Hi all! It’s not uncommon for one person to make a high-quality video game. Especially worthy of respect are those people who try to realize both their dreams and the wishes of fans in the final product, while having a minimum set of resources. Chinese developer Han Xiu belongs to this type. A fan of historical and fantasy games, Khan decides to combine both genres. As a standard, he chose the strongest representatives from his category: Super Robot Wars, Giren no Yabou and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The fruit of his labors was the Chaos Sector strategy, released on October 8, 2018. But I would like to talk about it another time, but for now I’d rather focus on a much improved version called Chaos Galaxy. In this new game from 2020, Khan has significantly improved some of the mechanics and added what he originally planned.

Synthetics, organics or eternal darkness?

Let me start with the fact that the player has 14 factions to choose from. The first four are the strongest and have a fairly simple division into parts of the world: North, East, South, West. But the rest are quite different from each other. One believes that the entire galaxy can be bought if only there is money, another has a more patriotic goal and wants to restore the destroyed Shogunate, the third wants to free his brothers with artificial intelligence, and the fourth is a fanatic of ancient aliens and wants to return them to this sector

So each of them is quite interesting due to the written backstory and set personal goal. Yes, even the first four are not simple, as it might seem at first glance. And here it’s worth adding that when choosing a leader, information about the faction and the initially assigned difficulty level is displayed. Thus, the player can get acquainted with unique units, how many planets will be under initial control, and what volumes of gold and food he will manage. Moreover, the location of the planets is kindly highlighted on a large galactic map.

Another interesting thing is that each faction has its own ending, which depends on the leader’s goal. Plus, there are additional factors that influence the video showing the ending. For example, the game can be completed by being a vassal or by organizing a galactic alliance whose members will not wage war. And, of course, the option of subjugating all the planets has not gone away.

In addition, a couple of events may occur during the campaign. The smallest thing is when some faction declares independence. The most powerful thing is the civil war in the empire. Moreover, this confrontation affects absolutely all factions. Either you need to join the rebels, or you stay with your overlord, or you decide not to participate in the conflict and painlessly declare independence. The last option is the most optimal when you start playing as a vassal and there is no desire or opportunity to fight with your former patron.

You can’t become an emperor on an empty stomach

As for the gameplay itself, I’ll start the description with the most basic, without which there will be no faction. We’re talking about the planet, of course. They are both a place for hiring units and the main source of resource extraction, of which there are only two: money and food. If one of them goes into the red, then even your flotillas may show dissatisfaction, after which the detachment will be automatically disbanded without reassembling. Only the generals will remain, but we’ll get to them later.

When opening the sheet of planets, the player will see a list of territories under his control, and how quickly each of them develops and makes a profit. Each planet has 5 indicators:

The first two are responsible for resources, the third shows the friendliness of the population, the fourth can be called a shield, which decreases during an enemy siege, and when it is reduced to zero, the planet goes to the attackers. And the last line of five cells allows you, for 1000 gold, to build spherical automatic forts that fire at the enemy upon direct contact.

Any of the four indicators grows by the specified number of units each turn, but you can stimulate this process by making an appropriate monetary investment. It’s a very expensive pleasure at first, but there’s no way around it. Plus, it is worth remembering that it is impossible to improve the planet with money if it does not have a manager, who is one of the subordinate generals.

Year of development and technology

There won’t be many of them at first either. During the entire campaign, the player has a chance to meet the 61st general. Some will want to join your faction themselves, others may switch after you capture or absorb their state. The prestige of your leader plays a key role here. The higher it is, the more heroes will want to join you, and accordingly the upper limit on the number of generals in your faction will increase. Prestige points can be accumulated in several ways:

Everything is clear with the first two, but before we start talking about the last one, it’s worth mentioning that one game turn is equal to one month. The transition to the next one will occur when you press the corresponding button, and before that you can move flotillas, conduct battles, negotiate, improve planets with troops and develop new technologies.

After 12 months, a small meeting will begin, where two generals will talk about the current state of affairs, and what plans should be implemented to strengthen the faction’s state. There is a straightforward canonical distribution here: although they are capable of participating in battles, one still insists on diplomatic development, and the second on military. After the advisors explain their point of view, the player will be given a choice of one of two missions until the end of next year. Both of them can be rejected, but are strongly discouraged, since they offer a large number of prestige points.

By the way, the military will offer to strengthen the flotillas with certain ships, build forts, capture the planet and develop combat technology. The diplomat is much softer, which is why he will insist on the development of his own planets and will ask to study a non-militaristic project.

And since I’ve mentioned research several times, it’s time to give it a place. There are four technology blocks, divided into two groups: military development and peaceful. The lower the block, the more gold coins you will have to spend, and studying will take almost the whole year. Despite the fact that there are only 27 projects, their significance does not suffer from this. For example, in military blocks you can open a powerful weapon or a unique and strong unit.

For money and food I will go into the fire with you

Studying some peaceful technologies combined with high prestige will allow you to easily request gold or food from neighboring factions. The main thing here is that you and they are not vassals, because then all matters are resolved through the corresponding overlord. If all the conditions are met, then first of all you will have to gain the trust of the faction leader, if at the very beginning of the game it was not built by default.

