Sid Meier's Starships Game Reviews

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Weak, easy game, don't buy. Nobody should be able to be a Sid Meyers game on the impossible setting only their second time playing it. Ridiculously simple gameplay even though the 'spaceopedia' doesn't even work. The game makers should be embarrassed that this is on the App Store.

Two dimensional outer-space. Very two dimensional in concept with no depth whatsoever. We all know it's very tough to create galactic games but Starships is so flat that you have a hard time getting caught in the adventure. Simplified to boredom there is no real strategy. You get your resources every turn and spend them but it doesn't feel you're making important choices. Yeah, build new cities, sure, get more resources and a stronger fleet and go fight a predictable AI that simply uses more (predictable) tricks as you move higher in the difficulty ladder... Is that it? The Civ series, a much more complex game of course, had depth, strategy is multileveled, you think what to build next, evaluate, reevaluate, build your army, upgrade it, wait for the right moment to go to war... this one is just take that fleet and go after homeworlds when your numbers are equal or higher than the AI... I'd call it a tactical game and a pretty average one in that. The background "strategy" game is useless. The arenas are very deceiving and become boring very fast. Adding warpgates doesn't make them supercool... Learn to trick the AI and the game crumbles very fast. A big name behind the title makes it even worse. There are much more interesting and original tactical games on iPad written by kids and cost $0.99 - I say don't get fooled.

The game won’t run. I can’t use most button. When I send a fleet I get a nonstop animation.. Terrible.

Concept great, execution meh. Every time i click on “advice” it freezes. Thanks for stealing my money

Please support for iphone use. Please support for iphone use

Unplayable. Game crashes consistently on first mission.

It is crashing on my new iPad. Every time I go into any menu, such as transferring credits the game freezes. Is there no fix for this?

Broken. No longer works. Locks up.

DOESNT WORK!. The buttons don’t work. So I can’t do anything

Freezes!!!. Fun, but it freezes all the time.

Broken. Screen shows all askew.. buttons also don’t work. Using a brand new iPad. Vastly disappointed.

Broken on recent OS. I have enjoyed this game but it ha problem with the newest OS. I cannot click on some buttons, usually the ones at the bottom of the screen. It is an old program but still useful.

Bioshock. Why buy from 2k when they don't fix or refund for iPad Bioshock. Never again. It is a fraud!!!!

Good game. This is perhaps the best space strategy game for the iPad 2 but 2K should continue their support and fix these bugs. The game seems to crash every so often, actually a lot lately.

Boring.... The pitch was nice but the gameplay tries to hard to mix strategy and combat. As a result the game fails to have a pace that makes sense and ends up being boring.

Pretty good. Fun game it just lacks difference in ships and content. Over all it's a good game... For iOS that is

App broken. Latest update broke the app…..please fix if you would. Thanks!

Buggy game. Game freezes on my iPad air2. It gets stuck in a feedback loop no matter if I reset or force close the app. Buyer beware.

Why Sid, why?. I've played civilization since before the time computers were involved. Huge fan of most of them. Deep, interesting and fun. Loved "Pirates!" As well. This game is not replay able. I played 4 times all the way through. Now I "get" it and it doesn't need to be played again. There are few choices in customizing your ships and most of them just don't make tactical sense. Maybe the designers had a plan for real depth and it will come out in some big future update? I doubt it. Take off Sid's name and this is a $2 app like the hundreds released each year: forgettable. I paid $10, I genuinely hope the extra $8 went to Sid, he is a brilliant game designer, but this game is not....

Blurry pixels, shallow game. Why is this expensive game so low resolution and blurry? Reminds me of the old pre-Retina iPad games. Hurts my eyes. Also too buggy. Can't even scroll the spaceopedia... Not worth the money this was released too early. Also very short, finished on hardest setting quickly.

Really. I was gonna give it a chance but the graphics are from the 90s....even the text is pixelated.

What a waste of money. The worst game ever.. Menus and buttons are unresponsive. Half the time the game loads it display is off the iPad. You have to exit and reload it. Delay to select a menu item is horrible. This is a scam. I am surprised this app is even allowed on the App Store. I wish you could get refunds.

Unplayable. I can’t click on any menu items after I select a build action. The game is not currently playable for me. Don’t waste your time or money.

Badly needs update. Lots of glitches. Badly needs update

Doesn’t work on iPad mini iOS 15. Disappointing. This game is one of the things I was looking forward to being able to play on my new iPad mini, but it freezes a few clicks into the game, and doesn’t utilize the entire screen.

Good game but crashes. This game would be 5 stars but it crashes all the time. It is so frustrating. I have and iPad Air with the latest os and it still crashes. PLEASE FIX THIS GAME

Crash galore. And the game isn't that great either

Bugs. I’m stuck in a loop. How do I get out? I guess I’m done. The loop won’t release me to play. Fun while it lasted, but Sid’s games will no longer be in my wheelhouse of choices.

Insanely Frustrating. This is perhaps the worst tactical game I have ever played. Movement and firing are just terrible. In a game about spaceship combat, you'd think the spaceship combat would be enjoyable. However, the awful UI and controls makes the combat impossible to enjoy, due to mistakenly shooting asteroids instead of your enemy. This game wouldn't be worth it if it were free. Spend your valuable time on something comparatively rewarding, like Farmville. At least Farmville doesn't make me want to gauge my eyes out.

Recalls fun Avalon Hills board games. Straightforward hex game with a decent AI. Great having a game without IA purchases required. Limits on number of units keep it simple. UI can be unfriendly if you are colorblind. 3 different shades of red lines on a black star map leave you guessing sometimes about your enemy. This is not a come back in 10 minutes for more gems kind of game. Plenty of save points so you can die but there is always a load game.

Too expensive. There's not enough content or replay ability to justify the price tag on this game. It's a far cry from civilization or xcom.

Boring, weak strategy, not worth price. That about sums it up for me. Too simplistic in terms of strategy. Geographic location of systems has little to no effect on game outcome. Customization of ships is bogus, because they are all the same design and just increase in ratings as you 'upgrade'. You pay about 13$ extra for the Sid Meier name, I think.

