Chaos Sector 混沌宙域

Indie games are labours of love. This is quite apparent within Chaos Sector, which homages the classic turn based strategy genre in beautiful pixel art style. The game is light on story, but rich in setting and mechanically solid. As the first in a series and basically a solo job by its developer, the game runs fine with a few flaws but has a brutal difficulty curve and no formal tutorial. Once you get the hang on what you're doing though, (battle tool tips and taking manual command via "make my own decisions" during the council phases 80% of the time) it becomes a gritty tactical matchup that's surprisingly well balanced.

I'll list flaws first as to end on a positive:
1 - limited battle maps. I struggled to tell exactly how many were in the game, because you play the same map(s?) in different positions rather than having smaller/dedicated maps per planet/node. This is generally not a glaring problem, other than how a lot of early turns can very much be "find the enemy" which can be quite frustrating combined with my second critique.
2 - the game homages classic fog of war TOO well in that the enemy knows where you are, you just have to find them. Surprisingly, this isn't an issue for the most part. As defensive missions will have them come to you and offensive ones only have them move to attack once you can see them/enter their range. Combined with the large map sizes however, it can make some missions very tedious.
3 - lets be honest, translating is hard. English is a horrible language to learn as a second because it has inconsistent rules and exceptions; Chinese, on the other hand, is complex and can struggle to convey exact meanings from its native state into another language. Don't get me wrong, the game is perfectly playable and intelligible, but there are a lot of little blips and oddities of wording (one example is the Imperial Crusade leaders having literal-ish translated names). It goes along with a handful of issues where sprites are partially missing (at least at my resolution) from certain angles. The game is a solo project and none of them crush gameplay, so leeway should be given on account of it working well despite these issues!
4 - the steal mechanic is great fun when it works, but an absolute nightmare to pull off most of the time. The pirate leader has a flat boost to the percentage which helps, but given how squishy most infantry are, capturing ships that are trying to kill you constantly can be a real pain. Especially in the endgame of the Pirate scenario where capturing the new ship type is critical to... not dying horrifically or losing tons of ships constantly.
5 - commander skills charge very slowly most of the time and some battles actually prevent you using yours if you're winning without losing ships or the enemy has no battle stations to charge it off. This is frustrating when trying to add the alien units to your collection because the skill that does that often means you're gambling as to what the final unit is on offence and few defence missions have enough enemies to use it at all.

Now, to end on a good note:
1 - while not an easy game, this is a solid one. Both scenarios are beatable, fleet compositions are allowed to vary (excepting nuclear ships are best countered by other nuclear ships due to sheer insanity), and different commanders genuinely affect how the maps play out.
2 - while there isn't a lot of story, the setting details and lore that are given are well crafted and interesting; the creator has clearly put time into the art style and you can see the difference between factions, characters, and weapon systems.
3 - Both sides have different units, but they're all balanced enough to compete with clever thinking. Plus, the pirates are better at stealing ships so can field both pretty reliably.
4 - this is a solid standalone game, but also in effect a proof of concept for its sequels. Despite its first instalment issues (and a lot of classic series have this), I felt engaged and determined to complete it all the way through. There is enough content and variation to make both campaigns worthwhile and interesting, though part of me wishes I could play any commander on a skirmish-style map (will have to look for the sequels).

Overall, I recommend this for those with patience who enjoy classic Nintendo-hard turn based strategy and/or who want to see a less traditional space-opera setting and style.

Definitely recommended for fans of turn-based tactics, space, sci-fi, and strategy. Feels similar to a space XCOM.

