There’s been a huge glut of new indie-developed 4X games over the past few years. While there have been a few solid ones, admittedly a lot of them have fallen short of genre fans’ expectations. Interestingly enough, I’m still not quite sure where Atomic Kaiser’s Astra Exodus falls. It’s going to appeal to some players, I’m pretty sure, but for the vast majority of 4X veterans, Astra Exodus will likely bore you.
Because it bores me.
A Ho-Hum Presentation
While aesthetics are very subjective, Astra Exodus has a visual style that will probably appease no one. Its strategic map is so bright that the developer has already added options to dim it, and its cartoon-like character art is reminiscent of the 90s cartoons, yet lacks any real personality.
On one hand, you have a very 90s user interface and font choice, coupled with 90s-like pixel art for colony screens and planets, while on the other hand, you have fairly decent looking ship models in the game’s real-time-tactical combat that feel a bit out of place.
In general, Astra Exodus looks and feels like a 4X game from the 90s, which is just not something that appeals to me anymore. Nostalgia will probably grab some of you and help you enjoy this choice, but for me, I’m just not a big fan of it. It does nothing for me.
Lower Quality of Life
In keeping with the 90s theme, Astra Exodus also lacks the quality of life features that many of us have come to enjoy in what is now 2020. For instance, you have advisors that will suggest research topics for you. You’d expect to be able to click on the dialogue and the name of that suggested topic and be shown where it lands on the research tree. Nope. You’ll have to scroll through and find it on your own.
No autosaves. Manual ship design that confuses, while also lacklustre, and a lack of automatically updating designs that make ship design even less bearable. An option to have your colonies run by a governor is surprisingly awful, too, as they manage colonies poorly. There are more examples of design decisions that disappoint and come up short, but you get the point. Astra Exodus simply lacks the quality of life features that most 4X and strategy games have nowadays and I’m too old and grumpy to forgive it.
My Soapbox on Racial Asymmetry
Many of you know that I’m a huge fan of 4X replayability through racial/faction asymmetry. So it’s not a big surprise to you here that I will complain about the lack of any gameplay-significant faction asymmetry here.
When indie developers finally realize that small bonuses or maluses to production, research, or money generation just isn’t going to cut it, the 4X genre might be able to move forward. As it stands, Astra Exodus’ simple racial differences don’t allow for that “just one more game” feel, as they all feel more or less the same. Gameplay mechanics are unchanged for each race, leading to games that feel far too similar regardless of which faction you choose.
Sure, the shark-like race, the Ilumina Starnation, sure do look cool, but their gameplay doesn’t change much, aside from their predisposition towards aquatic planets, which doesn’t really affect gameplay. I need more. Maybe you do, too. If you do, you’ll be disappointed with Astra Exodus’ offerings.
RTS Combat That Doesn’t Suck
I know how polarizing RTS combat in 4X is. I’m pretty firmly in the middle on the debate, but I recognize that most people prefer turn-based combat and can certainly understand why: turn-based combat feels more methodical and cerebral, while RTS combat can often feel more twitchy and over-values the number of units compared to your opponents.
Astra Exodus gets around this by slowing RTS combat down and providing the player with just enough control that it feels like you have input while avoiding the need to maximize your “actions per minute”.
The combat has enough explosions and “shiny stuff” to draw you in graphically, too. Missiles and lasers each add some flare to combat and in general, the combat is fun to watch unfold.
Surprisingly, if I had to name Astra Exodus’ strongest gameplay aspect, it’d be its combat. I’ve enjoyed it and while I think they could expand it a bit with more active skills and more weapon types, it has been an enjoyable iteration of one of the genre’s most polarizing gameplay mechanics.
By the Numbers
Everything else about the way Astra Exodus plays has been done a dozen times before, from the way you explore surrounding systems, to the way you exploit your planets and even the way you research your way through the technology tree.
It’s Master of Orion 2 by a different name and with real-time combat. It’s more colorful, too.
If that appeals to you, then Astra Exodus can be a game that I’ll lukewarmly recommend to you. If you’re like me and you’ve played enough Master of Orion 2-like games to last another 30 years, you’ll likely want to skip this one.
Conclusion
Perhaps my tolerance for Master-of-Orion-2 by the numbers is completely nonexistent at this point, but the more I played Astra Exodus, the less I liked it. I begrudgingly played the last 20 hours in hopes of infusing more positivity into this review, but I just couldn’t find it. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, based on the Previously-Overwhelmingly-Negative, but now “Mixed” Steam Reviews. However, I still feel bad for putting this one down. Its developer, Fernando Rey, seems like a genuinely good person, too, so I feel even worse about being so heavy-handed.
But I’m not here to make friends.
As a 4X grognard and a champion of the genre, I just want better. Better for the fans, better from the devs, and better for the genre. Astra Exodus doesn’t push the genre forward at all and attempts to draw you in using your nostalgia for a classic game. It succeeds at being very much like Master of Orion 2, but that game is almost 30 years old now, so that can’t possibly be seen as a compliment anymore. And it’s not meant to be. At least not from me.
TL;DR: Astra Exodus is everything wrong with the indie 4X scene, but manages to be a solid Master of Orion 2 clone if that’s your thing.
You May Like This Game If:
- You’re yearning for Master of Orion 2 with better graphics and real-time combat (that doesn’t suck)
- You don’t really care too much about racial asymmetry and modern-day “conveniences”
- You see potential here and want to help Atomic Kaiser reach that potential
You May NOT Like This Game If:
- You’re tired of all the MOO2 clones
- You need more from your 4X games than for them to just follow the “formula”
- Bright colors turn you off
- You’re old and grouchy like me
Rob played 41 hours of Astra Exodus on his MSI Trident, with an i7-9700 CPU, GTX 2070 GPU, 32GB DDR4 RAM, on the Windows 10 platform and on a 1440p monitor.