Author: Siemens33
Perhaps it's the lack of appeal of SLG's old themes, or perhaps inspired by Musk, who has mushroomed in recent years with the theme of transforming Mars, and the genre of games has crashed from time to time, and "New Star" is one of them. "Alien" looks like a 4399 mini-game at first glance, but the record of winning indie game awards in 2019 reflects that this is not an ordinary game, and I tried this game curiously and found that its content is indeed not as simple as it seems. Since I haven't played any other game of the same type, I can't compare it side-by-side, but I'm still glad I met the game "Alien".
From the interface, you can see that the archive item is not loaded
Game Screen:
The game is based on Unity, and the rest of the content is presented in 2D except for the fact that Mars we can see in the game is a 3D sphere. The game interface is a simple dot line connection and a variety of values, the city interface is simple is a few pictures of the appearance, the cutscene, the leader's interface is also a lot of pictures, not even animation, the overall look is like a mobile game. However, even if the game has the intention of landing on the mobile terminal, its volume is still as much as 7GB of hard disk space.
That's all there are to it
Game sound effects, music:
The structure of the game is simple, and it does not require too many sound effects, so the sound effects are basically clicks and select special effects sounds. However, the music of the game is unexpectedly good, whether it is the depiction of the environment or the display of emotions have a strong expressiveness, when the player is in a dilemma, the music shows tension, when the player's operation gradually improves, the music comes to some powerful drums, and the excellent soundtrack makes up for the lack of the game screen.
Gameplay:
As mentioned earlier, "New Star" is a turn-based simulation business game that seems simple, but is not simple, and it is also a game that looks like a small game and the actual capacity is not small. The game integrates resource management, card selection, and numerical construction, and its set of various types of simulated business games is large, and then simplified into a simple framework, ensuring that the content is simple but not simple. The reason why "New Star" is simple is because it really does not have any particularly complex and incomprehensible rules, on Mars, the player simply clicks to explore the surface of Mars, and then plans the city buildings in a suitable colonial location, plans to develop those plots, and controls the income and expenditure of resources. The income and expenditure of resources is a simple addition and subtraction method, there is no maintenance fee that other games like to engage in, there is no content to build units and control the movement of units, everything revolves around exploration, collection, construction, and planning. It's not wrong to say that "Alien" is a numerical game.
Normal start will have two or three optional resources, while tutorials and re-openings are limited to only one option
-Budget-conscious:
There are as many as 8 kinds of resources in the game, namely food, electricity, science, water, nitrate, silicate, titanium, and tritium. The number of these 8 resources will determine whether the player can build buildings and what kind of buildings, such as consuming food to build houses, consuming water to build farms, and minerals to build mines. The type of building determines what kind of resources the player can obtain, and the game's mechanics are basically a cycle of collection, construction, and re-collection. On the other hand, players can increase the total amount of resources by exploring to obtain disposable resources on unknown plots, which usually requires the consumption of power resources. Therefore, the number of resources will determine the victory or defeat of the game, and the guiding role for the player is the rise and fall of various resource values, and doing a good job of resource management and snowballing is the focus of the game.
One of the interesting and challenging things about this game is that all the resources will be given just right, neither more nor less – and of course, this is also carefully managed. The resources that can be obtained per building and each mine generally do not exceed 2 points per turn, and even if the total amount of resources obtained by a single mineral resource for several hours is difficult to exceed double digits, the player can always cut out some resources for construction. This is very interesting, the game through the strict limit of the value, to create a feeling of walking on thin ice but can overcome the danger, so that the player pain and let the player see hope. The change of Mars is also a gradual process, through the gradual accumulation of air temperature, oxygen, sea level, and atmosphere, players will see the slow changes on the surface of the planet in the process of several hours, and the sense of achievement will arise spontaneously. Catalyzed by this feeling, the player will keep clicking on the "next turn" and play for a long time unconsciously.
- Adversarial variables:
Of course, it is difficult for players to simply add and subtract resources, and it is not difficult to find the optimal solution in the limited content, so the game adds a lot of uncertainty.
First, the plots in the game are randomly generated. Each opening game the player will first receive the first plot to build the colony city, and the first city plot will be surrounded by a network of unknown plots. The dotted line between parcels indicates which parcel can be reached from which parcel, while the resource icon directly below the unknown parcel shows the resources that the player can obtain by exploration, and the size of the resource icon means how much of that kind of resource can be obtained.
