Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition (PC) Review

By Eric Ace 20.08.2017

Review for Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition on PC

Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition is an updated and overhauled version of the game that released last year. Take the role of a commander of the last human starbase, and slowly build up resources and ships to take on the alien threat. This new edition changes a few of the systems, such as characters and resources, but are the improvements enough?

Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition attempts to fix a myriad of problems that plagued an otherwise great game. The art style, the story, the base construction, the battles, the JPRG character system, and much more, was loved, but there was a common ground of problems present. This update attempts to fix some of them, but others have merely been changed.

As a very brief explanation of the game for those that didn't play the original, then. Halcyon 6 could best be summed up as XCOM in space. There is a base to build new structures, officers to train up, new ships to build, things to research, and so on. Resource colonies must be protected, as battle is eventually done with the ultimate alien threat.

Screenshot for Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition on PC

What's new, then? There are more events with the other aliens, more to do on colonies, more with the characters, and more with ships, as will be explained.

First is an overhaul to the resource system. There are now drones that can be built to automatically collect resources rather than manually doing it. This goes a long way to reducing minutia. The colonies can also be upgraded to produce faster or bring in larger loads.

Events and aliens have been expanded. There are a lot more situations to deal with, as well as aliens actually having a story, their own issues, and so on. This system was very bare bones when the game first came out, but has been fleshed out substantially in Lightspeed Edition.

Screenshot for Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition on PC

The two biggest updates are in the characters and ships. Characters now have a skill tree, where each level they can level up their abilities depending on the player's choice. There are now ultimate moves, as well as passives in battle. Ships now are essentially blank slates that the player can equip skills of their choice to (still restricted by class). Both of these systems are a slight negative, with the ships being more problematic.

The skill tree is a great idea in theory, but it is a little lost in its own complexity. It is not immediately obvious what move does what, nor what skills will be boosted. Furthermore, there are issues such as good space moves being behind a lot of ground moves, and so on. These are not game breaking, but are definitely an issue.

Screenshot for Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition on PC

Ships and combat unfortunately were not improved, and the new system feels like a detriment. As mentioned, ships are now blank slates where player puts any of a selection of moves onto them. Previously, it worked loosely about forcing a decision, as one ship may be better at disabling, but the other choice might do more damage. Now, the ships feel very lifeless, as the best moves are just slapped on and that's it. In the original, with new ships sometimes it'd be best to switch to a new class simply because that new move is just so good; this does not happen in this version.

Combat has been overhauled in some ways, as well. First, heals are now limited to a very low number and restocked when returning to base. Other moves now have a start-up wait period, as well as generally increased cooldowns across the board. This presents many problems, as combat was always a grind, and this does little to help. Originally, there were at least options to try to end fights quickly, or superior moves could be used over and over, whereas now, during many turns, the only option is literally to just pass. If this game was PvP, slowing down combat or weakening moves would make sense, but in a one-player game that already takes a while, this was not a good decision.

Screenshot for Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition on PC

Cubed3 Rating

6/10
Rated 6 out of 10

Good

As an update of the original (which players get for free if they already own Starbase Commander, which is a great bonus), Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition adds some cool new systems, but fails to fix the problem of a grind in combat. Adding timers to moves slowed a system that was always very slow even further. Given how prevalent combat is, it is unfortunate this was not more heavily addressed, as the rest of the game shows tremendous improvement. It is simply not as "lightspeed" as it should be.

Developer

Massive Damage

Publisher

Massive Damage

Genre

Strategy

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  6/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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