At a memorable presentation for Nexus, SPOnG was told that Nexus was never meant to be simply a game, more a (affect Dutch accent here) ‘space fantasy experience.’ As you’ll be aware, this is perhaps the most overused promise in gaming. To elevate a game to the status of general consumer media seems to be the Holy Grail for developers, though no one is quite sure why or what benefit this might offer. Irrespective, Nexus is perhaps the closest a game has come to achieving this, albeit in perhaps the most niche of genres.
The game does dazzle from start to finish and in something of a rulebook reversal, developer Mithis has purposefully made the game as simple to play as possible, renouncing many of the key aspects of real-time strategising. Perhaps the most interesting facet Nexus has to offer is that it’s something of an awkward child. It has decided to be different from the rest of the games in one of the most established gaming genres. And as the level of brand-loyalty RTS gaming enjoys reflects, the userbase, much of which has seen a single franchise through four hardware generations, change might not always be for the better, if only when considering the bank balance.
SPOnG actually likes Nexus a lot more than expected. It does feel a bit strange to play it though, again a genre-exacerbated quibble. Most of SPOnG’s gaming is conducted on its giant tiger-print sofa en face de la 50 inch plasma screen. We have girls making us tea too, with lager beer being fetched at the weekend. Although this only has the slightest grounding in reality, sitting rather still and clicking the occasional mouse button simply feels like, well, aside from the drinking tea and surfing for ever more shocking pornography, feels a bit like being at work.
The game does dazzle from start to finish and in something of a rulebook reversal, developer Mithis has purposefully made the game as simple to play as possible, renouncing many of the key aspects of real-time strategising. Perhaps the most interesting facet Nexus has to offer is that it’s something of an awkward child. It has decided to be different from the rest of the games in one of the most established gaming genres. And as the level of brand-loyalty RTS gaming enjoys reflects, the userbase, much of which has seen a single franchise through four hardware generations, change might not always be for the better, if only when considering the bank balance.
SPOnG actually likes Nexus a lot more than expected. It does feel a bit strange to play it though, again a genre-exacerbated quibble. Most of SPOnG’s gaming is conducted on its giant tiger-print sofa en face de la 50 inch plasma screen. We have girls making us tea too, with lager beer being fetched at the weekend. Although this only has the slightest grounding in reality, sitting rather still and clicking the occasional mouse button simply feels like, well, aside from the drinking tea and surfing for ever more shocking pornography, feels a bit like being at work.
