Sword of the Stars II Steam Key GLOBAL
- November 29, 2012
- Kerberos Productions
- 144h median play time
Slightly better than it was before, Sword of the Stars II is finally playable, but still hobbled by bizarre design decisions.
Get on Steam"Sword of the Stars II: The Lords of Winter - Enhanced Edition" offers turn-based strategy and real-time skirmishes in a vast galaxy. The Loa, a new playable race of vengeful artificial intelligence, can shape-shift their fleets and build colonies on rocky planets. This edition includes the base game, the End of Flesh expansion, and all previous DLCs .
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a deep and complex tech tree that offers a unique experience with each playthrough.
- Real-time tactical battles are visually stunning and provide a satisfying combat experience.
- The ship design system allows for extensive customization, making each player's fleet unique.
- The user interface is clunky and unintuitive, making it difficult for new players to navigate the game.
- The game suffers from performance issues, with long turn times and crashes, especially in larger games.
- Many features feel incomplete or poorly implemented, leading to frustration and a lack of immersion.
- gameplay85 mentions
- 19 % positive mentions
- 72 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Sword of the Stars II is characterized by a mix of deep and complex mechanics that can be both rewarding and frustrating. While some players appreciate the variety of factions and techs, many criticize the unintuitive user interface, lack of tutorials, and convoluted mechanics that make navigation and understanding difficult. Overall, the game offers a rich experience for dedicated fans of the genre, but its steep learning curve and technical issues may deter newcomers.
“I absolutely love the attribute mechanic - best idea ever and perfectly in the spirit of random techs and traits.”
“But even with all that said, I've sunk hundreds of hours into this game because the gameplay is so damned deep, complicated, and satisfying.”
“The gameplay evolved from the first one and it keeps me addicted for nights and nights.”
“The UI is utterly terrible, and no game mechanics are remotely explained.”
“The gameplay is often piled with good ideas working in a bad way.”
“The mechanics of this game might be more cryptic than Dwarf Fortress, with very little help for new players aside from a few vague detail screens.”
- graphics72 mentions
- 35 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many praising their quality and visual appeal, especially in space combat and ship design. While some players appreciate the retro aesthetic and the improvements over the previous installment, others criticize the dated UI and occasional graphical bugs. Overall, the visuals are considered a strong point, but they are often overshadowed by gameplay issues and technical problems.
“The graphics are incredible for a 2012 game.”
“The graphics and audio are a little dated, but it's a small price to pay for a fully functioning product.”
“Graphically, it's stunning in space combat.”
“Crashes for no 'f'n reason, memory leaks abound and even with graphics turned down and events turned off, it finds a way to crash like it's on a suicide pact with some death cult and no amount of hardware will dissuade its death march.”
“The prettier graphics, bigger ships, and larger systems are not worth all the bugs, dreary gameplay, random crashes, and generally unfinished nature of the game (the in-game sots-pedia help guide is mostly blank pages or just unhelpful).”
“Worst of all is that somehow, despite all the shiny new graphics and toys, they've made combat both look and play worse than the original (which was actually very good, by the way).”
- stability47 mentions
- 4 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 96 % negative mentions
The game is widely criticized for its instability, with numerous reports of crashes, freezes, and persistent bugs that hinder gameplay. While some players note improvements over time, many still describe it as a "buggy mess" that feels unfinished and poorly optimized. Overall, the consensus is that the game remains plagued by significant technical issues, making it frustrating for users.
“Even though it launched with bugs, everything got fixed and it runs great now.”
“If Kerberos ever gets the green light to continue patching (unlikely at this point), I'd expect they'd be able to get it as close to bug-free as SOTS Prime.”
“It's incredibly buggy though, crashes often, it will indicate you're near an enemy, make changes based on that, and you're not. It also got incredibly slow playing a large game on my old gaming laptop that had an HDD, not a solid-state disk.”
“This game is unfinished and a buggy mess.”
“Filled full of bugs... crashes, insane glitches... if this was lauded as a late alpha version or beginning closed beta version of the game I would say okay, no problem... I understand... but this is a 'finished and paid for product'.”
- story45 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 73 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The story aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising the vibrant lore and backstory of the factions, yet lamenting the absence of a full-fledged campaign or detailed narrative. Players find the new mission system cumbersome, complicating fleet movement and reducing the fluidity of gameplay compared to the original game, which detracts from the overall experience. While the world-building and artwork are engaging, the lack of tutorials and clarity on game mechanics has left some players frustrated, making it difficult to fully appreciate the story elements.