Fun but bugs. Fun but the second or third game failed to reach a victory condition. Play for hours and then no missions to join, building everything, and reaching 80% population and nothing to do but shore leave. Save, exit reload does not fix problem.😕

Freezes on iPad. This app freeze up every time I open a dialogue box. Wish I could get my money back. Used to play this game on my Mac, and all worked fine, but on my iPad it is useless!

Freeze. The game has potential, but sometimes freezes half way and there is no way to finish the game other load an early game.

Too simple. I love strategy and space and Sid, but this game is lame. Remember Masters of Orion? This game is not nearly that good. Civilizations? Its epic complexity makes this feel like rock paper scissors. It should be a lot more. At least it is down to $3. That’s not too horrid, but I’d be surprised if there was 10 hours of gameplay here. Like 300 hours of meh voice acting tho... weirdly.

August 8th, 2020. Game crashes a lot . Used to be able to transfer unusable funds in ship building to science. Now crashes every time. Seems like no fix or updates coming.

No longer working; not maintained. This used to be a fairly decent game but no longer supported - and freezes on virtually every screen if it loads at all.

Great game but needs better tutorial. Great game but needs a better tutorial, too much detail but not straight forward.

Welcome to the past. I played some of Sid's earliest games and enjoyed them. When was that? 1991? This game hasn't evolved much beyond those early games in terms of game play, design, or complexity. OK value at $2.00 but a rip off at $9.99.

EPICLY FUN. I love this game soooo much because it was never made for the computer but rocks on the touch platform. It is incredibly fun for strategy and taking over galaxies or just sitting there like a peaceful superpowered Soviet Union. Fun tip: It became soooo fun that when I fully upgraded everything(building wise not tech). I was buying stuff to get the tech done then the UNTHINKABLE HAPPENED! I crashed the game because I became sooooo powerful and sooo OP as hell that I crashed it because I was near 100% done. Thankfully it was saved but still super fun. Tip: The crash was caused by me on purpose and not the game. LOL ROFL 😁😆😁😆😁😆😁😆😁

Used to be great. Used to be a great game. Now, simply does not work with new OS.

Terrible.. The only reason this game gets more than 1 star is that it could have potential if it were polished up. As it is, the gameplay is broken. From blatent AI cheating to most of the depth of the game being ignorable. But the biggest kicker: you can win on the highest diffuculty during the first turn of the game, before the AI has a chance to even act. This game was terribly rushed and it shows. It's good for 2 play throughs, one to learn how to play and a second to realize it's not worth playing.

Locks up on iPad Pro. Used to enjoy it. Now can’t use it.

Great game, menu bug. There’s a new bug where menus freeze, and 2k doesn’t seem to support this title any longer. Really good game, playable any way.

Love the game but it is broken. The last two apple OS upgrades broke this product. It locks after a free game moves. Please fix it.

Not updated. This app is now crashing under the most recent iOS version.

I guess it's a step away from the norm with this.. that part shows. Space torpedoes don't need to look like atmosphere use...

Game saving is broken. Don't even bother to trying to save a game When you return to load it, the game will sent you back earlier in time

App still supported?. Used to be a favorite of mine, but now it freezes up in many of the sub-menus, making it unplayable on new iOS. Is it still be supported?

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Abysmally slow game play. It's nice to look at but this is overall a very expensive and dull game. Each turn is so slow, so little seems to happen. Every battle is a replay of the previous one, the in game movement is just clunky and slow. It takes ages to get anywhere or do anything in the game before you have to end the turn because you have a fatigued crew. Honesty it's just too dull for $18

Must have. Best game on iPad

good game but crashes a lot. I really like the game but it crashes on my iPad mini so frequently I have almost given up. the cost was quite high and I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more to the game, so far the Ai at the lower levels wasn't much chop, hopefully the higher level is better.

Great game, some kinks. This game is definitely amazing :) It has some kinks however.. A number of crashes have been plaguing me. Also, even though i selected domination victory only i would still lose because the enemy gained a wonder victory :/ Come on Also a suggestion... Since ship customisation is one of the selling points of this game.. Maybe add some customizable hulls or ship styles? Even decals or decorations perhaps? Looking forward to future updates :3

Awesome!!. Awesome. Nothing more to say except awesome!!

Not worth the money. Simple and over to quickly even on harder settings. Keep your money and keep looking for a better game to spend it on.

This is for True TBS fans only. For those who are true turn-based strategy fans this game is for you (cheers Sid Meier). To all of those that aren't this isn't for you and I suggest that you move on. For a mobile game this is very good solid depth to the strategy and combat plus bonuses for those of you with CIV:BE logged with my2k (and for true TBS fans why wouldn't you). It also decent graphics for this platform (don't expect desktop graphics). The AI is half way decent but there is room for improvement possibly. This will now be my TBS game to Choice now. Downsides price for some but it's worth it for what I mentioned above plus none of that pesky freemium or ads or paymium(which is even worse which is where you pay for the app and there is still micropayments 😡)

Perfect for mobile. This game is a great example of the balance needed for a deeper mobile game experience without trying to emulate a PC 4x experience. The focus is on your fleet and undertaking missions to expand your empire, but you have some resource management, which gives it great depth without drowning in spreadsheets and micro management. You just need to decide what to spend it on.

Best Game for space. The best game for space, the price a tiny bit high but great graphics. Also it's a bit like Xcom but not that much. #LJS #YOLO #SWAG

Good, would be gooder if... Hey surprisingly good game. Would be better if you could take a planet by force via a planet/land battle. Use a similar map and movement rules to the space battles. On the battleship you could sell your fighter squadron bay and replace it with landing craft hanger. Have a number of marines per landing craft, use science to upgrade to have say a tank per couple of craft. Place a resources penalty on the option so peacefully taking a planet remains relevant but a planet which has been taken by force is harder to recapture peacefully.

