Lords of the Black Sun Review

I’m a really big fan of strategy games, both real-time and turn-based, although the first style is my preference. The golden days for this genre for me personally were when I was growing up in the 90s, you had some of my favourites like the earlier installments of the Command and Conquer series, KKND: Krossfire and the unbeatable Populous: The Beginning. Now since the 90s a lot of people have tried to make games in the strategy genre and failed miserably, notably the Game of Thrones strategy game and C&C 4 after EA made it unit based; I mean half the fun of C&C was building a mass supply of special weapons and laser turrets to unleash hell on your enemy. However I have enjoyed the odd game released post 90s such as the King’s Bounty games which have stuck to their tried and tested methods and also the King’s Bounty rip off Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the Dragonbone Staff which was released on the PS2 in 2001. So what will the fate of Lords of the Black Sun be? Is it going to take off like a rocket to the dying stars, or is it to be thrown in a chest that gets filled with concrete and chucked into the sea never to be heard of again?

Sadly there is no real story to the game, but it does mean rather than having a linear path to follow that gets you from start to finish and restricts replayability, there is the potential for you to play several times and it plan out differently every time. That said there is a quick introduction to the game which explains that the sun is dying and therefore life on Earth will die out. Then out of the blue, and in perfect time, an Alien race turns up and helps the Human race evolve and teaches them ways to survive under a black sun. Having managed to live and sustain life on a planet with no sun, man goes on to master space travel and explore the galaxy, and as usual where man goes, war follows.

Then begins the game; you select to be one of 8 major races, I stuck with human on my playthrough because I like to think I’d rule a good empire. Next you can choose how many of the remaining races you want to play against and at what difficulty level each of the AIs are, allowing you to mix it up so there are a couple of tougher opponents whilst still have some that you can easily dominate. The point of having different races is that each has their own benefits and disadvantages and that they all have access to different technologies and abilities. So you’d expect that every time you replay the game you are able to give yourself a whole new challenge as you have to adapt your style to play the game. Unfortunately for me though having played it once I wouldn’t want to play it again, because the game doesn’t deliver on the potential it has. Instead of becoming a game that you can see yourself replaying again and again whilst never getting bored of it, there are just too many parts of this game that really lack any oomph.

The tutorial was boring but that is to be expected in many games as it is just a quick way to help you grasp basic controls so I never judge a game on that. Unfortunately that feeling followed through to the main game as well because there wasn’t a lot for you to do, it was a very basic and simple set up which can sometimes be a good thing, but when it feels just like a generic 4x turn based strategy game with nothing special that stands out and says “look at me I’m an individual, one-of-a-kind” it starts to dig a hole in the pile of potential the game has. Which is the last thing you expect when the developers say this is a game which is both “epic” and “complex”. I was hoping that as I got more involved in the game maybe something would pop out and make me start taking notice, as if it was trying to ease me into the action.

At times there were glimpses of that happening as I saw a glimmer of hope with things like the political system because you could go into diplomatic negotiations with other groups such as pirates and use threatening tones to try and force them into submitting to your demands. There was also the ability to create social policies for those under your rule, an obvious one for me being from the UK was free healthcare for all because no matter if you’re rich or poor I believe everyone should have the right to living a full and healthy life. For those less kind than myself you can take down opposing empires and keep slaves to do all the dirty work in your empire, or if your numbers are dwindling maybe introduce child labour to help kick start our economy, I mean it worked in Victorian England, why not space?

However that was about as close to living up to the potential that the game got because things like the combat system were very lacklustre. You enter a battle and it’s a typical grid based system where your ships can move so far each turn, have a certain range to fire upon the enemy and so on. Unfortunately it is nothing to rave on about and I’ve seen better and more innovative systems used on some empire management games that you can get on your phone. Depending on the way you play the game you won’t have to suffer combat often because you are able to solve most issues diplomatically within the game which is good in that it teaches people you don’t need violence to resolve your problems, although it helps to have a big army to back up your threats.

Another positive which goes with the potential of multiple races meaning the game can be different each time you play is that the map is randomly generated as well so you’ll never play the same map twice, and as the maps are rather large it means there is a lot to explore if you wish to. Unfortunately the graphics aren’t the easiest on the eye, I mean ok they aren’t the most important thing in a game, but if a game doesn’t feel fun like this the at least make it look good, especially when you’re charging a premium price in terms of PC Games. I mean it’s £22.99 on steam and you can get AAA games for that price which you can rely on being a bit of good fun, good looking and that won’t feel like you’ve wasted your money.

The game also boasts that it has an AI that doesn’t cheat because it acts human. Now this raised two things in my mind; firstly that I knew I wasn’t crazy when I was five years old and I’d throw a hissy fit because I couldn’t complete a level on a game as “it was cheating”. Secondly is that humans do cheat, so to say it won’t cheat as it thinks like a human to me means it is now going to cheat more because it is thinking like a human and thus a paradox is created. Luckily if you can’t bring yourself to trust this human thinking AI you can just play against other humans online or over a LAN thanks to the games multiplayer mode. But beware because playing against people means it can be harder to manipulate them than it is a computer, which could lead to more combat scenarios so you may have to adapt your tactics.

So overall, this is a game that has potential but unfortunately it sends that potential in a package and it never gets delivered. It shows some signs of hope with the political system and its randomly generated maps but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before this game is worth anywhere near its price tag. It has all the components and ideas to be a great game but the three things the developers describe the game as couldn’t be more wrong. It is not “epic” but mediocre at best, it is not “complex” as any options that show potential to be are very much limited and black and white (more variety needed), then finally it isn’t “dense” because the game feels somewhat empty as I guess being in space would because again due to a lack of variety. If you like these type of games like me, you will be disappointed. It may be worth trialing if it came down in price but as it stands you’re better off visiting some older games or even free to play browser games instead.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.