Who would have thought that millions of years from now, there might be a galactic space opera where one determined four-headed space lizard would be brokering trade routes and managing the political stage of the solar system.

Fortunately The Last Federation lets you do just that, as you assume control of the last living Hydral. A great war breaks out and you are forced to spend a millennia trapped on a technologically inferior planet. That is until the savage citizens finally manage to produce a spaceship, crafted in part from the designs of your own crashed ship. Being the underhanded quadruple-headed reptile that you are, the opportunity to blast free from the shackles of this world were too great, and so you ‘liberate’ them of their hard work and sail towards the stars. Your journey commences, and first on the ‘to-do’ list is making a unified galactic federation of planets.

After escaping, the game hands the reins over and lets you do your own thing. Do you want to be a peaceful Hydral dignitary, carefully brokering trade deals and negotiating peaceful terms between hive-mind insectoids and subversive boar folk? Perhaps causing a pandemic amongst the owl people is more your style, forcing them to join with you out of desperation for the medicine they sorely need before the space flu wipes them out entirely. The choice is entirely yours, although not everything turns out the way you plan.

Take my first game in which I chose to ally with the bloodthirsty Burlust, a savage war-like race of soldiers and chieftains. After challenging and defeating the head chieftain, I had earned their respect. I was a proven warrior, and the next in line to the Burlust seat of power had come to respect me. They were my allies now, and forever. This was a mistake.

Cast forward one or two space years, and I had put the Burlust to the back of my mind. I had won them over, and it was time to convince the rest of the races to join up with me. My only issue was that every time I tried to make nice with one of the seven races, my dearly beloved Burlust friends would march on in and murder their faces off. This particular game ended with a federation of two races: The Burlust – who numbered into the billions and had spread across the known solar system like an epidemic of axes and hellfire – and one solitude four-headed lizard coated in the dried blood of several races.

The game isn’t just about clicking on menu options and watching the events unfold. Alongside the tactical diplomacy that you manage via the overworld solar map, there will be occasions when talking just won’t cut it. Luckily you still have your nifty stolen spaceship and a complete arsenal of laser beams to point at those you wish to get rid of.

Combat is handled in a semi turn-based fashion. You spawn into a miniature space arena and are given control of a single ship, yours. After picking out your combat stance, ranging from auto attack to direct control over the target, you plot your course and then the actions are carried out in real time. A few seconds pass and you take your next turn, simultaneously with every other unit on the map.

It’s a great addition to help mix things up for a game that heavily focuses on reading through scores of menu dialogue, and for the most part the combat does alleviate the pressure on your eyes. However, a few hours into the game and you’ll start to notice the flaws in the enemy AI. You’re given three bars to control the amount of power going your weapons, your shield, and your engines, and whilst this at first seemed like an interesting way to make the combat more dynamic, I found nearly all situations could be handled by simply forgetting about the engine power and pouring everything into shields and weapons. After two or three turns, the opposing forces were usually dead and my shields would barely have been depleted. Tougher enemies were scarcely seen, and dealing with them was simply a case of turning the engine power to match their speed, then using your long range rounds to pelt them as they foolishly chased you.

The Last Federation is a game with a very specific focus. It doesn’t get lost in a sprawling procedural sandbox world; it doesn’t assume that you want to be trawling across the stars in search of something to do. Instead it gives you one goal, and asks you how you would like to achieve it. Using that as a starting point the game then builds several paths for you to take, each one boasting something unique or interesting.

That’s not to say that everyone will enjoy the game though. There is a heavy focus on tactics and diplomacy, and a general amount of intelligent thought is required throughout if you want to win. If you like blowing things up and soaring through the skies as a top gun maverick, this probably isn’t the game for you. If, however, you enjoy weaving a sordid plan of conspiracy and subterfuge as you set a war-mongering race of savages against a helpless bunch of owl people, then this game is probably going to appeal to your inner politician.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

One of the first instincts that arises when either trying to review or describe a game is to classify it into one of the standard genres. While games used to be placed into one category, as the medium has evolved developers have blended elements from multiple genres. Portal combines puzzles with platforming. Puzzle Quest combines puzzles and role-playing components. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a greater pause when considering how to describe A Valley Without Wind from Arcen Games. Part platformer, part RPG, it’s a melding of genres that will likely present players with a new style of gameplay they’ve not seen before. Playing within that world is an enjoyable experience… at least for awhile.