Lacks depth. Campaign game plays through in about one hour. There is some replayability to be had by trying out the different factions but even this gets old very quickly. This game is good but desperately needs some added depth to keep you playing or you forking out the asking price for about one or two hours of play time. Has massive potential so I hope the extra depth is added soon.

No Unlimited Play. Annoying there is no unlimited play, just ending the game...

Mr. so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive so repetitive I'll never ever gig Ol Sid a cent again after this steaming turd of a game!

Rubbish. Absolute garbage, constantly crashes, mind numbing game play, you'll have more fun burning the $19 than paying for this dross!!

Buy at your own risk. No way is this game worth the money,maybe a dollar or two no more, Graffics are regular,other games out there blast this out of the water. No tutorial what so ever,if you never played a game of this sort you will not have a clue of what to do and end up simply not playing. Worst sid meier game I have ever played BY ALOT whould even dare say this isnt a sid meier game they are just using hes name(its what it feels like) Actually could say this is probably the worst game I have ever purchased for a decent ammount of money,am actually considering asking for a refund because it is no were near to what they advertise. All these people giving excellent reviews are ither acomplices with developers,drunk,or have no idea of what a game of this gender should be like.

Worth it. A great Civ-in-space game with some of the options removed. It does need a little more TLC though; for example: - in the Mac version you hover the mouse pointer over the buttons to learn their function, in iOS you hold your finger on the icon - you can't read the text as your finger's in the way! - there needs to be a tutorial game. I would still use it now. - you use a scroll bar to move through topics in the manual, alas the bar is invisible until you touch it...d'oh!

Not worth the money. It's pretty, some nice visuals, but the cost far exceeds what it's worth ... when you line this game up against others in its class. Other complaint is that it really lacks a decent tutorial, and a poor UI assumes a lot of the player. Disappointing, more time was needed before launch guys.

Just, just best. I have no idea what to say this is the best thing I ever downloaded, it is the perfect thing I needed and I'm sure many people will agree. 5 sters!

Broken. Buttons stop working halfway through

This game in the world is full of awesomeness. This game is so awesome. we need more war and better looking spaceships pls more powerful weapon and more new people in the game. You guys rock the stars 😎😀😁

Keeps Crashing!. I paid $15aud for this and it crashes every time I open it and try to continue my game.

Way too Pricey for what it is. Not a bad game, comes across as quite lazy in parts (reused art, lack of diversity etc). Highly typical of 2K to charge an exorbitant amount so i shouldn't be surpised. Overall, probably one of the worst Sid Meier games ever produced but as there is so little in this genre, you're stuck with what you've got.

Great game, minor tweaks READ IF YOU WANT TO BUY, GOOD REVEIW. Awesome game with lost of fun to be had. Only minor problems to go over but plenty of positives. Tip, get a group of friend who all want to buy the game and split it between them, reducing the cost. Good: -short or long gameplay depending on what you want, from a short 5 miniature 1v1 small map to a huge 1v1v1v1v1 massive map. -ships and customising look cool and combat always gets gradually harder with there never seeming to a super easy or super hard match -resource system keeps you focused on fighting but some management over planets that can give that minor bonus -Ai is neither dumb nor impossible to beat -all factions are different with bonuses and many commanders to select. -wifi not needed to play Bad, or to be improved - more weapons, lasers and plasma cannons are cool with torpedoes but maybe 2 or 3 new weapons would shake things up a little -ability to change the colour of ships is unavailable and you can't change the sections around on your ship -upon a certain upgrade you should be able to launch 2 fighter at once and skip a weapon shot, making carriers an option - like carriers, on a certain upgrade you should be able to shoot 2 shot in one turn, skipping movement or slowing you down, and making battleships an option. -more natural objects like comments, gas clouds and black holes -tech to see where each wormhole goes to -shots can miss and deal less or no damage -better death animation Even though the good outweigh the bad, this is not a true as most of my "bad" we're to be improved and are only minor add ons. Overall its a great game, a bit too pricey but easily available if you split it between friends. A good game that will have manny add ons, 8/10

Needs polish. It’s a good game but needs to be optimised for ipad, as others have said the interface is slow and clunky so the battles which are in every sense repetitive become painfully tiresome rather than enjoyable. Need an auto battle button for the small conflicts which otherwise take 20 plus minutes to play out and achieve very little towards your standings. The AI could use some work too, they either offer no resistance or steamroll you into oblivion. Some would argue that if you get it cheap it’s worth it and they are probably right but while the mechanics are so clunky I rate it’s long term playability zero.

Broken by iOS 16. At the first instance of having to press a button in a sub-screen, the button will not respond. Happens with several different buttons. Good game .. would be worth a debug.

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Should have read the reviews. Very disappointed saw the Sid Meier's name and got the game they really fell short this time worst game to ever have that name. Won't make that mistake again looks like the Sid Meier's name is not what it use to be.

Good game. Two fatal flaws.. Can't listen to outside audio while playing. It's 2016, this is a mobile game. Unacceptable. Limited content and no expansions or DLC or anything means there are only so many games per civ before its just not that interesting anymore. Otherwise a fun and polished game. I will pay for solid games and even pay for upgrades and expansions but not when the value isn't there and basic requirements aren't met and aren't fixed in a reasonable timeframe.

Great but it lacks a true tutorial. Originally, it seemed that it was just a very 'light' wargame. You only control one fleet. After several playthroughs, I get it now. The single fleet seems limiting and it's designed to be that way. It's so you can only expand so much. My concern was about the defence of your empire. If your fleet was on the other side of the map, how would you stop the enemy from carving into you. The answer is warp gates. You can build them, as so long as your empire has a 'road' of warp gates, then your fleet will defend any planet along that chain. Very little of the game is explained in the tutorial. They have a guide and a buggy wiki (I can't scroll up or down in the wiki) but it takes experimentation to figure out what each resource is for and where to spend them. They talk about battle cards as a Wonder to be built and when you enter a nebula but give you no information on how to use them. I stumbled upon how to activate them as I noticed them on the left side of the battle screen. Battles are great, but awkward. Sometimes you move or shoot without meaning to because you double tapped the hex. It's hard to preview battle cards (they should have been a double tap, not a single tap). Lasers are for long range and cannons are for short range, but the game never tells you what those ranges (in hexes) actually are. It's over all a great game with some small flaws. In particular, not all the leaders are well balanced. Some get a random tech bonus which is really weak compared to the continual bonuses of other leaders.

