Taking space by the wattles, Conflicks mixes deliberate strategy with an over-the-top story to create a mostly fun space game.
The metaphorical space race in gaming is still going with more and more titles climbing into that nightly frontier for new, exciting interactions. This has bred out plenty of alternate history titles that explore what would happen if the human race found space in a slightly different way than we’re used to hearing about. Conflicks, with its own take on the alternate reality space race not disappointing, provides a whole package of exciting interactions from gameplay to its unique story and visual style.
“One of the other standout pieces of Conflicks is the space and ambiance in which the vast majority of your battles take place.”
This race, involving several different earthly empires that have ascended into the starry heavens, began with the introduction of Metamatter. Leonardo da Vinci discovered this secret material within the eggs of chickens, leading to full-fledged space travel by the end of the 16th century. Chickens eventually rise to become qasi-human beings called Chk’Rah, seeking rebellion against those that have abused their kind and their Metamatter. While this is all made clear to you by the end of the opening scroll, it’s just the beginning of the intentional absurdity that brought a smile to my face quite a few times.
The overall arc of Conflicks plays out like their version of bible stories with each leader you play contributing to the Chk’Rah cause while solving their own issues. Most of the story is told through static, sharply-inked screens that have customized sounds to fit that few paragraphs, but it all works well enough to be memorable in the way it wants to be. The intention with the story here was never to soak you too far into the characters but to show you how this ridiculous situation can still be thoughtful and expanded to a really respectable level. Even the space map has places that you want to visit or learn about because of their names—Great Slaughter, The Sublime Gate, Mischievous Triton Nebula—alone, giving this world life despite the chicken-pun setup.
As its name implies, Conflicks’ main gameplay mechanic is flicking your spaceships across enclosed space battlegrounds with your mouse. I didn’t find the optional keyboard shortcuts all that integral to the experience with most of the actions mapped to various mouse actions as well. Regardless, your basic match with an AI opponent features you spawning vessels from your flagship in a slow, methodical, and increasingly strategic way depending upon the difficulty you pick before each of the 20 missions. The tutorial is helpful with the basic moves and ship types while more involved maneuvers are handed out later along with new abilities for your various fighters. Different factions lend different abilities while the ship classes all stay the same with their usefulness depending upon the situation.
All of your actions and strategies depend upon a steady source of Metamatter. There are two ways to fill your current limit (dead enemy ship drops and recharges from your flagship), but you’ll have to expand your meter if you want to build the deadly Destroyer or Battleship classes, both of which are essential for attacking enemy leaders. To do so, you have to send your Henship to a nearby planet to bring your eggs to roost, therefore “mining” Metamatter. While your reserve meter seems to have a needlessly high ceiling given how concentrated your efforts should be elsewhere, there are situations where you can run through your opponent like a paper chicken when your reserves are high enough. Outside of those occasions, the flicking into battle is fun and engaging, especially when the objective remains unlimited in time or movement as some missions demand.
The main problem with gameplay is that slow pace; on top of your reserve of Metamatter, you’ll also have to wait for a skill cooldown before you can move again, making it so that every move should matter to you and your fleet. Unfortunately, there is no aiming beyond your eye and some slight deviations at longer distances can throw a whole group of ships into a blackhole or cloud of death. The Frigate class, which can tow slower ships long distances, can’t plow through enemies, meaning that your ships can go bouncing like crazy should you hit even a smaller, weaker vessel in your way. All of this is magnified tenfold during the last mission of the story wherein you have to basically sprint through teleporting holes, avoid a one-hit-kill machine, and hope that nothing gets in your way. Meanwhile, there are no shortcuts and the enemy doesn’t have much of a cooldown period for such a weapon, making the usual ten-minute mission stretch into an hour or more.
Conflicks does have multiplayer that is every bit as deliberate as the campaign, but with up to three other humans throwing their strongest fleet of chickens you way, there is something competitively engaging about each move. Matches are set to end when a player amasses 1000 points, usually taking about the length of a single-player mission to decide, with upgrades affecting all four factions that you can choose from. While these perks are another layer to this mode, there is only the standard battle arena and confrontations, making the desire to jump into multiplayer a bit more tempered after a few matches. Even without legs, it’s still a mode worth experiencing.
One of the other standout pieces of Conflicks is the space and ambiance in which the vast majority of your battles take place. The galaxy map is ripe with color and personality, the starred backgrounds of the maps are varied, each factions’ ships are wonderfully crafted and visually unique, and main planets are kaleidoscopically mesmerizing to behold. There are some slow down issues when too many ships explode at once and most of the side planets are just grey rocks, but the visual style presented here is a bountiful plus. The music is also varied between space-age techno, a few deep organ tunes, and peaceful lyre strums, all of which combine to fill the Conflicks space with aural delight.
The video game space race may not have its strongest contender, but it certainly has one of its most unique in this game of chicken rebellion and pipephones. Artifice Studios created something raucous in their setup and just ran with it, crafting a piece of rich lore that may just sound like gibberish when said aloud, but makes you smile as you fight for these lofty causes. The gameplay, even with its issues and that blackhole of a final mission, is fun and asks for your attention and planning ability throughout, making it mentally stimulating alongside the humor and absurdity. Most of the Metamatter that went into creating Conflicks was applied well, creating an enjoyable overall ride that hands PC players another fine strategy game worth crowing about.
