Space Strategy - Nexus: The Jupiter Incident

[Sol Invictus]

So, I got this new game called Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. In case you were living under a rock for the past year, Nexus is Imperium Galactica III. After the original publisher shitcanned the game for the reason that "space strategy doesn't sell", HD Interactive liberated it and created Nexus.

The game raises the bar for space strategy games. It blows every single space strategy game (or arguably strategy game, for that matter) out of the water. Homeworld doesn't stand a chance against this game, and it's probably what Homeworld 2 should have been. As it was, Homeworld 2 was nothing more than Homeworld with a graphical upgrade, with the same C&C-esque 'build and rush' style of gameplay, like almost every other strategy title on the market short of the Total War series.

Most of the combat consists of capital ships and tactical decisions similar to one of the capital ship-to-ship combat intensive episodes of Babylon 5. There's fighters, but like Babylon 5, they're of fairly little importance in comparison to the giant capital ships that look and feel gigantic, as you would expect capital ships to be. The game just feels immense, and all of the ships are incredibly detailed. It uses realistic space physics, so you'll watch propulsion fire up from the sides of your ship in order to turn it in a certain direction. Tactical decisions are pretty well done, too. You can choose to simply bombard an enemy ship with Hull-destroying weapons or you can target specific components of the ship.

Before each mission, you're given a certain amount of resource points based on your accomplishments in the mission before (they appear at around Mission 3 or 4) which allows you to customize your capital ships by outfitting them with engines, batteries, shields, weapons and other devices. You can also equip them with fighters and (presumeably, I'm not that far into it yet) bombers.

Missions are huge, with a lot of variety. The majority of them are not linear, either. You're given the opportunity to make a lot of decisions during the game and it can either penalize or reward you for them depending on what you decide to do. Decisions that you make can yield additional secrets or tactical advantages for that mission. To cite an example: the one mission where you have to investigate an abandoned base allows you to send out a commando squad to investigate nearby ship wrecks. You can choose to go ahead and investigate the base itself due to the insistance of one of your scientists onboard, or you can survey the area before you decide to do that, because the base itself is well defended by automated gun platforms that will do a lot of damage to your ship. You can avoid them by checking out the nearby wrecks and getting access codes to shut them off temporarily. Once your marines are aboard the wrecked base, you can destroy the defenses while they're shut down so you won't take damage when they're reactivated. It would be a good idea to do that. After they've done searching the base you can order them to come out immediately or stay until you've destroyed all the defenses. Telling them to stay means you'll encounter other 'rescuers' and have to run from them. Telling them to get out as fast as they can means they'll likely take damage from the automated defenses if you haven't destroyed them.

Unlike the Homeworld games where the missions consisted of nothing more than a series of linear objectives with absolutely no choice. The decisions you make in Nexus literally decide the outcome of the mission.

The storyline is very well done, so far. There is also a Captain's Log detailing your progress throughout the game and what the protagonist is thinking, and plenty of background lore. The game has that same 'epic feeling' as Freelancer 2 did. It's one of the reasons I just can't stop playing this game.

Oh yeah, this game is fucking awesome.

www.nexusthegame.com

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Haha! I was just getting ready to ask if anyone had a chance to play this yet.

Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like I'm gonna be getting this game. I've been thirsting for a good space strategy.

 

[Sol Invictus]

OOPS MY BAD. It's Imperium Galactica 3. Not Pax Imperia 3. That was some shitty game.

 

[Spazmo]

I haven't played it enough to get a concrete impression, but goddamn if it isn't one of the prettiest games I've seen yet, although the shadows seem to be chunky (I'm reasonably sure I've set them to high).

 

[whitemithrandir]

It's NOT OUT IN THE US YET OMG OMG OMG!!

I envy you all I'd really love to try this game too!

 

[keeks]

I have to echo everything Exitium said.

Also, the interface is excellent.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Yeah, that's one of the things I absolutely loved about Homeworld. The interface was so awesome. Well, I'll definitely pick this game up when I can.

 

[dojoteef]

Well just in case you guys didn't know, there is a single player and a multiplayer demo for the game. You can pick them up at 3dgamers and probably some other places. That way you can try to get your fix while waiting for the game's release here in the US.

 

[fnordcircle]

OOPS MY BAD. It's Imperium Galactica 3. Not Pax Imperia 3. That was some shitty game.

