Advisors at the End of the Universe

I was given a review copy on the condition I write an honest review, focusing on constructive criticism. After playing the game I think, at the risk of seeming like an access journalist, that this game deserves my recommendation. Conditionally. Summary: Advisors at the End of the Universe (AEU for short) is a somewhat indirect 4X game akin to Master of Orion but played in real-time, the most comparable game of this sort being The Last Federation, by Arcan Games. The premise is that you are an advisor guiding an interstellar empire to one of five types of victory, most of them peaceful. You directly choose what facilities (as well as WMDs and agents) are built, what technologies are researched, and what your empire’s culture will be. Everything else, particularly colonization, trade, and war, is handled by the AI. Gameplay is short, more like a MOBA than a 4X; a long playthrough will take around 40 minutes, similar to Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, but only if you’re doing any good. Otherwise you’ll lose mercifully fast. Problems: In its current state the game lacks user friendliness, which for a $10 casual game can be a deal breaker. The specific issues are below…

I loved this game! Although a bit complex at first, the game runs almost perfectly and is supposed to be getting constant updates. I definitely will recommend to anyone who loves micromanaging or just anyone who wants to try another type of "conquer the world" (well in this case universe) type of game.

I've been a fan of RTS's and other strategy games before I was even in school, starting out with Age of Empires and various flash Tower Defense games. I've always enjoyed the gleeful feeling of winning these because you need to get beaten down a few times unless you know the game properly; You're not likely to win by pure luck. And that's exactly the case; You will be beaten to a pulp the first few times you play. There's no going around it. It's taken me five hours of gameplay (About 10 matches) before I finally found a good build order and way to use my agents to build things for me so I can win a single victory; Dominating my enemies via warfare and buying them out. Which may I say is quite the nice touch. You're not just destroying millions in planetary disasters and conquest at all times, you can be buying them out because they aren't fully equipped economically. That way you don't need to just focus on military. The main thing to enjoy about Advisers is that it's a mixture of semi-idle and micro-managing your agents and advisers to build things for you so you do not need to click on each territory you own to build something, send in a spy or inflict a plague on your enemy…

P gud. Not bad, has some things that may need some tweaks, but otherwise good game.

Good game