Doodler
09-October-2006, 04:39 PM
Found this one sitting on a shelf at Best Buy when I snagged Galactic Civilizations II. Its a fun little shooter type with a pretty decent campaign (actually, I think its pretty damned good, myself) and an "open" game that lets you pretty much run amok in the galaxy.
It does a decent job of covering every variation on a theme in science fiction that you can have living off a ship. Literally everything, from being a pirate, smuggler, miner, trader, mercenary, bounty hunter, or almost any combination thereof (somethings are diametrically opposed to the other, like pirate and bounty hunter, or smuggler and trader). The ship itself is a customizable vessel that can be upgraded to improve its engines (which doesn't really impact speed, but how cargo hauling affects performance, the amount and potential level of support systems you can install, and the regeneration rate of your shields/weapons), wings (increases the number and possible level of forward firing weapons), and hull (increases hull strength and increases the number and potential level of turret weapons and their accuracy).
The vast bulk of the game occurs in space, with a few campaign based cut scenes on the various stations, and a couple atmospheric combat elements also a part of the campaign (including one nightmarish run through an underground factory that's stylistically halfway between the Death Star run in Return of the Jedi, and flying a Winnebago through Megamaid's head.)
The game itself is beautiful. The environments were very well assembled and rendered. The motion physics logic is not Newtonian, so you've got motion only when there's thrust applied, along with afterburners, along with very plane-like movement through space. On the other hand, it also comes with reverse and side thrust, which is a feature I wish more space games would consider.
AI logic is pretty straightforward, almost moronic early on, but in the later game, it gets harsh enough that you've got to fly REAL smart and REAL careful to keep from being REAL dead. There's a trick I've learned not so much to spoof the AI when I'm outnumbered severely, but play my strength to its weaknesses that's gotten me through some evil furballs, but overall, the level of difficulty is nothing a reasonably intelligent person can't puzzle out if they've got good situational awareness.
On the downside: The guidebook with it is extremely vague. Some controls simply aren't explained, and others are only obliquely referred to. There is an online forum where a lot of them are spelled out finally.
Restoring from a saved game in some tight areas (especially the atmospheric parts where you've got no choice but to be in tight) will result with you loading into a collision state, requiring immediately throttling down and slowly working your way out of it to avoid immediate destruction.
The game is a bit of a memory hog, so running with the settings up high, and a few of the animated bits, can get a little choppy. Screenfreeze in combat has hit me often enough to warrant an utterance or two, but I also run with the settings on full, so when I calm down, I realize its likely my own damned fault. Whatever you do, make sure you shut down anything that's gonna chew up major amounts of CPU time if you turn up the eye candy (antivirus scans kicking in while you're slugging it out with a half dozen pirates rates just shy of HULK SMASH on the irritation scale).
Another issue is its collision detection logic, this is especially annoying in the tighter spots it requires you to go through. Gaps which are physically larger than the ship (though not much) will tend to hang you up (which is REALLY frustrating given that colliding with objects = damage). I know I'm not the most steady hand on the stick, but my eye for openings is sharp, and there's some hinkiness at work. There's also some hang ups with how line of sight is affected by obstacles. Enemy shots aren't hampered, where the player's might be.
Lastly, the control configuration system has a few hang ups, you cannot change any command over to the mouse button. So if you move one of the controls off the mouse, be darned sure you like where it goes, because you can't go back. There's not a default restoration in the options (given that they've patched a few things already, this one might be coming sometime).
Overall, I think this one's a keeper. The things that frustrate can be REALLY frustrating, but they're few and far enough between that it doesn't rob the fun out of the overall experience. When the game does work well, it works really well. I've only done as much of the open game as needed to support the campaign, which itself does a nice job of making you work all elements of the various ship's systems through the course of it, so the real proof of the pudding lies beyond the end of the campaign (which, by comparing the overall level of ship upgrades I've been able to achieve, versus what's possible, I'm maybe possibly not quite halfway through, with a LONG way yet to go).
It does a decent job of covering every variation on a theme in science fiction that you can have living off a ship. Literally everything, from being a pirate, smuggler, miner, trader, mercenary, bounty hunter, or almost any combination thereof (somethings are diametrically opposed to the other, like pirate and bounty hunter, or smuggler and trader). The ship itself is a customizable vessel that can be upgraded to improve its engines (which doesn't really impact speed, but how cargo hauling affects performance, the amount and potential level of support systems you can install, and the regeneration rate of your shields/weapons), wings (increases the number and possible level of forward firing weapons), and hull (increases hull strength and increases the number and potential level of turret weapons and their accuracy).
The vast bulk of the game occurs in space, with a few campaign based cut scenes on the various stations, and a couple atmospheric combat elements also a part of the campaign (including one nightmarish run through an underground factory that's stylistically halfway between the Death Star run in Return of the Jedi, and flying a Winnebago through Megamaid's head.)
The game itself is beautiful. The environments were very well assembled and rendered. The motion physics logic is not Newtonian, so you've got motion only when there's thrust applied, along with afterburners, along with very plane-like movement through space. On the other hand, it also comes with reverse and side thrust, which is a feature I wish more space games would consider.
AI logic is pretty straightforward, almost moronic early on, but in the later game, it gets harsh enough that you've got to fly REAL smart and REAL careful to keep from being REAL dead. There's a trick I've learned not so much to spoof the AI when I'm outnumbered severely, but play my strength to its weaknesses that's gotten me through some evil furballs, but overall, the level of difficulty is nothing a reasonably intelligent person can't puzzle out if they've got good situational awareness.
On the downside: The guidebook with it is extremely vague. Some controls simply aren't explained, and others are only obliquely referred to. There is an online forum where a lot of them are spelled out finally.
Restoring from a saved game in some tight areas (especially the atmospheric parts where you've got no choice but to be in tight) will result with you loading into a collision state, requiring immediately throttling down and slowly working your way out of it to avoid immediate destruction.
The game is a bit of a memory hog, so running with the settings up high, and a few of the animated bits, can get a little choppy. Screenfreeze in combat has hit me often enough to warrant an utterance or two, but I also run with the settings on full, so when I calm down, I realize its likely my own damned fault. Whatever you do, make sure you shut down anything that's gonna chew up major amounts of CPU time if you turn up the eye candy (antivirus scans kicking in while you're slugging it out with a half dozen pirates rates just shy of HULK SMASH on the irritation scale).
Another issue is its collision detection logic, this is especially annoying in the tighter spots it requires you to go through. Gaps which are physically larger than the ship (though not much) will tend to hang you up (which is REALLY frustrating given that colliding with objects = damage). I know I'm not the most steady hand on the stick, but my eye for openings is sharp, and there's some hinkiness at work. There's also some hang ups with how line of sight is affected by obstacles. Enemy shots aren't hampered, where the player's might be.
Lastly, the control configuration system has a few hang ups, you cannot change any command over to the mouse button. So if you move one of the controls off the mouse, be darned sure you like where it goes, because you can't go back. There's not a default restoration in the options (given that they've patched a few things already, this one might be coming sometime).
Overall, I think this one's a keeper. The things that frustrate can be REALLY frustrating, but they're few and far enough between that it doesn't rob the fun out of the overall experience. When the game does work well, it works really well. I've only done as much of the open game as needed to support the campaign, which itself does a nice job of making you work all elements of the various ship's systems through the course of it, so the real proof of the pudding lies beyond the end of the campaign (which, by comparing the overall level of ship upgrades I've been able to achieve, versus what's possible, I'm maybe possibly not quite halfway through, with a LONG way yet to go).