Interplanetary Preview

Interplanetary is one of those games that I didn’t know I wanted until I played it. The concept of the game is simple enough, two or more players representing the leaders of entire worlds are tasked with resource-management and the titular interplanetary warfare. Victory is obtained by decimating the enemy’s cities and reducing their population (by the million!). When a city’s population is low enough, the city will be ruined and once they are all ruined, it’s game over. Cities can be rebuilt over time however, so keeping an eye on your enemy’s activities is essential.

The game is in Early Access on Steam and as such, has features missing and a few serious bugs. The largest part of the game which is notable by its absence at present is any form of single-player. For the foreseeable future, this title is multiplayer only and this can, for some players, be something of a hurdle. If you’re anything like me, and you like becoming accustomed to a game through its single-player before jumping into a multiplayer match, then this can be quite daunting. A single-player campaign is in the works but as programming AI is time consuming and difficult, Team Jolly Roger have chosen to add it later on in development.

There is a tutorial in the game, but it is only accessible when actually playing a match. This meant that in my first game, I felt rushed and flustered as I tried to figure out what to do. I was mindful of the fact that the other player (the match was only 1v1) would have to wait for me while I read the tutorial sections and got to grips with the controls. Thankfully, my opponent didn’t become angry and leave the game and we were able to finish (I lost, badly). Once these problems are overcome however, the game becomes fun and satisfying.

With Interplanetary being in the genre it is, I almost instantly found myself comparing it to the Civilization series, of which I have been a huge fan for a long time. This isn’t really fair of course, Civ has been refined and improved over time by a large AAA developer and Interplanetary is an Early Access game from a small dev team, however, some comparisons are inevitable. Probably the area in which Interplanetary is at its most Civ-like is the Technology tree and the research function. Although at present the technology tree is nowhere near as extensive as Civ’s, presumably it will be extended as development on the game continues. Researching technologies will allow you to build more structures and weapons or increase the effectiveness of your structures and systems.

Weapons come in three distinct flavours: railguns, missiles and beam weapons, all of which require energy to fire. Railguns are the cheapest option and require the least amount of energy but are also very inaccurate. Missiles are far more accurate and can be targeted much more precisely but at the cost of a large amount of resources. Beam weapons are almost unaffected by gravity and so offer the best chance to actually hit the enemy planet (providing there is a direct line of sight) but do very little damage.

Mines and power stations provide the player with the resources necessary to conduct interplanetary warfare. All structures require materials to be constructed and weapons need energy to fire. Defensive structures can be built to protect cities or other buildings and can reduce the effect of enemy weapons. Each planet has a finite amount of material available for use which adds another layer of strategy as players are forced to think long-term. Mining all your planet’s materials early will grant you the ability to build more, but at the cost of potentially running out of material later in the game. Players are also given the option to spy on enemies which will provide valuable information on their progress and activities.

The thing which most impressed me about Interplanetary is the combat. The decision to fire is affected by the orbital placement of both the enemy planet and your own, relative to each-other. For example, trying to fire missiles at an enemy planet while it is situated on the far side of the system’s star, is a bad idea. Projectiles are affected by gravity and will be sent flying off into the distance if they fly too close to the star or another planet.

When aiming, the game provides the player with a rough trajectory, it is by no means 100% accurate so successfully hitting enemy cities becomes a matter of patience and timing. This leads to some interesting situations, with players biding their time until the perfect moment presents itself to attack, then all manner of chaos erupting across the procedurally-generated star-system as attacks are launched. It’s an impressive spectacle as all the different weapons are sent flying around. A direct hit on an enemy city is made all the more satisfying to watch because the camera can be moved around and zoomed in and out at will.

I have run into a few problems with Interplanetary, the most frustrating of which is the general lack of players. I spent quite a bit of time either waiting for someone to make a game or waiting for people to join my lobby. With multiplayer being the only option (online or hotseat), this can be pretty annoying really but hopefully over time, the player-base will increase. Making or joining a game however, is no guarantee of actually getting to play as on more than one occasion the lobby system has crashed while trying to initialise the game, forcing me to restart and try again.

Interplanetary provides some refreshing and rewarding real-time strategy fun. The setting and presentation should appeal to anyone with an interest in space and astronomy as well as sci-fi fans. With the only real faults I encountered in the game being a result of its Early Access status, Interplanetary emerges as a well thought-out and enjoyable take on the genre. It’s also worth mentioning that the game runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux/Steam OS and that cross-platform multiplayer is possible.

If you don’t mind waiting (potentially a while) for a match, can deal with the lack of a single-player campaign and can overlook the odd crash, then I’d recommend giving Interplanetary a go. What it does, it does well and is a genuinely fun alternative to the more popular turn-based strategy titles we’re all familiar with.