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Thursday 6 March, 2008
GAMEPLAY
My second hour of gameplay was very similar to my first, except I didn't die as much. In my first hour, I entered into combat when I was way too weak and flew wee bit close for comfort (and, you know, life) to black holes. I also had my first *really* kick-ass mission: got the hyperdrive (so I could jump quickly from star to star), got all the allies, got all the best weapons. Yeah, I basically beat that star map into submission! Boo yah!
Even more than the first hour, I could see where this game could get real repetitive, real quick. New maps each time helps, and I discovered this neat little feature where you can change the name of planets you find, but another hour and I think I will have played 99% of what the game has to offer. The combat system would be a pretty big draw for people into that kind of thing, but beyond getting a really powerful weapon that will kill the aliens quickly and trying to dodge their attacks, I'm just not interested. It's fine as part of the mission gameplay, but I would never play the "Simulator" mode, where you just do battle... Anyway, the solution? Mods! Yay! I didn't actually try any out, but I definitely will in the future. Yay for the game easily supporting modding, too. Oh, wait. This should go into:
GAME DESIGN
Yes, easy modding. The developer even set up a website with short tutorials on the process. Man, I love this stuff! Customization, creativity, interactivity with the game itself. What's cooler?
There's also a great sense of humor in the game, through the items (and of course their descriptions) and the interactions with the alien races. It isn't slapstick, in-your-face funny, though. It's a much subtler "this-is-a-strange-universe" kind of funny that I really appreciate.
The look of the game is just beautiful. The background of your little sector of the galaxy is a stunning nebula, of the Hubble ilk. The path from your current star to your next is traced out seamlessly. Each weapon has its own individual firing pattern, some of which are striking. Even the nebula and black holes (the ones you can interact with, I mean) swirl slowly.
Two notes on noise: 1) The music is a wonderful ethereal, futuristic, and generative-sounding deal that really fits with the space theme.
2) They have explosions in the combat. As any good nerd knows, there would be no sound in space, but do you know what I say? I say, it's a video game and sound effects help to create a pleasurable experience for the player.
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