Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy

Review

June 4th, 2015 by Matt Porter

reviewed on PC

WELL, WHADDYA KNOW?

I usually avoid saying �I was pleasantly surprised� by games because I like to give things the benefit of the doubt before trying them. But a game with a name like Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy had me snoring before I had finished reading it. I had to look it up just now to make sure I actually got the name right. Well, you should never judge a book by its cover, and in the same way you should never judge a game by its name. I was pleasantly surprised by Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy.

If you know about board games such as Star Wars: Armada and its ilk, then you�ll have a good idea of how Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy works. It�s a turn based space combat game, and you�re never really certain of what your opponent will do next, because both sides plan out their turns at the same time. The planning phase is immediately followed by a real time section where you watch the turn play out. If you�ve swerved to avoid an incoming ship, but they�ve had the same idea as you and made the same maneuver, then you�re going to crash and there�s nothing you can do about it.

FUN IN MICROMANAGEMENT

It�s Star Hammer�s style of combat that appealed to the board game lover in me. You have free camera control over the entire battlefield, and as much time as you want to plan out your turn. On top of that, the game allows you to be meticulous. It has one of the better implementations of power diversion and shield management I�ve seen in a game. You have a triangle with Shields, Weapons, and Engines at the points, and you move a marker around inside it to divert power around. Additionally there�s another menu for shield power. If you�ve taken a lot of damage to your left shields, you may want to divert power there to compensate, but this will decrease shield power in other areas so you have to predict where the next attack will be coming from.

As for weapons,again there�s micromanagement here. A ship will have a certain number of weapons, and you can set targeting priorities for each individual one. You might want to target the closest enemy, or the one that�s on the least health, and so on. Some ships will have missiles or countermeasures which you will need to target manually. You can even ram opponents if things get particularly desperate. As for engines, the more power you divert to them, the faster you can move and turn. This is represented by a movement arc, which gets bigger if you can move faster within a turn. There are in fact five planes of movement, which you can move up and down between, so these battles can become quite complex 3D affairs, particularly in the later parts of the game.

Bear in mind that you�re doing all of this for every ship in your fleet, and those numbers will increase as the game goes on. Also bear in mind that a turn only lasts a matter of seconds, so you�ll be doing this a lot over the course of just one mission. Of course you don�t have to micromanage every subsystem each turn, but it�s nice to have that level of detail available if required. For the most part you can use the standard settings and just focus on moving your ships to advantageous positions. Getting a battering from one side? Turn and face the other way. All becoming a bit much? There�s no shame in retreating for a while until your shields recharge. Divert power to the engines and get moving.

A BIT MORE POLISH

Sadly the complexity is limited to the combat. When it comes to story, we�re back in the realms of generic sci fi. There are a few different factions, one of which is an alien race who have synthetic ships. There are invasions, and skirmishes, and missing ships, and the like. It�s all been done before and to make matters worse, it�s not delivered all that well. Everything is told via a dialogue that ticks over in the top corner that�s quite easy to completely miss or ignore. You can click it open and read through the conversations at your leisure, but there was nothing there to grip me. Graphically, Star Hammer looks fine, albeit a bit bland. That�s part of the problem of a game set in space though, how do you make it look exciting? The spaceships are pretty basic in their design, the weapons aren�t very flashy, and the UI could do with snazzing up a bit, but none of it is bad.

BLENDING IN FLEETS

Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy is a game that�s held up by its gameplay, which is better than being held up by pretty graphics. It�s a game for the patient, as you�ll be spending a lot of time paused and micromanaging. It�s a shame that it doesn�t look better, and that there isn�t a more compelling story to it all. If these are things that could be worked into a sequel, it could be something quite special. For now, it slips comfortably in with other sci fi strategy titles.

7.0

fun score

Pros

A great blend of tactical gameplay followed by a quick burst of action.

Cons

Bland visuals and story. Can become repetitive.