Twilight all
We’ve all worn the rose-coloured glasses when it comes to old games.
It’s a real hazard of the job when you started out covering stuff from the 90s.
It’s less common though, to fall afoul of whatever its opposite is.
The uh, yellow-tinted glasses, maybe?
It’s a lot better than I remember.
And only some of that is down to the patch.
HDI never really got the recognition they deserved.
Imagine Civilization crossed with a traditional hex-grid wargame.
Now imagine that instead of one planet, you’re fighting over dozens.
All this is, I think, where I misjudged EOFS.
The prospect of conducting multiple simultaneous games of Civ over 40 planets sounds exhausting.
But it’s not actually necessary.
EOFS’sroleplaying heritageis what it’s built on conceptually, even if it’s not an RPG as such.
You’re not a generic empire, you’re an established power within a particular structure.
There are other powers too, non-playable but potentially game-changing.
They also vote in elections, making a bribe to the League an obvious power play.
Suddenly those merchant fleets are a threat, and those guards on your homeworld are invaders.
Then there’s the Church, whose goals are rooting out heresy and retaining theocratic authority over the throne.
Players ofSolium Infernumhave probably spotted a few parallels.
It’s a game of power plays.
Skulduggery and secret deals, and personalising beefs with your rivals.
This even comes into play with research.
Losing an arms race?
Have their best weapons banned.
Researched something you’re not using much?
Sell it to someone and then have the church proscribe it.
It’s not so hard to get a look either, since spaceships can drop anywhere on a planet.
It’s not as overwhelming as it sounds either.
There, you see, is where the throne is.
One good assassination followed by a blockade could politically ruin even my most powerful rivals.
The wargame part is also much less complex than usual.
Almost inevitably, that’s where EOFS falters.
The AI has few of the economic restrictions you do, so will spread factories across nearly every surface.
There’s a very user-friendly map editor too.
I’m surprised by how little this bothered me, but it’s definitely a drag.
This time, though, Emperor of the Fading Suns has really grabbed me.
It’s that kind of game.
