Space Conquer Review: I Have A Bigger Spaceship Than You
By Vincent Haoson (Vincenthaoson), OnRPG Journalist
Space Conquer is a browser based MMO made by PLAYNITUDE. The game centers on building up your colony to eventually become the strongest leader on your little planet. The game boasts that it’s the first of its kind to incorporate space to land warfare without having a graphically heavy interface.
Something new?
When it comes to space browser games, the warfare that happens is usually exclusively done either in space or in the planet’s surface. While there is a browser game that does have land and space warfare as part of its battle system it does have separate space and land units. However, in Space Conquer the lines of space and land battles have been erased and your units can now attack another player regardless of where they are. Spaceships can destroy land based fortifications unlike in other browser games where you need to have land units to do such things. The battle system really is not that much of an upgrade. You still have a game that has the same goal as the other space-centered browser games, manage, earn and conquer.
Interface
The game’s interface is heavily interlaced with images and some animated graphics. This is quite a sight especially if you are used to browser games with minimal support from the interface graphic-wise. You see that the interface is not just your point-and-click text type of browser game. Normally, a browser game that is graphics heavy is a welcome change from the usual text heavy browser games. The downside of this kind of browser game is that the heavy graphics would take its toll in the gameplay.
The problems of a heavy graphics game are not lost in Space Conquer. As expected, the game time is slower compared to other less graphically heavy games. The transition in-between actions in the game are slow compared to what it would normally take. Although the inconvenience is minor they would eventually annoy you if you play the game long enough.
Still Incomplete
There are areas in the game that are still not translated and that there are still grammatical errors found riddling the game. This would never really affect your overall experience but if you really like to nit-pick the little details then it would sure to annoy you a lot.
The translation and grammar issues that riddle the game are just one reason to see the game in a bad light especially considering that the game is catering to the international gaming crowd where English is the primary language of communication. This only shows that the game still needs a lot of fixing.
Game Balance
Space Conquer has no game balance issues whatsoever. Normally, browser games offer a big advantage for players who buy their premium service because the game is first and foremost a business. However Space Conquer does not really offer any large advantages to the paying player all except for a measly 10% increase in various aspects of the game. The game does provide certain features that are blocked from the free-to-play players such as the fight simulator and simplified interfaces. However these add-ons are merely for comfort and convenience more than army strength increase.
Though it may be seen that it would be a waste for anyone to invest money on such minor increases, it is a good thing gameplay-wise that there is very little difference between paying players and free to play. This gives those who choose not to pay a fighting chance against the paying players.
Conclusion
For a game that boasts of having something new in the genre, the game feels more generic. The overall gameplay is similar to majority of games being released which have the same theme. The only thing that the game has to its advantage is that it has its own advertising video which normally you wouldn’t see coming from a browser based game. The whole game still needs to be polished if it wants to be on par with majority of the games out right now. The game still needs to grow and in an industry that has a lot of competition, it has to grow fast. The game is still young, with its live launch last year.
The extensive use of graphics in the intervals and during game play is an indirect way of telling you that you should get the premium if you want the game to play in a simpler interface. Of course, the game has to prove itself to be worthy of anyone’s money and honestly there are better games out there.
The game has nothing more to offer aside from the space-to-planet warfare. If you are a person who has already played a lot of browser based games of this sort, you would just be wasting your time. However, things would be different if you new to the whole genre. Space Conquer is a good game to begin with in terms of space-themed browser based games. The graphics-heavy interface and the simplistic linear gameplay is a good training ground for players who would want to immerse themselves into the game. Not only is the game newbie friendly the lack of any game imbalance issues gives new players enough breathing room if they go head to head with those who paid for the premium service.
All in all the game is good for players who just started out while I would suggest the more experienced and jaded players to find a different game to invest their time on.
Pros:
– There game has a lot of visuals compared to normal browser based games
– Game page automatically updates after construction
– Purchasing premium points does not affect the overall game balance.
Cons:
– There are still areas in the game that are not translated to English
– Loading time is slow and very much affects the smoothness of the gameplay
– The gameplay is slow-paced so expect long wait periods per construction.