I loved Imperium Galactica II, but I'm bummed that they didn't include planetary management in this one.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I don't mind the lack of planetary management, as the storyline is excellent, on par with Freespace 1 and 2, in fact. It's been quite awhile since I've seen a campaign this intense, and I think we can look forward to more due to the game's modability. I wonder if it would be possible to recreate Freespace 2's campaign within it, or even one of the Wing Commander games.

What I noticed about the game when I was playing it earlier is your ability to select multiple targets with a single capital ship by interfacing with its 'equipment' menu. I had my capital ship volleys of rockets against a shield-less enemy while blasting away with precision lasers at another's weapon systems. The AI's pretty good, too. I've lost a few ships (though I reloaded) because I didn't use their deflection or combat engines which rotate them during combat so that the enemy can't target specific systems. Now that is pretty cool.

 

[dojoteef]

I've downloaded the demo and I'm playing it, but it's very awkward to play. The problem is I can't find where to setup the controls or even see what they are. I looked under the tutorial section and it doesn't have any information. They probably should have added that sort of thing to the demo so people could more easily judge whether it's a good game or not through actual gameplay. I guess I'll just have to goof around with it for a while until I learn all the controls. I've figured some of them out and I've been able to complete part of the mission already, but I don't think I'm doing it very efficiently or very cleverly. Oh well.

 

[errorcode]

there is a remarkably steep learning curve in the demo. I've never played any game like this, but Exitium was so psyched on it i had to try it. It took me a good 2 hours to feel "comfortable" with the controls and even then i'm pretty certain that i didn't know at least a 1/3 what i was doing.

Like, i saw i had a research/science lab thing but i'll be damned if i could figure out how to use it.

 

[keeks]

The learning curve isn't steep at all in the full game. In the first few missions you only have one ship and nothing else so you can learn all the controls and stuff. The game gradually adds complexity. I certainly haven't felt overwhelmed yet.

 

[dojoteef]

It would have been nice if they could have conveyed that gradual complexity in the demo. As it is, they just throw you into a melee with pretty much no idea what to do. Right after you first install the demo it asks you if you want to start it up. Well as for most games, I'm pretty good at picking up what's going on so I do start it up. As soon as the game starts up you get a menu with three options. An Options button, a Quit button, and three Play buttons (corresponding to easy, medium, hard difficulty). The only thing you can do in the Options menu is change video and sounds settings, no mention of controls whatsoever. So not knowing any controls you start the game. It gives you some dialog that you listen to and then you've got to figure everything else out on your own. Needless to say, the first 5mins I was trying to figure out how to move the damned ships and I can't say how many times I died just trying to figure out what to do, because they demo mission sets you in the middle of a minefield. BAD idea! I died countless times during all this. Eventually I gave up.

When I had time to relax, I decided to give it a go again, because Exitium loved it so much. When I went to start it up, I noticed that they had a manual for how to play the game. Now why in the hell wouldn't they mention this during the install or in the game? It would have made things infinitely easier. The manual is pretty terse though. It doesn't describe a number of things you can do, but I got by well enough. From what I've seen so far of the game, it's not my cup of tea. Maybe it's like errorcode said that you feel overwhelmed and that you are only doing about 1/3 of things you should be doing, and that's why I didn't like the demo so much.

Anyway I would like to say that the graphics engine is absolutly AWESOME. I haven't seen a space game that looked this good. The graphics are crisp and very detailed, the sfx for things like the engines and so forth are amazing. Maybe if they had a space combat sim, ala Privateer where you actually pilot a space ship (instead of issuing orders), I would like it more.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Having been a Homeworld junkie back when it first came out, it wasn't too hard to pick up on alot of the stuff. There were aspects I didn't get at first, but then I went to the forums and found everything I needed right there.

P.S. - I'm sold. :D

 

[Astromarine]

this thread should help: http://www.nexusthegame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=658

 

[Sol Invictus]

The game's pretty easy to pick up when you realize that moving your capital ship consists mainly of utilizing waypoints, landmarks and other ships for navigation. If you're in trouble just use the "Run away from" (I think it's called) option, by pressing F3 and right clicking the unit you're trying to evade, for example. You can also go for some more advanced maneuvers by opening the ship options button (I forget what it's called) and selecting the distance you intend to fight at, like long range, artillery range or close combat range. The controls make more sense than the map in Homeworld, which was little more than Command & Conquer in space with a mobile HQ.

