Space Rangers HD: A War Apart

What type of game is it, you ask, impatient reader? Well, it's an SF roguelike RPG space trader sim riddled with textual quests and packed with arcade and RTS battles. It basically covers all known game genres, with possible exception of triple x rated games, FPS shooters and sports sims. Pros: - everything excluding what's listed below Cons: - I wish the devs had access to more resources so that they may translate ALL the game content into English, instead of having to opt for leaving a part of it out. The game is Russian centric, but instead of seeing this as something negative, one should take this fact for what it is - an excellent opportunity to learn Russian - as it has been mentioned a number of times, RTS mode sucks. However, it's completely optional, which one doesn't get to see in modern games that often. If at all. These missions can be challenging and rather rewarding, but most of them are quite a chore due to incredibly bad controls and pathing issues - some consider the arcade black hole mode to be bad, but I personally disagree. While arcade mode is nothing extra super special, it can be a nice way to obtain some otherwise unattainable equipment and provide a break of standard space faring. My qualm over this are possible balancing issues, since you can get quite expensive gear out of the hole fairly early in the game by investing next to nothing into it. Another thing that sucks a bit is the fact that all those weapons which are great in the hole are otherwise useless. And vice versa, so having nice end-game weapons can make the hole problematic to complete. Maybe this was intended by design, IDK really I think that's about it. As for the sheer size of the world and content, I have to say that even after ten years there's new stuff (not something strictly related to the latest expansion) and game mechanics I encounter from time to time. Nine out of ten. It took so much time from my life I simply can not rate it any higher than that.

I started playing the series ever since they were released back in 2002 and was immediately attracted by the quality, universality und uniqueness (TBS + RTS (optional) + Arcade (optional) + Roguelike (optional), is there another game like that?) and replayability of the game. The pros: + Decent graphics for the game of this age + Amazing replayability (galaxy, equipment is randomly generated). I play the game yearly since 2002 (when the first game was out) and still not bored with it. + Unique gameplay merging several genres into one The cons: - I have only played the Russian version of the game (since it is originally in Russian) and always had concerns the lighthearted and good-natured humour will be lost in translation since it had so many gags referring to the lifestyle and habits of the 90s Russia. This game will forever stay in my favourite game shelf. By the way, the original series' developers also released another great tactical TBS, King's Bounty, which gladly took banner from the faltering Heroes of Might and Magic's saga.

This is a bit more polished Space Rangers 2:Rebelion game with added HD resolutions as "feature". There is quite a bit to say it was added - additional search funcionalities (I wanted that in original version, because getting that one specific item was pain in the ass), new equipment upgrades (that mostly have tradeoffs, making it quite interesting) new text quests and planetary battles (but I feel like some of them are a bit bugged - less credits for them than it should be) whole new side of conflict - Pirates including whole new quest chain connected with them, some completly new items (mostly weapons but also some hulls). As somebody, who played in original game for more than 100h, and in this one for about 40 i have to say it was worth paying ca 4 Euro for it on steam... if its worth 2x more on gog? Depends, but in that scenario i feel only those who already enjoyed original game will be happy with this one.

I had both first and second parts of the game on CD's (yes, in those times it was CD's, not DVD's), then second part on DVD, then I moved from Russia and don't have it anymore. The main thing i love in this game is quests. They contain a lot of Russian humor, so one can take a peek at Russian mentality through it. I have finished this game without cheater, then with cheater, then without cheater, and would like to go through it again once I will get some free money. I hope I can download full Russian version from here, just like Witcher or King's Bounty (a game created by the same team of developers who created this game, but then left 1C). This game is different. It has very element in it: puzzle, tactical turn-based strategy, RTS, action and RPG. There are different ways to win this game. But if one looks for a fight, then there are three bosses. One of them is planetary RTS combat boss, another in hyperspace action boss and third - turn-based open space boss if I remember correctly. But I used to play this game more for having fun than winning. And it has a looong gameplay opportunities, where one can strategically sponsor war expeditions to liberate systems from dominators (or Machpella minions in first game), build space stations, trade, loot, etc. Then, of course, on can improve his ship to transform it into an invincible fortress. Overall, this game provides player with a great opportunity to drop-out from the real world for a while. Anyways, I'd love to go for an adventure again and when I get my paycheck I will visit here again to get this game for my collection.