Rise of Antares

Reviewed on: 26/02/07
Reviewed with: Sony-Ericsson S700i
Developed by HeroCraft

Rise of Antares is a legacy of legendary "Master of Orion", although nowhere nearby to be a clone. It is quite solid turn-based strategy, neither too complicated nor primitive. The storyline is somewhat classic: 2500AC, the galaxy is ruled by Interstellar League which had already exhausted its resourses and abilities, constantly competed by several Galactic Corporations. To disable its rivals and extend its existance, the League has decided to occupy the Corporations by giving them absolute rights to colonize the uninhabited star systems. The League hopes that the Corporations shall spend all their time and efforts building up new colonies.

Beginning as a ruler of a star system with small population and tiny star fleet, you'll have to build up your colony, research sciences and technologies, expand your territory either founding new colonies, or conquering other's. The planets differ in climate and resources, so the best ones become subjects of constant battles. Studying new sciences you shall be able to research new technologies, which are divided into three groups: social, military, economical.

The people in colonies have three occupations depending on player's choice: farming, manufacturing and science. Each turn every citizen produces some points of their profession, which are used correspondingly either to feed the population, or build a spaceship or some administrative building, or develop new technologies. Special building and technologies increase farmer's or scientist's or worker's rate or even produce some points every tick automatically.

But, whatever strong your economy was, you'll need army to defeat your enemies and become the true master of the Galaxy. Here you can choose one of two ways: either you build standart spaceships or you start the new projects, making the spaceships on your own taste, playing with their speed, defense and attack abilities. For a stock starship it takes 3-6 turns to get to the nearby stars, although if you develop the ultra modern engines and put them on your own ship (which, by the way, you can name after yourself or anything else), it shall take only one turn to jump over even larger distances. The ship's crew gains experience for each successful battle, the more experienced is the crew, the better they use the abilities of their ship. Then, if you grow tired of this outdated piece of junk - you can move your veterans to a ultra-modern Star Destroyer.

Although there's not too much of animation, the graphics suit the atmosphere of gameplay. The helpfiles are available in any game screen, providing you with the necessary information. The tutorial game is available as well, preparing you for the real contest very well. There are three difficulty degrees, up to four AI opponents and four racial specializations giving you advantage in warfare, research or manufacturing.

The game music is great, although it'd be a nice add-on if there were more sound effects, such as sound of shots during the battle. Also, when you develop your technologies good enough, your colonies start producing at insane rate and often they complete the building in one turn, so you'll have to attend to them every turn - there's no auto-building of the last item.

I've spent many days trying to figure out the optimal strategy and came to the conclusion that there is none. The game perfectly fits both for the lovers of rush attacks and for those who prefer to build up the whole Empire and then crush their enemies like flies, using the Death Stars and ultimate battle droids.

Before Rise of Antares I wouldn't really believe that the old good games like "Master of Orion" may rise from the ashes on the mobile platforms, but this game changed my view and gave me really good time of playing. It will enrich the collection of strategy-lovers and may change the opinion of those who prefer other genres.