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Star Wars : Empire At War review by Susan
- Thread starter S4ur0n27
- Start date
Naked_Lunch
Erudite
Care to elaborate?
Jason
chasing a bee
Susan's probably right. I tried dling the demo 4 times and each time it came out fucked. So I signed up for that Guild Wars free weekend thing instead.
Naked_Lunch
Erudite
Guild Wars? Oh man, why? That game is horrible.
Jason
chasing a bee
I've wanted to try GW for a while and the free thing cinched it. Unfortunately, I found out after logging on that you can only play the PVP part, not any of the instanced missions. Getting beat up by little kids doesn't excite me for some reason. So no Guild Wars for me.
Naked_Lunch
Erudite
And it sucks.
Naked_Lunch
Erudite
This just in: Star Wars Empire at War is pretty dope
according to spazmoh
according to spazmoh
Naked_Lunch
Erudite
tee hee
Naked_Lunch
Erudite
SNEAK PREVIEW TIME
There just needs to be more space games. Space is freakin’ cool and everything gets cooler when space is involved. Cowboys in space, Chuck Norris in space, Tcancer in space, anything. Which is puzzling because there are so few space games out on the market now, the two biggies are namely X3: Reunion and, of course, Space Rangers 2.
Space Rangers 2 hasn’t be released officially in North America yet (But will be, soon) so, in an honorable display of my devotion to you readers, I went out and purchased the European DVD version off GoGamer.com and goddamn it was worth it.
The DVD version I got comes with both Space Rangers 2 and the original Space Rangers, which was apparently a big hit in Russia or Afghanistan or something. You’re basically getting 2 good games for 40 bucks, which isn’t a bad deal nowadays when big-name games can push 55 or more dollars which is a fuck lot of money for a 10-15 hour game (I’m looking at you, Half-Life 2). Already, right off the bat, I like how this is going.
Space Rangers 2 is basically a big ol’ melting pot of genres and game conventions and seems to be modeled after the late and great (Except the 3rd, fuck you) Star Control series. SR2 has trading, space combat, space travel, dialouge trees, race relations, a real-time strategy portion with robot building, text adventures (no kidding), ship building, ship customization, bounty hunting, and character upgrades with skills and stats. And those aren’t just superficial bulletin-points on the back of the box, each is intergrated into the game flawlessly and evenly. Though you can choose to turn off the RTS portions and the text-adventures, you’d be missing out on a great chunk of the game.
Once you install the game and get past the eeeevill Star-Force copy protection (Hint: Use a no-cd patch and bypass it altogether) you’re ready to jump into the weird and wacky world of Space Rangers 2.
You begin your adventure as a Space Ranger by selecting your race (There are five you can choose from: Peleng, Human, Malaq, Freyan, and Gaalian), occupation (There are five classes, too: Fighter, Merchant, Mercenary, Corair, or Pirate), and then choose equipment upgrades and then distribute skill points to two of the 6 available skills.
For instance, the first character I made was a Human Fighter named Muldegarde and chose to upgrade my weapon to a rocket launcher and then upgraded my engine so it could travel further distances. Being a fighter, I decided to specialize in the piloting skill and the targeting skill; giving me a bonus to evasding incoming enemy missles and an increase in base damage respectively.
But the fun doesn’t stop there; each race/class has different dispositions towards other races. For instance, Muldegarde was hated by the Malaq and would be arrested immediately if he went on any of there planets. As you create different characters (And you will want to, trust me. Half the fun in this game is expirementing) you’ll notice patterns in relations. The Pelengs are distruted by the more “civilized†races like the Humans and Gaalians; the Pelengs and so on regard Malaqs as brutes. And it’s not just your race that modifies this; class selection can override any racial relations. You may be highly regarded as a human fighter, but if you switch to Human pilot you are scum and hated by just about everyone (Except the Pelengs, being the scumdogs of the universe that they are). It’s a tangled web of relations and it’s a heck of a lot of fun to get stuck in.
Once your character is made, you are shuffled off to a loading screen that gives you an overview of the game’s plot and general universe. It’s well written (Aside from a few translation errors like comma misplacement and problems with possesion) and you’ll be reading it even after the game’s been loaded.
There just needs to be more space games. Space is freakin’ cool and everything gets cooler when space is involved. Cowboys in space, Chuck Norris in space, Tcancer in space, anything. Which is puzzling because there are so few space games out on the market now, the two biggies are namely X3: Reunion and, of course, Space Rangers 2.
Space Rangers 2 hasn’t be released officially in North America yet (But will be, soon) so, in an honorable display of my devotion to you readers, I went out and purchased the European DVD version off GoGamer.com and goddamn it was worth it.
The DVD version I got comes with both Space Rangers 2 and the original Space Rangers, which was apparently a big hit in Russia or Afghanistan or something. You’re basically getting 2 good games for 40 bucks, which isn’t a bad deal nowadays when big-name games can push 55 or more dollars which is a fuck lot of money for a 10-15 hour game (I’m looking at you, Half-Life 2). Already, right off the bat, I like how this is going.
