Hegemonia: Legions of Iron

Despite a name that suggests something you might apply to the inside of an oven to dislodge stalagmites of burnt cheese, or perhaps a cream intended to liberate one's testicles from the rigours of chafing, Haegemonia is a space strategy game and a cracking one at that. Going on the past record of its Hungarian developer, you'd expect as much, seeing as it was Digital Reality who conceived and created the first two episodes in the critically acclaimed Imperium Galactica series. With that responsibility now in the hands of another team, Digital Reality has continued to follow the empirebuilding themes it pioneered, offering once again a strong story-driven campaign and epic real-time battles set across and beyond the solar system.

On the face of it, Haegemonia looks to be the latest title wishing to take the space strategy throne from Homeworld. All the conventions laid out in RTS gaming are followed, with resources to plunder (mining asteroids), ships to build and enemy fleets to vanquish. However, there's a lot more to do than just mine and manufacture, with no less than 200 technologies to research, dozens of planets to colonise and a rich story to play through, with the Mars colonies on the brink of war with mother Earth and alien races waiting in the wings.

Real Character

In an attempt to focus the game as much on characters and story as the epic strategy on offer, Haegemonia introduces a number of heroes, who if assigned to units can boost their abilities in battle, or if posted to colonies, can effect production or civil morale. Keep your heroes and units alive and they gain valuable experience during each mission which can be carried over to the next one.

Focusing the game further is the fact that, though set across near-infinite space, the levels are surprisingly compact, if not in size, then certainly thanks to the abilities of your ships, which can traverse the great beyond in minutes, or less if you decide to speed up the game clock.

Inner Beauty

The beauty of the game isn't just skin deep, but for the record, the graphics are far more impressive than many other space-related games, especially when it comes to explosions. What will be a welcome relief to the many of you who might otherwise give such a game a wide berth is that it gradually but steadily teaches you the ropes without ever overcomplicating matters, especially in the very difficult later stages. The problem with empire building games generally (and this was certainly true of Imperium Galactica II) is that unless you approach them with the right mentality, you'll soon find yourself being overwhelmed by the whole affair. This also happens with 3D strategy games, especially ones set in space. It's all too easy to become confused by their often hideously complicated and disorientating interfaces. However, Haegemonia manages to avoid both of these problems.

Unfortunately, despite their beauty, battles are rather small scale. The designers have clearly limited the number of ships you can build, and to make matters slightly worse, there's a fairly limited amount of battle tactics which you can employ; just click on the enemy, watch and hope for the best.

Despite this, the depth of research options, the graphics and ease of use make for a very entertaining game, and while there could have been more scope for battle strategies, there's more than enough focus on other key areas like story and characters to make this an essential purchase. So while the settings of Homeworld and Haegemonia are similar, the feel and focus of these two behemoths are light years apart, meaning space-based RTS fans will be far from disappointed.