Wed Feb 26, 2003 9:16 pm
PR Demo Impressions
Well, I was lucky enough to have won one of the earlier contests, and as far as I know, I haven't been NDA'ed, so I'm going to post some candid remarks. I'll try not to include any spoilers. Caveat: I haven't played anything past mission 11-12.
Visuals: This game is chock full of eye candy. If you're reading this, then you've probaby played the open demo, or at least seen the movies. There is nothing quite like engaging in a pitched battle with a dozen or so ships on a side, a few cap ships, laser fire streaking left and right, right in the middle of an asteroid field. Gah - at times there must be thousand of independent objects. Nebulas... beautiful. Industrial planets are wreathed in smog, while sunlight shining through ice fields creates rainbows.
Flight model: The mouse controls work effectively, although they take some getting used to. I wouldn't be surprised if more games had this feature in the future. However, individual ships don't feel as if they handle differently. The biggest difference between an early game ship and a late game ship is more armor, better energy regen, can accommodate more/better weapons, and looks cooler. Otherwise, they feel like they fly about the same.
Combat: Not too challenging initially. It's hard to die in the early stages of the game. Later on, you have to disengage frequently in order to recharge your shields. You can chew through shield rechargers pretty quickly. In most missions, it's not uncommon to be vastly outnumbered. Although you do have allied ships on some missions, only occasionally do they make their presence known by actually killing something. The old adage, "if you want something dead, kill it yourself," holds true here. Fortunately, enemy ships don't seem to regenerate shields, so you don't have to worry about maintaining fire on a single target , but can break and reacquire. Unfortunately, this seems to render worthless the very nice assortment of weapons that are designed to do extra shield damage at the expense of armor damage.
Visuals, redux: Did I mention before how awe inspiring the graphics are? Watching pieces of the enemy ship fall off and float free as you blast it to pieces is very satisfying. Similarly, watching pieces of your own ship fall off as you are picked apart is somewhat terrifying. (I kinna held her tegether enny longer, cap'n)
Character advancement: Improving your station in life in the game is very closely tied to moneyt. Generally, freelance missions for profit alternate with plot missions. You cannot receive the next plot mission until your net worth (not cash on hand) is greater than a certain amount. This ensures that you can at least afford the type of ship and weapons that you will need to complete the next mission. Since there are level limits that you must surpass in order to access each level of ship/shields/weapons, earning money endlessly on freelance missions to twink yourself for the plot missions is out of the question. This is one of the major mechansism for enforcing game balance (you can't be too weak for a plot mission, but you can't be too strong, either). A little maddening, but works. Also, it gives it that elusive "only one more level until the next set of ships are unlocked!" feel.
Economic model: There are three ways to make money.
1. Buy items, go to nearby station where item is more expensive, sell item, make small profit, rinse, repeat. Dull.
2. Buy big ticket items where they are cheapest, spend 30 minutes flying across the game world to where they are most expensive, sell. Ka-ching. You've just made enough for 2 levels. However, it takes a really... long... time. Also, you don't know what something will sell for on a station until you've actually been there or paid someone to learn about it. This might be a more viable strategy with higher level ships, which have bigger cargo holds.
3. Take mission, kill stuff, earn money and prestige. More fun, because you're doing something besides clicking on trade lanes. Also, you can tractor in trade items that they were carrying, and sell those for a profit. At one point in my game, I kept getting missions on planet ?Harris? to kill Gaians. The Gaians kept dropping pharmaceuticals, which sell really well on Harris. Double my profits! Unfortunately, these missions can get repetitive, with the fly here, kill this. There are minor variations, with having to retrieve objects, and and static defenses thrown in, but it all feels the same after a while.
Sound and music: Impressive, just like the visuals. The music fits in really well. I actually had to try to listen for it after a while, because it is such an integral part of the atmosphere. It adapts well to changes in the action and mood, i.e. when you first close in on some bandits, it speeds up to a heart pumping beat to heighten the mood. Different weapons sound different as well. There are some skips on my beta copy, but the manual says that is a known bug.
Plot: Nice going on the storyboard. My version of the beta stops at about mission 11-12. (I have to check back at my save game to be sure; let's just say that it was a crash stop). So far, it's like The Princess Bride, with a little bit of travel, espionage, pirates, aliens, corrupt ministers, archaeology, lots of fighting, not much kissing. Plot is advanced by cutscene in between space fights. The voice actors all play along well, although the only ones that I could identify off the bat were Ian Ziering? and George Takei. Casting is very appropriate. Also, it was very atmospheric to read about the same plot events from entirely different angles while under different house jursidictions.
Replayability: Hard to say, since I haven't played anything beyond the plot missions. I hope the variety of missions offered improves over that level 11-17 missions that I have been sampling, or they have mini-plots beyond the main one. Otherwise, the main incentive to advance will be to get cooler stuff, but the actual mechanics of the game will grow stale over time. Also, I haven't played online yet.
