Free Stars: Children of Infinity Combat Demo

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3.6/5

( 6 Bewertungen )

3.6

6 Bewertungen

English

Posted on: September 11, 2026

kpeterson

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Spiele: Rezensionen: 17

Misses the mark

Over 40% of available screen space is taken up by those huge gray panels with no useful information. That could be shrunk by 80% - and have it all on one side rather than doubling the interference. The current layout puts the focus on things that don't matter and makes the gameplay area - the one thing that counts - far too narrow, with the objects in it far too small. Whoever designed this clearly wasn't interested in the combat and didn't understand why a player might want to clearly see what was going on. Maneuverability for everything has been significantly inflated. Everything is rushing around at high speed. A major part of what made the original games interesting was the tradeoffs between slow & deadly versus fast & precise. That's gone here, it's all just zoom-zoom-blast-blast. It also looks to me like the combat area is significantly smaller than it was in the originals. You could have a VUX or an Earthling going up against an Ur-Quan and it would take a little while for the Ur-Quan to get moving and then slowly approach. Not anymore; it's right there on top of you in no time. Similarly, weapon range (and ability to hit) has also been inflated. Part of this is due to smooth rotations rather than stepping through specific defined angles. That's a reason, not an excuse: a large part of the original game's balance depended on taking those angles into account. The Arilou, for example, is now borderline useless. The Spathi is supposed to be - with player skill - a hard counter to the Ur-Quan; not anymore. Retaining something apparently clunky like the stepwise rotations is completely justifiable when it has such core gameplay consequences; getting rid of it without considering those gameplay consequences is completely unjustifiable. The multidimensional rock-paper-scissors aspect was a major part of what made the originals interesting. Ships had strengths and weaknesses and more-or-less hard counters depending on how skilled a player was. That's all been flattened out. Range, speed, and volume of blasting is all that's left. I haven't done an exhaustive examination of the new ships but what I've seen of them is all zoom-zoom-blast-blast, implemented in various ways. And no, I'm not viewing this through rose-colored glasses; I've got the originals installed right now and went into them to do some comparison testing. This combat system was made by people who did not play the original games and did not understand them. It's shiny, it's pretty, it's polished, and it's not fun.

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Posted on: September 9, 2026

