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Solar Warden

Platform(s): PC
Genre: Action
Developer: Polar Zenith
Release Date: Q2 2019

About Rainier

PC gamer, WorthPlaying EIC, globe-trotting couch potato, patriot, '80s headbanger, movie watcher, music lover, foodie and man in black -- squirrel!

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'Solar Warden' Kickstarter Ending Soon, Needs Final Push!

by Rainier on May 20, 2018 @ 1:22 p.m. PDT

Solar Warden is a Six-Degrees-of-Freedom space shooter combined with an overarching campaign with real time strategy elements.

According to conspiracy theorists, Solar Warden is an ultra-secret project that maintains a fleet of spaceships that are operating primarily within Earth’s Orbit and around our solar system. Some say they’re defending us against alien threats.

It is the year 2070 and mankind’s existence may soon come to an end. 

Without warning, several cities already decimated by incoming meteors and now hundreds of asteroids that were previously unidentified are headed toward Earth. No one knows where this sudden surge of rogue asteroids came from, but one thing is clear – for mankind to survive, a space defense force is needed.

In response to this onslaught, several world nations formed a secret organization called the “Planetary Defense Initiative” to defend against alien threats. With the funding of several first world nations, the PDI built a space defense fleet to quickly respond to the orbital bombardment.

By deploying super advanced spacecraft, armed with the latest military weapons and technologies, these craft intercept these rogue asteroids anywhere in Earth orbit and quickly neutralize the threat. Classified to the public with clearance levels many times above top secret, this space defense fleet has been identified only with the project name “Solar Warden

Solar Warden uses a Six-Degrees-Of-Freedom flight system, married to Newtonian flight physics to be overcome and exploited in action-packed dogfights. Your ship’s thrusters can be set to several modes that are suitable to either pursuit, dog fighting and even navigating the tight corners inside massive asteroids, navigating the mazes within and blasting it clear of hostiles. Jump into your fighter and combat the silicoid menace up close, while you command and dispatch the Solar Warden fleet for reinforcements as you see fit.

You will gain the favor of nations you support, granting you funding, research, and military assets to further you in your goal. Experimental ships, weapon systems and upgrade tech will be at your disposal. But make no mistake, any damage Earth’s surface takes is persistent in your campaign. Failure to defend means loss of diplomatic ties, research, and ultimately, doom to the planet itself.

Polar Zenith's Solar Warden kickstarter campaign has less than 48 hours remaining and with 80% of its $40,000 funding goal reached, need a final push to get to its target.

We are now in the final 48 hours of our campaign. We have achieved many victories along the campaign, but this will be our final battle. Victory is within our grasp! We can take back our solar system! We CANNOT let Earth fall to the Silicoid! We must all call out in one voice "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!" 

We are nearing our funding goal and we call upon each and everyone of you to join the fight and pledge! Bring your friends. Bring your family. All of us united can push this campaign over the finish line and we will not only have victory, but glory will be shared to each and every man, woman and child on this pale blue dot!

Join the fight!
Pledge today!

Interested fans still on the fence can try out a short demo that demonstrates the core functionalities of Commanding your fleets around Earth's Orbit as well as being able to take control of your vessels directly via the Telepresence system. Defend Earth against multiple waves of Meteor clusters, each with increasing difficulty until you finally encounter the final boss - The Silicoid Worm!

However, this is no task you have to undertake alone: Solar Warden features full co-op support in all of its campaign, allowing you to fight for Earth’s survival together with up to 4 friends.

Solar Warden takes inspiration from games like Descent, Freelancer, XCOM, and EVERSPACE – aiming to capture this similar spirit of action, exploration, and solid campaign gameplay, while bringing in new features to provide a unique experience not previously explored in this genre.

Each ship’s weapon hardpoints can be fully customized to use a wide array of weaponry like heavy lasers, heat seeking missiles, rail-guns, and many more. As you research new tech, you’ll be able to further upgrade your ship with improved countermeasures, shield generators and improved power plants to give you more maneuverability and firepower.

You won’t be staying with the same ship for all of your campaign, either. As you progress, you’ll acquire funds to put towards the development and acquisition of new ships – upgrading to a range of cutting-edge fighters or hard-hitting bombers.

You’ll have multiple ways of getting places fast too; The experimental Mag Drive system allows you to do quick jumps to waypoints scattered across the Earth’s Magnetosphere, and as you progress further through the game, even more exotic technology like using wormholes to your advantage. All of this travel happens entirely without loadscreens in between – it all happens in one instance, letting you watch every moment of the journey.

