One hundred years in the future, Earth and the colonists on Mars have had a falling out.  Earth has the numbers, but Mars has pulled ahead in the technology race, leaving the foes evenly matched.  After some fierce fighting, Earth and Mars find themselves facing a joint threat in the form of a mysterious alien force.  Putting their differences aside they unite to face the invaders.  It may be a story that's been done to death in science fiction circles, which is not that big of a deal as long as the gameplay delivers.  In this case it actually reduces the number of unique missions you get out of the campaigns.  The Earth and Martian campaigns include a few missions that take place during their war, but these are shorter, almost tutorial-like, missions.  Once the aliens show up on the scene, the campaigns are identical.

Jupiter flyby.

Hegemonia is a 3D real-time strategy game created by the developers of Imperium Galactica I and II.  The game's pedigree is apparent in the fact that it places a higher emphasis on research and production than on combat, the opposite of other games in the genre such as Homeworld.  However, the economic side of things is very streamlined, making it simple to set up colonies, set their production levels, and add a few trade routes - a "set and forget" economy.  Research takes a bit more effort, primarily because research is conducted by spending a limited number of research points.  These points are fixed by the game, so you'll need to make strategic choices about the direction of your research.  While there are a fair amount of technologies available, their effects take place behind the scenes.  Your ships will look pretty much the same no matter which technology is installed, but they will dispatch the enemy faster with higher tech weapons.

The primarily hands-free economic control is mirrored in the game's combat as well.  Space in the game is three dimensional, and ships can move in free space along all three axes.  However, it is tough to give your ships orders in the 3D view, especially during combat.  Instead it is far easier to control your ships from the 2D strategic map which provides a top down projection of local space.  From here you can select ships and issue movement and attack orders much more efficiently and easily.  In fact, you'll spend most of the game in this view and only switch to the 3D view when you want to enjoy the spectacle of a battle in progress.

The problem with this is that a 3D space strategy game plays out as a 2D icon-shuffling game.  There are no fleet formations and all of the action basically takes place on a 2D plane.  Most of the time you will select your fleets, direct their movements, and then sit and wait for them to arrive at their destination.  Even with time accelerated to the maximum quadruple speed, the ships move slowly and take some time to arrive at their destination.  Combat involves selecting a fleet icon and then clicking on an enemy fleet icon, but even this interaction is unnecessary.  Fleets have a radius of sight and as soon as an enemy enters that radius, the fleet will move to attack.  You can select from three aggression levels for your fleets, but the default aggressive mode will let your fleets take care of any marauders without any interaction from you. 

Page 2 »