for incredibly fun and often unpredictable fights. This is not like Sins, where ships have simple health bars and succumb after a set number of hits; exactly what and where you hit things is of great importance - hit a tanker in the fuel tanks hard enough and be rewarded with a satisfying secondary explosion, sometimes disintegrating the ship and everything small within a large radius.

Visually, it is quite dated now, something that they tried to fix in the sequel, which is somewhat buggy and sometimes broken. However, this original is very well polished, and I would highly recommend this gem of a game to anyone with half a brain and some patience.

If you do end up enjoying it as much as I have, the sequel may be worth trying, but be prepared for a general feeling of lack of completeness that is absent in this original. I wouldn't fault the devs too much for that, Paradox wanted them to release at an incomplete point and it was do-or-die for the studio. It has come a long way since release but the devs aimed a bit too high and fell short. This does not mean it is terrible, much fun is to be had, with a lot of new things to be tried - if you have the patience and an SSD to cope with the *occasional* CTD - (occasional is a relative term).

TL;DR: this is a very good and underrated game, buy it (it is also cheap), play it. Don't buy the second one if you are new to the series unless you are a masochist with too much money.

I think it's my favorite 4x game by far, and I'm playing it in 2015, the game still holds to modern standards and modding community is still active.
This game should serve as a reference for the space 4x genre, it gets everything right and does not try to push fancy and poorly made useless innovations like too many games.

Pros:

• easy to play, hard to master, has much more depth than it appears at the beginning
  
• focusses on what really matters and does not annoy you with useless micromanagement just for the sake of complexity.
  
• interesting real time tactical combat phases where both how you command your fleet and how you designed them matters.
  
• very well designed UI which allows you to play quickly and efficiently.
  
• just enough ship customization, lets you design them for your intended strategy, does not require you to spend hours fine-tuning them.
  
• 3D galaxy map which adds real strategic interest and variety to the games.
  
• varied and balanced races with very different travelling methods.
  
• interesting and challenging research tree, partially randomized for every game and player, with random technologies that you may not be allowed to research at all for this game, but have some chance to steal from an enemy.
  
• smart and challenging AI which properly uses diplomacy, however not so good within tactical combat phases.
  
• still active modding community, great mods available to enhance visuals and improve game balance (check my Steam guide ;) ).
  
• the game seems very polished and you will have many pleasant surprises, few bad ones.
  
• straightforward videos + text transcription tutorials, easy to skip parts or quickly read the text if you are in a hurry ...

Cons:

• ... but lacks explanations for advanced things, which you need to look up online, such as how planet size, resources and hazard works, how population, industrial output, and income impact each other, detailed game mechanics and weapon damage values, or some useful key bindings (pausing combat, making waypoints in strategic map, speeding up combat, rotating fleet formation, etc.).
  
• RNG can be potentially ruin your game (if you activated random events).
  
• no ship refitting (but that did not bother me that much)
  
• trading system is not great, it requires you to build A LOT of freighters at some point in the game, and when you upgrade the freighter technology you need to rebuild them all. However by becoming at some point the backbone of your economy it becomes of great strategic value and improves the dynamic of the game.

TL;DR: Best space 4x game without aimless overcomplicated features, way better than recently released ones.

This is one of the most underated 4X games ive played. The combat controls take a bit of getting used to but once you have those nailed this game will eat hours of your life.

Planet management and the tech tree are easy to understand but the tech still retains depth. After an 8 hour long game you will still have lots of tech still to discover.
Whilst the graphics are a little dated it really doesnt matter once you are playing and you are immersed. Combat is enjoyable to watch especially when you have 3 massive dreadnoughts trying to face off against an entire enemy fleet.



This is a really solid game one of my favourite random buys ever .Its worth every penny and if you see it in a sale definatly grab it!

+/+ Unique take on research.
+/+ Simple ship building UI.
+/+ First encounters with alien species is handled very well.
+/+ All six species have unique play styles and lore as well as provide unique opponents to fight.
+/+ Micromanagement decreases with game length.
+/+ full 3 dimensional star maps (with many choices included a ‘2D’ star map for those who prefer 2D).
+/+ Games are very customizable.

+/- Turn-based star map with real-time battles (kind of like Total War in space).
+/- Economy management is relatively simple.
+/- Graphics are nothing to write home about (not that important for a 4x strategy game IMO).

-/- SotS lacks a sufficient tutorial and the UI fails to present all relevant information.
-/- Sound effects range from average to bad. Some may even find them offensive.
-/- Lacks steam features.

