Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Reunion offers a deep, menu-driven strategy experience that tasks players with building and managing an interstellar colony from the ground up. From a central command hub, you navigate through distinct interfaces—research, production, construction, fleet management and galactic exploration—to ensure every aspect of your fledgling society thrives. Each screen presents its own tactical choices, whether you’re allocating R&D points toward advanced propulsion, scheduling construction of power plants and habitation modules, or buying starships for future exploration.

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Personnel management adds another strategic layer. Commanders with unique skill sets and salary demands must be recruited to run critical departments. A high-level researcher can speed up breakthroughs in warp drive technology, while a seasoned logistics officer can streamline resource flow between mining outposts and manufacturing facilities. Balancing payroll against scarce early resources creates tense but rewarding trade-off decisions, especially when you lack the credits to hire every specialist you’d like.

The resource system itself is elegantly interconnected. Six key minerals—ranging from iron and silicon to exotic alloys—must be harvested on multiple planets, each with their own yields and hazards. You’ll dispatch mining teams, set up automated drilling platforms and ship raw materials back to New Earth for refinement. Efficient supply chains directly impact your ability to produce goods, expand your colony’s infrastructure and ultimately fund starship production for reconquest missions.

Reunion’s pacing strikes a fine balance between moment-to-moment micro-management and long-term strategy. Initial colonization phases feel intimate, focusing on base building and personnel management, while mid-game shifts into broader galactic strategy, as you pick new worlds to survey and weigh the benefits of diplomacy versus outright conquest. This evolving gameplay loop keeps each session engaging and layered with meaningful decisions.

Graphics

Graphically, Reunion leans into a clean, functional sci-fi aesthetic that prioritizes clarity over flash. Planetary surveys and mining sites are presented as stylized schematics, complete with color-coded resource icons and animated progress bars. While not as visually lush as some AAA titles, the UI is crisp, the menus are intuitive, and the color palette helps you quickly distinguish between mineral types, colony structures and fleet assets.

The galactic map is a particular highlight, with a dark‐space backdrop punctuated by glowing star systems, nebula clusters and wormhole gateways. Zooming in on each star reveals orbiting planets rendered as rotating spheres, giving you a tangible sense of scale and distance. Ship models and colony buildings also feature simple but effective 3D representations, which help ground the strategic abstractions in a consistently futuristic universe.

Subtle animations and interface feedback enhance immersion without overwhelming your decision-making flow. Buttons pulse when new research is unlocked, resource icons animate during transfer operations, and commander portraits change expressions based on their morale or performance. These touches keep the presentation lively, even during long planning sessions in the colony management screens.

Performance is smooth on mid-range hardware, thanks to modest graphical demands. Load times between menus are brief, and there’s little stutter when fast-forwarding through colony construction or warp-drive travel. If you value clear, purposeful visuals over photorealism, Reunion’s graphics deliver precisely what you need for focused, strategic play.

Story

Set in the 27th century, Reunion’s narrative begins with centuries of peace paving the way for humanity’s first interstellar warp drive. Two experimental ships, Explorer-1 and Explorer-2, set out to chart unknown systems. Only the latter returns, refitted as a colony vessel, just as political unrest erupts on Earth. A violent coup topples the old government, forcing the Explorer-2’s loyalist crew to flee and seek a new home.

Upon arrival at a distant world, the battered colony names their settlement New Earth and begins rebuilding. Generations pass, giving rise to a self-sufficient society that rediscovers the lost technologies of its ancestors. The overarching goal to “reunify with Earth” provides a compelling long-term narrative spine, as you relay orders from a distant command deck and witness New Earth’s slow transformation from precarious outpost to bona fide space power.

Story beats are interwoven into gameplay events—research breakthroughs unlock logs from the original Explorer crew, coup-related flashbacks appear in advisor dialogues, and occasional “Space Local” gossip sessions in the colony bar reveal hints of old-world politics. These narrative strands deepen your connection to the hardship and hope that define New Earth’s citizens, turning each strategic decision into a contribution toward a broader saga of exile and homecoming.

While Reunion is not a dialogue-heavy RPG, its story emerges through mission objectives, tech-tree milestones and flavor text. If you enjoy uncovering lore as you advance, the game’s gradual reveals and generational scope will keep you invested in both the colony’s future and its storied past.

Overall Experience

Reunion delivers a rich, methodical strategy game that rewards patience, planning and adaptability. Its combination of layered resource management, commander-driven specialization and long-term colonization objectives offers substantial depth without ever feeling cluttered. Veterans of 4X and colony sims will find the learning curve approachable yet meaningful, while newcomers to the genre may appreciate the clear tutorials and well-structured menus.

The game’s minimalist but effective graphics and interface design ensure that you spend your time making strategic decisions rather than navigating convoluted HUDs. Performance is consistently solid, letting you fast-forward through uneventful periods and savor the key moments of discovery, diplomatic tension or large-scale fleet mobilization.

Reunion’s narrative, while not its primary focus, provides a compelling backdrop that elevates routine micromanagement into a generational epic. Discovering fragments of Explorer-2’s logs, rallying your commanders after a resource crisis, and finally dispatching your first war fleet toward Earth all feel like chapters in a continuous story of exile and ambition.

Overall, Reunion stands out as a thoughtfully designed strategy title for players who appreciate a steady, cerebral challenge wrapped in a classic sci-fi colonization tale. If you’re looking for a game that marries robust mechanics with an evocative setting—and provides dozens of hours of strategic depth—Reunion is well worth your attention.

Retro Replay Score

7.2/10