04-04-2011, 04:37 AM
Far Horizons: The Awakening hearkens back unto the PBM days of old, for all of the good and ill that such entails.
Like many play by mail games from yesteryear, this game teases the imagination, even as the documentation that accompanies the game tends to add to the confusion of the experience.
This review focuses only upon the first five turns, and as such, my experience with both the game and its moderator is relatively limited. All things considered, at this juncture in time, I rate the game moderator much higher than I do the game.
That's not to say that I am prepared to abandon the game, for nothing could be further from the truth. Rather, I commend the game moderator for the energy, competence, and interest that he brings to the game that he has chosen to resurrect from the ashes of PBM's past.
One of the worst aspects about the game, in its current design stage, is that it is a pain in the ass trying to sift through all of the documentation, just in order for me to try and figure out how to accomplish tasks that I, personally, consider to be basic and fundamental in nature. To the game moderator's credit, he tries to continually flesh his website's documentation out, in an attempt to illuminate for the player how to issue orders correctly that the player wants to issue for his empire.
In the introduction section of the game manual for Far Horizons: The Awakening, it states: Still, those who enjoy a more aggressive game, or those who wish to role-play an "evil" or warlike species will not be disappointed. However, in the earliest stage of the game, the role playing aspect associated with the game remains relegated to being a future possibility. There has been no manifestation of role playing through the in-game mechanisms for the first five turns of my empire's progress. Your mileage may differ, however, assuming that you encounter - and communicate with - other species, in your respective bids to expand the scope of your empires.
Some things remain a mystery, at the current stage of things. For example, why the player needs to issue a SCAN order, in order for their starships that they move from location to location to generate a Scan Report, rather than each starship's crew handling that task of their own initiative, is beyond me. I don't understand why the player has to issue the SCAN order, for that task to be accomplished. Is the player limited to either scanning or doing something else, in the same turn with the same starship in question? It just seems that the game presently punishes the player unnecessarily, if the player forgets to issue a SCAN order for each starship, each turn.
Using the JUMP command, starships can move from star system to star system, within the game's setting. There are a total of 90 stars in the galaxy of the game that I am playing in, one titled by the game moderator as Galaxy Alpha. To move a starship from one star system to another star system, an X, Y, Z system of movement is utilized by the game. Thus, rather than just trying to move my starship to star # 46, a much more cumbersome process is utilized. Thus, the chances for human error increase, I think, where players are compelled to utilize a multi-digit system (X - Y - Z), instead of a single digit system (star # 35).
Issuing even a relatively short set of turn orders has invariably proven to be a time consuming exercise, to date. For the uninitiated, Far Horizons: The Awakening is definitely not the game that you want to play, if you only want to invest five or ten minutes of time in issuing turn orders for your empire. The worst part of it is that I spend far more time trying to track down exactly what format my turn orders need to be in, than I do in imagining my empire's place in the overall scheme of the galaxy, relative to other player positions in the game with me. In a nutshell, the work factor outweighs the fun factor, so far. Perhaps that will change for the better, over time, but nonetheless, this remains my opinion of the two (work factor and fun factor), at this stage of the game's progress.
After five turns of turn results and five turns of progress, I question what the whole point was of going through the initial allocation of tech points, where the design phase of my empire was concerned. Watching some of my tech levels increase over the last few turns, I am left with a very jaded feeling about the whole design stage of the game. This is a problem that is traceable to the original design of the game, and is not the fault of the current game moderator, Casey. Five turns in, and I am now dumping the bulk of what I spend each turn into increasing my empire's Mining tech level.
Why? Because, it very noticeably impacts how much I will have available to spend, the following turn. Basically, I am milking my homeworld's ability to be mined, each turn, now, with no end in sight. This approach to mining conjures up memories from my days as designer and game moderator for Starforce Battles. There's a reason that I rejected this approach towards mining in that game, all those many years ago.
Far Horizons: The Awakening holds much potential, however, for the very fact that it is automated. But, so far, at least, it has also been a very dry game, generating very little excitement within me, and doing nothing of note to ignite my imagination. To endure the rigor of deciphering the orders scheme for issuing turn orders, each turn, I wish that the game would do a much better job of firing the engines of my imagination.
The cost of playing the game is right - it's free! Hey, that's always a plus, and especially in an era of a tight economy. But, as the saying goes, time is money, and if I measure Far Horizons: The Awakening in terms of how much excitement that I have gotten, thus far, for the amount of time that I have spent trying to figure out how to accomplish even the most basic and fundamental of orders, then in my considered opinion, I'm losing money.
Even so, I also believe that the vast bulk of this game's potential remains untapped.
In a new galaxy configuration, one where players begin the game in control of empires that reflect empires not all starting relatively equal, one where empires have clearly existed over a great span of time, as reflected by their respective and different assets and advantages held, I think that the role playing aspect might actually have some meat on its bones at game start - rather than players having to wait until they make first contact.
The current approach to the game is that no real history exists for any of the empires, as they start the game. The empires all end up feeling all the more dull and boring for it, too - unfortunately.
Rest assured, I want to like this game. For that matter, I want to love this game. For now, though, I am merely playing this game. At this early stage of things, it largely just feels as if I am going through the motions. There is no love story to report, only a brush with mediocrity. I wouldn't even describe it as friendship, at this point. The game is still largely a stranger to me. By the time that I write my next review of it, perhaps this game of Far Horizons: The Awakening will have grown on me, a bit.
