Stars in Shadow

Stars in Shadow is a turn-based 4X strategy game and a vivid tribute to the genre classics. Compete with alien factions to explore and colonize nearby starsystems, build fleets to defend against rivals, negotiate or conquer them. Win by unifying the galaxy, through diplomacy or force.

Stars in Shadow is a strategy, indie and 4x game developed by Ashdar Games and published by Iceberg Interactive.
Released on January 19th 2017 is available in English only on Windows.

It has received 776 reviews of which 611 were positive and 165 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.5 out of 10. 😊

The game is currently priced at 3.67€ on Steam and has a 85% discount.

The Steam community has classified Stars in Shadow into these genres:

Strategy Indie 4X Turn-Based Strategy Space Turn-Based Combat Sci-fi Turn-Based Turn-Based Tactics

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Stars in Shadow through various videos and screenshots.

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Requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

OS *: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
Processor: Intel Core 2.6 GHz or equivalent
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series or better
Storage: 3 GB available space
Additional Notes: Stars in Shadow requires the OpenGL framebuffer extension. This extension is present on almost all graphics drivers released after 2010, but laptops made before 2010 with vendor-locked graphics drivers may not be able to run the game.

Reviews

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Aug. 2024

like the game. one of the bast turn base games there is.. wish it had more content. after some hours it does get.. like any other game does, and without fresh stuff it gets less played.. 10/10 reminds me of MOO No bugs or crahses for me graphics simple but good gameplay is a turn based it is what it is tech tree is good but could be revised a little. some tech seems redundent and just leads to another tech.. combat in a large scale expecally with missles gets long, very long hope to see more DLC or mods eather or i will suport

Aug. 2024

I’m very glad this game exists, but sad that it’s not being actively developed. After 50+ hours, I’ve decided that I enjoy playing this game more than the quintessential Master of Orion 2 that it’s clearly imitating. MOO2 may be a more fully realized strategic experience, but Stars in Shadow is just a more enjoyable place to spend your time. The negative reviewers point out features that are not fully realized, but I feel ignore the many unique features Stars in Shadow offers its players that other games don’t. The graphics are a matter of taste, but I personally love the overall look of the game, especially the starship and alien design. The design work is so much richer here than we can usually expect from the typical “everything looks like Star Trek of Star Wars” approach taken by most developers. The fact that the art for the game appears to have been created by a single artist gives the game a unified vision that I’ve rarely seen. This unity of vision extends to the race design. The subtly asymmetrical faction design, capturing the character of each race, really is brilliant and unique. The interface is occasionally awkward, but not MOO2 awkward. I recommend playing MOO 1 for a while before jumping into this one, and it won’t seem so bad. Lots of clicks means lots to do. I feel that if the development team kept working on this, we’d end up with one of the best 4x games of all time, or at least exactly what I’m looking for. As it is, you’ll notice a few things you’ve come to expect from other 4x games that are either more difficult in SIS, or just not possible. I think just a few tweaks could fix most of the problems, put tweaks probably won’t be coming. The overall effect is an experience which is cool, beautiful and fun on the surface, but which lacks the depth its creators and players clearly wanted.

Aug. 2024

Good, relatively simple 4x, relaxing, fun to play. Force of "one more turn" is strong with this one. Recommended.

July 2024

Reminded me a lot of MOO2, all in good ways. I only have a few nitpicks. Game seemed to lag quite a bit at times when I hit the turn button, almost like it was stalling out. Also, there wasn't as much terraforming autism and tech management as I'd have liked. The races also weren't THAT different. Still, if you liked MOO2, you'll like this game.

June 2024

A great and subtle 4X. I've been playing on human as my first 2 (and probably soon 3) games. They are a little bit more difficult because you don't even get a planet at the beginning, just 2 colony ships and some other ships. I started to write this game off as "only at a discount", but there are game mechanisms here that I haven't seen in other 4X space games that I enjoy, such as spamming science outposts just to reserve star systems and help with research when colonies take a lot longer to build up. Or even spamming fuel depot outposts to allow "leap-frogging" colony ships to the ideal planets that are otherwise unreachable. I'm not completely sure if there are features I just haven't figured out, or if they are really as rudimentary as they seem. For example the summary of all planets is very basic. I can still say pretty confidently if you like 4X space games this is not one to miss. There's quite a lot of fun and head-scratchiing to be had here.

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