I love a good 4X game, and Terra Invicta is as good as it gets. Made by the Xcom Long War modders, Pavonis Interactive, this game offers a ridiculous amount of depth. Basically, aliens are invading the earth, and you have to defeat them, or join them. I've spent 10 hours on it so far, and I've barely scratched the surface. The game is currently in Early Access, but it's already pretty playable and fun.
Quick notes
- Incredibly in-depth gameplay
- Epic sci-fi experience
- Steep learning curve
I'll be honest, the tutorial will barely get you started, and you'll spend your first few hours making mistakes and restarting. But if you're the type that loves a good strategy game, the payoff is pretty satisfying. The game is complicated, with tons of mechanics to figure out. As the aliens are invading, you play as one of seven factions. The aim is to defeat, join, or escape the sodding mess that is Earth. The game takes place in three different distinct phases, with the first taking place in a Xcom-like Geoscape. Unlike in Xcom, you don't start as a country. Instead, the faction's counsellors go around influencing countries to try to control them. They can also do missions such as investigate aliens, spy on other faction counsellors, perform coup d'etat, and more.
Once you secure a country, you then get resources for your faction, such as money, ops, research points, influence, and most importantly, boost. Boost determines if you can launch stuff into space, which somewhat transitions you into the next part of the game. You can micro-manage each country's development, its alliances, wars, and armies. You'll need to build space platforms, moon bases, orbital shipyards, and fleets as you try to combat the alien invaders. The last phase sees you expanding to the outer planets of the solar system, as you manoeuvre fleets around to take out alien bases. You'll have to factor in stuff like delta-v, fuel, and learning how to fight space battles.
Then, there's the alien threat. As you progress through the game, you'll get to find out more about these mysterious invaders from afar. The game has plenty of lore to read, and a huge tech tree to go through. Furthermore, as each faction has different goals to meet, there's a lot of replayability, too. And before you know it, you're just waiting for your next move and realising it's morning and you've played the whole night. I also can't help, but think the game reminds me of the sci-fi series, The Expanse, which is all about mankind's expansion into the solar system, and a mysterious alien threat.
I really enjoyed playing Terra Invicta, and if you like strategy games with plenty of depth, this is it. This game will take you on an epic journey. It launches as Early Access on Steam on September 26, and is definitely in a very playable state. Get it here for US$39.99.
Note: Review copy provided by Hooded Horse, the game's publisher. The game was played on an Aftershock PC.
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