Man, I wish I had the time & patience to be a beta-tester for this one. I would apply in a heartbeat.
It is compared to star control because it is single player, turn based 4x with real time combat. That is an odd combination since it is hard to satisfy the 4x and the real time crowds at the same time
No, it's not easy, but
Sword of the Stars and
Stardrive 2 both pulled if off. Of course, they fell short in other ways, but they did manage to combine turn-based campaign and real-time battles in a way that was generally fun & engaging.
Counterpoint:
Armada 2526 tried the TBS/RTS combo as well, but with less favorable results. It's still one of my favorite space 4x games overall, but it's definitely not because of the combat (it's admittedly lackluster at best).
Most genre bending releases fail.
I'm not sure we have a large enough sample size from which to draw any real conclusions. Aside from the above-mentioned games, I can think of only a small handful entries in the 4x/grand-strategy genre from the last 25 years that have attempted to meld turn-based empire management with real-time battles.
The major exception, of course, is the Total War franchise, which for all its many faults, is generally well-regarded. I imagine including them in the sample set would throw off the results significantly.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2019, 01:01:57 PM by Martok »
"I like big maps and I cannot lie." - Barthheart
"I drastically overpaid for this existence." - bbmike