It’s been interesting watching post-AI War Arcen at work. Their idiosyncratic drunken approach to genres has always resulted in games worth talking about. Granted, some of those words might not be all that complimentary, but they’ve never once released a game that had any hint of hubris. Not even when they return to the space strategy genre that pays the bills. The Last Federation’s a “strategy/tactics game set inside a simulation game,” which sets it apart from AI War’s ridiculous spectacle of death. It displays the one thing that’s true of Arcen’s game: it was announced in January, and it’s coming out next week.



April 18th, actually. They make ’em quick, there. I’m getting a different vibe from this one. Dare I say it, there’s a little bit of a strut in Arcen’s step on returning to space and making a game that feels big again. Alec seemed similarly taken by it, though I should point out that neither of us has had hands-on it at all, but the idea of simulating billions of lives lived and then creating a little bit of intergalactic intrigue between five factions will probably drag a few people deep into the world it creates.

Here’s a look at the combat: it typical Arcen fashion, it started out as a SHMUP and now it’s turn-based.



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