Open-world single-player RTS ‘HYPERNOVA: Escape from Hadea’ is now on Linux, some thoughts

Like your strategy games and tower defence? HYPERNOVA: Escape from Hadea [Steam, Official Site] is a rather colourful strategy game that’s now on Linux.

Disclosure: Key provided directly by the developer through our Steam Curator.

YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

The game released originally on September 6th, but the Linux version only just arrived on December 7th. I had never heard of the game before, but suddenly my inbox started getting messages from Steam about having review offers. I had a look and their new Steam Curator system is live for us now, so developers can offer keys directly. In this case it was damn handy, since it enables me to cover a game brand new to Linux right away.

As far as first impressions go, HYPERNOVA: Escape from Hadea was brilliant. The intro video was very clever and quite funny and had me instantly smiling—that’s how I like to start a game!

It tells the story of the Scynthians from the planet Hadea, whose very existence hangs in the balance as their star Naidira is about to go hypernova and consume the solar system. There is a plan to escape using a special interstellar transport device, but the resources to power the device on their planet have already been consumed. You set off for the hostile moon Haya, in search of the very resources your civilization needs for salvation.

You take control of a Scynthian leader as you land your mothership and expand across the surface. I rather like their building system, with the mothership essentially being a massive 3D printer. It’s a clever building system, as the mothership opens up and buildings rise out of the golden liquid. Buildings can fly, so naturally you can relocated them whenever you need, which is also pretty sweet. Buildings are free to fly once they’ve first left the printer, but after that you do need a certain resource to power their engines, so you do need to expand for resources as soon as you can.

The relocation element is actually extremely useful, it’s not just a fancy feature for the hell of it, as I discovered quite early on. I needed a specific resource to build more structures, but I overspent and couldn’t afford to build any more. Not a problem! I relocated my current extractor to the resource needed to build more, to then replace the one I moved and continue expanding. It’s also great for when you’re getting more advanced buildings, you might need to rearrange your entire base, so this makes it easy.

I mentioned that Haya was a hostile place, well the planet is covered in a thick unbreathable fog which you need to clear in order to expand, so you need to expand your reach with power relays and purifiers. I have to say, I love it every time I land a new purifier, to see it release some gas and have the fog fade away in a circle outwards from the purifier. They’ve got a really good style here, it’s so lush!

Your main objective of the game is to build up your colony to one hundred thousand colonists, build a Stellar Bridge and find the special resources needed. While building up your base, you will also have various types of aliens spawn in waves from caves spread across the planet. You have some basic drones to protect the mothership, but the main defences come in the form of your turrets. You start with very basic turrets, but there’s also a research system to go through to get more advanced tech (not just turrets!).

As you expand, these alien caves can become more of a nuisance, but once you upgrade enough to get the correct tower you can annihilate them from existence. They're going to be wiped out by the coming hypernova anyway, so don't feel bad.

My only complaint about the game, is that the enemy waves take far too long to become more than background noise. Even after pushing 90 minutes, the waves were still tiny and lasted seconds against turrets on Normal difficulty. A shame too, as the turrets are pretty awesome when the fire, the effects in in the game are really great overall. I get that I’m not on the “Hard” mode, but it’s far too easy on Normal. If you’re going to pick it up, jump right into Hard mode.

If you like real time strategy games that mix in tower defence, this is absolutely one to take a look at. I’ve found it to be really relaxing, the comedy to it is great and it really is a surprise. It has a slower pace to it, so it’s ideal if you’re not the type to focus on how many clicks you can do per second.

You can find HYPERNOVA: Escape from Hadea on Steam.