Turny Muffins

So, once there was this game called Homeworld; it was a great game: even won game of the year, in like 1998 or something. It was the first truly 3D RTS game out there, and remains one of the few to this day. It's gameplay was innovative (due to the full 3D), it was well balanced, it had an amazing story, and the multiplayer was fun. This is the game that Blendo Games appears to be attempting to channel with their somewhat retro-8-bit inspired turn-based-strategy game Flotilla.

First off, Flotilla is not Homeworld; however, what it does seem to do, or at least try to do, is to bring some of the Homeworld gameplay into a more, I'll say 'manageable' format. The turnbased combat makes the game slower, much slower, and therefore more accessible in my opinion. This is not a bad thing, but Homeworld wasn't a fast paced game to start with, but the pace of the game is one of my main complaints, it feels like a chessmatch in space: a chessmatch between two 80 year old narcaleptics with korsakoff's syndrome.

Now, a chessmatch in space doesn't sound like an inherently bad thing. But, when there are only a few pieces that don't fit together into a coherent whole, it ends up feeling more like trying to play chess with a game of monopoly. There are 8 different types of ships to command in the game, each different, but not particularly unique, and the gameplay doesn't change drastically with any of them. The 'true 3D' strategy is, in fact, fully 3D; however, it doesn't change gameplay enough to be interesting. The strategy for the 3D combat is the same with every ship: get under/behind the enemy. I'm not going to call it poorly balanced, but I will say that ship roles are poorly delineated and the 3D combat is poorly capitalized upon; and this tends to result in almost every battle playing out in almost the same manner.

Repetitive and boring combat aside, the game is not all about the turn based combat; it's about adventure. The premise is that you have a crippling disease and set out to have space adventures until either the disease takes you, or the space penguins whose family reunion you inadvertently interrupted send you adrift with the space garbage and uneaten tacos. This is a promising premise, however, the game doesn't give you a particularly long time to adventure, so it usually ends up feeling like a rather abrupt ending which lacks any game finishing satisfaction. The events on the way to the abrupt ending somewhat make up for it though, there are some truly random and quirky things out there to find/encounter which lends a somewhat charming atmosphere to the game. This is mitigated by the constancy of these encounters, in my view, this quirkiness is only really appealing with a normal baseline to compare it with; which the game lacks, there's always something new and random awaiting, which, in it's own odd way, becomes repetitive. This may be due to the relatively poor and uninteresting quality of the writing that goes into these events, and the complete and total lack of any voice acting or dialog to actually draw you into the game. An interuped space penguin family reunion that ends in a space battle sounds like a great springboard for some really interesting, witty, and hilarious writing. This is not the case, rarely do these events go beyond a few sentences simply stating that something happened in the most uninteresting way possible; maybe the developers thought the player could use their imagination, i don't know, I thought I was paying for a creative work, prefilled with someone else's imagination, I wasn't expecting a BYOB affair with my imaginative juices.

Also with the adventure, you're meant to build/lose your fleet, sorry, 'flotilla', as you 'adventure'. Homeworld did a persistent fleet system in a somewhat similar manner, and it worked very well, it also works very well here, each new ship you find is new and exciting, and each ship you lose is a devastating loss. Also, going beyond Homeworld, the ships persist and gain experience as you win battles, which is a nice touch. That, along with the equipment/upgrades for ships that you can acquire, add a level of customization and tinkering to an otherwise bland ship selection and combat formula. But again, like most else in this game, it feels poorly capitalized upon; the upgrades are rarely interesting beyond simply boosting a certain stat.

Additionally, what can be viewed as both a positive and a negative choice, is that there's no money in the game; you can trade, and you can find/pillage stuff, but you can't buy stuff. This simplifies the game, and adds a somewhat old west feel to the game. You never know what's going to be waiting at the next planet, which adds randomness and makes you work with what you have, but it also removes the trademark preparation phase of the turnbased strategy genre (or strategy genre in general), and turns the strategy into a bit of a crapshoot. You get no choice of ships or equipment before a fight, no choice of formation, and no other options at all; not that it would matter, there's not enough raw game material here for meaningful preparations anyway. And when you have a strategy game where preparation, unit choice, and equipment choice mean almost nothing, then the title of 'strategy game' gets called into question, like Justin Beiber's gender.

So, what we have here is a turnbased strategy game, in 'full 3D'- which for all appearances aimed to be the turnbased successor to Homeworld- that has bland combat, shallow strategy, a remarkably uninteresting adventure aspect in spite of all the potential, and... well, retro graphics if you're into that sort of thing, they don't add to or take from the gameplay, so I can take them or leave them; it's a matter of personal taste. This game is not a worthy sucessor to Homeworld, they may look similar, and sound like they have a similar gameplay mechanic, but that's like saying a pitbull has four legs and eats food, just like a koala. I really wanted to like this game, and, really, it's not bad; I paid $2.50 for it on Steam, I'd say it's worth that, or twice that even, you'll get some amusement out of it if you want a quick, easy turnbased strategy game, but don't expect greatness like Homeworld, or Advance Wars, or even checkers. The idea and inspiration for a great game is here; but it's like if you conjured up a plan to end world hunger, or the BP oil spill, only you're a sentient toaster- all the good intentions and great ideas can't change the fact that you're a useless toaster that burns toast, is a hazzard to children, and can burn down the house and kill the family that gives you purpose in life.