Sid Meier's Starships

Fast-paced and accessible are not words commonly used to describe turn-based strategy games, but Sid Meier’s latest is a fun, breezy strategic time killer.

It's clear that the development team at Firaxis spent a great deal of time putting together a robust ship combat game, and I love seeing my ships evolve as I attach add-ons. But even though the space ship combat is challenging and fun, I don't think it has a lot of long-term appeal. The supporting strategy elements in Starships are too shallow and there's no cohesive narrative holding things together. Although there are pirates and marauders around, and they show up in missions, there don't appear to be any random events to help shake up gameplay. There's just ship combat, and all the upgrades...

Sid Meier’s Starships’ battles held my attention for a handful of games, after which point the tactical AI’s behavior became exploitable and the strategic layer became too muddled and unpredictable. So I say so long to Starships after a brief time, but I’ll always remember its neato torpedoes. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Dan Stapleton is IGN's Reviews Editor. You can follow him on Twitter to hear all about how awesome PC gaming is, plus a healthy dose of random Simpsons references.

Sid Meier's Starships provides a simplified, portable gameplay snippet of the series turn-based gameplay that ultimately makes it a difficult recommend for Civilization fans. While the game was clearly designed for a tablet, there is still some entertainment to be found in brief gameplay sessions. Yet, it's impossible not to take into account there are far superior strategy games on PC that make Starships an even less-desiring title to play.

All and all, Sid Meier's Starships on the PC turns out to be a mixed bag of mostly sour elements. It’s a nice distraction and even a good bit of fun depending on how much you enjoy space combat titles, but only if you go in knowing full well that this is a port a mobile game, absent of much the charm and detail we’ve come to expect from Sid Meier titles. In concept, this game is a fantastic way to build upon the fledgling Beyond Earth legacy, but in function, this game feels like a cheaper version of another Sid Meier's Starships that was never actually made.

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Economies of space and scale, and neither trickles down.