Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy

This review is a tough one, because I wanted to like this game - a lot. The concept is a really nifty thing: Deliver tactical-pause mechanics to the same genre occupied by, say, "Homeworld." In a trailer it looks VERY cool. Guide the trajectories of fighters, use 3D space to your advantage, set up some killer pincer movements, and just generally have some real control. That's the promise. The reality is slow, clunky, and - strategically - just like everything else. Mass your firepower, and just hammer the problem until it goes away. The 3D nature of the game IS important. You should organize your fleet such that your ships are unlikely to bump into each other. Past that, though, maneuvering for the optimal shot is a giant pain, and a waste of time. WIth any decently mobile enemy, chasing them down and specifying them as a designated target is an exercise in near futility. You'll end up just going around in circles or "S" curves, all the while being chewed up by whatever is not the d...

I wanted to like this game, but there's certain things missing from it which I can't forgive in a game like this. All the weapons fire look the same, just with different colours. It can't be difficult to design a different shape salvo for different weapons. As it stands most battles look like a few ships with a rainbow crying in the middle of them. There's a crap load of salvage missions, mostly escorting some frigate to a wreck through a series of waypoints that are entirely irrelevant because everything on the map moves to attack you from the very start, and when they're all dead the mission is complete, making them waypointless. However, you don't actually hear about anything that's been salvaged. You get no equipment or new tech or anything from it. There's a variety of different hardpoints on ships with different weapons on them. Good. However, there's no upgrades or chance of anything new or different. What's on them is what's on them until the end. Providing variety for this ...

Greetings fellow spaceship warfare enthusiast! Starhammer: TVP as i will shorthand it, is a well designed space naval combat game. I say naval because you do fight on a 2D plane with 3 "layers" pretending at "height" and "depth". Your ships can move up and down but it does matter very little in th end as far as combat tactics go, its more useful to avoid colissions (oh yes, you can ram and be rammed). A clever tactician might abuse this by flying low or high all the time and using the dorsal or ventral shielding arcs as cheap shield batteries,. but you do not have that nugget from me, no sir you do not. Combat itself plays out turn based, insofar you give your ships movement and firing orders and rebaance power levels to match the game situation then hit "play" and the "turn" will proceed in quite adorably cinematic manner, you can watch the shooting and enjoy, you will not be faced with twitch reaction requirements. The combat does move in rahter similar routes once you have ea...

Read danny_maland's review (most helpful) to contrast with this. Similar points, he barely gave a thumbs down, I barely give a thumbs up. TL;DR: Spacy. Combines elements for a story above its price. Gameplay gets more challenging and more complex as the game progresses. About 20 total ship types in game between two factions. Many bugs. No voiceovers. If they had more time or budget, this could have rivalled Homeworld. Longer version, but I'll try to keep points short. Story guy did his/her job (too lazy to look up credits). People have personalities. The world has politics. Everybody has a motive for their actions. Story in a game is important to me; this one shows a world. Graphics did their job. Limited number of ships, but they look nice. Weapons are visible and are indicated when changing firing behavior. Worked well with story team: one station looks like a giant ship, fleet admiralty intended it that way. Combat designers did their job. We-go/turned based system that plays o...

It's the Star Wars Armada Miniatures game on the PC and it's great. I've played the first 3 missions and found it really interesting. You can rebalance your shields, use special abilities (missiles so far), aimed fire or auto fire for your normal guns and there's firing arcs that you need to position the enemy in while trying to position yourself outside the enemies firing arcs as much as possible. Turn based combat where the decisions are made and then the results are played out for a set period of real time. accidental collisions must be monitored and avoided and you can use the vertical axis to dodge as well. With so many well implemented components this is a game to take your time learning and then enjoy playing AI skirmish matches afterwards. Only thing it seems to be missing is Multiplayer. If it had that it would be an absolute must buy game. As it is I still recommend it as a great implementation of strategic space ship combat.

Hate the campaign. Fell in love with the skirmish mode. Took a ginormous fleet into battle, limped away an hour later with a single smoking frigate and a huge grin. Disappointed in the complete lack of customization options. Really Slitherine, I would have loved to tinker with the ship designs, or at least the weapon loadouts.

Do you like Battlefleet Gothic? How about any of the other tactical table top fleet games? Then you'll love this game. I've been waiting SO LONG for a tactical fleet game. There are a ton of 4x games (and they are cool) but I wish their combat was like Star Hammer. Thank you so much Slitherine for making this game, I will be putting many hours into.

Lacking in depth. There are only 8 ships and you cannot customize your characters or ship loadouts. You will never command more than 8 ships at a time, so if you are looking for large scale fleet command, this isn't for you. Combat is challenging and demands tactical foresight as there is no "rock paper scissors" system. Superior formation of your strike force (I wouldn't call it a fleet) and overall positioning is what gets you the win, so in that regard, the game has done a fantastic job fundamentally as a strategy game. Enemy ship types do not vary too much so once you learn their abilities and targeting preferences you will quickly become bored if you dislike the idea of dfficulty stemming from larger enemy engagements and special situations like escorting a freighter or becoming surrounded within the first few turns of combat, rather than new enemy types. I'd recommend it if you got it for $7.50 or less but full price does not deliver what your typical GOOD indie game does for ...

Overall I've enjoyed what I've played of the game. The more I've played it the more its grown on me. At this point I'd give it an 8/10. I doesn't come across as anything revolutionary but its a pretty solid game. It mixes neat elements like ships only being able to fire in a limited number of directions with turn based gameplay. So its kind of like naval combat in some of the Total War games (and probably other games) I guess in that sense. Combat also reminds me of the combat in Space Rangers 2 mixed in with the graphics and feel of Star Wolves 3. I've only played the first five missions but so far story wise they seemed alright. Just alright though. I'm hoping at this point it evolves into something a bit more substancial because its coming across as being pretty generic. Ultimately, its a turn based game. So if you aren't into that kind of thing you probably shouldn't buy it. Most of the negatives I have about the game are more nitpicking on my part on ways it could be improved. ...

This game at first reminded me of chess in space, star wolves and space ranger with a bit of homeworld, but now after i have played it for a while it's more like X-COM except with star ships. You need to put a lot of thought into your moves or you can screw yourself. You have to watch your play style and not be too agressive imo or you can screw yourself later on when the reinforcements and reload on ammo aint coming. Very polished game with excellent sound and music. Easy Tutorial takes you right into it giving you what you need to know with out over complicating things. Easy Med Hard play settings. The Story so is pretty good, your play style in combat change the way the story finishes so i believe. There are muliple story path depending what kind of captain you are. You find crew members that lvl up skill paths you choose. They also build bonds between each other that gives bonus to your fleet if your crew is getting along. Another thing that i find interesting is t...