Sid Meier's Freezing & Crashing Sim. You get the idea. Looks like a good game when it's working.

I r8 8/8 m8. Good but it doesn't really have a good tutorial and explanations for stuff, I still don't know how to get my ships to rank elite even though I finished the campaign 7 times.

Perfect For iPad. It has enough depth to entertain this life long strategy gamer (grew up on Space Empires, MOO and Astro Empires) but is streamlined enough not to be overwhelming. A medium sized galaxy can be taken by population victory in an hour. The combat is the strongest asset to this game. The empire management is simple and doesn't leave you spending much time micromanaging, although some automation may be handy. But back to the battles. They are simple, easy to control but satisfying with a decent amount of depth. The AI seems to fall for some traps easily but hopefully going above easy mode fixes that. You can use the terrain, which shifts, a variety of weapon types, fighters, scanners and stealth tech to defeat fleets much larger than your own.

Disappointing. As an original Civ fan, this is a $5 game at best, hard on the eyes, repetitive without the political aspects and intricacies that made Civ great. Caters to tippy tappy kiddies - who would quickly become bored themselves.

Some great stuff, some not so much.... Really could be great, but I echo what others say here. Unless I've somehow missed it, would be nice to be able to speed up the enemy turns. Omg it takes forever to wait for them to finish. I literally put the game down and come back in 5 min to wait for them to finish. Accidental touches not fun. Overall a good game, though, but needs those fixes!,, especially for this huge price!

Amazing. Price is high but worth the price well worth it Stars trek feel

Good but.... - no multiplayer support - freeze in torpedo view on iPad 3 - zoom and move are an issue on the iPad - tutorial is lacking details. Rules not very clear - too expensive

Finally a full game. This is the first fully produced game I have seen that wasn't a port from another system. Not a bad start too. It is worth the money. Not a full $60 game but worth this price for sure. And no in game ripoffs. You get a full complete game for your money.

Fun but limiting. Good graphics and gameplay and fun for a short while. Not losing any ships after "blowing up" in a combat is a let down. Having one main group fleet instead of multiple fleets is boring. Having set winnable scenarios like the 51% population win takes the fun out of building an empire - just conquer their homeworld and the work is done for you - again too easy. Overall a very nice fun time waster for the bus ride - if you're good enough maybe even finish it by the end of your trip. Please make a FULL standalone game worthy of the franchise.

Kind of a letdown. I echo some of the previous comments. There is lack of depth in all aspects of this game, including limited ship customization, only one fleet and ships cannot be destroyed, among others. Once or twice through and the game has become very repetitive. Also, please fix the victory conditions, no matter which I select, all seem to be active.

Excellent.. A bit expensive but gameplay is good!

Frustrated!. Every time it's my move and I want to zoom up a bit to see better, the game thinks I want to move if I don't get two fingers to touch at the same time. So instead of zooming it moves the ship to where I touched accidentally. That goes for any accidental movement. Even if you want to pan and you touch the screen wrong your ship moves. Ggrrrrrrr. It's getting to the point that it's just no fun. Put an undo button at least or just fix it. You better hurry though only because ppl might be losing patients. It's such a good game too. One other thing....the science and metal seem very disconnect not like Civilization. Also, we are missing that same connection with the characters. In Civilization it was great because you knew who the characters were. Usually I would trash the heck out of a game that missed this stuff. But this time it just needs to be fixed quick. Thank you

Too simple, no challenge. "Impossible" is actually very easy. So easy it isn't fun to play. Resource expansion gets out of control. Easy to exploit. Not enough ship customization. Wonder victory overpowered and illogical. Questing is like a light and simple version of stuff that happens in FTL. FTL's lowest difficulty is much more challenging than this game's highest difficulty. Graphics were nice, but still dated for an iPad game, space based games were here 2-3 years ago. I like the idea of simplicity in interface, but not simplicity in options.

Great Game!. The game is really good, and is everything you could expect in a Sid Meier's game. The game does however, have lag spikes that could effect gameplay. Other than that the game is amazing, and I definitely recommend it if you are a fan of the Civ games.

You an do better Sid. This game is fun for a very short time. As soon as you figure out to max energy early and overpower your ships as soon as possible you can walk through any map regardless of difficulty. I've been playing your games since the original railroad tycoon and civ, and this is a big letdown. Please turn this game into something better, their is potential.

Good gameplay but limited.. Buggy. For a premium app, I expect better. Overall.. Good game. The concepts are good.. Graphics are great. The main bug is that after playing for awhile it starts to lag so badly on my iPad mini that it is unplayable. I need to shut down the app... Kill it in my task manager and start it up again... From a gameplay perspective... It is too easy... I have tried on easy, moderate and hard and beat it without breaking a sweat. Take out the enemy home world (easy to do) and they are gone... I have read others complaining about torpedoes being overpowered... I don't have a problem with that.. They seem pretty good to me. And I don't really care about customizing my ship names and look.. In my opinion, Multi player is also critical for this game to be successful in the long term... But only if the home world problem is solved.

Needs a little something. It's a good game with a nice combat system. I'm not sure it's worth the whole $15 dollars right now but I hope that it will get something like a better politics system so it's not just all combat.

Great, but not amazing. I've really enjoyed playing Starships, but there isn't enough depth to this game to keep me playing more than a couple times through

No depth. Very disappointing. A real lack of depth and complexity in the game leaves you wondering how this fits in the franchise. No tech tree or real strategy to speak of, and the combat feels clunky and limited. Not worth the cost until the level of gameplay improves. If you are looking for Civ 5 type of engagement, this simply is not the game.

Great turn based. Wonderful and polished. Regardless of what everyone else says, it's well thought out and far more "strategic" than many if not most of the games in the same category. While I do agree that it is slightly over priced, and could have more depth, it dispenses with the cinematic cut scenes which I feel is a plus. I keep going back, something I rarely do with any game.