The genre AVWW is most likely to be compared to is a roleplaying game, and roguelikes in particular. While the overworld map is a mashup of different themed zones, each zone is a procedurally-generated 2D area filled with monsters, varied paths, and loot drops in the form of crafting and building materials. The protagonist’s role is that of a glyphbearer, one of the chosen few who are able to venture out into the hostile wilderness. Their mission is to figure out what has torn apart their world and smashed it together with areas from other dimensions in time. It’s a hostile world, and much like other roguelikes, when a character dies he or she does not come back. Instead another glyphbearer takes up the mantle and continues the struggle to vanquish evil while rebuilding society.

AVWW’s overworld is procedurally generated, so everyone gets a different map

The majority of time spent playing this game takes place within 2D dungeons, caverns, etc. This is where the platforming enters the equation as players must navigate over hills, through caves, and up and down ladders in order to reach the next area, doorway, or mission. It’s best to figure out in a hurry how the various maps work. Branching paths can lead the player down some deep rabbit holes leading to aimless wandering for minutes or hours. AVWW provides all of the information needed to get started on the journey. However, if a player doesn’t take the time to read the instructions, it can lead to a very frustrating experience as the game doesn’t do much in the way of leading the player by the hand. On the flip side, learning to recognize the various treasure symbols, enemy markers, and the navigation system in general can make for a fun and fruitful looting experience for fans of dungeon crawlers.

The combat system is fairly simple and takes place in real time, rather than the turn-based roguelike standard. Much of the focus is on crafting and using magical attacks that are elemental in nature. Most enemies have resistances to a particular type of attack, so the game allows players to equip as many different spells as they want with the mouse mapping to the first three. The variety here is really one of the strengths of the game as players figure out which combinations work best with their play style. Because the game combines platforming with MMO-style combat, it can take awhile to figure out how to simultaneously dodge enemy attacks while landing shots. All I can recommend is sticking with it and after a couple hours it becomes second nature. Even so, the default keymapping can cause players to inadvertently open up menus at the worst possible times. Thankfully all commands can be reassigned.

A variety of upgradeable spells are available for dispatching the monster hordes

The game really starts opening up and becoming interesting once the player has completed a few missions. Succeeding at these randomly-generated missions provides not only valuable building and crafting materials, but also a variety of effects on the world as a whole. The world is mildly becoming a better place thanks to the victories achieved, but it’s also becoming more hostile as enemies start increasing in difficulty and expanding their territories. Eventually new mission types start opening up so that the player is no longer stuck with just the generic “Find and kill the boss” objectives. Players have the opportunity to take on stealth assassinations, enemy raids, and a few other goals like the build wind shelter mission that will open up previously inhospitable areas. The variety here is enough to reinvest the player right at the point they are likely to feel the game turning into a grind.

As fun and varied as those mission types are, the game can eventually become a victim of its scaling design. The world AVWW takes place in is huge. Although it’s not required, it eventually becomes a necessity to explore innumerable buildings and dungeons in search of that elusive loot that will go towards crafting spells powerful enough to let the player advance past a difficult area. There’s really no story to AVWW, and the game suffers for it because the reward for helping rebuild the world feels less noticeable when there’s no plot advancement tied to it. There’s definitely a bell curve of enjoyment that peaks when the varied mission types open up and eventually sinks as the inevitable grind starts kicking in. For fans of RPGs – or roguelikes specifically – that feeling will likely emerge much later in the game than for a casual gamer, but it’s still likely to happen. The inclusion of multiplayer is another key in staving off that feeling.

Though not always consistent, AVWW sports some beautiful retro graphics

Despite these problems, there’s a lot to be commended in A Valley Without Wind. The throwback graphics and music are really a treat for old-school gamers; I often had the tunes stuck in my head long after exiting the game. The game successfully melds disparate genres in an open, randomized world that gives the players freedom to set their own path. Even though it can become a grind at times, because of the open world and loose guidelines it’s the kind of game someone can step away from for awhile and easily come back to later. It really is such a different entity that I can’t help but recommend players try it out. A Valley Without Wind is currently available through Steam and through Mac Game Store.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.