I have been looking forward to this one for months as well. Have to say I am disappointed. This is an average setting, not good enough to earn a 5 star rating. I was pleasantly surprised by the text. GRAmel is a Polish company and they seem to have done a serviceble job of translation. The rules, what there are of them, are concise. (with one exception) The only issue I have with the wording is the excessive use of hyphens that tend to break words and sentences into sometimes difficult to read mess.
As a whole the potential is there to use this setting as either one of Darkness with the forces of evil winning at every turn. Or a lighter one where humans battle insurmountable odds and come out victorious but bloodied. I don't know if this was intentional. But, it is nice when so many newer games seem bent on shoving bleak evil down our throats.
That said. I like the idea behind the setting. However, I was expecting a galaxy with 10,000 planets at war with a ravening horde of Dark Gods and their minions. In all honesty that was at least hinted at in the history. However, the setting as it stands is totally wrapped up in one star system. Three planets, one dying, one filled with hedonistic self centered rich, and the other a jungle world on the edge of being overrun with Dark Horde creatures.
There are cultists, black magic and psionics. There is no magic or miracles, and certainly no super powers, but there are cyborgs and cybernetics.
Much of the book is devoted to flavor over substance. Great art interspersed with not so great art. (The best you have already seen if you have SWD). The pics are generally not gory or suggestive. (However, there is one of Lij the poisoner that somehow passed censorship; erotic in a very disturbing manner.) Three chapters devoted to the three worlds of the system. Their history, organizations, and personalities. The writing is devoted mostly to setting history and flavor. There seems to be a lack of crunch.
You won't find an extensive section of new cool weapons or equipment. The only real additions to the SW tool kit are plasma weapons, personal deflectors and personal forcefields.
The Beastiary is only 20 pages long. The creatures don't all have pictures which is hard because they aren't like anything you could have seen anywhere else. The pics that are in the book don't seem to match, which is probably an editing issue. Half the creatures aren't even the evil Dark Horde kind...they're genegineered monsters made by humans. Most of the Beastiary is taken up by rehashes of Human critters like Homeless people or street thugs.
There is no plot point campaign; a PEG staple. There are no creature generators; like Savage Mojo's Caladon Falls. No adventure generators: like Gunmetal Games Interface Zero. There are no adventures per se, although there are tentative ideas for hooks in Histories, Organizations and Personalities sections. This is a sand box setting without much in the way of sand. [Note: I just downloaded the Adventure Generator listed in the blurb for Nemezis. Better than before, but still pretty generic. It has some more great art. There are references to travelling out system, but without descriptions of other systems let alone a method of getting there it sees a bit odd]
Overall it is worth the 10 dollars presently being charged. Unless there is a major revamp a la the Golden Edition of Beasts and Barbarians this setting is not worth 20 dollars.
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