Little substance. I made the mistake of assuming this would be something similar to Civ 5. Not even close. It's a polished game, but should be priced at $3 - $5. Very repetitive and way too simple. I feel mislead... the Sid Meier name and whopping $17 price tag led me to expect an in-depth, fleshed-out, absorbing experience. This is just a simple and not very fun combat game that happens to borrow the hex grid from Civ 5. It feels like a few drops of Sid Meier diluted in about 9 litres of watery meh.

Decent. A fun game to kill time on a rainy day or a long trip. The combat is well executed if somewhat repetitive. The strategic map looks nice but strategic options are limited with only one fleet. Not really worth the price, as the gameplay is repetitive and limited. My major issue with the game is the lack of customization options for your ships. The description talks about "fully customizable ships" which is flat out untrue. Your options for customization are limited to the modules you can place on them, and they're all the same. By endgame all your ships look exactly the same and all their stats are maxed out. You can't even give them custom names. This is a major let down for a game entirely about your ships. It lacks a personal touch. A ship designer with templates would have added a lot to the experience. In the end this is a money grab plain and simple. If you haven't already bought this game, I'd recommend waiting for a price drop.

Essential game components are bugged. UI is very unclear and things like selecting allowed victory types do not appear to work - at all.

Multiplayer!. Needs a multiplayer/turn system! Please that would make it so much better. Other than that, great game, little expensive, although worth it. Little bit buggy please work on that too.

Prometteur. Impossible de jouer ,le jeu n as pas ete mis a jour et il crash en moins de 3 action. Vraiment dommage

Simple and fun. The If you've watched any of the trailers leading up to this game, you get exactly what you see; a simple to use but fun to play tactical starship combat game. The strategy element is very basic, so if you're expecting Civ in space, forget it. I've seen a lot of negative reviews on Steam because people were expecting exactly that. It is what it was made to be. The negatives are that the game has frame rate issues occasionally, and chugs along, sometimes crashing altogether. Hopefully they'll patch that soon. Also, the iPad touch controls can be a little off on occasion, leading to accidental moves. And if you're looking for an extreme tactical challenge, you'll be disappointed as well. Overall though, it's a solid, fun little game that can be played in an evening on the epic map, or quicker on smaller maps. I definitely recommend this.

Great game. This game is a lot of fun, better than I expected. Easy to learn and it’s a great time killer

It is not MOO, but still fun to play. Master of Orion it is not, so don't go expecting that and you will enjoy this tactical space battle, 4x game that is unsophisticated and straightforward than the full blown MOO. Uncomplicated tech tree, planet development, and diplomacy. The focus are the battles. Where you have but one battle group to go around, which can grow in size and power. The crew gains experience with each battle. The end of your turn is signalled when you park your fleet at a planet and go on shore leave while the opponents conduct their turn. Conquer the opponents home world and you gain their entire empire. There are different ways to victory.

Waste of money. This game is incredibly simple, which is nice at first but it has no variety or strategic depth so is not good for multiple playthroughs. Save your money.

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Fun & a good start. I've been enjoying this for hours. Isn't that why we buy a game is to enjoy it? That said I look forward to future updates. One of the reasons I love gaming on iOS, updates and new content. Not perfect but fun!!!

Great game!. It can be improved, but this is one of the iPad games as is. A few improvements will make this a great game. Clean up the combat interface and easier to find info on your planets. An overview map showing your location in the universe would be nice.

Repetitive, not very replayable. Was hoping this would be like Master of Orion, but doesn't really have much strategy. Everything revolves around your one fleet. That's correct, you have one fleet. Not really any reason to develop your planets, and technology tree only upgrades your fleet. Probably better off buying off the Orion app if you're looking for a more strategic experience.

Okay, but could have been great. I wanted to love this game... It's exactly the type of game I like, but some design flaws really frustrate the experience. Starships offers light resource management and focuses all its energy on turn-based combat on a two-dimensional grid. You start with one and eventually have eight ships in a single fleet that you then fly from battle to battle. Therein lies the first problem: the battles become fairly monotonous. There's almost zero variety in tactical problems you face and each battle unfolds pretty much identically from the rest. The second design flaw is the worst: the victory conditions of the game are, according to posts in the Firaxis forums, meant to force the game to be quick. That strikes me as a complete sophistic cop-out: the designers couldn't figure out a way to make the game less monotonous, so they just built what equates to a fuse that ends the game. Often abruptly with no warning. The AI opponents, regardless of your settings, can win by a variety of means (like building a number of special "wonders"), even when you're making good headway with wiping them out. This type of game is about conquering a galaxy and savoring a victory built battle-by-battle over dozens of turns. The battles themselves aren't enough to really satisfy, and you can't rely on the slower-paced fun of taking over the entire map due to the victory conditions "dead man switch". All in all, a real dissappointment.

Not truely 4X and not worth $15. This was a huge letdown of a game. It is marketed as a Sid Meir game, a 4X strategy game, with customizable ships; not really true. You can completely ignore the expansion and exploitation aspects of the game and still win. The ships only change appearance by upgrading systems (which you "have" to do in order to win). You only get one fleet so forget about attacking multiple systems at once. Save your money and buy 'Starbase Orion' instead.

It's fun, but with some flaws.. For a 15 dollar game for mobile device, it does it's job. Lite 4X element with turn-based combat. The gameplay is solid. However, It is hard not to notice some minor flaws. For example, graphics. I know iPad isn't a powerful device. But the developer could've tried not to make it look all BLURRY! Also, why can't I rename my fleet, or my planets? I've played Civ5, I could rename all units or cities as I please. Then why not here? It's just a simple feature. I hope we could get some updates in the future. Untile then, my score is 3/5.

Ok, but doesn't feel finished. The lack of a tutorial is really odd. Add to that the fact that the manual doesn't always scroll properly and you get a game that's really hard to get into. There are also some odd bugs that others have mentioned like the custom victory conditions being ignored.

