Astro Protocol

Astro Protocol is a short-form 4X game you can play in an hour, and it does everything right. This game centers on map exploitation and resource management. You build various stations and terraform planets to exploit adjacency bonuses. You construct ships to scout the map, colonize planets, and analyze anomalies, as well as fight rival empires. You "buy" technologies and "store" them in research labs scattered across the map, which can be captured by the enemy; naturally, you can capture enemy labs yourself as well. Diplomacy is rudimentary, limited to dealing with minor factions you can vassalize with gifts or by catering to their specific hobbies, whereas major factions vying for dominance are perpetually at war. There is a randomized set of objectives you can fulfill to win, or, naturally, you can simply destroy everyone. My review probably looks very dry at this point, and that is because the game itself is dry. It doesn't try to be an evocative, immersive space opera like most titles in the genre. The map and mechanics make zero sense from a realism standpoint: this is a game purely about numbers and adapting to the map you are dealt. The joy comes from seeing a tile surroun…

I actually don't really enjoy this type of game, as it's not my cup of tea, but it is so brilliantly well done that I must go out of my way to recommend it. Games are short, 1-2 hours at the most, and the gameplay is what I'd call "tight" in that you are somewhat constrained in how you expand, making this closer to a chess-like tactical game than an open-ended strategy game where you expand at your leisure and sit on your expansion. The downside of a tight tactical design is that it can get or feel "solved" and thereby stale, which is resolved in this game via randomized game end conditions and techs. Thus, each run promises to keep you interested and engaged by offering a different strategy, both in terms of what goal you're aiming for (victory conditions) and how you're going to get there (different tech options and combat approaches therefrom). Now for the great. The sci-fi feel is captured magnificently through the music and sound effects. I can still hear them in my head right now, and they are so cool. The underlying [i]story[/i] [e.g. of the Protocol] is brilliant and really gets you to think of sci-fi (and spacetime) in a new way. This type of innovative storytelling is w…

Astro Protocol is a game that hits all the spots for me. I'm a big fan of Master of Orion (the original from 1993), and I'm always searching for something that harkens back to that perfect formula of emergent complexity that was MoO1. In Astro Protocol, there is no end game monotony nor time wasted with diplomacy. The victory conditions are as tight or tighter than in MoO1. The games are quick (and quickly decided), so there is no time to get bored. Games are high stakes and there are very few turns that "don't matter" in each game. The fact that games play out so quickly makes it easy to iterate and try new strategies or experiment with new things (like the new custom factions feature). The AI being excellent, thanks to Xilmi/AIL's contribution, also helps make this game endlessly replayable for me. One extra thing I would like to mention is I really love how techs are physically present on the map inside the research labs. So, if you manage to capture an opponent's research lab, they lose access to all the techs and artifacts stored in it, and they all become available to you instead. The same is true of opponents capturing your own research labs. So, it really changes h…

A fun "micro-4x" game which very successfully takes most of the things I love about the behemoth map-painting games like Stellaris, Civ, or Age of Wonders, and compresses it into a format you can complete in an hour. There's three resources, and each of them does something notable and distinct. Resources and upgrades have a nice low resolution to them, where end-game structures might be getting +1, maybe +2 tops to their production, and ships might have 1 or 2 more movement points, but the small board and low cost of structures means that's a huge difference. Combat/offense can sometimes be a slog in these games, where sieging a city or bombarding a planet can take hours. In Astro Protocol, it's as simple as keeping a ship over an inhabited planet for a turn to conveniently return it to a state of Terra Nullius. Each of the different ships has 1 or 2 standout characteristics that let you play tactically without having so many options and stats that it all just fades into mush. Each of the different civs have some traits that are flavorful enough to influence how you play, though they don't introduce much in the way of new mechanics. Overall, it's a satisfying, relaxing strateg…

I really like this game! It has a lot of strategy and ways to win the game. I find it very enjoyable and hope the designers add a DLC or two. I want more.🙂

This is an excellent short-form 4X game. A game can be completed in an evening, although there are customizable options at game setup to make a game shorter, longer, or with a bigger or smaller map, and so on. In addition to the procedurally-generated maps, there are randomized victory conditions and randomized technology trees, as well as customizable alien races, so the game has a lot replayability. Planet terraforming is also well-implemented, with many available planet types. The AI is well-programmed and able to give the human player a good challenge, even without playing at difficulties that give it extra bonuses. The game works at both the turn-based tactics level, as well as the more grand strategy 4X aspect. The devs are active and open suggestions, which is also highly commendable. A definite recommend for 4X or strategy fans.