Chinnico

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Spiele: Rezensionen: 2

Good starting point

It is finally here! I have been waiting for this moment for years! Let'st start with the positive notes. The graphic has been updated in a very respectful way of the original. I was surprised to see so much fidelity to the old pixel art for the ships and pilots pictures... and find that it works charmingly! It does not have a 'forced retro' feel at all. It could have all been created anew this year, and it would still have looked great. That's a confirmation that the original SC2 is timeless. Sound-wise, the music is very nice and a good match with the overall experience, at least as far as combat demo could be expected to go. All the familiar sound effects are back in a greatly enhanced version. Again, I think that having enhaced but not changed these sounds was the right choice. In this case, it has been better to 'remaster' rather than 'remake'. If it is not broken, don't change it! (perhaps give it only a shine) The gameplay is fun and immediate to pick up. The old ships are all there (but the Slylandro probe! Can we have it back?) and the rooster has been greatly expanded. The new entries offer a range of new abilities to explore and study to master their best tactical use in every occasion. I have spent a few hours doing solo matches against the AI on the normal difficulty and I found already a good and fun challenge. Of course my experience is biased by the fact that my reflexes are not snappy anymore what they used to be, but it was not frustrating and good fun. Now for some more critical insight. The graphsics of some of the new alien species is more 'cartoonish' than the series has ever been. There is nothing wrong with the ships. It is really the pilot characters that in certain cases feel a bit out of place. I am referring in particular to the 'cats' or the 'double-headed' worm-like alien (please forgive me as I have not started memorizing the proper names yet!). Don't get me wrong, they are nice and funny, but I feel a big gap in the style that rubs me on the wrong side. Maybe I just have to get used to it. For the sound, I have no criticism. I will just wait for the full game to bring more variety of music styles and tones. For the gameplay itself, I agree with some of the criticalities identified in other reviews. The use of the screen real estate is a little odd. To be honest, I am less concerned with the big side panels. After all, the original game was played on a 4:3 ratio screen, so the panels basically turn my 16:9 monitor back in something like my old CRT of yore. No, the odd feeling comes from how the playing area is managed. It is deinitely different in comparison in how it used to be and not in a better way. It is difficult to pinpoint, but I believe that ic comes down to a number of factors. The whole 'arena' seems to be smaller than it should be and the largest distance that can separate the two ships, before they cross the border and reappear on opposite sites, feels too short. This makes tactial use of long range weapons ineffective. Or in some cases too effective: the Mycon podship's plasma lasts so long that one could be hit by it when it unexpectedly emerges from the opposite border of the screen! Also, the planet is not anymore in the center of the arena and its influence can barely be felt. This results in slow ships being unable to tactically use the gravity slingshots, which was an integral part of the gameplay. The minimap feels like an afterthought. After all, it has never been there, and no one felt the need for it. Now, it could be useful for some of the new ships abilities, like the wormholes or the barriers, so I will hold my judgement here. Still, I am skeptical. For the actual action, possibly, I am biased by the fact that I have only played against the AI, which has some peculiar behavious, at least at the low difficulty level i used. The AI displayes a very precise (almost frustrating) aim with long distance weapons, while being less challenging at close quarters. It also has the habit of basically always either fleeing or attacking, with little or no manouvering tactics. When I use the Ilwrath avenger and turn invisible, the AI just continues to flight straight in the path it was flying before I disappeared, until I reappear. I may just have to try higher AI levels, or better against other human players. I agree with the previous reviewer that moving from sprites to full 3D ship rotations changes the rules of engagement, in comparison to the original. However, I am not yet convinced that this is necessarly a step back. At least if the tactical use of firing in fixed directions could be replaced by something else of equal value. In conclusion, I still have not played the game enough to make any too strong comments. I write this review to capture my feelings at this very early moment. And the feelings are generally positive. There is for sure still a lot of balancing to be done - and I think this is why the demo is here. Nobody has really played the new ships enough and it would not be fair to draw conclusions just by comparing the contents in common with the previous game. To be honest, if I wanted exactly the same experience as the old Super Melee, then I would just boot The Ur-Quan Masters and stick to that! We, as players, have just begun to explore the new possibilities offered by the new ships and the new game engine. I am sure that the final game will be superb. It would be a shame if the spaceship combat was not on par. Go for it, Pistol Shrimp!

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Posted on: September 10, 2026

The_Shining_One

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Spiele: 1 Rezensionen: 1

1991 STar Control 2 Player

I've waited for over 30 years for this game.

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Posted on: September 14, 2026

Malichite

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Spiele: 2956 Rezensionen: 2

Classic Super Melee / Promising Start

Overall I pretty impressed with the current state of combat and brings back the nostalgia of super melee matches with my little brother where I'd let him have a fleet of Ur-Quan/Korh-Ah ships, just to harass him with the Spathi Eluder or Ariloulaleelay Skiff. ;) No concerns of the real estate use, as a wider viewport just exposes more empty space, but I'm sure there is still some optimizations to left side unused gray space flourish animation, ship diagram, intruder alert for Vindicator marines, etc. they could add. Overall the AI is competent without being omniscient, though the Utwig Jugger is still a challenge as the AI always perfectly times the absorb and they rarely run out of energy, making them almost invulnerable to most ships types. Still noticed lower animation rates at high zoom-outs that I'm sure are for perf reasons, but nice to have an option to keep all animations at full rather than 1/2 or 1/4 rats in the settings if your PC can handle it (maybe that's just something with the Androsynth acid bubbles). Really looking forward to see what the rest of the games feels like given this refreshing flashback. Always get nervous on remakes/remasters where the tech may be updated, but loses the feel of why the older versions had charm.

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Posted on: September 18, 2026

KingOfMadness23

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Spiele: 1 Rezensionen: 1

Nice game shrimp

It's pretty good but only super melee. I'll just wait till the normal game comes out! i also have it in my wishlist

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Nah dran, aber keine exakte Übereinstimmung

Wir konnten dieses Spiel nicht auf GOG finden. Stimme ab, um es auf unsere Plattform zu bringen und lies nach, was andere auf der GOG-Wunschliste darüber sagen.:

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Nah dran, aber keine exakte Übereinstimmung

Wir konnten dieses Spiel nicht auf GOG finden. Stimme ab, um es auf unsere Plattform zu bringen und lies nach, was andere auf der GOG-Wunschliste darüber sagen.:

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