Space Pirates and Zombies

I'm pretty amazed that one of my favorite indie games is finally here. Although game is quiet easy to understand, it takes some time to master. It has also long length (30-40+ hours) and high replay-value. Story is pretty simple: you are part of the crew, whose goal is to get to center of the galaxy to acquire the treasure rumored to be there. The galaxy is on the civil war, where civilians and security forces battle. You can choose, which side you choose to fight with or just ignore them completely. Or you could try challenge headquaters of dominating side of the sector which you currently are.Also when getting closer to the core, bounty hunters and at last "zombies" show's up. In each sector you can also do different missions, which give resources, rise your relationship with certain sides etc. Also by destroying unknown enemy ships you acquire blueprints for those ships and for weapons etc. you can buy blueprints from certain sectors. In short, you have 50+ different ships from tiny ships to huge cruisers with possibility to choose all things attached to it from shields to missiles and from lasers to engines. Controls are pretty simple: from arrows you control ship, from mouse you aim for target and fire. You can also stop game for a moment and command your other ships to attack different enemies, move to certain point in the battle map or retreat to repair their ship. In short, SPAZ is simple, but very addicting, lengthy and enjoyable game.

A great top-down space shooter that uses newtonian physics. Although the story and gameplay isn't as good and addicting as Ring Runner or quirky as Operation Inner Space, it has it's own mechanics that carry it. Play how you want to play. Be the good guy and try to keep the balance and make friends. Be the bad guy, blow every base up and kick down every gate to get through the galaxy. However some of these choices come back to you haunt you in the last portion of the game when you have to build up the defenses against the growing zombie threat. Take on heavy missions of battle, or relax and just collect a few thousand rez and restore your supply at a mining station; Or hang out as the two local factions fight eachother and collect data from the wreckage like a vulture. Your play style may be governed more by your own strength or weaknesses more than your morals will.

Basic concept decent enough, game runs well enough but it's nothing more than just pure level grinding through and through.

I like space games. I love them. Even so much, that I gave SPAZ more than one chance after uninstalling it quickly the first time. The second time I even played around 20 hours or so. I really tried to like it. But I can't. Why? Every f****** mission plays the same. While the whole upgrading and resource gathering seems good enough at first, there's just no point to it in the long run: The missions keep feeling exactly like they did before. Maybe your blasters pack more punch, but so do the enemies shields. In essence, this game is like just taking the grind out of very grindy games and leaving everything else away. So, as much as I love space games, this GOG purchase is one of the view going into my "hidden" tab never to be seen again.