Starpoint Gemini Warlords Review – Sprawling Space Simulation

Starpoint Gemini Warlords Review

Starpoint Gemini Warlords is a space simulation game that combines RPG, strategy, and 4x elements. The game previously released on PC last year and is making its debut on the Xbox One. Developed by the aptly named Little Green Men Games, Starpoint Gemini Warlords is the third title in their Starpoint Gemini franchise, and the carefully crafted strategic gameplay is likely a result of their constant refinement.

The campaign in Starpoint Gemini Warlords acts as its tutorial, featuring a narrative that is quite generic but does a good job in providing the player knowledge of the game. Essentially, the story behind the campaign portion is that a battlecruiser is destroyed while you return to assist in defending your primary base. Besides the main story, which could have been improved on, the game also features various scenarios to start the player off with different ships and backstories. While the stories themselves are generic, it is clear that the game’s focus is on its gameplay and not its story.

The game’s strategy elements are its strongest points, which are highlighted by the conquest free-roam mode. Building your base, establishing a fleet, and engaging your enemies with said fleet are among the best experiences I have had in space simulation games. While the simulation and upgrading aspect of the game are done well, the action portions of the game were painful at times to get through. Specifically, the movement and combat were hampered by the game’s camera. While movement itself was adequate, when combined with camera adjustments such as in combat, the game falls short.

Many a time in combat scenarios did the movement of my spacecraft hamper my ability to engage the enemy in any meaningful way. While space-flight combat has never been a high-ranking skill of mine, I have enough experience in them to battle competently. Unfortunately, in Starpoint Gemini Warlords, I never felt completely in control or comfortable in combat scenarios. This is even more unfortunate as tight space combat in this game could have propelled the game to greater heights when combined with the strong strategic portion.

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“… Starpoint Gemini Warlords remains a massive, robust space strategy game.”

Furthermore, the game unfortunately did not run very well either. With already relatively below standard graphics, which typically would be borderline acceptable in strategy games of this magnitude, the game also had frequent framerate drops while played on the Xbox One S. In addition to the poor visuals, the font sizing in the game is way too small. Despite these technical shortcomings, the game does feature some decent character art.

Despite its shortcomings in the real-time combat portion of the game, Starpoint Gemini Warlords remains a massive, robust space strategy game. However, due to a combination of unstable performance, an unintuitive camera system, and an overall rough combat system, I can only imagine what could have been. Regardless of the issues in combat, the title remains a strong space simulation that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy if they can see past the shortcomings. For those looking for a vast, space simulation title to spend a large number of hours in, look no further.

*** An Xbox One code was provided by the publisher ***