I’m personally not a big fan of micromanagement games, but Sigma Theory by Mi-Clos Studio has had me trying to find the best ways to betray every single nation in the world, whilst on the surface looking completely innocent. This game makes espionage, treachery, betrayal & murder look like a normal everyday thing, and that’s absolutely glorious.
- Agents & their traits: You start off the game by selecting your country (or continent) and trying to recruit agents to help you aid your research into the “Sigma Theory” by trying to spy on different countries & gaining their trust (or betraying them) and having their scientists work for you. With each Agent that you recruit having certain traits, some are better at bribing, some seducing, others might be good at firearms, this makes picking the right agent for the job very crucial to your success.
- Graphics: Having a good looking & easy to understand ‘User Interface’ is something that is crucial to a game such as this one, and let me tell you they’ve absolutely nailed it within this game, being easily able to see what your agents have accomplished & checking how far you are along with your research towards this “Sigma Theory” The way they’ve set their map up is a combination of futuristic, sci-fi and modern, and it suits the game extremely well, everything flows together very well.
- Strategy: No single playthrough can ever be the same, this greatly improves the replayability of this game. With there being a lot of encounters coded into the game that appears randomly, this could be anything from a cartel, to a group of extremely wealthy individuals who need you to do something for them in exchange for some stigma research.
- Contracts: Some groups or diplomats offer you contracts to find certain people, interrogate people, etc. these give you a side goal other than trying to rule the world.
- Dialogue: The entire tutorial is all dialogue & there’s absolutely no voice acting, and especially when you’re new to these kinds of games it can be slightly hard to keep track of what’s happening due to the overwhelming amount of text on your screen at all times.
- Tutorial: As I’ve mentioned above the tutorial is very odd, and even confusing at times, due to the massive amounts of dialogue trying to explain to you how the game works. I’m pretty sure if I wasn’t the impatient man that I am, I might’ve not been as bothered about it. But the lack of actual voice acting makes this an absolute chore.
- Replayability: Sadly the state the current game is beside a few minor things, the game offers very little replayability, this is mainly due to the fact that there aren’t enough ‘random encounters’. Regardless as I’ve mentioned above due to the number of agents, there’s a lot of ways the game makes up this lack of replayability in unique ways to beat the game every single time.
Conclusion
Score: 80%
I’d say Sigma Theory is a very good overall indie game and has done a great job at all fronts. I enjoyed most of my time playing it, mostly because of the unique gameplay.
Developer: Goblinz Studio & Mi-Clos Studio Publisher: Mi-Clos Studio.
Played on: PC / Steam
Time to beat: 2.5 hours
Steam Game Store link: click here