Solar 2 is a Simulation type game in where we take control of an asteroid and are immediately given free rein to either leisurely explore the randomly generated galaxy or complete quests given to you by an unknown being. In the coldness of space, you will encounter other asteroids, planets which may or may not contain life, and stars of varying sizes that contain all of the above orbiting it. Our ultimate goal is to make it to the top of the cosmic chain and gather enough mass to bring forth the Big Crunch. A mighty tall order for a simple asteroid and we start this journey by crashing head first into other asteroids to increase our mass until we finally gain enough to eventually become a planet.
Once we become a planet you will no longer want to crash head first into asteroids, instead, you must now get them to orbit around and gently pulling them in to devour their mass. After repeating this process multiple times, you’ll soon find that your planet now supports life and it will constantly generate new space warships that will defend you the best they can. This marks the first big shift of the title. Your newly acquired lifeforms cannot be controlled and while they can protect you from the nomadic vessels going around blowing stuff up for a laugh, it will also make any solar systems with advanced life hostile. Chances are your inexperienced and newly formed fleet will not be able to handle such a war, giving you a ton more to worry about while bumbling through the depths of space.
Your spacecraft are entirely replaceable and losing them is hardly a big deal, meaning you are free to abandon them to their fate for picking a fight you wanted no part of. In fact, you may end up killing your own men far more than the enemy as you suddenly pull a U-turn and smash right over your fleet. More will pop out of your planet every four or so seconds with the type of vessels they create being randomized. At first, your lifeforms can only create a cruiser, though as they win more fights they’ll learn to create more advanced war machines which now have a chance of being spawned in. Now don’t expect RTS levels of strategy here, at the end of the day the victor of a battle simply comes down to who has more forces, and since there is a unit cap for each planet, that will always be for the solar system that supports more life.
Once you consume enough asteroids and your mass reaches a critical point, all life on your planet will be annihilated. A pretty grim fate for those that inhabited it and one that you can’t avoid if you gather enough mass, though it does open up new opportunities. Your newly formed star has a far stronger gravitational pull, so while it can no longer support life, you can now pull in planets that can. Depending on your luck, you may find some with already developed life to capture with that lifeform immediately becoming loyal to you once the planet is in your orbit. More often than not however, you will encounter a lifeless planet that you must build up or simply consume to further build up your own mass. Your gravitational pull is simply too strong for asteroids to orbit around causing them to be dragged in at blistering speeds and impact your star, which does neither of you any good. That in turn means your only option to grow is to devour planets, with those supporting life being much more nutritious.
Afterward, all of your next evolutions will be into bigger or more condensed form of stars which can hold more planets in its pull. Wage war, evolve those planets under your control, or simply play a high-risk game of bumper cars with a neighboring star system, you will retain the freedom to do what you want and mess around with the universe at your whim. That is until you finally reach the point of becoming a dark hole, in which case you become nothing more than a force of destruction who devours everything in sight. You’ll still have to be wary of black holes larger than yours but can otherwise steamroll everything in the universe until achieving victory, then be tossed back to the beginning of Solar 2. Despite seeming like a rather conclusive end, you will have to complete all the missions and only then will you be taken to a final boss fight as well as unlock a new mode & cheat codes.
These missions are quite creative in their design and are often comical in nature such as needing to wipe out a space-faring dinosaur race using an asteroid. One involves you strolling into a solar system and destroying all asteroids orbiting planets to clean the place up, the catch being that you can’t touch anything else, which is easier said than done while fighting the immense pull of its nearby star. And another simply tasks you with protecting a planet, though since it can never be that easy, you will be pelted with bullet hell amounts of asteroids barreling towards you. This entity isn’t what I’d call evil but he isn’t above spawning in rockets that will destroy you on impact for a quick giggle. These events force you to play in ways you otherwise would not and adds challenge to the otherwise carefree title. The beauty of it is that you don’t miss out on much if you don’t do them, so Solar 2 is what you want to make of it.
All quests are locked into one of three branches of evolution that you play as throughout. These are asteroids, planets, and finally stars. Playing as an asteroid, in particular, is annoying since you gain mass by bumping into others which are all over the place, and since you have no say as to whether to evolve or not, you can be forced out of a mission once you accidentally become a planet despite how close to finishing it you were. Your other two primary forms don’t suffer from this since you can choose when to devour your catch, thankfully. On the topic of its flaws, I must mention how much of a hindrance the camera can be due to how zoomed in it is at times. You occasionally can’t see all too far ahead of you and in a game where crashing into other things is the most dangerous thing possible, it is a significant issue.
While it’s graphics are nothing to write home about, it can be quite an awesome sight seeing all of its complexities while playing as a star and attacking another solar system. From the armada of tiny ships battling out, to the individual asteroids orbiting the planet, there can be quite a bit going on at any one time. And while battles between fleets are solely down to who has more numbers, you can still intervene in your own way such as spotting the inhabited planet of your enemy and slamming one of your own lifeless worlds into it to take down. You don’t gain anything from war, in fact, you tend to lose mass from the explosions in the ensuing battles or entire planets if the resistance you face is great enough, but man is it fun. Even more so with the randomized nature of the galaxy meaning the two of you could bump into a third solar system while both of you are weakened or both float into an asteroid field. Pretty crazy getting into such a situation when you started off as a glorified rock in space and that’s not even your final form. If you are looking for a fun Sandbox Simulation, you can’t go wrong with Solar 2.
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