Rise of Antares

Turn based strategy games usually get a pretty mixed response from mobile players. This is understandable due to the fairly dodgy attempts at transferring PC games to the handset, but some specific games made solely for the mobile phone can hold their ground to their bigger and more powerful counterparts, and one such is the Rise of Antares.

This game is an interstellar experience where you must try and colonise the star system. Starting out with only a small population and an equally small fleet of star-ships, you’ll have to build up your colony and develop your research in three core areas: social, military and economical.

Similarly people in your colonies have three occupational paths to follow (and you get to define these as you wish). Firstly there’s farming, secondly it’s manufacturing and lastly you have science. By balancing these up correctly, you’ll be well on the way to developing a flourishing civilisation (although this is far from easy). However, if you do get the mixture wrong, you’ll be having to swiftly try to put it right or else you’ll be lagging somewhere behind and possibly lose the game.

As you expand to explore the other planets open for you to colonise you’ll discover they have different climates and most importantly, resources. As you can imagine, the most crucial to strategic development and dominance are always the prime targets for the envious enemy forces. So as tempting as it is for you to wage war and expand your colonies, it’s also vital to your survival to not lose key ground and stay well advanced wherever possible, or failing that, just rely on sheer numbers to defeat the opponents.

One of the nicest features this game offers are the options to either select standard space-ships or develop your own craft which can be tweaked to boost speed, defence or offensive capabilities. As you may have also expected, using your scientific advances you could well build a faster engine which will allow you to travel to your destination in one or two turns as opposed to the standard six or more turns.

Another big plus is the inclusion of veteran units. For every successful battle a unit survives, they gain valuable experience which can make all the difference between fresh opponents and more war-hardened troops and ships. So not only can your troops more effectively use the craft they’re on, but you can also upgrade them to bigger and better craft – making them even more of handful for your opponents.

There are three levels of difficulty and there are up to four AI opponents and four space races, which all have their own attributes (advanced warfare, research or manufacturing).

In the end then, this game is a total gem for any fan of turn based strategies and I wouldn’t be surprised if this made a successful crossover from mobile to bigger formats or even a movie – as it certainly could have the mileage to do so!

Rating 92%

Positives

Very addictive and challenging with lots to do and plenty of action thrown in for good measure

Good graphics and music

Just what a good turn based strategy game should be

Negatives

Pretty complex and will take quite a bit to get used to at first

The controls and small text make the game a little awkward to use

The game could last longer than your battery life!

A few more sound effects wouldn’t have gone amiss