The famous philosopher Ebenezer Blackadder once observed that “bad guys have all the fun,” and there are a lot of games that say you can be evil, but usually it’s more about being kind of rude. Pax Autocratica is a little bit different: You jump into the jackboots of a loyal officer to a fallen tyrant, and your only goals are flogging minions, building bases, conquering sectors, and restoring humanity’s hegemony in the stars. There have been a lot of “explore the galaxy”-type games and a lot of “base building”-type games, but I haven’t encountered many “build bases and explore the galaxy so you can put it under your heel”-type games. This is the essence of Pax Autocratica.
A Fallen Tyrant and a Fractured Empire
Tyris, the tyrant leader of the Tyris system–yes, he named it after himself–is dead. In the wake of his demise, his mighty empire is in disarray. There are invasions, the peasants are revolting (they stink on ice!), aliens are attacking, and there are whispers about that disgusting thing called “freedom.” It is not a great day in Tyris because people, apparently, are not thrilled about being under the jackboot. Think Warhammer 40k by way of Helldivers II.
With chaos threatening to break out, the Father of the People summons a trusted officer (that being you) to restore order to the Empire. This requires building bases, which requires flogging minions to gather resources, build things, research technology, and produce items, and then launching out to explore the stars. Each sector has worlds to conquer, resources to find, ships to raid or trade with, and various and sundry other things within.
Base Building Meets Galactic Exploration
So there’s a classic base builder/light colony sim at work, since you need resources, items, and other items to support you and your loyal minions, but there’s also a No Man’s Sky vibe at work with bizarre alien worlds to explore, weird resources, and research and crafting. And there’s some light RPG/team management, since there are soldiers to recruit, minions to motivate, team progression and management, and then there’s all the shooting. Y’see, there’s a roguelite FPS part of the game, too, because part of the fun of conquering the galaxy is gunning down the weaklings who have the temerity to resist you and taking their stuff.
The basic game loop involves using your soldiers to build and expand your base, research technology and build equipment and gear, and then launching out into the sector to find stuff to conquer and resources to take. But it’s neat, since the base building actually hooks into something more than “having a base/colony for the sake of having a base/colony to manage,” and watching your base grow and unlock new stuff is very satisfying when it has an actual impact on your gameplay by providing new equipment for tackling tougher enemies rather than just a box to check.
Final Impressions on Pax Autocratica
Especially because the goal is more than exploring a single world. It’s about expanding your reign through the sector, unifying it under your benevolent hand/iron fist, beating the sector boss, and reclaiming it for humanity to restore order in the tyrannical universe.
So if you’ve ever enjoyed games like No Man’s Sky but thought, you know, what if I could be evil in this, what if I had a squad of minions to hit with a whip and order around (I’m not joking about the whip thing, that’s part of the game), Pax Autocratica is due out in Q4.