“Very vibrant backstory for each of the races/factions.”
“I loved SOTS 1 and the plot and story was absolutely beautiful.”
“I even came in after the bugs were fixed and Enhanced was out, because the world-building and story here is just so engaging.”
“SOTS II has flamboyant lore and backstory but lacks a full-fledged story mode or campaign, which is a shame.”
“I think one of the biggest tragedies of this game's flop is simply the lore and the story.”
“This game unfortunately is visually great but lacks the story and complexity of the first.”
- optimization18 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players reporting stable performance and no crashes, while others experience significant issues such as poor frame rates, memory leaks, and long turn times, even on high-end systems. Despite ongoing updates aimed at improving performance, many users still find the game unoptimized and lacking essential features, leading to frustration during gameplay. Overall, while some players enjoy a smooth experience, the game's optimization remains a major concern for many.
“Very stable, not seen any crashes, very smooth performance.”
“The game has updated plenty since release, fixing many of the bugs and performance issues other reviewers were having.”
“Right now I can't see anything wrong with this game, I have seen no crashes, no bugs, no performance issues, nothing, seems like a good game and it's still getting patches years after release.”
“The performance is horrible, even with the enhanced edition.”
“There are known memory leaks and if you don't have a beefy computer you may have to close and reload the game after a couple of hours to improve performance.”
“It was completely unplayable on its release, and it's still riddled with performance issues and frequent crashes, even after the developer has finished updating it.”
- grinding13 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviews highlight that the grinding aspect of the game is characterized by tedious gameplay elements, particularly due to a cumbersome user interface and overly complicated mechanics. Players express frustration with the repetitive nature of tasks such as fleet management and station construction, which detracts from the overall enjoyment and makes the game feel unplayable at times. Many feel that the charm and dynamic experiences of the previous installment are lost, leaving behind a frustrating and monotonous experience.
“If it was possible to mod this game into something more resembling the previous Sword of the Stars, it'd be a pretty good game. As it stands, I can't recommend it because it is simply so tedious to play.”
“Sword of the Stars II took most of the charm, unique gameplay experiences, and generally decent design of Sword of the Stars, then hid all of it behind a bunch of tedious new elements and questionable design decisions.”
“The game still feels mostly unplayable, and the parts that feel complete, in my opinion, feel tedious instead of fun.”
- music7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 57 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising the original soundtrack for its war-like themes and overall quality, while others criticize it as monotonous or even nonexistent, detracting from the gaming experience. Despite the varied opinions, the soundtrack is noted to enhance the relaxing nature of the game for some players. Overall, the music aspect appears to be a significant point of contention among users.
“Sotsii has arguably one of the best OSTs, though it has a very war-like theme.”
“It's a great relaxing game to play and listen to music.”
“An amazing 4X strategy game with great visuals, good amounts of customization for ships, interesting space combat, and a good soundtrack.”
“And the extremely monotonous music in the background - if any at all, depends on the race.”
“The soundtrack is horrible.”
“The ambiance is terrible - the ugly graphics and terrible and/or nonexistent music just make you want to quit right away, which is what I did.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Overall, "Sword of the Stars II" offers significant depth and replayability due to its seven distinct races and extensive technology options. However, issues such as UI lag and a less user-friendly interface compared to its predecessor detract from the experience, leading to mixed feelings about its overall playability.
“There is too much to mention in an already long review, which gives Sword of the Stars II a lot of depth and replayability.”
“Good amount of depth and replayability with 7 widely different races and lots of technology to choose from.”
“Sword of the Stars II was just as boring as Sword of the Stars I, and this time Sword of the Stars II was less user-friendly in comparison. At least Sword of the Stars I was more playable and the commands were easy to find, but with Sword of the Stars II, they changed the command tab to such an extent that you can't find half of the things you need. For these and many other reasons, my personal rating for Sword of the Stars II is 1/10.”
“It is much more playable now, but you have massive UI lag that just makes the game a pain to play.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is highlighted by a sense of heartbreak over a company's abandonment of the project, coupled with unsettling and intrusive experiences that evoke strong feelings of discomfort and violation.
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Users express a willingness to financially support projects through platforms like Kickstarter, but they believe that poor advertising strategies are a significant factor in the failure of these projects.
“I would gladly support it on Kickstarter, but the excessive advertising is what ultimately leads to project failures.”
“The monetization strategy feels exploitative, making it hard to enjoy the game without spending a fortune.”
“It's frustrating that the game is designed around pushing microtransactions rather than providing a fair experience.”