Verdict: 8.8/10. SotS is a very impressive and unique take on the 4x genre. The developer managed to create a game design that scales the micromanagement with empire size. The ship design is one of the best I’ve seen in a 4x game (Star Ruler would be my only contender). The game has a steep learning curve and requires some forum reading/let’s plays to gain a moderate understanding of the underlying mechanics. If you are willing to invest the time, you will find a lot to love in Sword of the Stars.

So my friend introduced me to this game as he wanted more friends to play with. It was an old game (relatively) and I expected a few laughs and not much else. I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for Civilization in space. I didn't ask for all the lore and all the different races and ships. I didn't ask for interesting space combat and with ship by ship construction and pretty high level strategy. They even forced multiple maps down my throat with a tech tree that is randomly generated from game to game! It was horrible. Terrible. I didn't want this.

On a more serious note. The game is fun, as usual especially with friends. Has a pretty good learning curve, interesting races with tons of lore to read. Every race plays different and is interesting in what they are good and not good at. Good mechanics and has actual space battle where you control the ships in 3d space. It can be a bit daunting at times and for some people it might get boring if things get slow. However I very much liked this game. Certainly gave me some sleepless nights staying up to play it. Graphics are solid. No real complaints, though games do tend to go very long.

Still my favorite 4x game, ship design, rnd and real time fleet control.

Woudl be nice if there was a SOTS 1.5 released by merging graphics from SOTS2 with the gameplay of SOTS 1.......

Hello, I picked up this game for £2. on Humble store yesterday. You will see from other comments that the CD Key is
invalid. However after alot of searching around online I have finally got the game working.

Here is how I did it -

Firstly install the game and right click local files.
Locate the file 42890_install and open it with notepad.
It reads - "CD Key" - "XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX" Change that to "BAD0-C0DE-BAD1-6A2E"

Then run regedit
Go to - registry value HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Valve/TestApp42890
Modify the value of the invalid key to "BAD0-C0DE-BAD1-6A2E"
Use find to search for SOTS and change all key values to "BAD0-C0DE-BAD1-6A2E"

As far as I know Muliplayer wont work with this fix but at least you can play the game.
It worked for me!

Hope this helps.

Sword of the Stars is getting on in years but it’s still an incredibly good 4X game! It’s particularly good with the battle portions – though at the cost of colony development details.

The map is FULLY 3D and provides multiple map types, some realistic and some not. (I most recently played on a ‘galaxy’ the shape of a helix!) This gives the game a much more “spacey” feel than other games, which feel a bit more like board games.

There are plenty of technologies to discover (full list[vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net])! Missiles, drones, plasma torpedoes, photon torpedoes, wild weasels, cloaks, shields (yeah, there’s definitely some Star Fleet Battles influence here), plasma projectors, C&C levels, colonization advancement, bio weapons… it goes on and on.

If you look closely you’ll see some numbers around those tree items. A key difference between this game and most 4X games is that the technologies you will get aren’t fixed, they are just weighted by race. That means you aren’t going to be able to pick out your favorite path through the tree and use it every single time you play even if you keep using the same race. What’s more, you can’t count on your enemies NOT having a technology! This is great for replayability and encourages you to find out how all those many technologies work, not just whatever works best on your first play-through.

Tactically, ship customization is huge in this game. You’ll be picking which forward/center modules to use from a large variety (you pick the back, too, but that’s just the engine so your tech level will mostly determine it) and you’ll be picking what weapons go where on the ship. Those weapons all have firing arcs to consider, too, and there’s the possibility of putting multiple smaller guns in larger mounts instead of using a larger weapon. Aesthetically, there’s not a lot to do. If you’re into making ships look how you want, check out the Galactic Civilization games.

While the strategy game is turn based in a fully 3D map, the actual battles are real time in a two-and-a-half D map. Ships generally stick to 2D but will climb/dive to get around each other. Assuming you’ve got the C&C technology, you can set up formations for your fleets. The battles in late game can be quite epic! Do be careful setting up point defense ships in front of your dreadnaught plasma monster, though – friendly fire is a real thing in this game.

Another interesting twist in this game is the rate ships are produced. You can make quite a few pretty quickly! That lets you keep a minimal defense force out there then build what is needed to react to any attacks instead of having to play the guess-what-the-enemy-has games. It also covers for the fact that there’s no upgrading of ships.

So you’re getting some seriously deep battles in this game. What about the rest of the 4X features?

Exploration is OK but you’ll just be looking for nice planets to colonize.

Colony development isn’t much at all. There aren’t any special resources to mine (check Distant Worlds out for those) and you certainly won’t be placing specific buildings (Gal Civ). Just drop your colonists and let them do their thing. Once they get the planet in good shape, you can start building what you want with it.