All in all I, I am absolutely loving this game. It's got that whole Babylon 5 and Starship Enterprise feel about it that I very much prefer over controlling a dinky little fighter. I never really understood how fighters could take out capital ships, anyhow, as it's not like PT boats can take out AEGIS Destroyers. Heh. Even the scout ships in the game aren't dinky little fighters, but rather small cruiser class capital ships, kind of like real life scout ships on the open seas.

Digging this game. I can't wait to see some mods.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

How do you set waypoints, Exit? Hitting shift brings up something that looks like a waypoint maker, but I can't figure it out for the life of me.

Edit: I do know that shift-rightclick will move your ship to that position, but can you set multiple waypoints? In the forum thread mentioned above, the guy appears to tell you how to set multiple waypoints, but I see no visible effect to indicate if this is happening or not. Would be nice if it did give you a marker on the battlefield once you've set a waypoint. Other than that minor complaint, this game is beautiful. I'm in love. <3

 

[dojoteef]

Digging this game. I can't wait to see some mods.

I didn't know the game was moddable. If that is the case I can almost bet that there will probably be Star Trek and/or Star Wars mods made. I guess recreating one of the battles at the Death Star would be pretty sweet. Personally it would be great if there was a Spaceballs mod. I can only imagine what sort of funny looking ships you could have then. Think about a cock with two balls fighting against a gigantic couple of jugs .

 

[Sol Invictus]

There's a ton of mods in the works from the looks of it. The people who made that Hegemonia Revolution or whatever it's called mod are working on one for this game, and the babylon 5 modders from homeworld are playing it, too.

 

[Jed]

Speaking of Babylon 5 modders, and I know that this would normally go in the Space Sim forum, but has anyone checked out Babylon 5: I Found Her?

 

[Astromarine]

My favorite thing about this game is this:

"Due to the holiday season and a lot of games coming out in North America we have chosen to change the release date in the US and Canada to February 2005."

An early inkling of an embryo of an idea that clogging all ALL FUCKING HALFWAY DECENT GAMES IN A PERIOD OF 2 MONTHS MIGHT MAKE PEOPLE NOT BUY YOUR FUCKING GAME?

*pant pant*

Nexus, WoW (happily crap, so will skip), Silent Hill 4, Half Life 2, Vampire, Rome, Dawn of War, GTA:SA, Halo 2...

 

[DraQ]

Since Nexus has been relased in Poland quite recently, I decided to unearth this thread and, having finished this game, post my own impressions.

The game is good. Not brilliant nor awesome, but good nevertheless.

Gameplay revolves around commanding a capital ship, or small fleet of such spaceships.

Contrary to what Sol Invictus wrote, the game doesn't feature realistic physics, which is pretty obvious when ships move over longer distances at constant speed while firing their main thrusters all the time. Still, working retros and maneuvering thrusters give a nice impression that ships are really moving through the vacuum of space rather than flying through the atmosphere cunningly disguised as outer space.

Ship design is decent. The Human, rather low-tech looking ships at the beginning of the game are more than just decent - they are pure sex, especially the Stiletto class. Their design is very rational and reminescent of spaceships from Odyssey 2001 and 2010 which should be enough to give any self respecting SF fan a nerdgasm. Even better, despite their low-tech look, with all the thrusters, antennas, and dishes, as well as revolving sections providing artificial gravity those ships manage to look quite menacing. The design of various alien craft later in game, however, may disappoint a bit. While they still look good, have distinct styles and are consistent with the design philosophy estabilished by early Human craft (meaning they too have full asortiment of retros and directional thrusters), they have a tiny bit of that "we need to design ships for four alien races, but are running low on ideas" feel so prevalent in SF shows and games.

When it comes to actual gameplay, the first thing that realy disappoints is interface. While there is no denying of handiness of ship/object lists displayed on the sides of the screen, and while it's understandable that multitude of tactical options (which I'll discuss later) calls for an interface more complicated than the one in Homeworld, the interface in Nexus is quite attrocious. For most part of the game you can forget about any elaborate maneuvers, which isn't actually that bad considering the parts where you have to maneuver which forces you to battle obstructive interface. Obstructive, because, apart from general clunkiness, it doesn't allow for free movement. You can only set another object, or a waypoint, as destination when issuing movement commands. Waypoints are, of course, preprogrammed by the developers, which makes the Nexus first (to my knowledge) RTS on a rail ever.

