Developer: Grey Wolf Entertainment
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Pax Nova – Review
Turn-based strategy games have been a rather rare occurrence these last years. Pax Nova is trying to revive this genre by blending base building elements with a city manager, this all while surviving on a hostile planet in the slow pace of turn-based titles. Due to its complex nature, it could throw off most first time players as it doesn’t come with an instructional manual.
Story
Pax Nova has quite simple beginnings as it all starts with the fall of the Earth and the battle for the survival of humanity. In the stellar system, there are quite some planets and different species inhabiting those. Your goal is to colonize a planet, build cities, gather influence, and survive the harsh lands. Because of how slowly the game progresses, you won’t really have to follow a red wire throughout the game. You are rather busy with establishing cities and fending off waves of hostile inhabitants.
Graphics
The visuals in Pax Nova are pretty well made. They look great from a distance, but as you cannot zoom in that far, you won’t be able to enjoy them from close by. This is actually a smart move as now the developers don’t need to pay too much attention to smaller details. The User Interface looks really well but isn’t too easy to work with. One thing that is done super fluently is how the animations are handled. These look nicely done, although some movements look too fast to be taken seriously, as if you’re watching a comedy scene from an old black-and-white picture.
Sound
Your interplanetary adventure is mostly in silence. As there hasn’t been much invested in the music, there is a decent amount of work done in the sound effects. Each action has its audio cues and can be easily followed up. It would have been nice to have some low key music playing on the background. There are also no voiced interactions, which is also a missed opportunity.
Gameplay
Pax Nova is a turn-based strategy game, where you must build cities to support your conquest while fending off hostile creatures on a distant planet. The game starts with humanity branching out into outer space. You have the selection between a lot of different factions or you can even create your own. This is done by selecting a look, your good perks, bad perk and bonuses. This carte-blanche is perfect if you want to fine-tune an already strong faction or just go crazy with your new world order.
After landing on the new planet, you will have to start building. Each city has its limits though, as you can only build within a certain radius. Probably the most annoying thing about the campaign mode is that there is barely a tutorial to guide new players. You will have to know a thing or two about management if you want to be able to play this game. Even with the knowledge, you will have to reach in the dark rather often. A great example is that you will be checking out how to build the city, while suddenly some aliens come by. At first, they are friendly, but they will become hostile pretty quickly. Conventional warfare isn’t to be found, normally you would build some troops to create a border, or have a few turrets guarding essential buildings. In Pax Nova you will have to sacrifice a building lot for a security center, its range is limited but can protect the city if needed. Combat is easy but as the interface isn’t that easy to work with.
To be sure that your city will grow greatly, you will have to manage it in the right way. Some city parts will cause pollution, others will cause discomfort to nearby apartments and the list goes on. Each action will have a reaction, as during some turns you will have random events that will impact how the people or inhabitants will look at you. Will you piss off the locals for self-gain? Or will you show your people that you are not the great leader as they suspect?
As the game is a turn-based title, you will have some time to plan out your moves. Controlling the game isn’t that easy as you will have to use certain combinations to do something. Some button inputs don’t work the first few times and overall, while the U.I. is nice, it’s a pain to work with.
Conclusion
Pax Nova might look good but it will take some time to get used to playing it. Due to the difficulty and absence of a proper tutorial, you will have to learn it all yourself. This isn’t an easy learning school due to the U.I. not always working. If you are a huge fan of the setting and like turn-based games, then you will easily overcome the small errors that are in the game. However, if you want to give the genre a try, then it might be a bit too overwhelming for you.
No Comments