Key Features

  • Six-Degrees-of-Freedom and Newtonian physics space combat
    • Utilize your maneuvering thrusters to propel your craft at will in any direction
    •  Engage in tactical space combat with a comprehensive Newtonian flight model
  • Command your fleet via real time strategy overlay
    • Take charge of the Solar Warden fleet via the Planetary Defense Interface
    • Build defenses around the Planet and send craft to intercept incoming threats
  • Fully narrated Co-Op Campaign
    • A fully featured story with hours of specialized missions
    • Discover the cause of the influx of meteors and find out where these aliens and asteroids are coming from
    • Play a full campaign with up to 4 Players
  • Persistent Diplomacy, Research and Planet Damage
    • Failure to defend the planet against impacts will wipe out any city caught in the blast
    • Loss of a city will drastically deteriorate your relationships with patron countries of the Solar Warden project
  • No Load Screens
    • Seamless transitions between strategy and space combat
  • Earth’s orbit is your Sandbox
    • Travel freely around earth’s outer orbit and stage your defense against the incoming threat
  • Combat the Alien Silicoid
    • The vacuum of space allowed unique and strange creatures to dwell and emerge. Be  prepared to encounter these lifeforms beneath the rocky surfaces of asteroids and brace yourself for their attack should you disturb their quiet homes.
  • Customize and expand your fleet
    • Prove your piloting skills when defending Earth from the cockpit of light and heavy fighters, bombers and even corvettes
    • Customize your spacecraft’s weaponry using a deadly mix of ballistic cannons, beam lasers, missiles, torpedoes and bombs, neutron cannons, black hole generators and more.
  • Use the Planetary Defense Interface to stage your campaign
    • Take on a wide range of different missions from Capturing Asteroids and Space Mining to the construction of entire space elevators.
    • Purchase weapons and technology provided by partnered countries.
  • Patron countries hold an affinity toward the Solar Warden project
    • Be a true leader and even diplomat when dealing with countries that each have their own requirements and expectations towards you and the Solar Warden project. Pleasing one country by providing cutting edge defense technology might not go over well with another!
    • Higher affinity from a country will make equipment and technology cheaper to acquire, but the flipside might mean a country withdrawing from the project, cutting their funding or even using their forces to attack you!

The Solar Warden program is the centerpiece of Earth’s defense against threats from outer space. The Planetary Defense Interface (PDI) is a Solar Warden’s way to coordinate these efforts, allowing you to coordinate the fleet, build up your defense network, accept missions and manage the project’s funding and diplomacy. All of this seamlessly transitions in the game, jumping from the PDI into your ship and vice versa without load screens or delays.

Build up and customize the Solar Warden Defense Fleet with additional assets:

  • Fighters that are on standby to intercept threats across the globe
  • Early warning satellites that increase your detection range of encroaching threats
  • Point defense platforms you can place across the orbit to guard key locations and population centers
  • Researching technologies to unlock new fleet assets, ship upgrades, and whole new ships.

Those resources come with responsibility – failure to take down a meteor will result in major damage on the planet. Each impact you can’t prevent will have lasting effects. Casualties amongst the population will happen, making the earth a less hospitable place with every hit. But not only the surface will feel the effects – countries will cut their funding, research, and ultimately to an official drop of support for your program. Neglect the defense of a country, and you’ll become the enemy, having to fight both alien and human alike. Everyone’s life is at stake, and your ultimate purpose is saving Earth – fail in this duty and you’ll be stranded in space, forever looking down at the barren wasteland that used to be Earth.

Defending Earth is the ultimate objective of the Solar Warden campaign, and the threats you encounter can be split into these classes:

Full Co-op support is a fundamental pillar of Solar Warden’s multiplayer gameplay. You’ll be able to share both your ship roster and planetary resources with up to 3 friends while playing the full campaign in Co-Op mode, saving Earth together. You can choose to fly in a wing or operate independently across the earth to cover different hotspots, adapting your tactics as the situation requires.

Command of the Planetary Defense Interface is shared completely between players, allowing you a wide range of tactical decisions as you build up and control your defense network together.

Save games will be completely compatible and seamlessly load between singleplayer and multiplayer, with the Host providing his savegame to determine Earth’s state and campaign progress, allowing all players to share in the victory over the Silicoid threat.


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