Sid Meier's Starships

Critic reviews

• PPolygon

  Charlie Hall · Apr 17, 2015

  6.0

  Overall, Starships feels like a game damaged by compromise. It wants to be a bite-sized board game experience for a tablet, while at the same time a light strategy game on the PC. In execution, those two conflicting goals rob the game of any drama it might have, and Starships simply lacks the decisive, killing blows that make space operas feel epic. And for that reason it left me cold.

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• GGameSpot

  Nick Capozzoli · Mar 30, 2015

  4.0

  On PC, it unfurls in a tablet's compacted, low resolution window, and there are no graphical settings to massage. Its sci-fi galaxy is mostly abstracted, and its unit models are simple and blocky. It's not those issues that really put me off of Starships, but rather the way it seems to aspire to that narrow, dated idea of what makes a "good" mobile game.

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• TEThe Escapist

  Joshua Vanderwall · Mar 20, 2015

  8.0

  It manages to keep just enough depth of gameplay to stay true to its strategy origins, while keeping much of the minutiae to a minimum, allowing greater accessibility for those who might not be hardcore strategy aficionados. ...Sid Meier's Starships lacks the strategic depth of Civilization, but the added tactical layer, and shorter game times make it a fair substitute, especially if you're looking for bite-sized strategy.

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• CCOGconnected

  Matt Halm · Mar 17, 2015

  5.0

  It’s true that not everyone wants to play Homeworld every time they’re in the mood to have a spaceship battle and there is a very fine line between “pick up and play” and “play once then uninstall.” But I think (or at least hope) that it’s possible to make a skirmish-oriented space game that doesn’t strip away the things that make games like this good: tactics, relevant customization, and variation. For the price, you could do worse. Yet there is no question Sid Meier’s Starships should have been much better.

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• PGPC Gamer

  Dan Griliopoulos · Mar 16, 2015

  5.4

  Starships isn’t terrible, but it isn’t the polished product you’d expect from a studio with Firaxis’ history. Comparing it to its full-scale PC competitors, like Endless Space and GalCiv is cruel, as it’s sub-par in every single regard: unbalanced, repetitive, badly explained, rather ugly, with a dreadful mobile phone UI, and buggy as hell. Even judged against Firaxis’ other mobile games, Civ: Rev and Ace Patrol, this is small and crude.

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• GIGame Informer

  Daniel Tack · Mar 13, 2015

  7.0

  Starships is simple, slick, semi-strategic fun. It’s incredibly accessible and lacks the sometimes overbearing menus and micromanagement that can make strategy games dizzying and intimidating, making it a nice point of entry for those looking for a casual experience within the genre. This also makes it well-suited for its foray onto iOS devices. However, if you’re looking for a title with a ton of depth like the main Civilization franchise titles, you won’t find it here.

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