Some interesting new additions but it's still business as usual for this star-faring combat game.
Last year's Sword of the Stars offered players an intriguing sci-fi strategy experience that did away with the huge management burdens of most 4x games. Focusing almost exclusively on conquering planets and fights between fleets, it also benefited from a slick visual style and interface. Now the gang is back to enlarge their original offering with Born of Blood, an expansion that reveals a new race, several new technologies and some interesting new game mechanics.
There are still plenty of options for the custom campaign so players will be able to approach Born of Blood pretty much anyway they want. Want a small slugfest between two empires competing for limited space? You can do that here. Want a massive galaxy filled with numerous enemies who all have room to grow into powerful empires? Yep, that's here too. Additionally, there are a number of new scripted scenarios that allow players to take on more story-driven challenges. Sure, most of them involve blowing the crap out of everyone you meet, but there are some interesting complications thrown in here and there.
Each of the races in the game has a unique FTL travel system and the Zuul's is just as inventive as the others. Their Rip Bore ships make use of the same Node Space that the humans use when they travel but, in contrast to the respectful humans, the Zuul ships simply tear holes in Node Space with no regard for the damage it does. Because the universe heals itself, the Zuul will have to actively work to maintain their Node connections and they'll also be limited in the number they can have open at any given time. While it takes a little while to get used to how this works in practice, it's a nice system that players will definitely enjoy.
The Zuul can also make use of the new boarding technology to steal population from enemy planets and force them to work in slavery on Zuul worlds. You'll have to keep in mind just how suitable the slave races are to the planets you're forcing them to work on but it's a nice one-two punch that allows you to boost your own production while also limiting that of your enemy. These new shuttles can also be used during starship combat to board and capture enemy vessels. Smart enemies aren't likely to let you close enough for these to work but it's damn rewarding when you pull it off. Having your marines capture an enemy craft and turn its weapons on its former allies is a real treat.
At first glance, the chance to trade cash or research funding with other races may seem like a rather one-dimensional implementation but once you start to unravel the strands of the convoy system, things start to flesh out a bit. A certain amount of your empire's production is basically invested for you in a series of trade lanes. It's largely automated but you do have some degree of control over its extent and security. Even more exciting, you can actually research new technologies that allow you to send ships out to siphon credits off of another player's economy by raiding their commerce lanes.
Unfortunately, in spite of the recent interface improvements offered through patches to the core game, Born of Blood still fails to deliver the right level of information for us. There's no real prompt for new research projects, meaning you could go a couple of rounds with your scientists doing nothing, all because the game doesn't light up the research button when you labs are idle. Additionally, players still have to dig down a bit to see the results of their automated combats. That information should be presented much more visibly.
Born of Blood makes use of plenty of new visual effects that add loads of excitement to the battles. Weapons fire is much easier to see this time and ships explode in spectacular ways. The new Zuul designs fit well with the overall style of the game. In the area of new sounds, the Zuul voice work is very well done and nicely captures the menace the race conveys.
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