Slipways

I love 4X games. I also love Science fiction, so make a science fiction 4X game and I am there like a....a....very fast thing.  And that's how I ended up buying this game called Slipways that advertised itself as a 4X game you could play a session of within 30-60 minutes.

Slip on through to the other side!  ...wait it's Break on through.  Damn.

Slipways is a simple game: you colonize planets and then connect them through the titular slipways to level them up to make more money to repeat the process.  

To start with, you have just a wormhole to send probes through to scan signals for potential planets to colonize.  Some signals can turn out to be space station ruins, asteroids, or nothing at all.  However, near the wormhole there are tons of planets so at first you are spoilt for choice on what to colonize and what planetary specialization the colonized planet should be.

Each planet makes a certain export product but need a import product to go beyond the level 1 of 'struggling'.  Once they've got a import of the kind they require, for example mining planets require people to level up, they go to 'established'.  If you manage to export the product of the planet to 2 other planets and have two imports, plus supply the needed new products to level up, it becomes 'successful'  Level 4, the final level of a planet is 'prosperous', and it requires 6 imports or exports, and has to be connected to 3 'successful' planets as well.  

level 1 planets are a drain on your money and happiness of the sector of space your colonizing.  Not fixing level 1 planets means that the already bad situation will just get worse, but level 2 planets provide good income, level 3 even more, and level 4 the most.  They also provide more score, which is how your measured up at the end of the 25 years of the game session.  Luckily, time only moves forward when you do an action, eg, colonize a planet that takes 3 months, time move forward 3 months and then stops until you do another action.  Even better, most actions can be undone at a click of a button, except for scanning for planets, which can't be undone.

The game also has a tech tree, which you can research techs by building space station labs in the session, but the actual techs you can research are chosen by the council species you pick.  At the start of the game you pick 3 out 5 possible species to be on your council, which affects the techs you have, the types of starter perks you get, and what kind of missions you'll get to improve score will be given.  There is a science based council race, a industry one, a trade one, a food/ecology one, and a mining/resource gathering/exploration one. So you can somewhat cater to what playstyle you like.

The game starts with the campaign locked until you get a 3 star score rating.  And while the game is easy to play, it's extremely difficult to master.  My personal example, is that I didn't know leveling up planets was the way to win big points at the end of the game, as well as stop happiness from falling so far that the people in the sector kick you out before your 25 year term is up.  So I failed at least a dozen times my first dozen tries.

The game is also addictive in a weird way.  I have 10 hours on it at least, although some of that was in offline mode on steam, so who knows how many I played.  While it can be frustrating, I found it a relaxing in a way, and it became more so once I figured out the mechanics.  

Unfortunately it is not a 4x game, for several reasons, one of which is the total lack of competition ingame, but it's still a good game, so I give it 4 stars out of 5 for what it is.  Unfortunately it's a short experience, with most sessions being under 20 minutes for me, and I also don't see myself playing it again anytime soon, but it was only 16 or so dollars for me, and I think it's well worth the price.

That's all for now, see you next review!

Humankind

 I love Amplitude studios.  As I mentioned in Sid Meiers Civilization: Beyond Earth review, I like 4X games but hate civilization the game series.  Mostly it was just the setting I didn't like, so I was happy to take different settings with the exact same gameplay, but then Endless Legend from Amplitude was released.

A little backstory, before Endless Legend was Endless Space, which was a space 4x game, 4x games being where you control a nation or empire against other nations or empires.  Endless Space 1 was, honestly, safe.  It was good, but it didn't change things up much.

Endless Legend, set in the same universe but as a planet based fantasyish 4X game, did however.  It rocked my world, with each faction playing completely differently, eight to begin with, cities that actually expanded and grew into new tiles, and a research 'tree' that could have people select completely different techs but still be comparable in power.  I'll go into the details more when or if I ever review Endless Legend, but it was awesome.  Endless Space 2 was even better.