Naturally, there are gifts in the first row. Send food or gold, and loyalty to you instantly increases. Occasionally, leaders themselves may turn to you for help in providing certain resources. Mutual respect will also increase when fighting side by side with a common enemy. Moreover, either the allied general will call you, or you yourself will ask him to join the battle. We can say that the effect of pride is at work here, that it was he who was asked to provide support.

When relations between faction leaders reach https://nongamstopsites.uk/ strong friendship, the player can try to become their vassal or enter into a military alliance. Being an overlord is beneficial for several reasons. Vassals will always fight on your side and will not declare independence if there is peace and friendship between factions. Plus, there are two interesting features. One will allow you to request any planet from a vassal, and the second will send a proposal to the leader for the full entry of his faction into your state. Thus, you can take control of several planets at once without a fight. The vassal faction will cease to exist, and its leader will retire.

As for ordinary allies, they may not want to engage in battle with your enemy if their army is not particularly strong. Basically, they will simply allow you to move around in their territory and will not attack you. But the danger here is that they may agree to become vassals of another faction, and then all your relationships will lose influence, since you will have to resolve issues with their boss.

However, both allies and vassals have one common advantage. The entire galaxy map consists of planets that are united by lines that represent safe and fast corridors for movement. There is empty space between them, through which you can move, but it will take much longer, which is extremely unprofitable. And these lines that you have and those of your allies and vassals will be colored blue, showing that there are no restrictions on flight. If treaties have not been signed with factions or hostilities are ongoing, then the lines will be gray and movement along them will be slowed down, although this is still faster than crossing normal outer space.

It is also worth mentioning that failed negotiations or requesting resources from another state leads to a slight decrease in friendship between you. In addition to this, only one resource transfer can be made per turn. For example, I didn’t have enough food, and one month I asked for help from three factions, and the next I compensated for their dissatisfaction by transferring funds.

Those same lines between the planets

Those same lines between the planets

If you want peace, prepare for war

Factions with which relations are terrible, and there are no resources for building friendly relations, are likely to declare war on you, which means you need to form space fleets. Each general can take command of a limited number of units, and they, in turn, “weigh” a certain number of units. Let’s say the first submarines or mechs will take 3 places in the squad, but a nuclear ship will require 9 free cells.

Generals increase the squad limit after moving to the next level, which increases from victories in battles and from monetary investments in the development of the planet. You will also be given a choice to receive one of the passive skills. Some will be useful in battle, while others either reduce the cost of building forts and improvements, or accelerate the growth of one of the indicators on the planet.

Units can also conduct mass training, which costs food resources. And the higher the level, the more investment required. High-ranking ships and mechs have increased attack, defense, morale and evasion stats. That’s why newcomers versus veterans won’t last long in battle.

The battles themselves take place either automatically, or the actions are transferred to a separate map, lined with square fields. You go first, and then everything depends on the specific situation. The move will be transferred to the enemy if an ally does not appear on the field at the same time as you. The latter involve an interesting mechanic. If on the galactic map the allied fleet is located next to yours, then the distance between you is minimal. But if you are separated by one cell, then reinforcements will appear in a day, or more precisely, on your next turn. And such a time period can stretch up to five days.

This mechanic allows you to diversify your tactics. Yes, you can even try to defeat the enemy before reinforcements arrive, and if successful, you will be awarded victory, since the main forces were defeated, and additional ones are still flying. It’s also worth paying tribute to the fact that developer Khan tried to diversify units for each faction as much as possible. Some are geared towards close combat, others use only firearms.

In addition to this, some features of the factions themselves also appear. For example, assassins can block the engines or guns of enemy ships, and cyborgs generally completely seize control of any unit, forcing it to fight against its comrades.

By the way, another interesting gameplay component has been implemented with assassins. That an entire faction, that some other generals from neighboring states have the opportunity to neutralize the leader of the enemy flotilla even before the battle itself. If this action comes from the player, then a small text mini-game is activated where you need to choose the correct options. Wait for the right moment or attack without delay, use a hidden weapon or act like a berserker. It may seem that there are not too many varieties, but this in no way diminishes the usefulness of this mechanism.

As for the units themselves, they can be divided into several classes:

Large ships and mechs with weapons of mass destruction, be it a nuclear warhead or a black hole itself.

Battle animations can be disabled

Battle animations can be disabled

Samurai Mechs vs Death Star

Each unit has three scales. Yellow refers to health, green shows the amount of remaining energy spent on weapons and special moves, and red is morale. If the last indicator is reduced to zero, the unit will either escape or self-destruct. Morale sags very strongly after the destruction of the general’s ship, so you need to take care of your own and destroy the enemy’s first. Energy can be restored on its own if the combat unit stands still and skips a turn.

On the battle map in the upper left corner under the general’s avatar there is another scale. It fills up both on its own and when enemy units are destroyed, and this scale is needed to activate special techniques of generals. Many of them are quite useful. Some allow you to shoot twice as much, others completely restore energy or health. I preferred the skill that allows you to survive for two turns with one unit of health after fatal damage. The power is powerful, but the price for its use is high. All units’ morale dropped greatly, which increased the risk of losing their entire fleet if their calculations were incorrect.

