Gazebo48

Being a long-time fan of 4X space games, I approach each new title with hopeful trepidation. For every deeply satisfying game like Master of Orion 2 or Galactic Civilizations 2, there's a frustrating failure like MoO3 or Sword of the Stars II and a host of in between offerings such as Lost Empire, Endless Space, Star Drive and Armada 2526. Horizon turns out to be an all-of-the-above game. It's early game exploration and expansion is top notch with lots of meaningful choices as to colony development, resource management, research decisions and risk-benefit assessments. Unfortunately, things go south almost as soon as the neighbors show up. Transactions with your AI opponents are frustratingly limited and their responses often seem so hard-wired as to totally ignore your choices. Their lack of any discernibly responsive intelligence becomes even more apparent if you modify all your opponents into what should be a pleasantly “passive” attitude only to have them declare war on you shortly after first contact and absent any aggression on your part. Speaking of modifications, don't bother trying to modify the AI race names or the names of their home worlds. Much like the AI responses, the original names are hardwired in most of the screen displays so you end up with a confusing mix of your creations and the “throw the scrabble tiles up in the air and see where they land” originals. Disappointment with the AI will sink to despair once you reach the exterminate portion of the game. It's turn-based which is fine by me but it's also visually unappealing, saddled with awkward positioning mechanics and quickly becomes an unrewarding chore best left to auto resolution. The vessel customization is serviceable but absent excitement when your personally sculpted death dealing armada goes into action becomes more of a book keeping chore. The graphics in the game are dated but well done and the music isn't memorable in any positive or negative way. Running the main themes from MoO2 while playing Horizon makes for a nice effect. The tutorial is adequate if you have a good background with the 4X space genre but does leave a newcomer with a lot of figuring out left to do. In summary, what you get with Horizon is in essence a 50-50 gaming experience with enough good stuff to draw you in and enough disappointment to let you know this isn't your 4X gamer heart's desire.

This is a paint-by-the-numbers turn-based strategy game that feels like a clone (rip-off) of the venerable Heroes of Might and Magic franchise absent the engaging environments and grand strategy challenges that characterized most of the Heroes games. You move your fleets along a rail map and blast enemy fleets and repeat and repeat and repeat until you either get to the end of the line or lose interest, realize you wasted your money on a game the developers put very little effort into and banish the game from your hard drive never to return.