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A strategy rogue-lite with an emerging dynamic storyline | First Impressions - Crying Suns

979 View2023-04-02

Crying Suns' narrative themes are boasted as having been inspired by Dune and Foundation, in which for any hardcore sci-fi fans, know that this is probably two of the best source materials a story could be inspired by.

The main story premise is that the game's protagonist, Admiral Ellys Idaho, or rather a clone of him, is awoken by the last surviving OMNI named Kaliban— AIs originally built to enable mankind to run a galactic empire. They both soon find out that Kaliban is the last of his kind and that the Empire has collapsed and is in shambles, prompting the duo to embark on a journey to find out what happened.

From the moment players start the game, they are drawn into a richly detailed world that is full of mystery and intrigue. The gripping story unfolds slowly, with each new sector of space revealing more about the events that led to the empire's collapse. The writing is excellent, with a cast of memorable characters and a deep lore that rewards exploration and attention to detail.

The gameplay in Crying Suns revolves around managing a fleet of ships through various sectors of space, upgrading them, and engaging in tactical battles against enemy fleets. The mobile version of the game has kept the gameplay mechanics intact, and players will still have to make strategic decisions about how to allocate their resources and which battles to engage in, now with just touchscreen controls.

Crying Suns’ gameplay is split into two core components: exploration and combat. In the exploration phase, you navigate your fleet through a series of sectors, each containing a number of nodes and featuring a role-playing aspect with randomized events and decision-making. This is a highly immersive experience and really involves the player and makes them feel like they are part of an emerging dynamic storyline.

In the combat phase, you engage in real-time but pausable battles with enemy fleets. Combat takes place on a grid-based map, with the ships occupying one or more hex tiles. Now this is a highly tactical experience that will challenge players as to how to utilize their units, and their different strengths and weaknesses. It’s not overly complex, and can get a bit repetitive at times, but it’s overall a fun element to experience when coupled with the amazing dynamic storytelling.

The mobile version of Crying Suns has been designed with touch controls in mind. Players can swipe to move between screens, tap and hold on icons to access menus, and pinch to zoom in and out. The controls are generally intuitive, but I can’t help but notice many of the UI elements are too small to accurately click on mobile phones.

As a rogue-lite game, Crying Suns offers a high level of challenge and replayability. Each playthrough is different, with randomly generated sectors and encounters keeping the gameplay fresh and exciting. There are multiple chapters in it and progress is saved after each one, so no need to fully restart the game like a true rogue-like.

It was an interesting experience for the first few bits of the game, especially with the slowly unfolding mysterious story and decision-making aspects. Especially for our space-faring fans that love great narrative experiences, Crying Suns offers an experience that is likely worth their time and money, $9 of it to be exact.

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