During the battle, the player can select his ship and move it to a free cell. Each weapon has its own range of action, which is displayed visually by highlighting the squares on the field in red. Moreover, enemy units should be attacked either from behind or from the sides. In the first case, they will not be able to counterattack, and in the second, the damage to your ship will be reduced.

Actually, taking a quality position is already 80% of success. Most of the maps have meteorite clusters that only mechs can get through. Therefore, due to such obstacles, you can choose a narrow passage and defend it with fewer ships. The main thing is to make sure that no one passes you from behind.

Each submarine can be located and shoot in stealth mode until directly detected. A scanner installed on some ships will help in this matter. It breaks invisibility and removes the fog of war from cells located within its radius of action.

By the way, some ships are vulnerable only to missiles, while others take damage only from laser or wave weapons. Therefore, it is highly advisable to have a motley squad or cooperate your flotillas in pairs. For example, one general commands only ships, and another – mechs, and so on.

This method is especially useful when occupying planets, where the player is asked to use one of three types of attacks. The first involves only mechs that deliver high-precision strikes, and only the planet’s defense scale decreases. A cruder method is mass bombing. Both the planet’s defenses and its entire infrastructure are destroyed. Therefore, after the final shot, do not be surprised that all indicators are zero, and gigantic investments are required. But a weapon of mass destruction destroys the entire defense of the planet in one move, but this is not approved by other states, as a result of which prestige will be significantly reduced.

When the last planet of a faction is captured, its leader dies and all his fleets are completely disbanded. It is important here that it is your squad that makes the capture, because the rewards will be given to the one who made the final blow. A blueprint for the most powerful ship studied will be taken from the fallen faction, but the most important thing is the opportunity to take back the freed generals.

As I mentioned above, basically it all depends on prestige. Either everyone will join you, or only a part. You can release someone who does not want to join your ranks yet, or a button appears to execute him. With the last option, this general will no longer be generated in the current campaign, plus, several units of prestige will be selected.

If you let him go, then most likely he will join another faction, so as not to be rootless for a long time. Moreover, some generals will under no circumstances want to cooperate with you. For example, if you play as people and subjugate factions with artificial intelligence, then even with the highest prestige, military leaders will not work shoulder to shoulder with people.

And the last thing worth knowing about battles is the temporary unavailability of generals. Outside of battle, this happens after an assassin’s attack, or when the fleet scatters with negative food or gold indicators. In a battle if the flagship is lost, there is still a chance that the general himself will not disappear, but if the entire flotilla loses, then he becomes unavailable for 3-4 months. When the general appears, his squad will consist only of his personal ship. It’s funny that even if he retreats before the start of the battle, the warlord will again become unavailable for several months, but this time his flotilla will be intact, and there will be no need to hire new units.

What’s not to like

As for the downsides, for a project developed by one person, there are very few of them. Firstly, some may not like pixel graphics. Personally, it didn’t bother me at all and looked very high quality. But what was annoying was the lack of visibility on the map of the planet that the military assistant was proposing to capture. There were often moments when she was almost in the center of enemy territory, and it was no longer possible to refuse and she had to reboot.

The factions also have a pretty fun friendship system. Their leaders are offended if you ask for resources or offer them to become allies or vassals on unfavorable terms for them. But if you fight against the overlord’s vassals, destroying their flotillas and simultaneously capturing planets, then the result is very unusual. The leader will still consider you a friend, and his opinion will not change in any way even with the occupation of his native capital. Moreover, if you destroy the overlord, the vassals will be freed, and in this case you can enter into alliances with them or take them under your wing.

And the last thing that can spoil the overall picture a little is the automatic replacement of diplomats and military personnel with new representatives from the captured state. Here, without any problems, you can return everything back through a special menu, but whether this could have been avoided immediately remains in question.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the game is made very well, considering that it was developed by only one person. One campaign on medium difficulty takes approximately 30 hours, and the desire to replay for another faction will not disappear anywhere. The gameplay does not require knowledge of grandiose tactics, and management is reduced to the simplest level.

And the passage itself seems to be going in an interesting direction. Allies become enemies, and those you wanted to attack turn out to be loyal comrades. Moreover, there are also Pandora’s boxes that are dangerous to open. One of the stones towards the android faction, which, having only three planets, managed to destroy superior forces and grabbed the planets one after another after using weapons of mass destruction. They don’t care what prestige they have.

I really felt like the one who awakened Skynet or the Borg when I decided to take them as vassals, since I regretted that they were oppressed and used in the past. Who knew that such thugs were sitting there?! Fortunately, after the war, the androids agreed to join my faction, and their leader calmly retired, disarming his troops.

So, if possible, purchase this game (360 rubles on Steam), and without a doubt you will discover exciting gameplay that will captivate you for a long time. In addition, Chaos Galaxy 2 is planned for release this summer, which will have much more improved political and diplomatic systems, and on the planets themselves you will be able to choose what to build and what not. And, of course, there will be even more diverse units and new enemies!