Horizon
Preview
Doesn’t take itself too seriously
by Sergio Brinkhuis
previewed on PC
Progress (cntd)
The diplomatic options are what you would expect, except that there is currently no way to initiate a tech trade. You can give tech away and demand it. Only if another leader asks for a technology are you able to demand a tech in return. It’s still a Beta, so who knows, this feature might make it in for the final release.
A declaration of…
Of course not every diplomatic encounter is of a peaceful nature. Before long, someone will declare war on you and when they do, you need to be prepared. Luckily, I was so I got to try out the game’s turn-based combat sessions. The combat AI is far from finished at this time and sends ships in long lines towards where the action is. Apparently, traffic in space is a one-lane affair as none of the following ships would ever overtake the one heading the line, preferring to wait at the end of it as I slaughtered the front ships one by one. The viewport feels a little claustrophobic, showing only a very small portion of the map at a time. With no ability to zoom out, it is difficult to get an overview of the battlefield. The size of the map can become a little cumbersome when there are multiple fleets arriving to the battle. One fleet may be fully engaged while you spend 15 turns bringing a second fleet into the action. Don’t get me wrong, combat has potential, but I’m hoping we will see some significant changes before the game comes out to bring that potential to the fore.
I’m hoping for similar improvements in the game’s interface. Right now, it is useable but there is a lot of unnecessary clicking in almost every aspect. Moving a fleet from one sector to another requires three clicks, that is two too many. Checking the upgrade status of your planets requires you to fall back to main screen after every sector as there is no way to “scroll” through them one by one. The window that shows the list of planets is precariously small as well as a tad uninformative. Imagine trying to find a good planet for a new shipyard and having to check planets in 30 different sectors to see which one has abundant resources. That’s 60 clicks just for the sectors, if you have 50 planets in them, you can add 20 more clicks to the tally.
Still…
Horizon is a Beta game with a number of shortcomings but very few bugs. Despite that, I found myself switching off my PC at 02:00 last night and I can’t remember the last game that made me stay up that late. Horizon doesn’t take itself too seriously and borrows liberally from Master of Orion, Endless Space and other games, as well as from the cult Sci-Fi series Babylon 5. With better combat AI, the game would be playable and quite enjoyable but I’m really hoping for a few bucket loads of polish before it leaves Beta.