+Art style
+Music
+Battle animations, character portraits
+Manual and auto-saving
+Positioning matters
+Characters/commanders
+Upgrades/levels for units and commanders
+Turn-based tactical space battles
+Variety of different ships
+3 factions
+Weekly report decisions, commander suggestions
+Strategy layer, planet development

-Barebones options
-No key shortcuts; mouse only
-No rebinding
-No voice
-Only 1 faction at start
-Low res/ pixelated
-Lacking tutorial
-Some unclear info, lacking tooltips
-Edge pan camera only
-Awkward dialogue/translation
-No auto-end turn
-Clunky UI
-Only 1 action per week
-Explorations are often a waste
-Some balance issues
-No choices on level up

It's ok - reminds me of old tactics games like "Balor of the Evil Eye" and such, but the UI is also very old-school, with tons of unnecessary clicks, so if you are accustomed to modern XCOM-like controls - better stay clear, it will drive you mad. Especially when ruthless RNG *** you up, forcing you to replay and savescam.

The newer games from the dev seem to exploit the same tech, just expanding the scope from small 'sector' to vast 'galaxy', with added diplomacy and all, so this one looks like a demo.

It's a very cool game, though my opinion is a little biased

I love strategy games with story progression. There is a game breaking bug actually, but besides that I really liked the challenge. It's not too easy, just saying, you gotta make use of the 50 turns you are given to put things into order and more

I can run it on my Potato so, pretty cool

Fun but machanics need work, possibly corrected in Chaos Galaxy 1 or 2.

Chaos Galaxy improved on the formula, but Chaos Sector is unique enough from it's successor to be worth trying on it's own for fans of that game.

Combat is mechanically like SRW, but with generic troops like Advance Wars.
Troops maintain their veterancy between missions, and when to take on the next combat mission is very freeform.

It's essentially the prototype to Chaos Galaxy, but picked it after finishing that game. Still a fun game to play, but with less features.

You need to get Chaos Galaxy. That one is better and newer. Only play this if you want to experience the scenario first hand...

The idea is good. Super Robot Wars meets Total War's campaign. But the amount of units, research, any everything else is extremely limited, making it pretty boring. I do like the story events that happen while you play though.

>Recommended at full price

Ok, this is a hard one to review, it wasn´t easy for me to "like" this game, I love turn based tactical games like the old Front Mission series or FInal Fantasy Tactics, so I purchased this game on a whim and my first impressions were... not good, the controls felt clunky (specially since there are no keyboard bindings, all you can do with it is press space to skip dialogue boxes), the battles felt unfair (with a time limit on attacks, fog of war that helps a LOT more the enemy AI than you and enemies with seemingly infinite soldiers and funds), your commanders suggestions were bad and rarely had worthwhile outcomes (this is VERY important, NEVER do what your commanders suggest you do, maybe they are right once in a while but it´s always better to plan everything yourself), and the gameplay seemed confusing and lacked a proper tutorial (why does the ships sometimes counterattack and why sometimes they don´t? why does the abilities trigger? what is power (its just hit points btw)? and so much more), so I instantly put it down and moved on... So, why am I still recommending it? Well...

Recently I was in the mood for some tactical space battles and decided to give it another shot, this time I read the basic "Beginners fighting tips" guide and it helped me out a LOT, it´s really short but it explains pretty much all the confusing bits, then I started playing with the alliance as it was the recommended faction for beginners and started using the robot guy commander (you´ll know who when you see him), who has a passive ability that removes the fog of war, on my first few attempts at the game I ignored it since the other commanders seemed to have way better abilities like 20% more damage or things like that, BUT what I found out is that being able to see the whole map is insanely OP once you understand how simplistic the AI moves and how important is to use the environment, like planets and asteroids fields, to your advantage, it helps that he also has the best active ability, which allows you to act twice during a turn, he is by far the best choice for beginners and I had no problems at all beating the first campaign by exploiting the hell out of his abilities, after that I went with the pirates, who start the game with less income, less planets, and more importantly, no robot commanders with game breaking abilities, worse yet, they have to fight the armies that DO have said commander while fending off aliens and such...