So when I heard Amplitude was going for Civilizations throne by making a historical 4x game, you bet I was interested.  I wishlisted that on steam so fast, and eagerly bought it when it was avlaible, and started playing.

Boy, was I in for some bad whiplash.  But more on that later, this is Humankind, the video game.

Whoa.  Someone broke the Time line bad.

Humankind starts with you making your avatar, and then starting a game immediately with no main menu in between, though there is one after you have started the game a second time.  As a character creator fanatic, I loved making my leader look good, even if I couldn't change the clothes.

Each game in Humankind starts with all players in the Neolithic era.  This means you just have a single tribe who will in this era look for food to grow and curiosity to understand the universe better.  Also you can kill animals wandering the land to earn fame stars as well.

Fame stars are in Humankind the way you get to the next era, one out of seven, including the Neolithic era.  While in the rest of the game you can get a total of three from each category of fame, those being researching new tech, growing population, building districts, expanding territory, making money, gaining the resource Influence, and killing enemy units.  In the Neolithic era, you only gain one star from three categorys, killing animals, growing more tribesmen, or finding enough curiositys in the game.  

This is my first problem with the game.  while it's nice to start off as a nomadic tribe and explore the area before setting up your first city, getting to the Ancient era, where game play properly begins, is extremely luck based in how fast you get there.  I wouldn't mind if I could skip the neothlitc era, but that's not an option in making a game session.

To win the game, though you can change how to win certain games slightly when you make one, you need to earn the most fame.  you usually earn fame through the aforementioned stars, but can earn them building great wonders of construction, doing a deed before other empires, and discovering natural wonders.  

When you get to the Ancient era, you pick a civilization, which gives one unique unit, one unique district to be built in your cities, and a unique passive that stays with your empire even when you change civilizations again at the start of another era.  On top of that, each civilization comes in a category that aligns with the categorys of fame stars I already mentioned, research, population gain, building districts, etc.  These, uh, ideologies come with their own set of bonuses, a passive and an active one you must activate.  For example, the ideologily of an expansionist not only gains more fame by grabbing territory, but also can enter other empires borders even when borders are closed. The Empires leaders won;t be happy about that, but you can do it.  

This brings me to diplomacy: Its works, but it's a bit...simple.  while it's nice you don't have to spend influence, a resource in Humankind that is gained in cities and used to make more cities and grab more land, when you are being diplomatic with other empires.  The feature I was most excited for is the badge system, which changes the empires AI personality and gives thme some passive traits that help in some way.  But it's a pain in the ass to get most badges, with me having to look up how to even unlock them.

Cities can build different districts to expand, along with building, well, buildings that don't expand the city but still help it.  Some districts, like the farmers quarter, only gives food and ignores forests or rock fields for industry, and you'll need a makers quarter to exploit those.  I liked the different quarters or districts you could make, and the unique ones were always a welcome addition to any city.

Unfortunately that's the last nice thing I have to say about Humankind.  there's two more major gameplay features I haven't even touched on yet, but I also found out they were entirely pointless to begin with.  That is Religion and Culture.  Culture is spread to other cities and territories even to enemy cities and territories, by building things that make influence.  Religion is spread through making holy sites once you unlock that feature.  The religion you follow and the culture/civics you follow gives you mild bonuses.  But, they don't give you fame or stars, or, really, anything at all.  The most you'll find is that if your culture is being subverted by another empire, you'll just have to get different civics occasionally from the ones you choose, but there so mild differences in them it's not even worth choosing civics or starting a religion most of the time.

Above all, Humankind, the magnum opus of Amplitude, as they've described it...strikes me as a very safe, kinda dull additon to the 4X genre.  I stopped playing and uninstalled Humankind after a mere 22 hours.  in Endless Legend, I have over a 1000 hours played on that game.  What happened?

I don't know, and I refuse to hypothesize, but I will give this a 2.5 stars out of 5.  but it was a close call to give it just 2 stars.  Anyway, hoping to get a new review out soon.  See you all next time.