Idiot's guide to Space Rangers 2

[Wolfstan]

Shameless BUMP


EDIT:

So after not playing for a few months, I'm back into the swing of things. I got a decent hull + a bunch of dominator weapons that make short work of enemies. Game seems pretty easy at this point, I no longer have to constantly retreat from battle. I'm looking forward to beating it and going for a 2nd playthru.

 

[Zhuangzi]

My first post on rpgcodex. :D

Space Rangers 2 is such a great game, but I can't seem to find the enthusiasm to play it through for the third time. The Reloaded edition came out recently, but I don't think there has been a physical release, certainly not here in Australia.

I rely on gamersgate for downloads such as this, but they don't seem to have it. I know it's on Stardock, but I find Stardock to be a pain...

Anyone care to comment on whether it's worth shelling out another US $20 or so for what appears to be a glorified patch?

 

[Kaiserin]

I'm with kingcomrade on this one, wtf it's like a series of disjointed screens. I don't know what ya'll are talking about 'complexity.' It feels like a bunch of hodgepodge inferior quality shit mashed together.

Not to say that it's entirely without merit, but maybe I just set my hopes a little high based on what I'd read.

 

[Zhuangzi]

I'm with kingcomrade on this one, wtf it's like a series of disjointed screens. I don't know what ya'll are talking about 'complexity.' It feels like a bunch of hodgepodge inferior quality shit mashed together.

Not to say that it's entirely without merit, but maybe I just set my hopes a little high based on what I'd read.

Disjointed screens? It's pretty much the only 'modern' space adventure game that comes to mind, and it's a good one. I'll admit that the RTS combat is pretty lame, but the exploration and quest structure is good. It's got text adventures!

Seriously, this is an old school space adventure game in a modern skin. Has anyone here played that Reloaded edition or not?

 

[The Dude]

To me the biggest selling point is that it's probably the closest thing to "living, breathing world" I've ever seen realized in a computer game. Other rangers and pirates go about their business and battles independent of the player's actions. Sure, the game is balanced so they most likely wouldn't beat back the dominators without the player, but hey, what kind of shitty game would it be if it played itself. SR2 is without a doubt superior to 95% of the transparently hard scripted shit out there.

 

[Zhuangzi]

I'm not sure how replayable it really is though. I was absolutely engrossed with it for about a month, during which time I completed the game twice. But now, on trying to get into it for a third time, I find myself somewhat bored with the quests and the RTS combat. I know you can avoid the RTS but you get a lot of money for it, so I feel compelled.

That stuff about the other rangers doing their own thing was great though. It's nice to play a game where you don't feel like the entire universe revolves around your actions. Unfortunately, in Space Rangers 2 it actually *does* revolve around you, it just doesn't seem that way. And the Dominator fights get a bit tiresome after a while as well.

This is nitpicking though. I paid US $20 for SR 2 a year ago off of Gamersgate, and I had about a month's worth of gaming nirvana.

Anyone recommend any newish space exploration/adventure games as good as SR2?

 

[The Dude]

Newish and newish.

Transcendence is a very good exploration/adventure game that could be likened to a RT roguelike in space.

Evochron is more of an Elite-like, with nice semi-newtonian physics and seamless planet landings. The missions are somewhat boring though.

 

[MetalCraze]

I'm with kingcomrade on this one, wtf it's like a series of disjointed screens. I don't know what ya'll are talking about 'complexity.' It feels like a bunch of hodgepodge inferior quality shit mashed together.

Not to say that it's entirely without merit, but maybe I just set my hopes a little high based on what I'd read.

I can't see a reason why a living world of SR2 can be of "inferior quality". Rangers trade, rob trading ships, fight dominators, make bounty-hunter raids, doing lots of other things. Pretty much the same goes for pirates, traders, army (hey they are even doing raids on the invaded systems).
The text quests are also fun (don't know about amerifag version) and most of them are very hard too and require thinking them over.
So what exactly you didn't like?

The only bad thing in the game that I don't like is when you finally make an uber-ship and clean 150-200% difficulty dominator infested system all by yourself in just 2 raids - and the only thing that stops you from doing it in 1 is the equipment deterioration.

 

[sqeecoo]

when's the expansion for this coming out?

 

[Zhuangzi]

Cheers, The Dude. I will take a look at Transcendance now.

Space Rangers 2: Reboot has already been released, but as far as I am aware, you cannot physically buy a boxed copy. I'm pretty sure it's available from Stardock for download and I believe you are looking at US $20 or perhaps more.

OK, on further investigation, it appears that you can only get it from Stardock if you live in the US. What is up with that?

Goddamn, they are making it as hard as possible to actually buy this freaking game. *getting mad*

It seems that 1C Publishing are soon to release it to the rest of the world for download. Like sometime in October.

http://www.1cpublishing.eu/game/space-r ... t/overview

And the graphics were dated to begin with.

 

[Kaiserin]

Rangers trade, rob trading ships, fight dominators, make bounty-hunter raids, doing lots of other things. Pretty much the same goes for pirates, traders, army (hey they are even doing raids on the invaded systems).

