Part Elite, part Star Control, part Pirates, part of a lot of things. How to describe this sucker? Lemme tell you a stoooorrrry....
I was at Fry's the other day picking up a couple of advertised movies, and picked an impulse buy out of the bargain bin. The name of the game is "Space Rangers 2" and it looked like one of those intriguing genre-defying games. It quoted a couple of high reviews from game mags on the box, and I remembered reading something about it previously, so I picked it up. Oh, and the box includes the best selling prior version as well.
So, I go to install it, and lo! The dreaded "Star Force" copy protection logo appears. I nearly yanked the disc out right there and considered taking it back to Fry's and telling them what they could do with their yucky StarForce. But, curiousity got the better of me (cat=dead), so I continued the install. A little searching around on the net reveals that there is also a direct2drive version sans StarForce, so if my little review intrigues you I'd recommend that route.
I've not progressed too far in the course of one weekend, but I've had a taste of it, so I'll jot down what I see. First of all, the developer still has a website but it looks like this was their last release as of two years ago. Also, it appears to be a Russian company. I'm glad there's some excuse, because some of the translation is so bad as to nearly be non-functional. So far I've been able to puzzle everything out, partly I think because I spent about a year programming alongside a Moscovite and got a little familiar with his speech/thought patterns.
You start the game by creating a character and selecting a difficulty. There are 5 or 6 races to choose from, and as many professions, and they all start out with different ships, bank accounts, and relational biases. And selectable portraits. Pick a couple of starting skills and bonus equipment. Then you read a little speech from your recruiter while the computer generates a random universe for you (yay!).
You start with a ship. I don't think you can ever own more, though you can recruit helpers based on your leadership skill. You are offered a chance for some newb tutorial missions, and I'd recommend you take it. Gets some easy money flowing. Then, you're free to roam. Explore star systems, trade goods (legal and illegal), fight bad guys, fight good guys, whatever. You occasionally get flash news updates, and there's a newsfeed (with search!) on most planets. There are unexplored planets you can map with purchased probes, wormholes, and the dreaded enemy who's conquering the galaxy - the Dominators. Might as well read "cylons," the background is nearly the same. The D occasionally take over a star system, and occasionally lose one, so there's a constant ebb and flow. The game is supposed to operate independently of your own actions, and it seems to be doing a good job of it based on the news reports I'm seeing.
When you stop off at a planet, you can buy new equipment with different characteristics. Range, cargo space, damage, whatever. Equipment types are basically weapons, engines, fuel tanks, grapplers (for salvage), shields, radar, and scanners. Then there are modifiers that take slots, and modifiers that don't take slots. You can also buy different hulls for different slot combinations and cargo room. BTW, I think every piece of equipment is randomly generated - kind of like Diablo.
Did I mention the game is turn based? Though movement between turns is animated, and there's lots of stuff going on, so it's kind of nice to have a chance to think. Long series of turns with nothing going on nearby (fed-ex runs) are chained together automatically but you can pause.
Some planets will give you special missions if you ask. These missions can be fed-ex, assassin, guard duty, patrols, and the like, though there are occasionally special missions. Special missions go into a mini-game mode. Some of them are little RTS games, some are like "choose your own adventure" books. I think going through a wormhole is also a minigame, though I've not done those yet. The RTS minigame is fought entirely with mech-like robots, of which you have a limited number but can design yourself. You can also take over one of them at any time to jump into a battle.
As you complete quests, or kill dominators & pirates, you get experience points, credits, and usually some special item (an equipment modifier) that you can't buy. Enough experience and you can increase your skills and rank - though the two are not tied.
The graphics are good, but not high-res photo-realistic by a long shot. The objects all look 3d, but the space activity all happens in a flat plane. There are no speaking parts I've found, but judging from the intro movie that's a good thing. The music is ok but can get annoyingly repetitive. The background sounds lend a decent atmosphere to most locales.
Oh, forgot to mention that you can also be affected by diseases and stimulants, which affect your abilities. Only caught one disease so far, and it upped some abilities, decreased others, and made me randomly drop cargo every so often. (huh?)
Jury's still out on this one, but it's a fairly complex game if you like it complex, and pretty easy to play if you like it simple. Here's a link if you'd like more info. A demo was released in June:
http://www.cinemawaremarquee.com/index.php?f=sr2
Space Rangers (2)
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