What I have been waiting for.... This game is the game I have been waiting for on the iPad. A great space strategy with awesome graphics. I've played Orion and Ascendancy and while those are more complex (far more resource management) but they don't look at pretty as Starships. Sure, there are some issues with the controls (minor) and there is no tutorial (more reason to play multiple times). Who knows, I am sure they will update the controls and maybe add a tutorial. As it is, I love it and look forward to more updates (maybe some more content too?).

Highly Recommended! ...Not disappointed!. I get nervous dropping more than 10 bucks on a mobile app, but this one was worth it. Deep strategy, solid graphics and fun gameplay. What more could you want. Highly Recommended!

Not worth the money. This app freezes, it crashes, and on top of that there is virtually no story line. It's pretty much your run of the mill galaxy conquest game. None of the choices you make are very important, as the space battles are extremely easy. Just attack each persons home planet as quickly as possible. I've played games exactly like this for only $0.99!

Excellent... But need newer hardware. I'm a longtime Civ player (since Civ2) and this game does not disappoint. Good battle sim, familiar game play and strategy. However on a highly optimized iPad gen 3, this game crawls. I cannot fault the devs for this. Yet another reason to upgrade to a new iPad. Cheers, Sid and team. Well done.

DOESNT WORK!. The buttons don’t work. So I can’t do anything

Not enough game for the money. Overall the gameplay is satisfactory and the tech trees are deep enough to be entertaining but that's about it and for the price tag it comes in as too much for too little. Despite the 3d environment, the low Rez textures and default long distance camera angles much of the graphics go to waste. Also if ever a narrative and tutorial were needed for a game, this is true doubly so for starships.

WOW!. Wow. This game is everything I hoped it would be and more. OK, so it crashed a couple of times; it picked up right where it crashed when I reloaded it so I lost nothing. Beautiful graphics. Only thing I wish were for some aliens and some missions exploring ancient ruins, space derelicts,mysterious planets....well, it's not quite Star Trek but it's pretty close!

Great game, plenty of replayability.. So, I was super worried about buying this game because it was so expensive, and man am I glad I gave in. Tons to do, and it feels very much like. Civilization game. I'd buy it again and again. Lots of ways to win, like any Civ game. You can upgrade planets, or destroy everyone else's planet. Building the fleet is awesome, too! I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys Civ games.

Wasted opportunity. When I first looked at this game I thought of sword of the stars, as far as ship customizing. Sadly there is no variety to shipbuilding, you just upgrade the same stuff over and over till you wind up with a fast battleship, fun the first time around, gets really dull every other time. My other issue is that you can choose different types of victories in the settings but when I set domination, the AI still ends up winning through the other victory conditions even though they weren't selected. Lots of time wasted. I'm upset and full of regret, if I can dissuade at least one person from buying this game that will be of some comfort.

Early Release? Okay... Still fun!. I think this game is well conceived and implemented, except for the few bugs others have mentioned (and one I found by accident). Hopefully they're just working out the kinks and will publish an update once they decide that the bug fixes don't make new bugs... Would be well worth the money if the "Victories" settings feature worked as one would expect. Also kinda weird that it doesn't track your scores locally, but I would be happy if I could just play using the Domination setting.

No strategy involved and so boring and repetitive!. At first it seems OK... but the "guidance" you get isn't all that helpful. And the dialog is stupid and repetitive. The game very quickly becomes just clicking on things and by-passing the narrative because it adds nothing. Seems like it could be so much more, but isn't there. "Talking" with others is silly and there is no way to actually alter or influence game play. What a huge waste of money and time.

Great but not perfect. The game play is great! No doubt but the graphics don't match up to the game play. In my opinion it's not refined and look like there isn't any anti-aliasing done. I know it's on a tablet but it's the same studio that made XCOM so they know how to leverage the power of iPad. The UI and controls are not very good. In the main menu the Game Center button looks awful! I unwantedly moved my ships dozens of times and it's very annoying since there's no undo button (no undo button is good but moving the ship while trying to explore the map is frustrating) There are some bugs in the game that are a little annoying. This is a complicated game! Why is there no tutorial??!? How should I know what are different ways to finish the game?

Adequate but bad UI really hurts. I've played through it once and it does provide a reasonably scoped 4X experience. I'm still not sure how much depth it has but I cannot really judge that after one game. The UI, however, is sorely lacking. For instance: 1) Confirmation of most actions is by clicking on the same location, which makes it easy to accidentally move(I have moved while trying to zoom out). really just want a confirm button for everything. 2)Many actions are not cancelable (sometimes when you click fire torpedo my only options are to aim and fire it or rotate the ship, not do something else) 3)Battle cards have no popup explaining what they do. Clicking one should tell you what it does, then have a confirm to use it. Going to the spaceopedia is irritating to look up this icon. 4)Torpedoes can travel through blocked asteroid squares but not blocked planet squares, buut nothing makes it clear your path is blocked. Etc.... The game simply lacks the polish I would expect from a $15 purchase.

Fix these problems! :). While in a battle the game buttons consistently become unresponsive, when pressed they still show that they are being pressed by turning white, but when I press them nothing happens. I have to close the app and reload to continue my battle as this seems to randomly happen about 5 minutes into a battle, sometime even less.

Terrible controls and unpolished generally. The controls are clumsy and poorly implemented, as if this wasn't even designed for a touch interface. Gestures on the maps are either sluggish or overreactive and don't match your inputs either way. You will constantly issue accidental orders. It won't matter, though, because you will win anyway. Voice prompts get clipped in mid sentence. Parts of the game feel unfinished. Nothing is fun. The whole thing feels like it was rushed out the door for some arbitrary date.

