Grab The Games: Interplanetary

Imagine war not between countries but between planets. Interplanetary is a game depicting such a war, putting planets against each other in state of perpetual, total war. The game is at the moment in Early Access, it is already very playable and stable (although it did hang for me when alt-tabbing) but it is missing a very noticeable feature AI. The developer has assured me, that the game will get a computer opponent in the upcoming months, and it seems he wants it to be a proper AI, able to provide a challenge, not just some form of a tutorial. At the moment you can battle other players over the internet, LAN or in hotseat mode. Speaking about Early Access, I simply loved the fact that on its main screen the game had a link to a survey, where players can answer questions about technical issues, game balancing and what they would like to see in the future. This is a very nice approach, sure, going to a forum and posting there is not a heroic undertaking (and btw the dev does read the forum and reply), but this gives a nice incentive to express your opinions and makes everything neat and structured, I feel that other developers could take a leaf out of Interplanetary's book.

The games tech tree is well laid-out and clear to read.

Let's now have a look at the gameplay. Each player starts with one planets orbiting the same sun. On each planet there are some cities, destroying these will be your goal. The game progresses through turns, during each the players build new structures on their planets, research new technologies, use intelligence to spy on their enemies and aim their weapons. When each player finishes their turn all the weapons are fired and we progress to the next turn. Everything is very straight forward, the UI is clear (I particularly liked how nicely it showed the energy and material consumption of placing a structure) and you'll be able to learn how to play it really quickly. While the turn based nature may be associated by some with a really slow gameplay, the turns here usually end very quickly and the game has a very good pacing, even with 4 players, I never felt too bored waiting for my turn to come, in 2 player games, the waiting is almost not felt at all. I am not sure if I played enough to see how all the balancing between techs plays out but it seems to be well done, with enough choice to be interesting, but with no clearly winning choices. The first time you actually manage to hit something (especially if you are the first one to do it) can be very exciting and satisfying, and after finishing the first match I felt clear enjoyment.

The building interface shows very clearly what you are doing.

Where my doubts lay is the longevity of the game. How many times you can replay it and have fun? It is not a game which you take 30 hours to finish, and finishing it once is enough, clearly it is a game which should be replayed. I hope the game will have more challenges in the future, more gameplay modes that will make each game at least a little different. Even Worms have puzzle maps, campaigns etc. The foundations of Interplanetary are very solid, for an early access game it is really promising, but I have to say, that should its development stop here I would find it somewhat lacking. All in all it is a very interesting game to watch, and if you are a person who likes to have some influence over a game's development buying into its early access may be a good idea.

Mikolaj W.