When the player has explored a plot, several new locations will be extended around it, and of course, the resources above are also randomly generated. After each plot is discovered, several situations may occur, one is that the city can be built on the plot, one is to find mineral veins or attractions, one is to discover optional development content, and one is empty land. The open space is not useless, the player can build special buildings above it, but the open space will also be divided into three types, one is a normal open space that does not affect the building, one is a highland that can give a bonus to a specific building, and the other is a vacant lot that will be flooded. What plots the player explores and what the plots bring will affect the player's decisions to some extent.
Thin water long flow or one-time development
It is also worth mentioning that the buildable city plots in the game are also random. There will be more than a dozen open spaces in urban parcels that can be built, and there are paths between the open spaces, and some specific building connections in the game can bring bonuses. Buildings can only be placed in open spaces connected to the city headquarters, and if a rock appears in one of the open spaces, it will block the connection between the headquarters and other open spaces, and the player must consume electricity to remove the rocks. So this open space and path are also randomly generated, which slightly increases the difficulty of the game.
If you think that randomly generated plots are nothing, then random draws will greatly influence the direction of the game. The card drawing system in the game actually draws buildings, and at the beginning of the game, the system will randomly give 3 kinds of buildings at the beginning of each turn, and the player will draw one of them to add to their own card pool to shoot the building on the ground when they are ready to use. Because it is a randomly given building, there is a lot of uncertainty here, one is that there will be buildings that the player does not want, and the other is that the resources at hand may not be able to build a building. If you can't get the building you want, you can only consider yourself unlucky. If the building cannot be built for a long time, the card pool in your hand will have to throw away some cards as soon as it is full, which is obviously a waste. Of course, as a way to combat this non-deprecating factor, the game provides special buildings that allow players to increase the number of random cards that can be drawn in each round and the number of cards that can be obtained.
In addition to random plots and random cards, there are occasional random events in the game. There are destructive sandstorms on Mars, there are special events described in words, and even some prefabricated events in levels, such as the number of cards that can be drawn due to the slow development of technology in the process of earthization.
In order to prevent players from using SL Dafa and bypass the difficulty mechanism by reading saves frequently, the game simply canceled manual saving. The game can only be saved automatically, and the player will overwrite the save after each action to prevent the player from regretting it. However, as an insurance mechanism, the game allows the player to regret the game without restriction, but only to regress the most recent step, and it is not possible to go further. Because the conditions are so harsh, players are better off thinking clearly before moving.
- Leader Bonus:
One of the great features of Alien Is that you can choose a leader every 10 rounds. The role of the leader is actually to give the player a permanent passive bonus, such as the special effect of the miner is to reduce the cost of mining by 15%, and to be able to use his special skills during the leader's tenure, such as free access to certain buildings. Each leader has 10 rounds of tenure, and when the 10 rounds are over, the player has to choose a new leader. The process of selecting a leader is that the system randomly selects two people from the leader pool for the player to choose, and the player chooses one of them and the other will be abandoned and will not appear again. If the leader is chosen as the last in the pool, there will be no change of leader after 10 turns, and the player will continue to use the leader until the end of the game.
Because there are leaders to choose, the game will also have some uncertainty here, after all, the abandoned leader will not return, and the special effects accumulated by each choice will be snowballed.
There are still many beautiful illustrations
Engage in independence and ask if you are afraid or not
- Overcoming dissatisfaction:
The important element of "Smiley Face" has been an important part of SLG games since it was introduced in Civilization 5, and its name has been changed to support in "Alien" and used as an important element in the game. The winning condition in "Reborn" can be to collect resources or to modify the environment, but there is only one failure condition, that is, the support level is reduced to 0. There is a global support in the game, which can be accumulated or decreased.
