War. War never changes.
Strap in and put on your helmet, soldier, 'cause Irreverend Opinions is taking a shot at Interplanetary!
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The Blurb
Interplanetary is a three-dimensional artillery tactical game of war between planets. Players (or AI) control a planet, directing research and construction, and then aiming various cannons, missiles, lasers, and superweapons at their opposing cities and infrastructure, having to work around the gravitational pull and orbital drift of their opponents.
The Good
The simplicity that Interplanetary depicts their controls cannot be overstated. The various screens give you access to all that you need at that level; construction shows you what you can build (and whether you can afford it), weapons show you 'targeting lines' to display what the expected shot path is, according to gravity and such.
No number-crunching beyond "do I have enough power to shoot this laser" is needed, and even then, graphical displays demonstrate things for you.
For a Unity-based game, the physics engine incorporated by Interplanetary is robust and bug-free. Kinetic shots follow paths dictated by velocity and planetary mass, meaning you have to factor these into the shot like a space-age game of 8-ball.
Intelligencia is a factor in the game, expressed as simplified "intel" and "counterintel" pointers that require their own individual building types to generate. Simply enough, higher intel than enemy counterintel means you can see their buildings and cities, and you cannot see their constructions if they have higher counterintel than your intel.
The tech tree is likewise streamlined, giving some small room for options in early to middle game, focusing on kinetic weapons (railguns with biological weapon warheads, for example) or lasers, etc.
Multiplayer is both easy to set up (hotseat/internet) and fun.
The Bad
Late game tech is homogenous, meaning that choices break down in importance fairly soon. It's possible to research everything in the tree, with no exclusive tech lockouts or cultural 'themes'.
Intel/counterintel generates quickly, making the midgame as much of a 'cookie cutter' scenario for tech development and building. Doing otherwise leaves you defenseless to precision strikes, or firing blindly at a planet in the hopes of breaking something important.
By that same problem, given that midgame tech development must be followed in certain patterns, early game requires specific development and tech, eliminating much of the 'individuality' allowed.
The Ugly
Not really anything, though Interplanetary does not apparently function on Windows 10 systems.
Suggestions
Players are encouraged to stagger weapons tech development with intelligence and defensive tech capacities, and largely ignore utility techs until lategame. The same requirement largely exists in construction; weapons, (counter-)intel, and then spamming utility in order to fund construction of your superweapons. Once you have enough weapons to survive, simply focus on intelligence. If you focus hard on counterintelligence, the AI will largely ignore you entirely, meaning that in VS AI matches, you can largely skip defensive techs until later in the game as well.
For developers; the recommendation is to make the tech tree one of individual flavor, rather than railroad paths. Spread some of the various tech benefits (city growth, chosen weapon potency, energy generation, etc) through each 'branch', and then focus the 'branch' on a particular playstyle (widespread bombardment, precision strikes). Slow science generation enough that choices are meaningful, and the "science victory" achievement is actually one that takes effort to receive. Perhaps some effects in the kinetics tree to show variation expected thanks to gravity and orbit (cone trajectory, rather than a line).
The Summary
Definitely playable, Interplanetary is a fun artillery game for players who don't want to micromanage or focus on number crunching. 7/10.
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This review is hosted for archival and backup purposes; the original can be found on Steam.
