A Preview of Gemini Wars

How time flies…especially in outer space.  I cannot believe that almost a whole year has passed since we interviewed the fellas of Camel 101 about their space strategy game, Gemini Wars.  Since then, Gemini Wars has been picked up by publisher Iceberg Interactive and has received a release date of June 8.  Before long, spaceship jockeys everywhere will have a chance to give this rocket ship a spin.

GameSquad was recently given a chance to preview Gemini Wars.  So, without further ado, here are some initial impressions of the game.

A Story-driven Campaign

Right off the bat it becomes clear that Gemini Wars is going to be a heavily story-based game.  Unlike other space strategy games that go for more of a sandbox approach, Gemini Wars immediately immerses the player in a deep story involving a civil war between the Earth-centric United Space Federation and the rebelling Alliance of Free Worlds.  This conflict, which has spiraled out of control and devastated a portion of the galaxy - the Gemini Sector - is about the take a dangerous new twist when a third party decides to get involved (I’ll leave you to discover just who…or what…comprises this third party).

Thrust into this maelstrom is fleet captain Cole, the player’s alter-ego who is brought out of exile to help the war effort.  Via a series of increasingly challenging missions – sixteen made up the campaign in our preview copy – the player follows a character-driven story that will require him to interact with various Gemini sector inhabitants, and accomplish such war goals as protecting a mining outpost, assaulting enemy space stations or even exploring unknown systems.  All in all, the various missions throw some nicely differentiated content at the player.

Each mission begins in the player’s briefing room where the player can check out a brief description of the sector of the galaxy where the mission will take place (I really wish the sector was highlighted on the galaxy map overview, though), as well as receive a video briefing from Admiral Ragnar, a character who always provides some interesting background material for the coming mission.    I have to say that these briefings, as well as some of the other pre-rendered cut scenes that are interspersed in the game, make it very clear that Camel 101 was really concerned with bringing the story to life.  Unlike some other games I have played where the set-up was strictly by the numbers, these briefings have a real sense of story to them, one that is somewhat reminiscent of Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet.

Off to War

Once the briefing is concluded, the player is taken to his area of responsibility, one that can range from a single star system comprised of a planet or two and some asteroid fields, to multi-star system affairs that are connected by wormholes.  I have to say that the graphics of the game are quite nice, bringing the various systems to life with crisp, colorful graphics.  However, I wish some of the ship/station models had a bit more detail to them and weren’t lost in shadow due to the brightness of each system’s star.

As with the initial briefing, each battle begins with some conversational interplay between the relevant actors in the coming battle – think something along the lines of StarCraft’s in-mission conversations – and then the player is off to make his mark in the Gemini Sector.

Just how the player does that varies from mission to mission, but the tools at his disposal comprise the following: mining stations, military stations, research stations, shipyards, wormhole gates and planetary bases.  As with StarCraft, the heart of the game’s economy is crystal, something that must be mined by vulnerable mining stations that can only be located in asteroid fields.  Mining crystal provides the resources necessary to build structures and ships that vary in cost.

If mining stations are the player’s economic backbone, then military stations are the martial backbone for the player’s war machine as they produce the all important frigate, as well as being the necessary precursor to building other structures such as research stations.  The catch with military stations is that they can only be built in orbit around a planet, so possessing some terrestrial real estate soon becomes a priority for any military campaign.  The player can also colonize the planet around which a military station is orbiting - it’s a considerable cost, but something often worth the investment since planetary bases determine the number of capital ships that can be built.  Colonies will even grow over time…if left unmolested by enemy invasions.

Then there are the shipyards that allow the player to build vessels larger than frigates, and research stations that allow the player to unlock new technology for his ships and bases – both also require a planet to be built just like military stations (it quickly becomes apparent to the player the priceless value of a strategically located planet).  Lastly, wormhole gates, another costly structure, are required to be built if the player intends to travel from one star system to another.

As with other space strategy games, it is up to the player to take these various tools and use them to achieve his objectives.  Should the player invest the crystal to build a planetary base for more capital ships, or would they be better invested in pumping out more destroyers?  Should the player research improved armor or shields for his existing ships?  Or would the research be better spent on unlocking a new type of ship?  And just where should the player marshal his forces for an attack on the enemy?  These are the type of gameplay questions that confronts the player in a typical session of Gemini Wars.

Electric Death

This being a space game, it is inevitable that fleets will eventually clash in the depths of space.  Here is how Gemini Wars handles it:

The actual movement of ships and fleets has an interesting chess-life component in that each ship/fleet has a limited range that it can reach with its hyperdrive.  What is more, hyperdrives take some time to recharge after each use, so the player cannot just have fleets zipping all over the place.  What this means is that getting your ships to where you need them, when you need them, takes more than a little forethought.   If the player doesn’t plan accordingly, he will find himself often defeated because his ships will arrive in drips and drabs rather than in coherent armadas.

Fleet battles themselves seem reminiscent of Ironclad’s Sins of a Solar Empire, in that to groups of vessels will pull to within range of each other and start blasting away until one side or the other is destroyed or forced to retreat.  However, unlike Sins where only capital ships can gain experience, all ships in Gemini Wars gain up to four levels of experience (think Panzer General), something that makes preserving the player’s most veteran vessels a priority.  Because of the research component to Gemini Wars, ships can also be tailored in various ways to take advantage of an enemy weakness or to fortify the player’s own vessels against one.  Modules can even be installed on your capitals – which include such classes as battleships, carriers and massive troop transports for planetary invasions – that enhance their abilities in battle, such as “Lethal Radiation”, “EMP Pulse” and “Extended Shields” modules.

When in battle, the ships can be given some basic orders as the standard “attack”, “defend” and ranged attack orders, albeit, I didn’t really see much a difference between the three in practice.  As ships unload on each other, shields eventually deplete, leading to hull damage.  As with most space games, reduce the hull of a ship to zero will cause its destruction.  Of course, you could spare the ship and just kill the crew, something Gemini Wars allows so that the player can reinforce his fleets using the vessels that formerly belonged to his enemy.  Certain structures, such as planetary bases, even allow the player to target specific subsystems to aid their capture.

Odds and Ends

In addition to the core campaign, Gemini Wars also will include a comprehensive set of tutorials, one I urge all new players to try as they help flatten out the not too steep but somewhat different learning curve of the game.  Also, Gemini Wars comes with an achievement system that will unlock thirty accolades when the player reaches a particular milestone, such as “Warmaster” for destroying 1000 ships, or “Economist” for mining 100,000 crystals.  The game also has a rousing musical score that adds some momentousness to the game. 

Unfortunately, while a skirmish multiplayer mode was mentioned in our interview, I did not see an option for it in the preview build.

Closing Comments

Camel 101’s Gemini Wars is an interesting, story-driven game of epic combat in space.  Let’s be honest here - who doesn’t like that?  However, I am concerned that in a genre that is becoming increasingly crowded with such notable titles as Distant Worlds, Galactic Civilizations 2, and Ironclad’s magnum opus Sins of a Solar Empire, Gemini Wars might not be able to distinguish itself with its campaign that favors a story-driven experience rather than the popular open sandbox approach of its competitors.  I guess time will only tell but so far I think it is safe to say that Gemini Wars certainly offers another unique excursion to what Gene Roddenberry termed “the Final Frontier”.