Red Shift

Website: http://messier8.com/Blog/

Time paradox, children! Von Braun has been captured by the Sovjets instead of the Americans. The Sovjet Union has not collapsed and is in the lead in the space race. The Americans not wanting to get outstriped by their rivals triple NASAs funding. Unwittingly taking mankinds first steps to the stars.

It is the year 2061. 100 years after Yuri Gagarin went into space. Several countries are looking up towards the stars to colonise new planets and their satellites. You are the head of one of those countries. It is a time of exploration and pioneering. A fledglings Earth first steps into space.
Red shift is a mix of certain strategy games. Combining 4X with RTS. Not unlike Stardrive but with a different 3D engine, gameplay and artstyle. The setting gives the game a certain authenticity and taps into the spirit of space exploration. Earths superpowers are still vying for control over each other in space supremacy. Conflict seems more than likely.

Third rock around the sun

Planets orbit around the sun and rotate around their center axis. Depicting accurate stellar bodies. Like Sins of a Solar Empire planets have their own gravity wells. Within these gravity wells you can construct spacestations. There are only a couple of stations available to the player: Orbital colonies, military bases, trade ports and star gates. Orbital colonies can terraform the planet below to better suit human habitation. Though you will not be able to terraform like say Venus, the pressure cooker.

Planets also have seperate regions. Two countries can colonise the same planet, if they do not want to fight over it that is. If one of the countries decides the planet is too small for the both of them they can fight over it with troops and orbital bombardments. Ground combat will not be as involved as regular space battles. The regions can have their own governor to minimize micromanagment.
 
Production is devided into several resources: Liquids, metal, gas, graphite, hydrocarbon and radioactive. Taxation can be devided into 3 main population groups. After a while a colonised planet might hit a critical mass in population and seek to become independent from the ruling government back on Earth. So inner turmoil will keep you occupied as will external pressure by other nations.

Exchange of hats

During the course of the game your cabinet can change. Each state has a character pool of around a few hundred characters, rebel leaders, generals and politicians will all come from this pool. These characters will have several stats to them. It would be nice to see them having seperate traits or disadvantages to affect gameplay or your prefered style of play. Fleet Commanders will be in charge of your fleets though you will be in control of your ships during combat.

Combat is done in a seperate skirmish mode. You can decide to autobattle the skirmish if you are not willing to invest the time into it. Doing so will leave you at the mercy of the game which can go both ways really. These are all experiences from previous games and in no way indicative of what is to come.

Gates will allow you to explore other star systems. Alpha Centauri, Epsilon, Gliese and other nearby star systems will have accurate planets and stars but most other stars will be randomly generated. A map editor would be great to see so people who have got a lot of time to create our milkyway.
 
Atmosphere

The music created by Mr. Kanafchian is really nice to listen to. Like Stardrive the trailer music brought me straight into the game. During space combat the sound of canon fire and explosions are muffled. I find this a prefered middle ground between no sound at all and gratuitous amount of explosions going off.

Combat is more slow paced and long ranged. Space combat in the future will be decided by extreme long range missles. In the game ships will be at stand-off range taking pot shots at each other. For a better example take a look at WWII naval battles. You can of course charge into enemy lines but it might take some time.

Red Shift does sport a ship editor but was added as an after thought so it might not be as in-depth as other 4X games. The game will have different ship hulls ranging from shuttles to carriers. Ships will also have different roles you can assign them in the ship editor. The player will also be able to customise civilian ships. The ships in the current build have a maritime theme to them, one that actually looks like it is space worthy.

Nations are able to research technology to further their agenda.Technology will unlock ship hulls, weapons, stations and other bonuses.

Conclusion

The game is in its 8th week of development and has only 1 person creating the game, Elliot Hill, at the time of writing so it will take a lot more time before we see an actual release candidate. None the less the game looks stunning in its current form. Planets look beautifull and varied. The UI which of course is very early WIP shows off what can be in the game by time of release. I hope the developer takes special time and effort to create an appealing UI as that is what puts me off a lot of strategy games. Though like I said, very early in development and everything is subject to change.

A lot of the features are mostly found in 4X games but Red Shift has its own merits. Regional based colonisation combined with orbital bombardment and troop drops. Realistic solar systems and plausible space combat. The game distinguishes itself from other 4X and strategy games.

An authentic space opera 4X game with a more plausible setting than most 4X games.

Pro:

• Authentic setting
  
• Muffled sound

Con:

• Ship editor as an afterthought

EDIT: Sorry for the large pictures. I cannot resize them at this point in time.

reminds me of EPIC Homeworld a little...