You’re in control of a fleet of spaceships, that are loaded with space torpedoes and laser weapons.

But Starships has no depth to it whatsoever. He’s stuck his name on a couple of projects that have real value in recent years – Civilization Revolution was a clever “quick play” take on his main franchise, and games like Ace Patrol, while tactical rather than strategic in nature, show a creativity with the mechanics that manage to offer something fresh and worthy. If he keeps producing games like Starships he’ll find himself quickly forgotten. Throw in Total War’s development as a RTS with grand strategy ambitions of its own, and Meier is no longer sitting on a pedestal by himself. But then Europa Universalis happened and Civilization’s direction started to veer towards something with a more universal appeal. Back before Europa Universalis was a thing, the Civilization series was the kind of game that armchair generals with dreams of world domination would glue themselves to for weeks at a time. I am of course talking about Sid Meier, who was responsible for the Civilization franchise.

That a man that has been so foundational to the strategy genre would lend his name to nonsense like this is nothing short of depressing. Sid Meier’s Starships is so poor it actually physically hurts me.

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