Two dimensional outer-space. Very two dimensional in concept with no depth whatsoever. We all know it's very tough to create galactic games but Starships is so flat that you have a hard time getting caught in the adventure. Simplified to boredom there is no real strategy. You get your resources every turn and spend them but it doesn't feel you're making important choices. Yeah, build new cities, sure, get more resources and a stronger fleet and go fight a predictable AI that simply uses more (predictable) tricks as you move higher in the difficulty ladder... Is that it? The Civ series, a much more complex game of course, had depth, strategy is multileveled, you think what to build next, evaluate, reevaluate, build your army, upgrade it, wait for the right moment to go to war... this one is just take that fleet and go after homeworlds when your numbers are equal or higher than the AI... I'd call it a tactical game and a pretty average one in that. The background "strategy" game is useless. The arenas are very deceiving and become boring very fast. Adding warpgates doesn't make them supercool... Learn to trick the AI and the game crumbles very fast. A big name behind the title makes it even worse. There are much more interesting and original tactical games on iPad written by kids and cost $0.99 - I say don't get fooled.

Bug. Great game but it freezes up on torpedo screen just locks up have to shut down ipad to get it going again but soon as it gets back to the torppdo screen same thing. I am going to try not using them on out till this is fixed.

To little a game, to big a price tag. I really do like the game play of this, but for $15 it is way to over priced. This game is way to basic for that price, maybe $5 max. At least add a campaign for what we paid. No one should have to spend $15 to play the same arcade over and over. And you can play from easy through epic in like an hour. Simply not enough game.

repetitive. It looks nice. No doubt. But after a few turns it gets already old. I am already tempted to remove it from my device... It doesn't play well with iPad3. When half the map is uncovered and 3-4 factions have been found the game slows way down. Overall not a great feeling to spend $15 just on hype...

Great game for the iPad.. I can see where people who buy this for their PC might be upset because it is a ‘light’ game but it is perfect on the iPad. I like the fact that it is deep enough to keep me involved but not so deep that I can’t just save the game and shut down my iPad when I need to do something else. I love the depth of Civ V but I have to be in the mood for that type of depth and have the time for ‘just one more turn’, here I get a bit of that flavor without the timesink.

Good game but could be better. Been waiting for this one awhile. Thought it would live up to the hype. I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, it is a fun game.... for a little while. The challenges become repetitive and the AI is lacking. I know it's on version one but you'd think for the price it would be a little more refined. As long as they don't go and make it like Civilization, I guess I'll live with it. Maybe they'll get the hint in future updates.

Boring but still fun. The game is fun I must admit but it can still have a few tweaks like multiplayer or even a campaign and it shouldn't end in the middle of taking over the Galaxy let us go through the whole map destroy every thing not just here and there but everything.

Simple Fun. Not a game that takes forever to get through but that is fine. It is fun, no crashes with new iPad Air and sometimes a game is just enough. This one works for me and no in app purchases, those always make me not want to get a game. I bet we will see more for this one.

Great fun, needs a crash fix though. I'm currently seeing a consistent crash when using torpedoes that needs to be fixed. However otherwise this is great and just what my iPad needs so fingers crossed on it getting fixed soon. Thanks!

Dont buy unless you have newest ipad. Update: still has major issues with lag and graphics load time. Again DONT buy unless you have newest iPad! I recently purchased this to go alongside my beyone earth purchase from steam since it does link through My2K. The game is graphically beautiful (what I was able to see). That is pretty much the best I can say about it as the game runs TERRIBLY! Massive lag on first mission, buttons don't work. Either they need to fix the memory problems with the game or they need to not allow it to be installed on anything other the the newest and fastest ipads. If you don't own the newest DONT BUY IT, you'll be throwing $15 down the toilet.

Deceptively Thin. I really wanted to like this game, but the strategy is thin and the game doesn't feel like it has much soul. There are lots of good reviews, it seems, but I suggest you wait until the game is <$5. It's not worth more than that. These guys should really knock it off with the "Sid Meier" tag. It used to mean something, but for the first time ever, going forward I don't intend to insta-buy the next Sid game. Shame.

Fun Enough, But Glitchy. The game play isn't particularly deep, but it's enjoyable enough for a couple hours of play. However, the game is glitchy. It does crash, per se, but it goes unresponsive frequently. As soon as the "tap an enemy starship" message box doesn't go away, you might get a few more actions in before you have to close the game and come back in. This is very frequent when you use the torpedoes. What enjoyment the game has quickly disappears in the frustration of having it lock up.

Not ready for prime time. We paid $15 for a game that is still in BETA stage! Be aware if you purchase. When the game doesn't lock up it can be really fun if you want a short Sid Mier like game. It's very disappointing that they put out an app that locks up. Then they respond to my support request telling me to turn everything off! "Starships is a graphics heavy app and you should disable or turn off any and all extra background apps to give it the best chance of not crashing. So that would mean you disable whatever you can." How many everyday users are going to know to do this? Close all other apps - ok no brainer. turn off Background App Refresh - how many people will think of this? Why should the user have to do? Close all safari windows! Yeah the everyday user is going to think that this will speed up the game. Log out of Game Center! Duh this is a Game! Why should I have to log off in order to play the game? Turn off auto save within the game! ?!?! When a game locks up I don't want to start all over - so for me I'm not turning off auto save! Enable airline flight mode? Really to play this game I have to pretend I'm on a airplane flight? Ridiculous. Disable all data (wifi,3G,4G,LTE) "Please let us know if this works for you."

Great game - one big bug. Picked this up just in time for an international flight. Game play is excellent and doesn't suffer from the AI issues of Civ Rev (too easy or impossible). With the difficulty set to hard or above, the battles actually take a thoughtful strategy. I've spent 15 minutes playing cat and mouse trying with a larger and more powerful enemy fleet picking them off 1 by 1. However, I found one big bug - at one point, the game stopped saving. I'd click save game and click "new save". The save window closes as if a save was made but it wasn't. I noticed that none of my prior saves would show up in the save game dialog when this was happening. You need to quit the app and reload to fix it. Only happened once, but I save a lot more frequently now.

