Game is a cult classic well worth the $10 bucks. If you like Stellaris or Total War, there's no reason not to pick this up and try it, especially on sale. $10 USD isn't even a meal at most fast food restaurants now a days.

I first bought Sword of the Stars when it was brand new way back in 2004, and never looked back. Every time a new Expansion Pack (DLC but on a disc) was released, I would make sure I picked it up. The number of hours on steam fails to encapsulate the number of hours that my childhood friend and I have dumped into this game. We've probably each racked up thousands of hours across hundreds of games, and six computers. The fact that we still play this game so many years later is no accident, and we each payed the retail prices on release. If you don't feel like reading the full review, here's my verdict: this game is a cult classic, and definitely worth the retail price. As such I'd like to think I can speak with a small amount of expertise on the subject.

Sword of the Stars is a combination of Turn Based 4X and Real Time Strategy broken into two phases. In terms of the breakdown between the two game phases, it's a lot like Total War. However, the way empire management works actually has more in common with Paradox games generally, and Stellaris in particular. Indeed, you could consider Sword of the Stars (SotS) to be Stellaris' great-great grand uncle. Not a direct ancestor, but pretty dang close. I'll be breaking down the game into two phases: Empire Management and Combat.

On the galaxy map, you manage planets, set research priorities, design and build ships and stations, and direct fleet movements. These fleets will then perform tasks from colonization and mining to exploration and combat depending on the ships you bring with you. Research you perform unlocks new modifiers for ships and planets, and new ship components. This is also where you perform diplomacy and manage planetary economies. Unfortunately, both the economics and the diplomacy are rather weak points of the game being on the simple side. The only resources are money and time. Money comes in the form of taxes (planetary income) and trade. Don't forget to defend your trade routes. Piracy is an option, although it's a mechanic I (a Human main) generally don't use, so my knowledge there is a bit limited as the Human Faster than Light drive sucks for piracy. On that note, every faction has their own unique method of FTL with advantages and drawbacks.

The research system for SotS is unique in that you aren't guaranteed to have access to a given technology every time you play, and each species is more or less likely to get access to a tech on a given playthrough. The Liir are more likely to get access to the best shields and energy weapons, but less likely to naturally develop the advanced forms of armor and physical guns. The Hiver are the reverse. This doesn't mean you're locked out of a given technology. Joint research projects with allies and salvaged ships can offer you the opportunity to research technologies you yourself lack. This excludes each species' unique techs.

Hoo boy. What to say about ship design? If you've played Stellaris, you have some experience with the basic idea. As you develop new technologies you can unlock better weapons, engines, and new modules. This much is the same. But SotS does this on steroids. You aren't just taking a hull and slapping on modules to increase stats and provide abilities. In SotS you actually have the ability to mix and match parts and choose individual weapons turrets. The ship designer is incredibly detailed, and I probably spent a quarter of my time setting up individual designs, testing weapons placements and combinations etc. But you don't have to use it. The AI will autodesign ships if you let it meaning all you need to do is choose the basic layout and let the game do the rest.

Combat begins when your fleets encounter an unknown entity or a hostile fleet. You can choose to autoresolve, or fight the battle yourself. Combat itself centers around a planet or in deep space, and is what I'd call 2.5D. You give commands on a flat plane, but your ships can and will automatically maneuver up and down to avoid collisions. Like the Total War games, you are limited to the ships you bring with you. You don't build ships mid battle, although you can call in reinforcements if your fleet is too big to deploy all at once. You can have a fleet of 50 ships, but if your command ship can only coordinate 10, you'll be replacing losses piecemeal. Given when the game was released, I assume this was done to limit the strain that too many objects might have on the game and computers of the day.

Oh, and orbital bombardment is a core mechanic. Whether it be glassing the surface with lance batteries or nuking the planet from orbit, you can blast the place until it's all smoke and ash. Or you could research the xenos language and accept their surrender, I guess. Beware, there are monsters in the deep black that can and will seek to end your civilization besides your rivals.

Finally, let me briefly go over the factions. Each faction has their own quirks that you will either love or hate depending. They all have different design philosophies and unique FTL engines.

The Tarkas are the most standard, and a great place to start. They're a very balanced faction with a penchant for forward firepower. Most inexpensive cruisers in the game.

The Hiver have the slowest travel time to new systems, but their stargates make them terrors on the defense, and if you let them open a gate in your system, be prepared to fight half the Hiver navy.

Liir are the best researchers, and tend to have a tech advantage. They are especially skilled with energy weapons, shields, and bioweapons. Their FTL is called Stutter Warp. It works through millions of tiny teleportations per second. The further from a gravity well the Liir are, the faster they go. Because their ships aren't actually moving, they can change direction on a dime, and advanced versions of the drive, can time a teleport to allow enemy shots to pass through the ship.

The Humans have a very strong economic base, and the fastest straight line speeds for most of the game. Human Node Drive is like using railroads to move your ships, which comes with unique strategic concerns. Humans don't specialize in any particular tech field, but have less expensive dreadnoughts.

The Zuul are perhaps the hardest species in the game to play. They're aggressive, rely on slaves, and use an unstable variant of the human Node Drive. Heavy hitting but fragile, not for new players.

Finally, the Morrigi are crows or dragons depending on who you ask. Their unique FTL gets faster the more ships fly together, but their ships are very slow alone. They specialize in trade as a way to make money, and sport the most advanced drone fighters/bombers of any species.

If you're still here reading this, then this game clearly piques some curiosity. Again. At $10, you're getting the complete game and all "dlc." Albeit old, the game is a cult classic for a reason. If you aren't willing to buy it for $10, check it out when it's on sale. Oh, and if you do play the game, be very careful with AI research. Just saying.