Auralux: Constellations Review – Strategy of the Stars

<p><em>Auralux&colon; Constellations <&sol;em>is casual yet complex and it&&num;8217&semi;s such a great thing to have in a game&comma; especially on mobile platforms&period; It starts very accessible&comma; easy-to-learn&comma; and kind in its approach to teaching you the mechanics&comma; but even after spending about a dozen hours with it I&&num;8217&semi;ve yet to master it&period; It has a sweet balance where it is both fair and frustrating&comma; while also easy to understand&comma; and yet it will still manage to test your patience&period; My hat would be off to the developer if I wore hats because they&&num;8217&semi;ve outdone themselves with a worthy and addictive sequel&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>War Drum Studios has crafted an outer space environment for you to conquer across 150&plus; levels with different modes and varied combinations&period; As you tackle each constellation you&&num;8217&semi;ll be charging up your planets with energy and using it to fill up meters to take other planets over&period; With each and every planet you add you&&num;8217&semi;ll earn extra energy which can be used to conquer additional planets more quickly&period; However&comma; you will absolutely need to put that energy to work across multiple tasks though as other planets will be attempting to take over yours&period; Your energy can cancel theirs out &lpar;depending on how much power output and how many planets they&&num;8217&semi;re attacking with at once&rpar; and prevent them from turning your planet neutral before adding it to their arsenal&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a more simplistic approach to Real Time Strategy but it can still get complicated and chaotic in the middle of matches&period; From upgrading planets you already have in your possession&comma; conquering additional planets&comma; and defending planets under attack&comma; it gets chaotic and intense before you even factor in the actions of the enemies who oppose you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112890" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112890" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112890 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;10184037&sol;Screenshot&lowbar;2016-09-04-15-11-31-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"War Drum Studios&comma; Auralux&colon; Constellations" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112890" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Auralux&colon; Constellations<&sol;em>&comma; War Drum Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Auralux<&sol;em><em>&colon; Constellations<&sol;em> features vibrant and crisp graphics and a relaxing soundtrack that pulls you right into space&period; The tone of this game is well established and it just goes to show not only how important atmosphere is&comma; but also how essential even the most minute of sound effects can be&period; The atmosphere is very well done and I really enjoyed listening to the music with headphones on and the volume turned up high&period; If the player wishes for a similar musical structure but in a varied and different format then there are a few different options to choose from and this can be done at any time during a match&period; The sound effects here even help indicate what is going on&comma; so once you get to bigger matches you can utilize audio cues to know if something is happening outside your vision&period; You can played zoomed out all the way but I found myself zooming in and out and moving the camera all over just to marvel at how pretty the graphical design is here&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are a lot of great levels here and you&&num;8217&semi;ll even get to experience different aspects of level design as you progress further&period; This really keeps the good times going but if that isn&&num;8217&semi;t enough for you then there&&num;8217&semi;s multiplayer to enjoy as well&period; My wife and I checked out the multiplayer and really enjoyed it&period; The single player mode already has enough going on and with enough factors to have it feel varied&comma; but nothing can ever match the thought process of another human being &&num;8211&semi; and you&&num;8217&semi;re sure to playfully punch each other and laugh the whole time too&excl; This was a good inclusion and I know we will be revisiting this title again and again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112891" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112891" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112891 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;10184408&sol;Screenshot&lowbar;2016-09-04-15-15-31-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"War Drum Studios&comma; Auralux&colon; Constellations" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112891" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Auralux&colon; Constellations<&sol;em>&comma; War Drum Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Auralux<&sol;em>&colon; <em>Constellations <&sol;em>controls well on mobile as well as on PC so there shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be any issues in this area&period; I did actually prefer it on mobile just because I felt like I had even more control with the interface&comma; but it was still great on PC&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re torn on which copy to get then I would just ask yourself when you&&num;8217&semi;ll be playing because both versions are great but I personally love <em>always<&sol;em> having access to it&period; It will inevitably go on sale on Steam at some point too so you can take comfort in that and always go mobile for now&period; The mobile version is technically free but it is locked down and restricted without spending money&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t worry though as there are no ads in the game&period; You just won&&num;8217&semi;t be able to experience the entire game without making a purchase&period; I would personally recommend just dropping ten dollars on it because it unlocks <em>everything<&sol;em> and is also the most cost-effective way to experience it all too&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Auralux&colon; Constellations<&sol;em> has great gameplay at a great price and also boasts a lot of other great features&comma; including new additions to the previously established <em>Auralux<&sol;em> formula&comma; 150&plus; levels&comma; and also includes support for Android and Apple TV&excl; This is a great package that is sure to absorb <em>at least<&sol;em> twenty or so hours of your life and even then&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re going to want to revisit levels&comma; play multiplayer&comma; and try to improve your times&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112892" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112892" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112892 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;10184449&sol;Screenshot&lowbar;2016-09-10-17-21-14-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"War Drum Studios&comma; Auralux&colon; Constellations" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112892" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Auralux&colon; Constellations<&sol;em>&comma; War Drum Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I really enjoyed <em>Auralux&colon; Constellations<&sol;em> and think that fans of the Real Time Strategy genre or anyone looking for a simple-to-learn but tough-to-master game should consider adding it to their Steam library and&sol;or their Android or iOS libaries&excl; There are times where it got a bit difficult but I found that a break would open my mind back up and I&&num;8217&semi;d be ready to get back into the fray&period; The full game is really a steal and I can assure you that space and time are the limit&period; Now&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;ll you excuse me&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m off to go buy a hat to take off and tip to the developer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;