The title kind of says it all. This game makes an absolutely marvelous first impression. The graphics are great, the ship- and environment-design is stellar, the UI is slick, the sound-design and the OST in particular is outstanding and the gameplay is simple but a ton of fun. What is the problem then?
Well, to put it bluntly, the game runs out of steam really, really fast. It makes a great impression, but after a few hours one quickly realizes that there is not much substance under the surface. The ship-variety, while looks good at first glance, is ultimately inadequate for the size of the game (you can get 70% of all ships in the first zone already). The combat also quickly loses its luster since there is so little variance in the AI and such a huge focus on upgrades that skill becomes mostly irrelevant. The main quest is fine, but it requires a lot of grinding between stages. Finally, it soon becomes really apparent that the game world is static. For example, helping out the militia in the first zone seems to be an option. You gain influence with them by doing so, and even the standard tip in bars tells you that helping them clean up the pirate menace would be a good start for new players... but you don't really get anything out of it. You cannot actually get rid of the pirates in the sector, your relationship doesn't seem to affect prices or their reaction to you, nothing.
Overall what this game needs is variety. More ship types, more enemy types, fleet-options, et cetera. It is still a good game, but it could have been legendary with more time. Though, who knows? Let's hope there would be an expansion/sequel that would address these issues and propel the game into the pantheon of space-trucker simulators.
VideoGame Lots of style, not enough substance
The title kind of says it all. This game makes an absolutely marvelous first impression. The graphics are great, the ship- and environment-design is stellar, the UI is slick, the sound-design and the OST in particular is outstanding and the gameplay is simple but a ton of fun. What is the problem then?
Well, to put it bluntly, the game runs out of steam really, really fast. It makes a great impression, but after a few hours one quickly realizes that there is not much substance under the surface. The ship-variety, while looks good at first glance, is ultimately inadequate for the size of the game (you can get 70% of all ships in the first zone already). The combat also quickly loses its luster since there is so little variance in the AI and such a huge focus on upgrades that skill becomes mostly irrelevant. The main quest is fine, but it requires a lot of grinding between stages. Finally, it soon becomes really apparent that the game world is static. For example, helping out the militia in the first zone seems to be an option. You gain influence with them by doing so, and even the standard tip in bars tells you that helping them clean up the pirate menace would be a good start for new players... but you don't really get anything out of it. You cannot actually get rid of the pirates in the sector, your relationship doesn't seem to affect prices or their reaction to you, nothing.
Overall what this game needs is variety. More ship types, more enemy types, fleet-options, et cetera. It is still a good game, but it could have been legendary with more time. Though, who knows? Let's hope there would be an expansion/sequel that would address these issues and propel the game into the pantheon of space-trucker simulators.