A-Z Backlog challenge: Last federation
The Last federation is a RTS by Arcen games. They are known for creating asynchronous games with strange starting and win conditions. Their best known game is probably AI war: Fleet command which saw you starting from the point where humans have lost the war and you are so weak that the AI can't even be bothered to completely wipe you out of existance. You had to slowly build up your technology, manufacturing and fleet without alerting it to your strength too early or it would crush you like a bug. They also made a game called Skyward collapse where you played a God trying to keep the balance between different warring tribes on your world so that one didn't complete annihilate the other(s).
In the Last Federation you play the last of the Hydrans. Your homeworld has been destroyed by one of the races and your mission is to create a federation which will bring peace to the galaxy. You first need to steal a prototype ship to get you around. You can choose who to steal from- each race has a different ship with different weapons and abilities and the race you steal from will also start off hating you. The battles are turn based but feel very much like shoot em ups as the action plays out after you have input your movement and weapon or ability to use.
At the beginning, battles are easy as your race was the most technologically advanced. In fact, the other races aren't even space- faring at the beginning of the game. The galaxy is empty except for the homeworlds of each species. To get them to like you, and you need them to like you to join your federation, you need to give them the ability to reach the stars. But each race you give the technology to, makes the others dislike you. And as the races develop their technology, with and without your help, your advantage in battles diminishes.
Much like in all 4x games, along with developing their technology, the races will be building fleets, buildings on their planets and outposts. The only difference is here you won't necessarily trying to stay one step ahead of them. It is now up to you to decide who to help, hinder and manipulate. On each planet you can choose friendly actions, hostile actions or government actions. Friendly actions include helping with peacekeeping, building the economy or developing technology together.
Hostile actions are the opposite. You can stir up unrest, poison the planet, sabotage the economy etc.
Government actions are tlaking to the leaders of the race to get them to do what you want. It could be to focus on one area of development, or to attack another race or to call off a war.
You can also help them to establish moon bases of varying kinds or to take those bases from other races. You need to decide what it is each race is lacking in and how you want to help them. Or do you want to keep one with a strong manufacturing base but low technology and another with good technology and low population so none will dominate the rest? Every action you make dealing with one race has an influence on the way you are seen not only by them but also those that are friendly or unfriendly to them. The diplomacy screen is one you will be looking at very often.
You will also have the option to do random missions which pop up every once in a while which will also affect your reputation with various races and have effects which depend on the mission. For example there is a mission where someone from one race wishes to defect to another with a piece of technology. Pirate bases also spawn every once in a while and helping to destroy those increase your influence.
You don't need to keep everyone alive so you don't really have to keep the balance of power intact. Winning requires only that everyone is either in your alliance or dead. In my playthrough I got the 3 "good" races into my federation first. Then while they were beating up on other individual races I managed to get the hive type insects to like and be liked by one of the races in the federation so they would join too. From that point it was easy to wipe out the rest of the galaxy. But if someone becomes too powerful who is not in your federation or who leaves your federation then you are in trouble.
I found the concept for the game very interesting but i think it could have been done a lot better. The technologies for one are very lackluster. A lot just give flat bonuses to one thing or another such as fleet strength, ground army, technology speed etc. and can't really be differentiated from each other. For example many of the fleet bonuses just make the same ships have more hull and shield points instead of cool new weapons. A more interesting tech tree would really make the game more interesting.
Making your introduction to the different races more epic would also make the game feel less like a spreadsheet simulator. Even old games like Star Control 2 and Master of Orion did this better. The personality of the races in this just don't come through very strongly.
There is a lot replayability as the starting planet of each race is different in each playthrough so the race that is strongest is one game may be the weakest in the next. You also have the choice of starting ship and enemy and of course the choice of who and how many you want to try to ally yourself with. If you are looking for an interesting and challenging game, it may be worth giving this a try. But don't expect a particularly engaging story.
Release Year: 2014
Rating: 64
Normal price: $19.99
Best sale price: $3.99
In the Last Federation you play the last of the Hydrans. Your homeworld has been destroyed by one of the races and your mission is to create a federation which will bring peace to the galaxy. You first need to steal a prototype ship to get you around. You can choose who to steal from- each race has a different ship with different weapons and abilities and the race you steal from will also start off hating you. The battles are turn based but feel very much like shoot em ups as the action plays out after you have input your movement and weapon or ability to use.
At the beginning, battles are easy as your race was the most technologically advanced. In fact, the other races aren't even space- faring at the beginning of the game. The galaxy is empty except for the homeworlds of each species. To get them to like you, and you need them to like you to join your federation, you need to give them the ability to reach the stars. But each race you give the technology to, makes the others dislike you. And as the races develop their technology, with and without your help, your advantage in battles diminishes.
Much like in all 4x games, along with developing their technology, the races will be building fleets, buildings on their planets and outposts. The only difference is here you won't necessarily trying to stay one step ahead of them. It is now up to you to decide who to help, hinder and manipulate. On each planet you can choose friendly actions, hostile actions or government actions. Friendly actions include helping with peacekeeping, building the economy or developing technology together.
Hostile actions are the opposite. You can stir up unrest, poison the planet, sabotage the economy etc.
Government actions are tlaking to the leaders of the race to get them to do what you want. It could be to focus on one area of development, or to attack another race or to call off a war.
You can also help them to establish moon bases of varying kinds or to take those bases from other races. You need to decide what it is each race is lacking in and how you want to help them. Or do you want to keep one with a strong manufacturing base but low technology and another with good technology and low population so none will dominate the rest? Every action you make dealing with one race has an influence on the way you are seen not only by them but also those that are friendly or unfriendly to them. The diplomacy screen is one you will be looking at very often.
You will also have the option to do random missions which pop up every once in a while which will also affect your reputation with various races and have effects which depend on the mission. For example there is a mission where someone from one race wishes to defect to another with a piece of technology. Pirate bases also spawn every once in a while and helping to destroy those increase your influence.
You don't need to keep everyone alive so you don't really have to keep the balance of power intact. Winning requires only that everyone is either in your alliance or dead. In my playthrough I got the 3 "good" races into my federation first. Then while they were beating up on other individual races I managed to get the hive type insects to like and be liked by one of the races in the federation so they would join too. From that point it was easy to wipe out the rest of the galaxy. But if someone becomes too powerful who is not in your federation or who leaves your federation then you are in trouble.
Making your introduction to the different races more epic would also make the game feel less like a spreadsheet simulator. Even old games like Star Control 2 and Master of Orion did this better. The personality of the races in this just don't come through very strongly.
There is a lot replayability as the starting planet of each race is different in each playthrough so the race that is strongest is one game may be the weakest in the next. You also have the choice of starting ship and enemy and of course the choice of who and how many you want to try to ally yourself with. If you are looking for an interesting and challenging game, it may be worth giving this a try. But don't expect a particularly engaging story.
Release Year: 2014
Rating: 64
Normal price: $19.99
Best sale price: $3.99
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