So how is this game?

[Imortalin]

I like Civ6 and 4x in general. I also like grand strategy war games. How is this game and how does it compare from when the game was first out in steam? I read it had a lot of bad reviews but now I hear it’s pretty good. Please let me know.

[DNLH]

First thing first, I'll be brutally honest, the game still has some issues, some of them pretty massive and if you're not willing to keep up with some genuine jank you may need to pass on this one. I trust the devs that they'll fix it all, but it's not enough to honestly tell anyone to jump into this boat. What will follow, are remarks skewed by the fact that I got addicted to the game and specific way to play it, so, please, take it with a grain of salt.

It's a pretty decent 4X right now with some unique ideas. Don't expect it being overly complex, it may just appear as such, but once you get the hang of things, Pax Nova is leissurely paced Empire Builder, with, imo, not much to tinker with. And I don't mean it in negative way, I feel like with game requiring you to wrap your head around multiple maps on which multiple factions are present, the fact that most of the stuff you need to keep your tabs on is quite superficial makes it an enjoyable ride. The only downside about it is that it won't hold your hand on the way, so you need to invest some time into learning the ropes. Especially coming out of Civ, you need to prepare yourself to learn a game with fresh perspective, because some stuff will look familiar but it handles differently, so it gets confusing. The biggest change is that units can't pass through each other or even swap positions, which gives some really interesting tactical opportunities for area denial, but will feel like biggest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ coming from much more flexible systems. You just have to plan your offensives two steps forward and leave your frontlines space to retreat or you'll be just throwing armies into meat grinder. The last update had me use a mech capable of terraforming to tactically flatten a mountain and strike into enemy through a gap created that way. It was amazing.

As for the comparison between what it is now and what it was at first, there's none. Honestly, I was quite upset and felt like I wasted my money when I first bought it, but every update made it genuinely better (even if devs are stellar at noting down all the reported bugs, fixing them and introducing new ones with their next update, sorry guys, but you know that's true) game and since last update even before release it's one of the games I return to regularly to give it a playthrough or two. And the release version is completely different beast, I'm right now having just so much fun playing the game, though, admittedly it is because I got addicted throughout the Early Access to what Pax Nova can offer. A lot of it is because it has a quite unique game loop, with relatively short tech tree. While there's still winding up period in which you can outpace your enemies tech-wise, I feel like a lot of late-game confrontations happen on more or less even playing field. I feel like not enough 4Xs give enough time to play with late game tech and most make it more like a last nail to the coffin of your enemies. Here they're nice, but what will matter in the end in war will be your hardened team of veterans, because the enemy is almost sure to pack the same weapons you do.

[ashbery76]

The game is a whole lot of fun and well worth the cheap price imo.

[MikeDomingues]

Glad you're enjoying the game guys :)

[echo2361]

Im happy with my investment so far and look forward to what this game has to offer in the future.

[Imortalin]

So is it like Civ 6 or Beyons Earth, Aplha Centauri?

[Thunder]

I haven't bought/played it yet, but from watching videos it seems to take some general themes from mulitple 4x games:
1) It has at least two 'layers' (almost like Master of Magic Arcanus): You start off on one planet, looks to play CIV-like (districts and such, but not exactly like 6, BE, or AC). You then progress to space 'layer' where you move units, fight, build mines and starbases. Finally you can move Colony ships to another planet and basically CIV -that- planet up. Now multiply by number of colonizable planets.
2) Apparent layer sizes:
a) world: kind of like Eador where it is a fixed, smallish hex map that can hold several cities, no wrap, definite 'edges'
b) Galaxy: (Space part) also fix size combination of several start systems (can have multiple planets per system).
c) Universe: Haven't seen this part yet, but apparently there is a layer that contains multiple galaxies? (Not sure on this one at all!)

[Naselus]

It's surprisingly solid. The core gameplay is very good; the mechanics are tight and detailed in pretty much every area. And the AI is capable of playing it, which is more than could be said of Civ 6 or GalCiv3 at this point in their life cycle.

There's bugs, the UI could be a better, and it could use a fair bit more content, but tbh it's good value at the price point already, and with DLC or mods could be a real classic very quickly.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Artanis:

So is it like Civ 6 or Beyons Earth, Aplha Centauri?

It draws very heavily from Beyond Earth and Warlock. The city building and multiple map layers is Warlock, everything else is Beyond Earth. It has less depth than either of those games, it tries to do a lot, but it's very light on all the things. IE it takes Beyond Earth's "Affinity" system, adds a a fourth affinity, but removes all the impact of the system and replaces it with mostly generic minor/temporary bonuses. It has the multiple planets from Warlock, but less variety and they don't have anything interesting about them, it's just a palette swap. Etc. The game is vast but shallow, and hopefully that will be improved upon after release. There's still a game here worth playing, once the bugs are fixed.

[Redeemer]

Just bought the game. I read some stuff, watched some youtube videos and thought this game has REAL potential. The whole concept makes me excited. I hope i don't lose my excitement after playing it.

The game to my eyes looks like a hybrid.
- A typical CIV6 hex town building with districts etc. in addition to
- Stellaris "space" combat, exploration etc.

For the price asked along with the small dev team you can't expect it to have all the features of the above 2 games and it does not need to at the beginning. That's why i say it has huge potential.

They can expand in any way CIV6 canor stellaris can or even endless legends could. Its up to them.

As a fellow developer (although not in the game industry - we develop web applications for pharmaceutical companies) I am more interested in future DLCs and the direction of the game than them :)

And this is a pain point. Do they have DLCs planned like Stellaris? OR this game will be abandoned after some bug fixes, balance passes etc? I don't know if i would recommend this game due to this reason alone. If we had a roadmap with the next 2-3 DLCs i would know that the game will have support for the forseable future and i would have recommended without a doubt!

[echo2361]

I would caution against comparing the space gameplay to Stellaris. Totally different games. I’d say space gameplay is much closer to GalCiv 3, with turn based movement, space features, and simplified combat. Nothing wrong with this approach, it’s just different.

I’d say this game most resembles a mix of Civ: Beyond Earth and Endless Legends in planet gameplay and Gal Civ 3 in space. Just lacking in content of those games for now but with a solid foundation to hopefully be built on by the devs.

[ashbery76]

Indeed and guys give this a good review if you like it or it will sink.

[Karf]

Kind of hard to give a good review than there are still things like...

- early game balance issues (scouts with rocketlaunchers >> everything)
- placeholders in diplomatic talks for me ("you offer #0#" and a symbol....)
- shallow codex... as fan of 4X games I have joy with experiments, but core concepts and descriptions should be inside the game. Trial and error is cool but it gets a little bit stupid when you need to construct an outpost to get an idea what it actually is...
- ships cant fire at melee... huh what? Thats a new level of counterintuitive

I like the concept and I have no problem supporting small developpers. But a good review would deceive other customers who may have a problem with that.

[DNLH]

I hope that ships not firing at melee is just a temporary measure until they can figure out how to make them attack without retaliation. It makes sense for attacks the other way around to be impossible, though there are certain (flying) creatures that should still be able to do it.

[Davor]

One of my friends compared this game to Emperor of the Fading Suns. Just not sure if I want to buy or not, just because of the past experiences for the company. Would be nice to see a road map to make sure.

Even if no more support, would buy, but just like to make sure, one way or the other.

[ashbery76]

It's nothing like Emperor of the fading suns.This is a light Civ6 mixed with light space 4x.It works and has an A.I unlike Emperor.