Space Rangers 2 is basically a big ol’ melting pot of genres and game conventions and seems to be modeled after the late and great (Except the 3rd, fuck you) Star Control series. SR2 has trading, space combat, space travel, dialouge trees, race relations, a real-time strategy portion with robot building, text adventures (no kidding), ship building, ship customization, bounty hunting, and character upgrades with skills and stats. And those aren’t just superficial bulletin-points on the back of the box, each is intergrated into the game flawlessly and evenly. Though you can choose to turn off the RTS portions and the text-adventures, you’d be missing out on a great chunk of the game.
Once you install the game and get past the eeeevill Star-Force copy protection (Hint: Use a no-cd patch and bypass it altogether) you’re ready to jump into the weird and wacky world of Space Rangers 2.
You begin your adventure as a Space Ranger by selecting your race (There are five you can choose from: Peleng, Human, Malaq, Freyan, and Gaalian), occupation (There are five classes, too: Fighter, Merchant, Mercenary, Corair, or Pirate), and then choose equipment upgrades and then distribute skill points to two of the 6 available skills.
For instance, the first character I made was a Human Fighter named Muldegarde and chose to upgrade my weapon to a rocket launcher and then upgraded my engine so it could travel further distances. Being a fighter, I decided to specialize in the piloting skill and the targeting skill; giving me a bonus to evasding incoming enemy missles and an increase in base damage respectively.
But the fun doesn’t stop there; each race/class has different dispositions towards other races. For instance, Muldegarde was hated by the Malaq and would be arrested immediately if he went on any of there planets. As you create different characters (And you will want to, trust me. Half the fun in this game is expirementing) you’ll notice patterns in relations. The Pelengs are distruted by the more “civilized†races like the Humans and Gaalians; the Pelengs and so on regard Malaqs as brutes. And it’s not just your race that modifies this; class selection can override any racial relations. You may be highly regarded as a human fighter, but if you switch to Human pilot you are scum and hated by just about everyone (Except the Pelengs, being the scumdogs of the universe that they are). It’s a tangled web of relations and it’s a heck of a lot of fun to get stuck in.
Once your character is made, you are shuffled off to a loading screen that gives you an overview of the game’s plot and general universe. It’s well written (Aside from a few translation errors like comma misplacement and problems with possesion) and you’ll be reading it even after the game’s been loaded.
My thanks.
Now that I've played it for a while I've noticed the game is full of little annoyances. To begin with, most missions are dull and you quickly start to hunt the 'special' text-adventure quests. Occasionally you have to accept FedEx quests, just for the money. Aint it annoying to buy a new hull or an engine just to discover that another planet sells a better one for a cheaper price? So far I've found no logic in equipment prices. And you can't really find phat lewt anywhere, all equipment must be bought. I guess it makes sense in a way(the surprise factor), but it causes my blood to boil once in a while. Trading isn't worthwhile because you'd have to write down all hints and latest prices in the planets, and besides, completing quests is far more profitable and simpler. It seems EG left this part of the game undone. The RTS mode is a joke, I rather sit in jail for cowardice. 
Fortunately, the game allows you to choose the fun stuff and ignore the rest. Text-adventure quests, fighting the Dominators and killing other Rangers is highly enjoyable. The living, dynamic gameworld with the ongoing war and politics is always fun to watch and you feel like you're contributing. Elemental Games balancing the game a bit more and repairing the glitches would be bueno. 8)
Now that I've played it for a while I've noticed the game is full of little annoyances. To begin with, most missions are dull and you quickly start to hunt the 'special' text-adventure quests. Occasionally you have to accept FedEx quests, just for the money. Aint it annoying to buy a new hull or an engine just to discover that another planet sells a better one for a cheaper price? So far I've found no logic in equipment prices. And you can't really find phat lewt anywhere, all equipment must be bought. I guess it makes sense in a way(the surprise factor), but it causes my blood to boil once in a while. Trading isn't worthwhile because you'd have to write down all hints and latest prices in the planets, and besides, completing quests is far more profitable and simpler. It seems EG left this part of the game undone. The RTS mode is a joke, I rather sit in jail for cowardice. Fortunately, the game allows you to choose the fun stuff and ignore the rest. Text-adventure quests, fighting the Dominators and killing other Rangers is highly enjoyable. The living, dynamic gameworld with the ongoing war and politics is always fun to watch and you feel like you're contributing. Elemental Games balancing the game a bit more and repairing the glitches would be bueno. 8)
Naked_Lunch
Erudite
Trading is kind of a bitch in the beginning when your ship is slow as shit and by the time you get to your destination, whatever event you wanted to catch is over.
That said, once you get a nice fast ship trading gets a lot better. And btw, you don't have to write down hints, just click the {I} button in dialouge and it'll create a little ! button on your interface bar that will display the text when you click it.
Well, my point was trading isn't interesting and worthwhile the trouble as it is. The buy cheap and sell high principle is kinda trivial, if you know what I mean. I'd like to seal nice deals using diplomacy and false claims and stuff. To be a total asshole, in business terms.Naked_Lunch said:
You can kiss goodbye to utilizing those multiple weapon slots, then. This brings up another issue with trading: lack of free space.
All those hours writing down notes with my 80's style illegible handwriting WASTED!
Jason
chasing a bee
NL, maybe you should spellcheck your review and post it as its own article/thread instead of piggybacking on this lame one.
Naked_Lunch
Erudite
the review isn't done yet. I'm just testing it with this here focus group.
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