Fortunately, both ship system management and tactical combat are pretty elaborate and interesting. Basically, there are four major weapon categories:
- Anti-hull (used to destroy enemy ships)
- Anti-shield (used to knock the enemy shields down)
- Anti-device (used to destroy subsystems)
- Special (which includes both plot specific weapons and flaks which are automated and fire at enemy fighters/gunboats/bombers and missiles)

You can install them, as well as an array of other devices including drives, shields, primary and auxilary power sources, sensors, ecm and counter-ecm systems, etc.) on various hardpoints throughout the ships between missions. During actual missions you can use preprogrammed commands (such as "attack shield" or "flee from designated object") or specify everything, including targets for individual weapons, energy allocation, subsystems you want to activate, AI stance, movement destination and desired distance from it by hand. You can also specify repair priorities which is handy when the enemy is pummeling at your drives while repair crews/systems are focusing on a scratched radar dish. Certain kinds of weapons, namely missiles and torpedos have limited ammo which forces you to spend the wisely, additionally, missiles pack quite a wallop over large volume and have really long range, which makes them useful as artillery weapons. Apart from that, you can launch squadrons of smaller craft, deploy commandos, use scanners, whatever you want. Ordering the damaged ships to flee from battle using IP-drive (an interplanetary range hyperdrive of sort) is a particularily interesting and valuable option. Another nice touch is that the crews of badly damaged ships will try to evacuate leaving the tumbling wreckage behind.

Battles are quite impressive visually, with all the bells and whistles including visible hull damage, except for two things:
- explosions, while brilliant (visually speaking) are neither realistic, nor cinematic (see Haegemonia) - they are bland, and coloring them based on the race only makes things worse (flaming debris hurtling through space after explosion is kind of cool though)
- there is a limited number of differently coloured beams a single ship can emit before the battle ceases to be a battle and becomes a disco party - Nexus comes dangerously close to this limit

My main ripe with the combat, however, is it's lack of balance:
For example, anti device weapons seem underpowered. There is little reason for installing them when simply decking your ship bow to aft with anti-shield and anti-hull weaponry makes combat so much easier (which marginalizes the arguably coolest aspect of gameplay). When destroying some devices is really necessary, gunships will do much better than ship-mounted weapons can ever hope to.
Another example - missiles and torpedos. While powerful, the limited ammo supply prevents them from being a good alternative to other heavy weapons. Additionally, the usefulness of missiles suffers from relative lack of good artilery opportunities.

Another bad thing is alien races themselves. Apart from two, one of which is not really a sentient race, and another is something rather hard to describe, the remaining three prominently figuring ones suck. We have reptilian Raptors that give a strong impression of suffering from severe mental impairments, and the fact that they are engineered warrior race isn't really an excuse.
We have rather noble, if barbaric <s>Orcs</s> Gorgs which are basically your typical fantasy barbs, except that they are ones that fly spaceships (and no, they don't have the class of Klingons either).
Finally, we have, mysterious, intelligent and advanced cowards, known as Vardrags, that at least look alien (they still talk funny, though).
This teaches us (and hopefuly developers) an important lesson - if you want to have aliens, either make them truly alien, or avoid showing them whenever it's possible, possibly by hiding them behind their technology.

My last gripe would be documentation (especially in-game tooltips and descriptions), which is best described as "inadequate".

The plot is very good and a reason in itself to buy the game. Cinematics are also of very good quality. Atmosphere, especially at the beginning and close to the end is almost flawless. Overall, everyone who has a thing for SF and isn't allergic to RTS games should seriously consider buying Nexus.

 

[Disconnected]

Your criticisms are all perfectly valid, DraQ. There really are a lot of small problems with the game. But it's still one of the most fun games I've ever had the pleasure of wasting my life on.

... Now where the fuck did I hide that CD?

 

[Dagon]

I really love this game, it's definitely one of my favorite strategy games. And the story was also great. BTW have you guys and girls seen this techdemo of canceled Nexus 2 ?
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/16457.html?id=16457 It looks freaking amazing!