A fun (real!) strategy game for the iPad. If you love strategy games and are tired of the endless stream of tower defense and pay-to-win freemium games dominating the "strategy game" section of the App Store, then this game will be a very welcome addition. Starships provides fun, well designed, turn-based game play that offers a lot of possibilities - but that is still simple and concise enough not to require a huge investment of time or energy to play. Is it perfect? No... That's why - even though I am really enjoying it - I only gave it 4 stars. The graphics aren't very cutting edge (even by iPad standards), and some of the animations can run a bit long. I've also noticed a bug or two, such as sound files not always playing or being clipped short. But it's clear that Starships was designed as a labor of love by people who wanted to create a simple, yet enjoyable, strategy game. And they definitely succeeded in doing so!

Tired of the flaw. This would be a fun game except for the fact that no matter what the computer win on Wonder victory even when set to Dominate... Also last three games have the Computer winning even with me leading in wonders... Fix and you will have a better game!!!

Meh. Yes, it's a pretty game, (even though it's surprisingly low res), but the UI leaves much to be desired as it's very small and unclear. There's not a lot of indication as what you're supposed to do; a tutorial for a seemingly complex game would have been a good idea. Maneuvering throughout the game takes just a few steps but manages to be a chore at the same time. I just don't think this game is a smart choice for a tablet.

Pretty great!. Not too surprisingly, this game takes me back to blowing endless days on Civ II as a kid. It’s loads of fun, and I really probably have too much work to do these days for buying it to have been a good idea! I’m also very impressed with the computer opponents: even on the novice setting, it’s not trivial to win. A couple minor things keep me from giving it a 5-star rating. The interface is usable, but not perfect, and it’s sometimes hard to find the button or tool you’re looking for. The other issue I have is how short the gameplay is. The games I’ve played so far have taken a few hours each. Win or lose, I was hoping for an epic, multi-day battle for supremacy like the old games I remember. Finishing a game in just a couple sittings is a little bit of a letdown. I’m hopeful that the higher difficulty levels will provide more of that.

Great game, but buggy. This is a great game, love playing it. Strategy aspect is very strong. I don't usually enjoy turn based games but this one is a lot of fun. One major bug though: more than half of the times, if I fire a torpedo, the game stops responding when it's time to control the torpedo. I have to quit the game (double tap home button and kill it from memory) and restart. This becomes quite frustrating.

Score!. I wish people would play the game at least twice before reviewing it. My prediction is that many will come back to add stars later. We knew going into this that it was not going to be Civ. The game is deceptively simple on your first play-though, but on your second play you will begin to see some depth emerge. Nothing too heavy here. Just a quick pickup and put down in a couple hours kind of game. Which is exactly what it was intended to be.

Good, needs some work.. If is a fun game, but either get rid of the victory condition option or fix it. It is completely useless. I set up for a domination win to get surprised that I lost to a wonder win. It is quite frustrating. Also, a story line would be great, or specific missions would be great.

Fun with some bugs. It's a great game, but the performance is a bit choppy, sometimes the sound goes out, it doesn't like too many ships. I'm giving it 5 stars anyway for the concept. It's still fun to play! Upon further review, the games lacks depth and diversity in the storyline and in diplomacy. I would like to see more nations or perhaps morein depth gameplay

Great game, with irritating memory leak.. Picked this up as soon as it was available, due to fantastic reviews from PocketTactics and other mobile gaming sites. There's little I disagree with from all the reviews. Gameplay is simple, without the need for high micromanagement like some 4x games. The tactical battles are well done, though the AI could be better (I haven't lost a ship other than fighters regardless of the difficulty. The AI will prefer targeting fighters, even if there's crippled stronger ships right behind it). The biggest irritant for me is that game slows down to the point of being unplayable after about 3 or 4 turns on iPad mini. I end up saving game, force killing then re-load to get around. The only major flaw in an otherwise excellent game. I'm glad that the hype around this game was not misplaced!

Cool game but.... This is a fun game, but it's really lacking the real mode I want... Domination. It says domination is be the last surviving player, but it's really not. It's who has the most planets or something stupid like that. Domination is really needed because who wants to finish a domination game with all players still left in the game? I sure don't. Please fix this.

Link to Beyond Earth Frustrating. The link to Civ Beyond Earth seems trudging on the surface, but in reality is so frustrating it spoils the experience. It took me a while to figure out how to even log in to (click the 2K icon). Numerous times now, I have logged in and received the message "You have successfully logged in." After clicking OK, that is followed immediately by the message "my2K Connection Issue - You are not logged in" in the lower left corner. I got it to work once - the icon turns green and a new menu option is added - but it has failed more than 30 times now. Going to the my2K website doesn't help either - there are no postings about this on the support page. Neither does clicking the App Support button in the App Store - nothing happens. Very frustrating!

too simple and repetitive. I really don’t get the good ratings here. This games is a really simple strategy game and in my opinion has almost none of the civ aspects to it - I don’t feel like I am building a empire, I just go from mission to mission. And the missions are not even very interesting or strategic, I think there is only 2 or 3 different kind of mission - than they repeat: an example: “escape from the maze”. Also all spaceships are the same, no special space ship classes. And you only have one fleet, can’t have 2.

Mediocre space battle/strategy. Neither the space battles nor the 4x strategy are interesting. The space battles are repetitive. There is not much variety in the fleets and little tactics needed - just hide in the asteroids and blast them when they come to you. The strategy part seems unnecessary most of the time. The planet building choices have little effect on the game. If you cannot capture enemy planets you will lose. What about having a variety of enemies with different tech and space ships? What about choosing between different tech to upgrade your ships? Not just + 25% bonuses. Miss masters of Orion.

It has potential. Overall not a bad game. It kept me entertained for a few days before it got boring. I do not mind the low graphic quality as it is more a strategy game anyway, though there is a lot that could be done to make it better in terms of gameplay. Missions are boring, as they are no different from attacking a planet. The fact that destroyed starships can be repaired makes no sense. And why does a fully loaded enemy spaceship take ten seconds to blow up? I stopped playing because it is really annoying to watch the explosions for far too long every time I pulverise a large enemy ship. This got to be a bug. Finally, it is too simple to become an advanced power. I have my planets and my fleet at maximum capacity in half a day. That is not a good sign for a game by two companies that managed far better games in the past. Have some pride and put some sweat into the next upgrade.