REVIEW: Auralux: Constellations


Title	Auralux: Constellations
Developer	War Drum Studios , E McNeill
Publisher	War Drum Studios
Release Date	June 1st, 2016
Genre	RTS
Platform	PC
Age Rating	E
Official Website

Auralux: Constellations is probably one of the simplest RTS games I’ve ever played. That doesn’t mean that it is lacking in any way, however. This game has a very minimal presentation and no story to speak of, so this review will focus mostly on the mechanics of the game. Even without all the flashy bells and whistles a game can still be fun, right? Let’s find out how much fun this is!

This game is pretty much what you get if you take a RTS game and break it down to its most basic form. You start off with a single planet and you will gain some little orbs around your starting position. This basically serves as gathering resources in a normal RTS game. Once you have gained enough orbs you can drag and drop them on an adjacent planet. Once you have sent enough orbs there to light up the planet, it will start to gather even more orbs to send to other planets on stage. The main object of game, of course, is to take over all the planets on the stage. The enemy commander will share the field with you and will be attempting to accomplish the same goal. Depending on how the stage is set up, they could really get you in a bind by taking over more strategic positions. When you battle over a planet the outcome is determined by whoever sends the most orbs there. I found it best to gather up a large army before moving forward. This may sound simple, but it can get quite complicated in later stages.

Each level of the game is called a constellation, and there are around 150 of them in total. Each includes various gimmicks. This is something that has been updated from the previous iOS release. There are stages with walls that appear and disappear, Supernovas that will wipe out all troops, and a lot more. This does keep each different stage fresh and interesting.

I found the music in the game to be generally good. The futuristic techno soundtrack goes very well with theme of the game. The sound effects, however, were just annoying to me. They are supposed to be musical chimes that go with the beat and make music as you take over each planet. Some folks will likely enjoy this, but I honestly I ended up muting the sound on the first stage.

While the game is very simple, if you enjoy RTS or maybe even puzzle games, you will probably find something you enjoy here. There is local and online mulitplayer with voice options which is a very nice feature as well. The game does support a controller but I feel the mouse works much better. I played the game for around 5 hours, and while it is not very flashy that doesn’t mean it is without merits. I think it would likely be worth the $9.99 price tag for those that enjoy these types of game.