The prolific Arcen Games is following up last year's excellent Bionic Dues with a new tactical grand strategy. The Last Federation isn't the name of some fatalistic Next Generation fan-fiction, but rather a space-based strategy/tactics hybrid set in a simulated procedural universe. You take command of a small mercenary fleet, exploring a solar system containing eight alien races, and attempting to unify its survivors into a solar federation.
Here's a look at the game's combat:
According to Arcen, uniting survivors will require "a lot of fighting, a lot of political deals and backstabbing, and occasionally strapping rockets to a moon." I do find that most of my inter-office negotiations are helped along by moon rockets.
Arcen's AI WAR was an incredibly popular PC strategy, raising over $1 million just through Steam. This looks like an interesting return to the vastness of space, and the idea of procedural intrigue does set off the systematic interest alarm that exists in my head. The Last Federation is currently in alpha testing, with the full game due out at the end of this month.
I tracked down the guy who gave a negative review to Battlezone 98 Redux after playing for over 8,000 hours, and came away convinced he was right
Factorio's expansion is setting record high player counts yet again so I'm expecting the world's IT infrastructure to collapse and innovation to stagnate any day now
