(Image credit: Dotemu)
Over 20 years after its debut, the “re-imagining” of Battlestar Galactica remains a key part of modern TV and sci-fi as a whole. After some smaller video game adaptations, including the notable turn-based strategy title Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, developer Alt Shift and publisher Dotemu's take on the bleak universe with Scattered Hopes finally feels like a perfect match.After barely escaping the annihilation of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol at the hands of the Cylons, a scrappy human fleet tries to survive as it aims to reunite with humanity's last hope — the mighty Battlestar Galactica. Anyone familiar with the show knows what comes next probably won't be pretty, but even diehard fans will be shocked by how brutal Scattered Hopes can be.
Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes | Gameplay Overview Trailer - YouTube
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As it turns out, the relentlessly downbeat Battlestar Galactica universe is an ideal candidate for a game infused with failure at its core. Scattered Hopes is packed with high-intensity situations for skilled Admirals to overcome. If you're looking for relaxed fun, though, look elsewhere.At its core, Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is a "game of menus". You'll spend most of your time clicking through many layers of crew management, resources, and dialogues. The dangerous journey is split into turns, during which you have to deal with a variety of crises, from malfunctioning tech to disagreements between the survivors to off-ship missions that might yield very valuable rewards... or even more early demises.Normally, you can take as much time as you want weighing options and trying to predict what might happen, but you'll have to learn from your failures to live another day ... either now, or in the next run. And Cylons aren't the only threat to your survival.Unfortunately for humans, almost every decision comes with downsides. Scattered Hopes is a constant juggling act of resources. Focus on fuel – required to jump to new star systems – too hard and you'll likely run out of the scrap required to fix damaged ship systems; neglect interpersonal drama and pilots will perform below the expected performance levels when the Cylons come knocking. There's a daunting list of things that can go wrong before you even get to space warfare.
