IXION

One of the best city management games I've played! I love the space constraint and the ability to redesign sectors because you get 100% of the ressources back. The "space" atmosphere is on point and immersive, I love where it takes me! Props to the devs and artists that made this possible, it's been my go to game for a few years now

very tedious to juggle, resources coupled with the near inability to gather and utilise resources once you open up another zone.... all the while fighting the hull integirty that gets harder to repair the less damaged it is... but damn look away for a moment and boom -39 every second.... its an interesting and unique builder game.

I'm currently 3 hours into the game, and I feel confident that's enough time to share my thoughts and give this title my heartfelt recommendation. I will be walking through my reaction to the opening moments of this game and spoiling those narrative beats by extension. If you want to come at this completely blind, then all I'll say is this: I've played Frostpunk, and I've played Homeworld. Both games made me feel similar emotions, ones that it's rare for games of any genre to tap into, let alone management and RTS games. I never thought another game could manage to make me feel that way again. But this game...this game, man. At first I was drawn to the soundtrack through the composer, Guillaume David, and his previous work on Mechanicus. The tracks on IXION's OST aren't just a good listen for me -- the way Vanir's Legacy was produced prompts a physical, visceral reaction (a good one, to be clear) every time I listen to it, and it's the first piece of music to ever manage that. It's rad. So eventually I picked up the game just to see how the rest of it stacked up to the music. The opening moments of IXION present you with mechanics and UI that are familiar to players of Frostpunk. However, the narrative beats are a lot less dire, a lot more optimistic than Frostpunk (if laced with hints of corporate overreach and other relevant dystopian themes), so I didn't think anything of it. I just collected the resources I needed to start our test mission, preparing to explore stellar systems beyond our own. The cutscene that Vanir's Legacy calls home is fantastic; IXION's visual take on interstellar space travel is unique and evocative. But the more emotional moment is the ramifications of our maiden flight, which ultimately ends life on Earth in unintended cataclysm. Returning to Earth to find the Moon torn apart by our engine test, and the Earth a barren husk, hearkens back to the burning of Kharak, and is haunting as a result. But even then, I went into contingency mode, and out of reflex began collecting resources for what would likely be a long and dangerous voyage to unknown stars. I'd sent probes out to scan the immediate area when I uncovered a collection of cryopods that I could thaw out to add new crewmembers to my ship. Again, my mind went back to Homeworld and the burning of Kharak. The pods I'd found in IXION could be the last remaining survivors of humanity in the solar system. And then I remembered where I was: orbiting between a dead Earth and a broken Moon. And I realized what my probes were scanning; I was re-revealing the map of the solar system, each planet carrying the ruins of humanity. I wasn't just collecting resources for the spacefaring journey of a fictional race like the Kushan. I was gathering the last vestiges of humanity, everything we could carry that would help us survive in the broader galaxy, and we would leave our home planet behind...and we would never return. We would leave behind a graveyard of human civilization and hope we could rebuild on some unknown rock capable of supporting human life -- if we could find one. That was when I broke down. If I hadn't been in a voice chat with friends I would've started sobbing. For the third time, a strategy game has put a lie to the idea that the genre can't tell cinematic, emotional stories. For the third time, a strategy game made me weep through a combination of its writing and its gameplay. All because I thought its soundtrack was some of the best music in games today. Vanir's Legacy will now sit beside Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings/Agnus Dei in my mind, and I can't wait to see where the rest of this game takes me.

As a sci-fi nerd and prolific, yet not very good gamer, this is one of the only games in my 80 years of life on this earth that made me say, "Oh ♥♥♥♥!" during a cut scene... Maybe FF7 before all of you were born. 10/10.

Caveats to the recommendation but I like the soundtrack (Guillaume David smashing it out of the park again) and the very pleasing presentation enough to think it's a decent buy in a sale if you're into resource management games with a narrative. I'd held off because of the reviews and finally dived in on this sale, and I'm glad I did. The downsides are, as is frequently said, really in the micromanagement needed at times which can drag down the experience. In many ways the Frostpunk comparisons are fair in that sense, where if the vibe of the game can get you over the mechanics then you'll have a lot more fun than if you're constantly being rubbed the wrong way by needing to turn something on or off.

I enjoyed IXION a lot. It’s a unique city-builder where your "city" is a massive space station jumping between solar systems. The gameplay loop is very satisfying: you launch probes to find resources, manage a fleet to mine and haul them back, and use those materials to expand your ship’s sectors. Balancing population needs with the constant struggle to maintain hull integrity adds great tension. If you like survival builders with deep exploration and a strong atmosphere, this is a must-play. Highly recommend!