Zephon - Post Apoccalyptic 4X

[Grifman]

Zephon takes place on a post apocalyptic earth ravaged by the remnants of alien invaders, a rogue AI, and all sorts of varied monstrosities. This game by the developers of Warhammer 40k Gladius, and building on that game's engine, looks fascinating. Can't thing of any other PA 4X game and this is looking pretty good. A demo will be released August 1:

This is an early look at an in-development alpha version of the game. As such, there will be bugs, imbalances and missing assets.

The demo is limited to single player against one opponent on a tiny map. 2 leaders are available for selection and 1 NPC faction is present. Research progress is limited to the first 3 tech tiers and the game ends at turn 50.

The full version will contain co-op and pvp multiplayer, larger maps, advanced world generation parameters, 8 leaders, 3 NPC factions, over 50 units spread across 10 tiers of research, more terrain features and quests, an end-game grand finale, unlockable game modifiers, achievements, multiple languages as well as full workshop support.

[dbt1949]

It kind of reminds me of Civilization Beyond Earth.

[Grifman]

It kind of reminds me of Civilization Beyond Earth.

I hope it is better than that!

[Jaymann]

I had to look up what a 4X game is. I always thought it something to do with 4 wheel drive.

[Unagi]

I had to look up what a 4X game is. I always thought it something to do with 4 wheel drive.

EXplore, EXpand, EXploit and EXterminate

[GreenGoo]

Zephon takes place on a post apocalyptic earth ravaged by the remnants of alien invaders, a rogue AI, and all sorts of varied monstrosities. This game by the developers of Warhammer 40k Gladius,

I was surprised to find that I loved Gladius. It wasn't what people might expect from WH40K, but I think it did what it did very well, and maintained the WH40K flavour for all the units. I think I bought all the DLC too, which is not something I normally do for an average game.

So I liked the game and was impressed by what the devs did to make it work.

Here's hoping they came come up with another winner (imo).

[Grifman]

I had to look up what a 4X game is. I always thought it something to do with 4 wheel drive.

Turn in your gamer card at the front desk please.

[Jaymann]

I had to look up what a 4X game is. I always thought it something to do with 4 wheel drive.

Turn in your gamer card at the front desk please.

Will gladly turn in my 4X card as I have never played any of these games and never intend to.

[Carpet_pissr]

I had to look up what a 4X game is. I always thought it something to do with 4 wheel drive.

I’ve heard of some 4X game about building an empire from a lone settler, but it sounded a little too “indie” for my tastes. Surprisingly I think they made more than one, so it had at least a moderate following I presume.

[Grifman]

I had to look up what a 4X game is. I always thought it something to do with 4 wheel drive.

Turn in your gamer card at the front desk please.

Will gladly turn in my 4X card as I have never played any of these games and never intend to.

For a long time I never played any FPS games but I knew what the abbreviation stood for

[Jaymann]

I had to look up what a 4X game is. I always thought it something to do with 4 wheel drive.

Turn in your gamer card at the front desk please.

Will gladly turn in my 4X card as I have never played any of these games and never intend to.

For a long time I never played any FPS games but I knew what the abbreviation stood for

Well we can't all be Rhodes Scholars.

[GreenGoo]

*roads.


I've been reading some confidently incorrect on reddit.

[Isgrimnur]

Where we're going ... we don't need Rhodes.

[dbt1949]

Or Scholars.

[Jaymann]

It's official:

[Grifman]

There's a new demo out today with some additional features and no term limit.

[Kraken]

I had to look up what a 4X game is. I always thought it something to do with 4 wheel drive.

Turn in your gamer card at the front desk please.

Will gladly turn in my 4X card as I have never played any of these games and never intend to.

You are dead to me. Consider yourself disinherited.

[Max Peck]

With 4 days to go until release, there have been some gameplay/preview videos popping up. This one, characterizing it as Lovecraft x Terminator, caught my eye:

[Tampa_Gamer]

Thanks for the reminder, I have had this on my wishlist since I tried the demo awhile back and I liked it. Its from the makers of Gladius and plays similar to that 4x game but without all of the Warhammer baggage. Another comparison would be AoW:Planetfall.

[GreenGoo]

I watched Splattercat play this one recently, and while it looks good, and I'm very likely to get it, it felt like there was a lot of overlap with Gladius. I don't recall specifically what, but I think it was probably the combat system, range, cover, stuff like that. Felt identical. Don't know if it was or not, but was a concern.

One of the factions is a single city, which I'm not always a fan of. Although in Gladius you only ever really got 4 cities before expansion was cut off and the game started the fight to the death phase, so I guess 1 city isn't a huge problem. Depends on how fun it is to play of course.

[Max Peck]

Pretty much everything I've seen about the game explicitly confirms that it's an evolution of Gladius minus the WH licence/baggage.

[GreenGoo]

As long as it expands on it. I can already play Gladius if I want. I don't want to buy it again.

[Max Peck]

This review touches on it, but it's an obvious concern so I'm sure there will be plenty of others that compare the two games, probably in more detail.

Before I get too deep, I want to address the elephant in the room. The comparisons to Gladius. I’ll get it out of the way - so I don’t have to keep going back and forth. If you played it, ZEPHON will feel very familiar. It utilises the same combat system, units, and abilities are treated similarly, cities, research - even the UI are cut from the same cloth.

Now I don’t see that as a bad thing. They’re solid mechanics, and Gladius was a good game. Proxy Studios made some top-notch systems, so by all means - reuse them. This isn’t a reskin. Most of it has been tuned, streamlined, and improved. At first glance though, yeah, it will look and feel very similar.

That means a couple of things. If you loved Gladius, gelled with its systems and wanted more - ZEPHON will click with you straight away. On the flipside, if Gladius’ mechanics just didn’t do it for you, chances are, you’ll have the same problems with ZEPHON.

[GreenGoo]

Thanks. It's going to be very difficult to know whether it's too similar without playing it. I may watch a detailed Let's Play on something bigger than my tiny phone screen.

Honestly, I don't think it's going to stop me from buying it (eventually) as I did think Gladius was a great game and I have hundreds of hours in it (because it had so many factions that played differently enough, plus the units were cool).

[Grifman]

The game is rated 90% on Steam, and everyone at QT3 seems to love it.

[GreenGoo]

Well that's good news, but I sort of anticipated it being a good game. My only real concern was that it was too much like Gladius. And even that concern is not going to stop me getting it, but it may affect how much I play it.

I'm glad people are happy with it. I want developers I like to succeed.

[Grifman]

Apparently it is differff egg by enough they people are playing it multiple times to see all that the game offers. It has a unique end game.

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

Apparently it is differff egg by enough they people are playing it multiple times to see all that the game offers. It has a unique end game.

I have been looking for a game that incorporated the "differff egg" physics engine. Straight out of Slovenia, it's supposed to be cutting edge.