Graphics and Sound

What's with RTS and 2D?

Shattered Galaxy is composed entirely of 2D sprite-based graphics. You won't find any fancy 3D accelerated effects here, just plain backgrounds and sprites. Even for 2D graphics however, SG feels dated. A lot of this is due to the 800x600 resolution and small unit size. With this resolution the units look a bit blocky and you can't make out much detail. You can see rendered portraits of what units are supposed to look like in the Unit Development screen, but most of this detail is lost on the battlefield. Games like Baldur's Gate II and Triopico showed us that even 2D games can look spectacular.

These guys are supposed to look like...

...this picture

Mephits are scary

We'll cut Shattered Galaxy some slack in the graphics department though. Nexon is an independent game maker, and they don't have the budget of larger production houses. It's tough to compete against someone like Electronic Arts-- a company that can throw millions into questionable titles, watch them vaporize, and still be the world's leading game publisher. You can tell that Nexon does have a talented art department just by looking at the alien units. These are no little green men. Alien units are just plain odd. It's easy to make a creature that's loosely based on an animal, but it's harder to make one that's original. Check out the screenshots to see what I'm talking about. In the future, as Nexon grows, we'll see better graphic endeavors.

Zug Zug

Sound effects in Shattered Galaxy are average. I may be desensitized from playing so many games over the years, but I haven't heard a remarkable explosion in a while. Unit voices are typical to RTS games - humorous, and often filled with in-jokes (Manticores even say "Wasssup" when you select them). The current build has a small bug in which some units have no audible voices. This doesn't affect the gameplay much, but it would make the game feel more complete if the Alien units would gurgle or spit when you order them around. Nexon is good about patching aesthetic issues like this, so I'm sure there will be a fix for this soon.

Battles are never small

Fire from the sky

Everyone needs cover sometime

A bigger issue along the same lines is that you can hear infantry movement through the Fog of War. That is, you can hear the footfalls of infantry units when they walk, even if they're in unexplored or unpatrolled space. Just move your view to blackened parts of the map and if there is infantry moving, you'll hear them. There's two ways to look at this problem. First, it's a disadvantage to infantry units since enemies can hear you coming. The other problem is that no other units make noise when they move. Air, Mobile, and Alien units are silent. Nexon should decide on all units making noise or none, but right now it seems like a bug of the oversight variety.

Don't concern yourselves over the graphics and sound much however - Shattered Galaxy is all about the gameplay.