For 700 years, humanity had it pretty good. God-like machines called OMNIs handled just about everything, the Galactic Empire enjoyed centuries of peace and prosperity, and humans became so dependent on their mechanical servants that doing things for themselves apparently stopped being a priority. Then every OMNI suddenly shut down.
The Empire collapsed. Humanity found itself staring down extinction, and civilization discovered rather abruptly that outsourcing almost everything to mysterious all-powerful machines can have had a slight downside. That’s where Crying Suns begins.
Developed by Alt Shift, Crying Suns is a tactical space roguelite released in 2019 and inspired by sci-fi heavyweights including Dune, Foundation, and Battlestar Galactica. Rather than simply trying to survive another run, you’re commanding a battleship across the remains of a fallen empire while slowly figuring out what caused everything to go so catastrophically wrong.
Good Morning Admiral, You’re a Clone
There’s another slight complication…You’re dead. Or at least the original version of you is. The person waking up on the frozen planet Gehenna is actually a clone of Admiral Ellys Idaho, one of the Empire’s greatest military commanders. You’ve been brought back by Kaliban, a darkly humorous OMNI that also happens to be the last known functioning machine of its kind.
Your job is to leave Gehenna, travel through the shattered Empire, discover why the OMNIs stopped working, and hopefully do something about humanity’s rapidly approaching extinction. Fortunately, being a legendary admiral means you don’t have to do it in a tiny spaceship.
Crying Suns puts you in command of a battleship and its squadron fleets, with combat taking place in real time with the ability to pause while you figure out exactly how you’re going to get everyone out of the latest disaster.
Being the Admiral Means Everyone’s Problems Are Now Your Problems
Travel takes place across procedurally generated clusters filled with planets, encounters, resources, and people who may or may not make your life considerably worse.
There are more than 300 possible story events to encounter, and decisions can depend on the officers you’ve brought along and their specialties. Exploration can lead to useful resources and discoveries, but sending people into the unknown isn’t exactly guaranteed to end with everyone coming home again.
Your battleship also needs fuel, weapons, squadrons, officers, and upgrades if it’s going to survive long enough to uncover the truth. Combat puts those preparations to work. Squadrons can be deployed onto a hex-based battlefield between two opposing battleships, where positioning, unit matchups, weapons, and abilities all matter. Different ships encourage different approaches too, especially with the additional systems introduced through the game’s free updates.
Sometimes being the admiral is less about having all the answers and more about deciding which problem needs dealing with first.
Dying Doesn’t Mean the Story Starts Over
The interesting part is how Crying Suns handles its story. It’s divided across six chapters, and successful runs push the mystery forward rather than simply sending you through the same narrative again. Each chapter reveals more about the Empire, the OMNIs, Admiral Idaho, and what actually happened while humanity’s enormous interstellar civilization was falling apart.
There’s plenty to come back for once that mystery is solved too. The final free expansion, Last Orders, added two factions, two playable battleships, four special officers, 12 battlefield items, another 30 events, and additional achievements on top of everything added in previous updates.
It’s a very different kind of roguelite run. You’re not escaping a dungeon, climbing a tower, or stuffing monster organs into your pockets. You’re commanding a battleship through the corpse of an empire while trying to solve a mystery that could determine whether humanity has a future. No pressure, Admiral!