Players can get support through building entertainment facilities, schools, hospitals, luxury factories and other buildings in each turn, while some urban plots are connected to each other can also get support bonuses, if you are tight on hand, you can also get close to 30 support from the plots by exploring, in addition to transforming the Mars environment can get a lot of support at once, and this reward will be accumulated by stage, such as 100 support in the first stage, and 200 in the second stage. The level of support received by each office will be directly added to the global support level. Since there is a plus and definitely a decrease, the game will begin to bring about a decrease in overall support after a certain round, this punishment is the dissatisfaction of each round will deduct the degree of support, and this punishment will be aggravated after every 10 rounds, that is to say, before 20 points of support per round, after 10 rounds will be increased to 40 points of support per round, the amount of this punishment depends on the player's expectation standard at the beginning, if it is harsh, it will be very perverted.
Of course, the increase in dissatisfaction is not always forced by the system to throw to the player, such as some heavily polluted buildings and human habitation buildings connected will also produce dissatisfaction, some colonial urban environment is not livable will also produce dissatisfaction, urban expansion plots beyond the range of the first ring will also bring dissatisfaction, and sometimes the player will choose to use the decline in support for other benefits. Based on the above characteristics, all the player has to do is to maintain a balance as much as possible, so that the support can maintain a positive growth every turn, and if they can't do so, they must complete the mission goal before the support is lost and win.
Here comes the diaomin
Environmental modification can gain a lot of support
Event impact
-Geomodulation:
Making the Martian environment earthly is the focus of the game. In the game, players have to improve the temperature, oxygen, sea level, and atmosphere level of Mars through various means, and each project has three levels, and after reaching the third level, all indicators have been completed. All the player has to do is accumulate the values required for these indicators, but as the level of the indicator increases, the values to be accumulated increase.
There are many ways for players to transform the environment, and by building renovation facilities, players can get one or two of the indicator values to get a slight increase in each turn, and if you want to quickly achieve the indicators, it is natural to get more of these buildings. In addition, players can also accelerate the accumulation of indicator values by throwing bacteria, plants, and animals into Mars, but these things require three types of buildings, and each building needs an empty plot to build. It should be noted that after the launch building is built, it does not mean that it can be used immediately, and the release of bacteria, plants and animals also requires the temperature, oxygen and rainfall of Mars, and at the beginning, only low-level life forms can be released on the surface of Mars with nothing.
In addition to building and mobs, players have two other means, one is to use the leader skill, and the other is to complete interstellar projects to bring resources from other planets.
When all the metrics are met, the Player Table will be able to transform the Red Planet into a Green Planet.
Choose between the two types of stocking organisms
- Repeat the exercises:
One of the more peculiar things about "Alien" is that players can't experience everything at once, it sets up several levels, and the victory conditions and environmental impact of each level are different, players need to open the previous level, upgrade to a certain level to unlock the later levels, that is to say, everything will be cleared after each mission, and the next time it is still starting from scratch. In order to completely transform the Mars-like ecology, players also need to go through two levels, which are the challenges of mining and creature delivery missions. Although this is very annoying, the game has some rewards for the player to maintain the player's motivation to play. Each time a mission is played, the game gives the player new building cards and a new leader, making it easier for the player to cope with previous difficulties. So each opening will be a little different, so as to maintain the player's interest.
Engage in unlocking this mobile game idea
I almost lost only to find that the victory was already within reach
Task summary
Unlocked building cards
Unlock the leader
-Summary:
"Alien" is a pure Mars construction game, there is no war and no man-made disaster, players only need to focus on the management of resources. The mechanism is simple and easy to use, but it is not easy to play well, and the dynamic balance of the system can ensure that the player's enthusiasm for playing will not be frustrated. The game makes each game different with card rewards, new leaders, and different mission objectives. Walking on thin ice can often turn the experience of turning danger into disaster, so that each clearance can bring a certain sense of achievement. After humanity has passed through this dark period, it may be able to envision the distant Red Planet like a game.
merit:
It's easy to learn and challenging.
Just the right number settings and value generation.
Intuitive interface and nice soundtrack.
A casual game with one hand to do everything.
shortcoming:
The lack of a unified management interface and city switching options makes it difficult to manage the number of cities after they increase.
Multi-week unlock setting requirements are too grinding.
The tutorial is not very thorough, and there is a lack of checkable encyclopedia.
Rating: 7/10. The addictive mechanism of "Civilization" has been thoroughly studied for "Huanxing", a few numbers can be played for a long time, and the next round may be asked all night whether you are afraid or not, but fortunately, the content of the game is not very rich, not very brushy.