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Star Lords throws its hat into the 4X fray

by: Randy -
More On: Lords of the Black Sun
Arkavi Studios is prepping Star Lords for launch by the end of this year. The Portugal-based development team is trying their hand at the good ol' turn-based 4X space strategy genre, and Star Lords appears to draw from Masters of Orion roots. Looks pretty vanilla, but I at least got a twinge of excitement when I saw neon-highlighted hexagonal battlemaps. 
 
Star Lords packs in eight major races (though these pics only confirm that Terran and Xenom exist so far), a deep economical and political layer ("Deliver a Speech" being at least one of those options, not including tit-for-tat on the empire negotiation screen), customizable ship designs (not revealed here), as well as hot seat and online multiplayer matchmaking (although no depictions of that process yet).
 
I don't want to be hasty, but I don't see any standout features here. Star Lords has a long, uphill battle to its fourth-quarter 2013 release if it doesn't distinguish itself in one way or another.

Star Lords to be published in Q4 2013

Haarlem, The Netherlands - 12 August 2013 –  

Having made quite a splash in the 4x strategy gaming genre over the past years, publisher Iceberg Interactive announces that they have struck a worldwide publishing deal for another interesting new 4x game for PC: Star Lords. The game is being developed by new Portuguese developer Arkavi Studios and has been on the fan radar for quite a while, with Iceberg now jumping in to add their scala of publishing services to lift the game to another level. Iceberg intends to release the game both in retail and as digital download during the 4th quarter of 2013, with final decisions to be made as the game’s development nears its completion.

Mike Domingues, CEO of Arkavi Studios says, "Star Lords aims to raise the bar in the 4x genre while pleasing to old school fans and newcomers alike and we are very happy to have found a great partner in Iceberg Interactive. Not only we can count on their experience and know how to help further elevate the quality of the game, we know they love 4x titles as much as we do, as proven by their work on previous titles in the genre."

Star Lords is a tactical turn-based space strategy game and will include online multiplayer, 8 major races in an epic-sized complex universe and some renewing twists to the 4x genre. A screenshot pack accompanies this announcement, showing some recent revamped ingame images.

Erik Schreuder, CEO of Iceberg Interactive says, "The deal was actually signed a while ago, but we held back on this announcement while Arkavi was making a lot of improvements behind closed doors before we were willing to reveal it. We are very excited to bring 4x gamers this splendid newborn later this year after we have helped it come to fruition.”

For more information about Star Lords, please visit the official website http://starlords-game.com