I liked the trade quite a bit, too. You can build trade ships and assign them to sectors of space and those ships will (after a few turns) start producing cash. You can assign ships to sectors, too, to help defend those freighters from raiders. You can also build Q-ships – freighters that trade cargo space to mount a lot of weapons while still looking like a freighter.

The random events in this game are quite good! Some can grow into major game changers. In one game I played long ago, one of the NPCs had trouble with some form of AI rebellion. Not only did the AI destroy the NPC race, it actually beat all of us! This game really puts the barbarians of the Civilization games to shame.
Diplomacy – I really don’t know. I haven’t been very neighborly in this game, I’m afraid. It’s definitely there. I hear my enemies begging for a truce all the time.

The final thing this game doesn’t have is custom races – but it’s for the best possible reason. In most games the races are typically pretty similar with some boosts to various aspects of the game. One will be good at science, a couple at war, one at trading, and so on. This game has that, too, but it has a lot more. You’ve already seen that most every technology has specific chances for each race to get it. They also have different mounts and arcs on their modules. Most importantly, they have very different modes of travel. One travels at constant speed, one travels faster in deep space but slower near stars, another travels faster in fleets, one travels through existing nodes between stars, one MAKES nodes between stars – though those nodes evaporate, and finally one moves quite slowly but can set up teleportation gates that allow instant travel. The races have so many differences that making a custom one would be a huge undertaking!

I typically don’t like real time combat. In most 4X games, I enjoy the exploration and exploitation aspects far more than the rest. It isn’t uncommon for me to quit a game as soon as soon as all the cities/planets are planted because I don’t look forward to all the battles that follow! This game, with its deep combat and technology systems, is a major exception. This isn’t “more of what I play 4X games for” – it’s what I DON’T play 4X games for done so well that I want to play it!

Note:
As of early January 2018, the Steam keys work again (or aren't needed - whatever).

An extremely in-depth and large-scope turn-based space empire building simulator. It gives enough freedom to feel in control but does not get bogged down with a ton of menus. Though it looks a touch dated by now it is still easily the best I've found in the genre. (There is a sequel, and there are a LOT of reasons I'm writing a recommendation for the original instead of that).

I'd probably call this game a cult classic, but I don't even think the following it has would extend that far. Which is a shame, considering how epic this game is. Honestly I can say if you want a 4X space strategy game, get this, and ignore the sequel.

Why? You might ask, surely the sequel is better! Wrong, it had a terrible, terrible launch, released in a bad unfinished state, to the point where even clicking the new game button would crash it. Which isn't the developers fault, i'd like to add, they suffered the same problem that plague's most games today, the publisher forced them to push it out the door.

But back to the original topic. SotS is addictive and more importantly, fun. Six races to choose from, each with their own quirks and style of play. You can set up a galaxy with a number of options, ranging from amount of stars, to the galaxy shape, the size of the stars themselves, the distance between them... basicaly you can create any game you like and choose who you want to play and play against.

It has a randomised research tree, every game. So don't get comfortable with those awesome beam weapons, come the next game, you might be unlucky and not get that tech. There are some essential techs that every race gets, every game, like the very basic laser or mass driver tree. But each race has different probabilities of getting access to the much more advanced technologies that are in the various trees.

The empire management is... basic, you colonise planets and they develop on their own, terraforming till they are suitable for your race, and building infrastructure. Some planets are so hostile that you can't even colonise them, although there are technologies that you might get access to that can improve the hazard they impose.

Ship design is another interesting and fun part of the experience, as you pick different sections and weapons to put on your ships. Maybe you'd like a ship fully loaded with missles? Sure, go ahead, just be mindful that if the AI has a lot of point defense, that ship will be nearly pointless. So a lot of designing can revolve around what gets thrown against you, or what you come up against.

Then, theres the random encounters... which is an option you can fiddle with in the game settings when you make the galaxy. Basically, it is what it says on the tin, a random encounter can range from a asteroid shower, which can wipe out a new colony, to getting attacked by slavers. But there are special types of encounters, which often turn out to be dangerous and can take massive fleets to stop. I'll give you an example of a grand menace I encountered in a game I played, The Peacekeeper. This dude comes into the map and travels to the center of the galaxy and makes a speech, telling you to stop all hostilities with each other and stop prodcution of war ships. Break these rules while he's on the map, and he attacks you. Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong, this guy is... holy mother of god frightening, he will literally tear your fleets to shreds, no matter what tech you have. Luckily, he doesn't discriminate and will love wailing on the AI as much as you if they step out of line.

All in all, Sword of the Stars is an impressive, and addictive game, that is starting to show it's age graphically, but the fun factor and replayability keeps me coming back to it. I deffinitely reccommend this title to any 4X fans, and especially to space strategy fans. It's an easy to pick up game, thats difficult to master.