Like many play by mail games from yesteryear, this game teases the imagination, even as the documentation that accompanies the game tends to add to the confusion of the experience.
This review focuses only upon the first five turns, and as such, my experience with both the game and its moderator is relatively limited. All things considered, at this juncture in time, I rate the game moderator much higher than I do the game.
That's not to say that I am prepared to abandon the game, for nothing could be further from the truth. Rather, I commend the game moderator for the energy, competence, and interest that he brings to the game that he has chosen to resurrect from the ashes of PBM's past.
One of the worst aspects about the game, in its current design stage, is that it is a pain in the ass trying to sift through all of the documentation, just in order for me to try and figure out how to accomplish tasks that I, personally, consider to be basic and fundamental in nature. To the game moderator's credit, he tries to continually flesh his website's documentation out, in an attempt to illuminate for the player how to issue orders correctly that the player wants to issue for his empire.
In the introduction section of the game manual for Far Horizons: The Awakening, it states: Still, those who enjoy a more aggressive game, or those who wish to role-play an "evil" or warlike species will not be disappointed. However, in the earliest stage of the game, the role playing aspect associated with the game remains relegated to being a future possibility. There has been no manifestation of role playing through the in-game mechanisms for the first five turns of my empire's progress. Your mileage may differ, however, assuming that you encounter - and communicate with - other species, in your respective bids to expand the scope of your empires.
Some things remain a mystery, at the current stage of things. For example, why the player needs to issue a SCAN order, in order for their starships that they move from location to location to generate a Scan Report, rather than each starship's crew handling that task of their own initiative, is beyond me. I don't understand why the player has to issue the SCAN order, for that task to be accomplished. Is the player limited to either scanning or doing something else, in the same turn with the same starship in question? It just seems that the game presently punishes the player unnecessarily, if the player forgets to issue a SCAN order for each starship, each turn.
Using the JUMP command, starships can move from star system to star system, within the game's setting. There are a total of 90 stars in the galaxy of the game that I am playing in, one titled by the game moderator as Galaxy Alpha. To move a starship from one star system to another star system, an X, Y, Z system of movement is utilized by the game. Thus, rather than just trying to move my starship to star # 46, a much more cumbersome process is utilized. Thus, the chances for human error increase, I think, where players are compelled to utilize a multi-digit system (X - Y - Z), instead of a single digit system (star # 35).
Issuing even a relatively short set of turn orders has invariably proven to be a time consuming exercise, to date. For the uninitiated, Far Horizons: The Awakening is definitely not the game that you want to play, if you only want to invest five or ten minutes of time in issuing turn orders for your empire. The worst part of it is that I spend far more time trying to track down exactly what format my turn orders need to be in, than I do in imagining my empire's place in the overall scheme of the galaxy, relative to other player positions in the game with me. In a nutshell, the work factor outweighs the fun factor, so far. Perhaps that will change for the better, over time, but nonetheless, this remains my opinion of the two (work factor and fun factor), at this stage of the game's progress.
After five turns of turn results and five turns of progress, I question what the whole point was of going through the initial allocation of tech points, where the design phase of my empire was concerned. Watching some of my tech levels increase over the last few turns, I am left with a very jaded feeling about the whole design stage of the game. This is a problem that is traceable to the original design of the game, and is not the fault of the current game moderator, Casey. Five turns in, and I am now dumping the bulk of what I spend each turn into increasing my empire's Mining tech level.
Why? Because, it very noticeably impacts how much I will have available to spend, the following turn. Basically, I am milking my homeworld's ability to be mined, each turn, now, with no end in sight. This approach to mining conjures up memories from my days as designer and game moderator for Starforce Battles. There's a reason that I rejected this approach towards mining in that game, all those many years ago.
Far Horizons: The Awakening holds much potential, however, for the very fact that it is automated. But, so far, at least, it has also been a very dry game, generating very little excitement within me, and doing nothing of note to ignite my imagination. To endure the rigor of deciphering the orders scheme for issuing turn orders, each turn, I wish that the game would do a much better job of firing the engines of my imagination.
The cost of playing the game is right - it's free! Hey, that's always a plus, and especially in an era of a tight economy. But, as the saying goes, time is money, and if I measure Far Horizons: The Awakening in terms of how much excitement that I have gotten, thus far, for the amount of time that I have spent trying to figure out how to accomplish even the most basic and fundamental of orders, then in my considered opinion, I'm losing money.
Even so, I also believe that the vast bulk of this game's potential remains untapped.
In a new galaxy configuration, one where players begin the game in control of empires that reflect empires not all starting relatively equal, one where empires have clearly existed over a great span of time, as reflected by their respective and different assets and advantages held, I think that the role playing aspect might actually have some meat on its bones at game start - rather than players having to wait until they make first contact.
The current approach to the game is that no real history exists for any of the empires, as they start the game. The empires all end up feeling all the more dull and boring for it, too - unfortunately.
Rest assured, I want to like this game. For that matter, I want to love this game. For now, though, I am merely playing this game. At this early stage of things, it largely just feels as if I am going through the motions. There is no love story to report, only a brush with mediocrity. I wouldn't even describe it as friendship, at this point. The game is still largely a stranger to me. By the time that I write my next review of it, perhaps this game of Far Horizons: The Awakening will have grown on me, a bit.
