Halcyon 6: SC - Review @ US Gamer

US Gamer has reviewed the space sim Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander:

Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander PC Review:
A Flawed But Promising Space Sim

Halcyon 6 doesn't quite live up to its immense promise out of the gate, but it's on its way.

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What I found was a game that wove together many of my very favorite game elements: Turn-based combat, RPG elements, base-building, and strategy; all with an attractive pixel art look. My hope as I played the first few hours was that I had found one of my favorite games of the year. The reality turned out to be somewhat more complicated.

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Halcyon 6 has tremendous promise, but tedious resource gathering, repetitive combat, and bugs hurt what is otherwise an ambitious and interesting space sim. I can't quite recommend it right now, but I'd check back in six months or so: It may well be on its way to being something truly special.

Score: 3/5

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More information.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the review.

Like many promising indie games, H6C feels like a rock-solid framework waiting for a great experience to built. The overall design is excellent (not many indie games you can say that about), I've had no problems with bugs and the devs are very responsive. It's a good game and if they did a lot more with the combat the rest wouldn't feel so flat.

I have this and Avadon 3 to play through now that I'm done with Ember; I'm looking forward to this. I like turn based combat and I usually don't require really complex systems ala Drakensang in order to enjoy a game, so we'll see.

ElderGnome said:

I have this and Avadon 3 to play through now that I'm done with Ember.

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How long did it take you to finish Ember? I just started playing it today, and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to keep playing or finish something else first.

I have 28 hours played in Ember, and I'd say it was a pretty slow play-through. I explored everything, I don't think it's the type of game I could play again but it was a fun little experience.

Started playing Halcyon 6 actually, will pickup Avadon 3 next. Having fun with Halcyon 6, it's different enough from anything else I've played in a while that it is holding my attention. So far resource-gathering seems to be the most boring part of the game, honestly, but I don't know how they could spice that up.

Combat is... it's just the most simplified turn-based JRPG combat ever. You're either shooting somebody, debuffing somebody to shoot them harder, healing a teammate or... well, that's about it. I'm like 5 hours into it and that's about it. The aliens and the story are amusing enough.

Really superb game, but needs patches and all improvements the devs meant. Early next year this will be a great game! Until then on to more finished games like awesome Grim Dawn or Dogma.

I'm hooked for now, but I can see it might become tedious after you've put in 6-7 hours. Which means it will take me a couple of weeks to get there seeing I can only play maybe an hour every third day or so...

I hope they do a mobile port, would be an excellent game on my phone.