And right at that moment, confronted by true "unfairness", having to rush trough the fog of war to avoid losing by time, needing to make full use of mechanics like "capture" in order to keep my fleet robust enough to fend off attacks, carefully planning when to do what in order to not lose by the weeks time limit... at that time of seemingly unwinnable odds the game truly "clicked" for me. The training wheels were off, and suddenly mechanics that I previously considered total BS like the time limit, the fog of war, the dumb AI, the repair ship, the capture command, the radar skill... everything that I neglected in my first playthrough... it all came together to make one of the most enjoyable, nail-biting tactical experiences I´ve ever had, all the systems worked together, every mechanic that I could "ignore" with the robot commander guy came back with a vengeance and ended up giving me some of my most memorable gaming sessions ever

It was hard, learning to "like" this game, but in the end, I ended up loving it

Good job. 难得有一个游戏让我能想起同时玩大航海时代和超级机器人大战的感觉。内政系统让我想起圣魔大战和lost technology。最有趣的是捕获系统，同时用海盗的导弹巡洋舰和北天的光束扁海盗不要太爽。同时也很期待Chaos Galaxy正式版的上市，希望开发者健健康康，开发顺利。
下面是几个针对新的Chaos Galaxy的建议：
1. 目前试玩版里，每个行星有五个slot可以建造要塞。不知道可不可以增加别的建筑，比如提升商业/工业/防御度上限的建筑？防御建筑当行星被占领时自动被拆除，其他建筑保留。
2. 是否有可能增加行星驻守舰队？满额的5个要塞在战力5000以上的舰队（旗舰+1-2巡洋舰+补给船+1机甲）面前仍然很脆弱，而能组建舰队的将领数貌似非常低（初始=3），所以领地稍大一点貌似就会被周边势力偷家。同1，是否可以通过建筑/科技增加仅仅驻守在行星本地的1艘巡洋舰+2机甲？
3.是否可以考虑空降“巷战”？比如进攻方可以投入所有当前舰队机甲单位，行星防御按50点/100点/200点/400点生成1/2/4/6个、总统率力不超过25的本地机甲单位参战。攻击方全歼敌人则行星防御力下降至10点（即下一回合攻击方即可空降占领），如果未全歼（回合数到）则防御方仅损失机甲数*50的防御值。如果攻击方机甲被全歼，则防御方不损失任何防御值且民心+5.
4. 捕获系统能不能考虑再加入进来？比如捕获单位会自动被拆解成资源（毕竟Chaos Galaxy貌似木有前作一样的机库），捕获3个以上的同种单位可以解锁图纸？

You're facing Pirates and Aliens!
Your aim is to protect/manage your planets, fleets and Captains.
Use your captains wisely in oder to either last 50 weeks or defeat the very mean Alien big boss. Each of them has special skills and bonuses.

Each week you have to launch an action, among them are:
_researches granting bonuses to different areas of the game.
_build Forts to better defend your planets.
_build new ships to expand/replace your fleet.
_sabotage your enemies Forts.
_...

Battles occure either when you attack a foreign planet or defend one of your own.
Each turn allows one faction to use all its units. Positioning is key to avoid missing attacks and/or taking counters.

One negative: Mouse only, so get ready to shake that pointer left n right across the screen.

I'll conclude by saying that overall, Chaos Sector is quite fun and easy to play yet tough and tactical.

Nice game. Challenging tactical combat. There are several different ways to win battles, and your tactics need to change depending on the opponent's fleet composition and commander. The campaign lengths seem well measured to ensure you keep a fast pace, and don't get bored. Just don't turtle!

Do you remember Advance Wars? Have you ever played Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms series? Do you like mecha anime? Chaos Sector is a great combination of those three things. Great fun.

Day 1 impressions.

Good: This game has a fantastic art style and it reminds me of the older Tactical RPGs like Shining Force. I also dig the Faction variety. Even though there isn't as many factions as Brigandine the strategies of the in-game factions feel much more varied. The pirates are numerous and aggressive while the Aliens are tanky and have "Poison" damage. The animations are dope and I enjoy the Trial & Error gameplay.

