(Yes, you can blow up planets and stars!)
It’s at least as comprehensive as some classic turn-based titles, and there’s some pretty impressive end-game technology. I was pleasantly surprised that the fact Star Ruler is real-time has not at all taken away from the depth in the research tree. You can queue research by CTRL-clicking on a tech or node and the currently researching technology is always at the top-left of your screen, as well as the ETA to completion so this is all fairly easy to manage. There are quite a few different research areas, each focusing on different aspects of your empire. Players can choose to research links rather than the area of technology, but the result is random – although this can be changed in the game settings. Some research areas are locked however, and can only be researched once the correct ‘link’ as been established from an existing research area. There are various research areas, each unlocking different ship subsystems and planetary structures or improving upon older ones. Star Ruler handles research a little differently from most 4x games, and I found it quite a refreshing approach. So let’s look into the various elements that make a good 4x sci-fi game, and see how Star Rules handles each. It’s best seen to really appreciate the effort that has gone into this aspect of the game. The engine has been developed in-house by Blind Mind Studios, and it’s really quite an impressive piece of work. The game can be played single player, against AI opponents (which give you a pretty hard time!) as well as against other players in multi-player. When I say the scale is enormous, I do mean it! You can zoom in and out absolutely seamlessly from a ship, to a system view, to a portion of a galaxy, to the universe, etc. Observant players will also notice comets zooming around the star systems, and moons orbiting planets. The stars are very pretty and the planets have visible atmospheres and land masses. Personally, I was very impressed with the universe itself. The only real limit on the size of the universe and the number of ships is your hardware. Star Rules plays entirely in real-time and the sense of scale is absolutely enormous. The start of these games is usually pretty similar: You build scout ships to explore the systems around you, and colony ships to colonise worlds of strategic interest. Unfortunately, several other planets are in exactly the same state – thus starting a race for global domination. This planet is pretty well built up and your civilization has just entered the space age. The player starts with one planet, usually referred to as the ‘Home World’. Star Ruler follows the same basic concept as most games in this genre.
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