Overall: 9.8 out of 10. It's fun, hard to put down once the plot starts to get going, and is simply beautiful.
Thanks DA/Microsoft/TLA for the free copy. Comments are welcome.
-Mal
Visuals: This game is chock full of eye candy. If you're reading this, then you've probaby played the open demo, or at least seen the movies. There is nothing quite like engaging in a pitched battle with a dozen or so ships on a side, a few cap ships, laser fire streaking left and right, right in the middle of an asteroid field. Gah - at times there must be thousand of independent objects. Nebulas... beautiful. Industrial planets are wreathed in smog, while sunlight shining through ice fields creates rainbows.
Flight model: The mouse controls work effectively, although they take some getting used to. I wouldn't be surprised if more games had this feature in the future. However, individual ships don't feel as if they handle differently. The biggest difference between an early game ship and a late game ship is more armor, better energy regen, can accommodate more/better weapons, and looks cooler. Otherwise, they feel like they fly about the same.
Combat: Not too challenging initially. It's hard to die in the early stages of the game. Later on, you have to disengage frequently in order to recharge your shields. You can chew through shield rechargers pretty quickly. In most missions, it's not uncommon to be vastly outnumbered. Although you do have allied ships on some missions, only occasionally do they make their presence known by actually killing something. The old adage, "if you want something dead, kill it yourself," holds true here. Fortunately, enemy ships don't seem to regenerate shields, so you don't have to worry about maintaining fire on a single target , but can break and reacquire. Unfortunately, this seems to render worthless the very nice assortment of weapons that are designed to do extra shield damage at the expense of armor damage.
Visuals, redux: Did I mention before how awe inspiring the graphics are? Watching pieces of the enemy ship fall off and float free as you blast it to pieces is very satisfying. Similarly, watching pieces of your own ship fall off as you are picked apart is somewhat terrifying. (I kinna held her tegether enny longer, cap'n)
Character advancement: Improving your station in life in the game is very closely tied to moneyt. Generally, freelance missions for profit alternate with plot missions. You cannot receive the next plot mission until your net worth (not cash on hand) is greater than a certain amount. This ensures that you can at least afford the type of ship and weapons that you will need to complete the next mission. Since there are level limits that you must surpass in order to access each level of ship/shields/weapons, earning money endlessly on freelance missions to twink yourself for the plot missions is out of the question. This is one of the major mechansism for enforcing game balance (you can't be too weak for a plot mission, but you can't be too strong, either). A little maddening, but works. Also, it gives it that elusive "only one more level until the next set of ships are unlocked!" feel.
Economic model: There are three ways to make money.
1. Buy items, go to nearby station where item is more expensive, sell item, make small profit, rinse, repeat. Dull.
2. Buy big ticket items where they are cheapest, spend 30 minutes flying across the game world to where they are most expensive, sell. Ka-ching. You've just made enough for 2 levels. However, it takes a really... long... time. Also, you don't know what something will sell for on a station until you've actually been there or paid someone to learn about it. This might be a more viable strategy with higher level ships, which have bigger cargo holds.
3. Take mission, kill stuff, earn money and prestige. More fun, because you're doing something besides clicking on trade lanes. Also, you can tractor in trade items that they were carrying, and sell those for a profit. At one point in my game, I kept getting missions on planet ?Harris? to kill Gaians. The Gaians kept dropping pharmaceuticals, which sell really well on Harris. Double my profits! Unfortunately, these missions can get repetitive, with the fly here, kill this. There are minor variations, with having to retrieve objects, and and static defenses thrown in, but it all feels the same after a while.
Sound and music: Impressive, just like the visuals. The music fits in really well. I actually had to try to listen for it after a while, because it is such an integral part of the atmosphere. It adapts well to changes in the action and mood, i.e. when you first close in on some bandits, it speeds up to a heart pumping beat to heighten the mood. Different weapons sound different as well. There are some skips on my beta copy, but the manual says that is a known bug.
Plot: Nice going on the storyboard. My version of the beta stops at about mission 11-12. (I have to check back at my save game to be sure; let's just say that it was a crash stop). So far, it's like The Princess Bride, with a little bit of travel, espionage, pirates, aliens, corrupt ministers, archaeology, lots of fighting, not much kissing. Plot is advanced by cutscene in between space fights. The voice actors all play along well, although the only ones that I could identify off the bat were Ian Ziering? and George Takei. Casting is very appropriate. Also, it was very atmospheric to read about the same plot events from entirely different angles while under different house jursidictions.
Replayability: Hard to say, since I haven't played anything beyond the plot missions. I hope the variety of missions offered improves over that level 11-17 missions that I have been sampling, or they have mini-plots beyond the main one. Otherwise, the main incentive to advance will be to get cooler stuff, but the actual mechanics of the game will grow stale over time. Also, I haven't played online yet.
Overall: 9.8 out of 10. It's fun, hard to put down once the plot starts to get going, and is simply beautiful.
Thanks DA/Microsoft/TLA for the free copy. Comments are welcome.
-Mal
