Also fond of WH40K Gladius? Then behold ZEPHON!

[JasonPratt]

If you're like me (and I know I am), you at least kind-of like WH40K: Gladius despite its ugly colors and underwhelming sfx. (The same team developed the underwhelming Pandora: First Contact 4x space colony game, also for Matrix, and the gameplay was pretty similar. 40K details helped a lot.  )

Now the same devs appear to be striking out on their own for their original IP followup, Zephon, which Sampstra Games got a demo to demonstrate here!

I presume this means Gladius development has ended, no more factions. But they did a very good roster eventually, more than I was expecting.

Pro: interesting cosmic-horror vs modern Earth military backstory.

Con: looks very much like a reskin of Gladius. I mean REAAAALLLY like. I defy anyone to identify the two from looking at the screen footage/shots at a distance.

Crow/Prawn: seems a lot like Gladius gameplay, too. Combat-focused 4x and tiny tinny sfx included.

[FarAway Sooner]

This game is anticipating a Q3-24 release and offers up a free demo that is pretty illustrative of gameplay.  While I have only played for a few hours, I'm quite intrigued with it.

In terms of atmosphere, it seems to be the love child of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Vic Davis' Armageddon Empires.  The game play is much more conventional TBS 4x, but with a lot of added wrinkles the first few times you play it because there is A LOT going on in the world that you have to figure out as your civilization emerges 20 years after the apocalypse.

I really like the gritty, nasty descriptions of things you encounter in-game as you play along.  The writing is excellent and does a lot to create a sense of immersion when you play it.  Different factions and differing leaders for each faction seem likely to offer good replay value, although I've yet to play enough of the game to really get a sense for how it evolves beyond the first 20 turns. 

This one is definitely on my wishlist.  If others know more about it, or have played the previous titles by this studio, I'd be curious to hear your impressions.

[Jarhead0331]

This does look interesting, but all I can say is that Gladius just never grabbed me. I tried and tired and tried. I love all things 40k, and although there was nothing inherently bad about Gladius, I just found it flat, lifeless and boring. It was really just a 3x, and I found the gameplay loop far too limiting and the game elements totally generic for something as rich and epic as 40k.

I know some people really like it, but it just wasn't for me. Hopefully, this new title will have more complexity and nuance and be a true 4x. I'm definitely willing to give it a chance.

[MikeGER]

I saw an early (payed) preview of Zephon by one of my favorite German Twitch streamers, Writing Bull, some month ago and it looked interesting.
It is a further development of the Gladius (or former Pandora) engine, not just a reskin, for example techtree, diplomacy, events... limitations of the older engine in those departments.         
The developer Lorenz Ruhmann was also present in that stream on cam, to answer questions from the chat.

The speciality of WH40k Gladius is that it has one of the best tactical and strategic AIs ever seen, still until today.
And all factions play really different. Also the AI side acts according very specific to its given faction(s).
Experience is as close as playing against a human as it gets.
     
unfortunatly in the meantime WB reported when asked about a rerun 'the colorsheme to dull and hard to follow for his spectators' to start a full Let's Play on his channel
(from the viewpoint of a content creator, personal playing it is not affected) 
 
and seems to busy with other content (and payed game presentations occupying his slots) to make room for more Zephon, sigh
 
so i wait for other Let's Plays (maybe from DasTactic) to make up my mind

[FarAway Sooner]

As I said, there is a free demo out that seems to give a pretty good feel for at least the first 20-40 turns.  There are numerous boundaries baked in (e.g., limit on tech tree progression, limit on size of world, etc.), but so far I haven't run into anything where I thought "Oh, this is obviously a demo."

The real question is whether Turns 21-40 (or 41-60) play any differently than the first 20 turns.  I struggle a little bit to read the map but I suspect that will come with time.

[JasonPratt]

This does look interesting, but all I can say is that Gladius just never grabbed me. I tried and tired and tried.

That description might be a typo, but fits my occasional experiences with Gladius perfectly. I still really want to like it.

[Jarhead0331]

This does look interesting, but all I can say is that Gladius just never grabbed me. I tried and tired and tried.

That description might be a typo, but fits my occasional experiences with Gladius perfectly. I still really want to like it.

 

Must have been a Freudian slip of sorts.