Bad: Not a fan of the mouse controls. Scrolling through the large maps for a "low unit count" game is kind of a pain. Also wish there was an option to increase unit's movement speed animations to make it a bit faster. These are all just nitpicks though.

Only a few hours in this is an interesting little strategy title that has enough simplicity to be a pick up and go with little tutorial but a good amount of difficulty and depth in options and play.

I like what they are trying to do but the whole "All your base belongs to us" kind of purposeful translation gets old fast. In addition, you are dropped in without much explanation for what is going on or how the game works. The interface is clunky and there is a lot of nothing going on. In my first engagement I started very far away from the enemy and they seemed content to stay well away leading to a lot of time just trying to get in range. Very ponderous. First game I ever asked for a refund on.

Very nice, litlle one-man indie turn based strategy with retro touch.
Simple, but efficient strategy layer plus series of small scale tactical combats (at most 20 units on board, usually ca 8 turns) makes for fast paced game and prevent drag. Choices are minimalistic, but well implemented.

I found game reasonably simple (with beginning a bit more challenging) and needed 21 hours to reach all endings.

For negatives, there is little replayability. Game is somewhat unbalanced (submarines" are underwhelming), AI is passable, and plays by the rules (which is nice feat for such a small game), tlhough very predictable in tactical phase. RNG sometimes can be a bit annoying (but never ruined the battle for me). For the price I can really racommend game.

Impressive work from a single developper, and like others mentionned a refreshing throwback to SNES era top down t-rpg.

The two different game layers are well presented and engaging, you will manage both your fleet and system's development through a commanding room where various officers offer input :

- It's up to you to decide wether to follow these or decide by yourself, while taking into consideration an effective growth plan and the fact that whoever acts can get a bonus in 3 different stats, each useful for different aspects of the game : economy (political), special powers (prestige), and the size of the fleet they can command (leadership).
These choices, while limited due to the game being rather minimalistic, are still varied enough to allow the player to pursue a few different main tactics. Research, exploration, planet growth, border defense...

- During battle if you're used to t-rpgs such as tactics ogre, valiant hearts or the more recent advanced wars, you will find your marks quickly.
The AI plays well, there's no rigged RNG or inflated AI stats bullcrap, although note that out of the 3 factions the Aliens are clearly stronger than everyone else, which is intended as per the dev since they act as the final boss.
Personnal note though, during battle the minimalistic approach i find plays against the game due to the addition of rather low hit chance coupled with a lack of tools both during command and battle in order to mitigate the drawbacks of bad rolls.
That said the developper is a very friendly and talented person, so we might get to see a few extra changes in order to polish this weakness.

English translation is a bit awkward but nothing game breaking.

Wholeheartedly recommended, looking forward to a couple more tweaks though.
Don't expect a hardcore tactical either but just enough to keep you on alert, in a pretty interesting sort of intergalactic kamen rider setting.

It's an awesome love letter to classic Banpresto and Koei turn based strategy titles from the 90's. I really dig how this one developer managed to transport me back to 2001 when I first fired up a rom of Super Robot Wars on ZSNES. It fueled my love of the franchise as a whole and got me into so many other TBS/SRPG games over the years. It's pretty much a very basic 4x styled empire management sim with battles playing out like SRW or Fire Emblem. Each week your generals give you advice such as conquering a planet for more resources, exploring new regions of space, researching new tech trees to buff your armada. The player has the freedom to ignore their advice and do their own thing which is what I recommend you do. It's easier to figure out the game mechanics that way. Each choice directly affects stats so plan out your path ahead of time before executing. The battle maps and even the little sprite animations of the individual units scream attention to detail of an almost forgotten genre of gaming. Support this guy. We need more games like this from people who are driven to make fun little titles that bring us back to simpler times. All we need now is classic Toonami and some Surge to complete the package.

9/10

There are some issues with the English translation but not enough to detract from story or gameplay. I'm serious, give it a try.