There’s something calming about a good 4X strategy game, it’s akin to sitting back in on the sofa with your favorite movie and desert. Any good 4X strategy provides that sense of bliss, the feeling of multiple moving parts working together to create a deep experience.
Over the years we’ve had many settings for 4X games, from historical to science fiction. Ancient china however has often been in the sole hands of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. Shining Pixel Studios however have decided to give Koei Tecmo’s long running series some well needed competition in the form of their new early access title Oriental Empires.
Gameplay
A small skirmish
Oriental Empires early access release boasts a feature complete single player campaign with the developers using the early access time period to develop and implement the multiplayer as well as performance improvements. The games single player grand campaign takes place through several periods of technological advancement, leaving each campaign play through spanning many hours.
As with most 4X strategies, Oriental Empires starts with a faction selection system. There are several to choose from each with their own specific advantages and focuses in terms of technology and economic playstyles. Several of the factions will be locked when the game is first played and can be unlocked through playing the game.
I myself elected for the well-known Han dynasty and soon it was time to start one of the longest running dynasties from scratch. Each faction will start off the game with a capital city, a leader unit and a unit of settlers. The early goals of the game are simply to start expanding, by settling new towns, building farms to feed people, increasing population growth and build a few military units to defend your unfortified locales.
All about that tech
Researching technology is a big part of Oriental Empires and works differently from most other 4X’s. Instead of researching one technology at a time from a single tech tree, the game features four distinct trees in which you can research one of each simultaneously. This allows the progression to feel faster than some other games and allows your cultural, economic and military advancement to stay level for the most part.
City management is important especially as your technology progresses. Cities require you to manage their unrest levels in which you have a noble unrest meter and a peasantry unrest meter. Ensuring that towns have enough farmland, roads, production facilities as well as civil amenities is important for keeping your populace happy. If unrest becomes too hgh, rebellions will break out and not only cause rebel armies to spawn but you may lose control of entire cities.
You’d be forgiven at first glance at Oriental Empires steam page to think it looks like a Total War game, especially with the screen shots of battles. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Oriental Empires in fact shares most of its core design with a Civilization game than it does with any other 4X on the market.
Burn and pillage
The combat is the weakest part of the game by far and needs a lot of improvement. Battles take place on the world map as they do in the Civ games. There’s not much hands on involvement, however, it is possible to instruct armies to use certain tactics such as flanking manoeuvres and change their formations.
The problem becomes that the AI and pathfinding in battles is not all that well developed. Armies randomly move around the map like headless chickens unsure of what do to. They will also often not follow the tactics given. Winning battles currently relies on having better units and more of them. Having archers against an all melee army for example can leave an advantage.
When you’re not fighting with the other factions, you’ll likely be talking to them through the diplomacy system. Like many before it, Oriental Empire offers a system that works but nothing in the way of innovation or fun. It’s your bare basics system that while, easy to use, lacks any enjoyment.
System Requirements
Beginnings of greatness
Aesthetically the game is wonderful boasting nice graphical assets and a great soundtrack. There’s tons of really nice aesthetical choices in Oriental Empires that makes for a visually pleasurable experience. The game does run well in its current build but has the odd graphical hiccup from time to time.
Minimum:
OS: Windows 7 64 bit (32 bit NOT supported)
Processor: Intel Core i5-3230M @ 2.60GHz or equivalent AMD processor and above
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 256 MB DX 9 Compliant videocard with pixel shader 3,0
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 2 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible Audio
Additional Notes: Minimum Resolution: 1024 x 768
Recommended:
OS: Windows 7,8,10 - 64 bit (32 bit NOT supported)
Processor: Intel i5 3.2 GHz or equivalent AMD processor and above
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: 512 MB DX 9 Compliant videocard with pixel shader 3,0
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 2 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible Audio
Additional Notes: Minimum Resolution: 1024 x 768
Release Date
Full launch of the game is estimated around the end of November 2016 as the developers only want to spend two months in early access solely to implement a multiplayer.
Additional Thoughts
Need more men!
Oriental Empires is comfort food, pure and simple. Fans of the Civ series will be right at home and will be able to enjoy a more focused game surrounding a specific time period. There’s lots to like about the game thus far and the aesthetical style and choices made add that little extra touch.
There is no question that there is room for improvement, especially for the combat AI and pathing issues. If these are not worked on, it’s likely that the expected multiplayer mode will become a frustrating affair.
Most Anticipated Feature: Multiplayer has the potential to be a lot of fun if the combat issues can be worked out.