Maybe I'm a graphics whore, but I just feel so detached from what's going on that it doesn't really enthuse me that much. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff to do, but it seems to all be some variation of moving to a point, fighting/trading, and then moving to another point.

The RTS combat is terrible and they should have left it out entirely, it's like they didn't even try. It's like your units only fire back when they've personally been hit, and the rest just stand around.

I'm not done with it yet, but what I've seen so far is disappointing.

 

[MetalCraze]

RTS missions are not mandatory - so you can ignore them. You can even choose not to install them (if you have the same installer) thus nobody will even ask you to do one (like I did on the last playthrough)
And what about text adventures? In the russian version they are pretty interesting, with lots of non-linear ways of completion.

 

[Zhuangzi]

I've been reading up on the Space Rangers 2: Reboot issue and the whole situation is frankly ridiculous.

Let's see now...

Russian patches past ver 1.3 released all throughout 2007.

New English version in the works for well over a year, finally announced as being released mid-2008 by Stardock.

Several people buy the Reboot (or Complete) version from Stardock only to find that they are ineligible to download the game due to Stardock only having US rights.

Meanwhile, 1C Publishing say they are going to publish the Reboot edition for the rest of the world. People wait, and wait, and wait, and now they're told it won't be out until October.

WHAT. IS. GOING. ON. HERE.

This has got to be one of the most inept marketing strategies going around. Not only are people not being marketed to, they are actively being prevented from buying this expansion/upgrade.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

It's indeed a screwed up situation. Badly cooridnated publishing deals contribute to piracy. I recall the same problem with the English version of Gothic: Night of the Raven which, until the relase of Gothic: Universe, was only distributed in the US (in the Gothic II Gold edition).

 

[Heresiarch]

Badly cooridnated publishing deals contribute to piracy.

Actually you're wrong this time. There is NO SR2: Reboot pirated copies anywhere to be found. So in order to kill piracy the best way is to make all games to be released only in US.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

I can't find any SR2: Reboot pirated copies

Fixed.

 

[Norfleet]

Unfortunately, in Space Rangers 2 it actually *does* revolve around you, it just doesn't seem that way. And the Dominator fights get a bit tiresome after a while as well.

I don't think this is actually true in SR2. SR1 was sorta like that in that people tended to get better shields directly in response to you getting a better scanner, but I don't think SR2 is quite so blatant about it. And it most certainly does not revolve around you, and the Coalition can and will entirely repel the Dominators without you, depending on how hard you make them (I set Dominator Toughness to max and they were still losing). The game only "revolves around you" in the sense that you can stop the Coalition from driving the Dominators back to their single system by blowing up everything in sight.

Several people buy the Reboot (or Complete) version from Stardock only to find that they are ineligible to download the game due to Stardock only having US rights.

...except you're on the Internet. The Internet doesn't have a country. If you're running into problems with them claiming you're not American, or that you are (when you need to not be), then just change it. Be one with the Internet: Learn to treat such censorship as damage and just reroute around it.

 

[skavenhorde]

Let's say for just academic reasons I wanted to try and trick thier servers into thinking I was in America. How would I go about doing that? Any links to school me in this would be appreciated. After all this is just an academic exercise

 

[Zhuangzi]

There was a thread about this very issue on some random forum. Anyway, it recommended using Hotspot Shield, which masks your IP address. I downloaded it and gave it a try with Space Rangers 2: Reboot and I think it will work (I didn't have enough money to get it though).

It's a bit confusing with Stardock, as they have just launched a new downloader called Impulse. DON'T get that if you want to circumvent the US location thingy. I think it is safe to go directly through Stardock's store instead. I didn't get to the download stage but I am fairly confident that Hotspot shield will do the trick.

 

[skavenhorde]

THanks I'll give it a try and hope that I can actually get this damn thing.

 

[Ogg]

Only 3.99 now on Impulse.

 

[Lord Chambers]

Space Rangers somehow makes fedexing for cash to go shopping fun. I love the art, the music, the text quests, and the RTS battles.

 

[MetalCraze]

Space Rangers 2 is a proof that budget doesn't mean a shit if you have a talented team.
Hey even my nephew who is a "modern" shooters fanboi likes it - the game is that awesome.

 

[Xavier]

Am I the only one who got quickly bored of the game? After about 4 hours, it was already repetitive for me. Maybe I should give it another try someday.

 

[Zhuangzi]

Only 3.99 now on Impulse.

Got it. It's pretty amusing actually. I waited and waited for 1C to get their act together and release Reboot in Europe + rest of the world. When they finally did, I had no money, and now a week or so later I can get it from Stardock/Impulse for virtually nothing. I'm not sure if the sale is over (it's supposed to be) but I'd be heading over to Stardock quick smart if you haven't got this yet.

The expansion looks nice so far. Not a great deal of difference, but the ability to play the text adventures and planetary battles is great. I actually quite like the SR 2 ground combat. Yeah, it's pretty retro in terms of graphics, but I think this is actually more fun than anything from EA in recent times.