Stars! Download (1996 Strategy Game)

Stars! is a multiplayer, strategic romp through the universe. Your goal? To take over said universe (or any of several other victory goals. Universal domination is just the most fun.). This game has a lot of complexity, but a simple interface. It runs in a window, and everything you need to know about your budding empire (or thriving war machine!) can be accessed by menu or shortcut keys.

Universes are randomly created in one of four sizes. You can add up to 15 (!) other players, both AI or human. Then you can set this up as play-by -email.

Always been a fan of 4X games but always frustrated by the lack of good quality multiplayer games around? Look no further, my friend. Welcome home.

Stars! is a great strategy game designed solely to give the best multiplayer experience possible against other humans. The mechanics of the game are not only detailed and well designed, but also well balanced, thanks in part to the help of a small but very loyal player base which spot possible bugs and/or abuse and police the games officialized by their automatic host.

Loyal to the (now modern) ideology of the 4X space game genre such as Master of Orion, you are elected as the everlasting leader of a planet from which the dominant race have somehow managed to discover the secrets of space exploration and colonization. It is then up to you to guide this emerging race into the void, and turn this humble beginning into a mighty empire able to crush the other races in the galaxy. A small story is written in the nice in-game helpfile system, explaining how the galaxy formed and why you have limitations such as not being able to cross the borders of the galaxy map.

One aspect of the game which was really refreshing to see, is the fact that the AIs don't cheat, a point which greatly differs from the vast majority of the other well established 4X series. To compensate for their lack of creativity, the default AIs are instead pre-built races which have been attributed extra race creation points, making them slightly superior. They are, however, still far from being unbeatable, and are considered, by the intermediate players (who've mastered the race creation process), to be both weak and good training exercises for newcomers.

Speaking of the race creation process, a game without variety would become boring really fast... And the race creation helps a lot to alleviate that. With half a dozen primary racial traits and another dozen secondary traits to choose from, the custom race creation is what spices things up in this game. It is also where the true masters of Stars! can outshine the more moderate players since it also covers the economical attributes of the race being created. A lot of different options are available, all viable in their own way depending on the player's play style.

There is one aspect of the game which requires a fair amount of warning for players who wish to compete in the biggest games: the time required to complete a standard PBEM game. In an effort to provide a good estimation of the time required to invest in a good and serious game, I tried various ways to play Stars! and have found three primary ways to play it. The first type of game, the solo mode against AIs in which you are your own host and thus play at your very own rhythm, has the advantage that you can stop and resume the game whenever you wish. This is the recommended mode for beginners, for it allows you to familiarize yourself with the game before jumping in the fray against human opponents. The second kind of game would be duels, a player versus player game with no diplomacy and usually no communication between the players. One player hosts the game while the second player plays on his own computer and receives and sends his turns to the host, usually by email. Such games can be completed in one sitting and usually require between four, eight, and ten hours, depending on the speed of play of both players. A specialized version of duels, called Blitz, can be played even faster by adding some special rules to speed up play, and can then be played with more players without sacrificing the speed of play.

The third and last kind of game is the "normal" game in which usually between four to eight players participate (but this can go as low as three players in a tiny or small universe, and up to as high as sixteen players in a huge universe, or any combination which strikes your fancy). From this point on, discussion, diplomacy, trade, and alliances between players begins to be commonplace as the game advances, adding greatly to the total base time required to micromanage your own empire. When war erupts, battles also need to be planned and, as you turn out to be victorious and grab more and more planets, the time required to continue to make good quality turns will increase. It is in this mode of play that time may begin to be an issue for a serious player, for it is not uncommon in the end game to need to invest around two hours of your time simply to micromanage your turn. If you wish to add to this the amount of time needed for diplomacy, the time needed to chat or discuss through emails about the right strategy to use to coordinate your action with your ally/allies, the research needed to make sure everything really goes along with your plan and the possible battle simulations that you might want to re-enact before engaging your main fleet into what could possibly be a kamikaze action... This small two hours per turn can easily go up to eight or even ten hours per turn. Adding to this the fact that most big games last at least about six months... A serious player wishing to compete against other human players needs to know right off the bat where they stand, and where they wish to go versus their real life schedule. From smaller games taking less time to complete, and bigger games potentially able to last for years, one should choose their game settings carefully if they want to complete the game from A to Z.

All in all, Stars! is truly a game which was, and is, still way ahead of its time. While neophyte strategy gamers would be wise to start with light and easy 4X games like Ascendancy or Spaceward Ho!, the hardcore strategy gamer will definitely find in this game the best which could ever have been done so far in multiplayer PBEM gaming. A definite gem for those who can truly understand its magic.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded Stars! have also downloaded:
Star Trek: TNG: Birth of the Federation, Space Empires 4: Gold, Space Empires V, Ascendancy, Sid Meier's Pirates!, StarCraft, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings