First things first - if you do decide to buy Sword of the Stars (and I hope this review convinces you that you should!) then I have a few words of advice. Before purchasing it, make sure you have a few weeks of holiday-time booked, kiss your loved ones goodbye and stock up your portable fridge - not forgetting the adult nappies or Simpsons' Easy-Chair. Yes, Sword of the Stars will consume your life and it was only the threats of divorce and seizure of my car and PSP by the bank that convinced me to stop playing. Plus I was running out of Pringles.

Sword of the Stars is a space-strategy game that follows the typical theme of inter-galactic domination. You must create fleets, wage war during turn-based battles and spread your influence throughout the universe. This war is fought between four playable races, Humans, Hivers, Liirans and Tarkans. The Humans tried to be peaceful, but were forced, due to an unprovoked attack by the Hivers, to defend themselves against further colonisation efforts. The Hivers are a violent, colonising species of insect controlled by a Queen. Liirans are psionic aquatic mammals, similar to dolphins; though usually peaceful they have been warped due to many centuries of slavery. Finally, Tarkans are a species of lizard whose military is filled with immature males and females (a bit like the US then!) Whichever race you choose, the objective is the same; explore the universe, conquering planets along the way, set up military bases and projects to increase your military might and continue on across the galaxy.

The fact that all four races are instantly playable is a good idea, as you can test out each of their weaponry and, most importantly, their unique travelling methods. This can be a major factor, not just in how you conquer stars and galaxies but also in how you keep control of them. Humans use a Node Drive, which allows ships to travel faster than light along a specific path (similar to a train route) between the stars. Although quick and efficient, you cannot change course mid-jump, which may cause problems if there is a sneak attack. The Hivers' system of travel uses Stargates, massive warp gates that allow instantaneous travel between two solar systems, but hampered by the fact that each one needs to be constructed over a period of time, which can restrict your power until you have built enough gates. Liirans use a system of Teleporting a small distance millions of times a second. Enemies cannot gain a sensor reading of their ships, but the effectiveness can be slowed down by the approach of stellar masses. Finally, the Tarkans' Hyperdrive has a wonderfully fantastical feel to it - the drive allows you to accelerate a ship indefinitely, while performing amazing tactical manoeuvres.

After you have chosen your race, you are thrown straight into the game and need to make a major decision - namely, how long do you want to play? You can set up an open-ended game that can last a night or for weeks, but if that doesn't take your fancy there are a number of scripted scenarios that follow specific features and challenges, such as having to conquer certain worlds or build a certain number of defence bases. This is probably where it's best to start, as you'll quickly get to grips with the controls and the features; however, those who want the full experience should choose an open-ended game.

Upon starting up, you have a number of technologies at your disposal (these change each time you play, which is a great idea because each time you start things are different) and you must develop more to aid your conquest of the galaxy. You can use your team of researchers to develop new modifications for your fleet and though this is a time-consuming idea, it is ultimately a rewarding one. Your scientists work harder with more money and time, but then this means less money on building your ships and this can be a problem. An amusing aspect of this is if you stop a project early they will taunt you with "We may have succeeded with more time!" My only problem with this is that once a project is completed you are not informed about it. Obviously this is only a minor point but it can be frustrating to find out that a project has been completed some time later - time that could have been spent on another project! Sadly this is one of many minor quibbles that inhabit this game and though they don't take much away from the gameplay they are niggling nonetheless.

Once your fleet is ready and in position you move onto the meat of the game - the combat. This is hit and miss (no pun intended) as for every plus we have a little minus. Battles are turn-based, which most gamers will be used to, but the fact you can target specific areas of a ship is a cool feature and makes you think more about what to aim at. You could either chance a turn trying to attack a gun placement or a command station, which may miss or do very little damage, or aim at the general middle area to guarantee a hit. This damage is not calculated by a health or shield bar, which is odd, instead the damage is shown visually, which at times looks impressive and at other times not so much. Of course, the problem with this is you can never be sure whether you are a few attacks away from victory or if defeat is looming.

Battles are not helped by a short default time limit, although this makes for fantastic frantic combat, especially in multiplayer. The biggest problem is that once you have defeated an opponent you're not given a battle summary. This is madness - and possibly one of the whole game's biggest mistakes. If you decide to use the 'auto-resolve' feature you'll be left in the dark as to how the battle turned out. Afterwards you have to find your fleet to see how badly damaged they are or how well they got on - if you can remember where they are! This becomes a hilarious problem when you have a fleet run out of fuel - a helpful screen informs you that a fleet has run out of fuel, but not which one!

As with all open-ended games, you can play until you have no more fleet to control or (if it is possible) have conquered the entire galaxy. It's doubtful that you will get this far, as the amount of resources (ships, money and so on) needed is astronomical and you will have to be a tactician on the scale of Wellington to be this successful. Despite this, the fact that you can play forever is wonderful; you can win and lose the same planet or star dozens of times, each time figuring out new tactics to capture or defend it. If you do get bored with this aspect of the game then you can then move onto the scenarios, which hopefully will be updated via Internet or expansion packs over the coming months to increase the longevity even further.

The presentation within Sword of the Stars is nothing special compared to other games of this nature, but this doesn't mean they don't look good. The various screens are nice to look at and despite their relative simplicity they do their job well. Most screens are easily accessible, but at times there are points when elements become unnecessarily complicated where drop-down menus would have easily rectified this. You'll find yourself jumping from 3D strategic maps to the build screen when you are creating ships, which can be confusing, but once you have become accustomed to the menus you'll fly through them as you create your fleet.

It's during the creation of your fleet that the designers finally wake up, giving you wonderful 3D rendered ships that you can adapt, improve, increase and change to your heart's delight. Many options and modifications aren't available until your scientists create them (which on your second play can be a little irritating) but once they are available you have all sorts of weaponry and additions to pimp up your ship with. Each race has their own individual elements, but deep down you'll realise that it's the same thing with a different name, shape or colour - which is a shame. The other slightly disappointing aspect is the battle and view of space; although I'm sure Patrick Moore would approve of how authentic it all looks, with clusters of stars and planets, it can be a little uninspiring after a while. Once into battle you're given a rather dull view of the combat taking place, which would have benefited from 3D rendered cut-scenes of the battle damage taking place; instead it's nothing worth watching and this is a problem when the combat takes up most of the actual gameplay.

The sound on the other hand, really helps to increase the pleasure as you play and the typically bombastic sci-fi music creates a great atmosphere. This punctuates most scenes and screens, with each race having their own signature, themes that owe more than a passing nod to John Williams. Ignoring the 'no sound in space' logic there's a typical array of laser fire, space noises and explosions. What is most impressive is the creation of the alien voices, as each species is given a creepy sounding voice that is a little unnerving at times (think the alien speaking from Independence Day) and this also adds so much to the tension as you play, because the alien races issue you with threats and ultimatums in that Vader "I find your lack of faith disturbing" kind of way.

Sword of the Stars was designed with multiplayer in mind and so you can play epic combat campaigns with a number of human opponents. At times there is a laborious chess feel to playing against an opponent, as both sides set up their strategic places before going in for the kill, picking off small ships before going for the larger warships. Once within the combat, the use of short turn times affects how you play and also how much fun you have. Some players who can't cope with the pressure may find themselves losing a turn as they run out of time while measuring up a shot. This may lead to players unexpectedly 'resigning' or 'chickening out' (loss of internet connection my ass!) while others will play this like speed chess, making for a haphazard, but ultimately fun battle. All the individual scenarios are available to play in cooperative or competitive play and this can help those who don't want to be playing for longer periods alone. Although a lot more could have been done with this mode, such as the use of voice chat during play, this is still a great place to start.

If you let it, Sword of the Stars will consume your life. You'll forget you have a girlfriend or a job, you'll rush home from school (or simply not go) to carry on playing and that's exactly what a great sim should do. Once you decide to enter the wonderfully conceived world, Sword of the Stars will keep you playing for a long time to come and if you do start to get bored you can simply switch to another race and start your domination all over again. The choice is endless!

Reviewed by David Simpson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).