Independence War™ II: Edge of Chaos

First things first - There is indeed a bug with the GOG.com version, it is easily fixable though. This version left out the save game folder, so when I went to try and save, the saves would immediately disappear even if I just navigated back to the pause menu and then clicked "save game" again (they would all be empty again.) Here is the fix: just go into the install folder (GOG gamesIndependence war 2) and create a folder called "saves" (should be in the same place as the bin, resources, etc. folders). This fixes the problem. I had to dig around on forums to figure this one out, so I figured I'd just drop it here to save others the trouble. I picked up this game when I was maybe in my preteens? I had a knack for just grabbing the coolest looking box off the shelf that had spaceships on it. Oh boy am I glad I did that with this one. Obviously it was extremely difficult considering my age, but I held onto the discs as I got into my teens (and still have one of them now that I am mid twenties.) Still have only managed to beat the game once, though, it takes a lot of time and patience to get through the campaign. Unfortunately the ending is a bit cheap because they ran out of funding for the game, but honestly if you enjoy interesting stories and well developed universes, this is a great game to experience. I just hope someone picks this up for a remaster (like when gearbox remastered the Homeworld series!) and redoes the ending/combat mechanics (they had simplified this because they were going to release it on the playstation, but ended up vetoing that idea because of funds I believe) because this game totally deserves it. Especially since this is the ONLY space flight sim I've found that has correct physics. That made me really happy. Plus, I-war2.com has basically every solution to the puzzles/missions in the game so definitely go there if you are stumped.

The game looks for an optical drive, as part of its old copy protection scheme. If you don't have one, don't panic and don't listen to the idiots who say it can't be run in single player mode without an optical drive. They are wrong. All you need to do, is get an emulator or of you already have windows 10, find an ISO or other CD/DVD.BD image and mount it. This will create a virtual optical drive and the game will see it as an optical drive and run. This info can be found with a simple search, instead of assuming the worst and throwing a hissy fit. If you are going to run old games on new hardware, you need to be aware of these gotchyas and caveats!

EoC is to Independence Wars what Privateer is to Wingman series - almost. You are a space pirate that turns into something much more... Good: Way better than original I-wars. * Huge, living star system. * Diverse missions: from sneaking into a base to steal enemy's equipment, to massive space battles. * Physics and flying mechanics are really good. * Zooming with a remote fighter like an angry wasp among befuddled enemies is pure joy. * Graphics (esp. cut-scenes) are great and haven't aged much at all. No need for ninja PC to enjoy them either. * Force feedback support. * Mostly bug-free. Bad: Trading is very rudimentary. There's no money, just bartering. And generally you can't sell any ship's equipment, nor buy other bartering goods. So the only way is to go out and `liberate' stuff off some transport ship, then trade it for new gear. * Other than that, pirating has very little sense, as hoarding stuff gets you nowhere. * Can't buy ships. You only get a new ship by completing a specific mission. And the third ship you get about 1/3rd into the game (patcom) is the best in any case. * Missions' difficulty varies insanely: some require flying to the target and 10-15 mins of yawning while holding fire button. Then enemy armada will suddenly jump in and kill you off in a few seconds. * At times I had NO IDEA how to finish a mission or get a new one. Had to google it. * Much talk about ship's stealth, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. In stealth missions you'll get discovered if you get within 5km of an enemy ship in any case - whichever gear you use. Outside of missions, there's no point in stealth at all - most NPCs will ignore you until you attack them, and after that it doesn't matter anyway. Ugly: Sometimes skipping a cut-scene might skip half a mission as well. * Joystick is a must. Seems it should be possible to fly with mouse, but I couldn't make it work. * Win7's DEP must be turned off or it won't run. O_o Four stars 'coz it still is lots of fun!

If you're mildly curious about an occasionally unforgiving and difficult (read as: realistic) space simulator, with newtonian physics (hence the "simulator" part) then, by golly, they don't come better than this. It may be nostalgia, but everything STILL looks good on a full HD TV, in native resolution. The realistic depiction of interstellar distances, stellar body sizes, beautiful ambient music will echo in your mind for quite some time. Interstellar traffic, waring factions, ship checks and collisions make frequented traffic routes entertaining just to watch, let alone take part in. Configuring your ship to whatever your liking is, searching the starmap for L-points that might have traffic with cargo for that one upgrade you're missing, be it better thrusters, stronger shields, or the occasional sniper cannon, makes you feel like you're part of the game in a way like no other. And all this blends seamlessly in with the GUI that you'll use as naturally as you would use a fork. How To Start Playing This Game In 2012: dust off joystick (or borrow, force feedback if possible) acquire game (patch if necessary) go to : http://i-war2.com/ bookmark, download walkthrough encyclopedia addon and location finder from the mods section And now, you're all set to experience the game, without bugs, without the need to quit to know what the hell some missions want from you, and without the need for minutes of frustrating searching on the starmap, for a location referenced 40 minutes ago. By the way, the game recognized every setting my video card had to offer as soon as I started it, on my win7 x64 PC. (which is ironic, considering splinter cell wouldn't recognize my 720p Tv in 2010)

If you're interested in a deeply customizable and openended spaceship simulator and are not affraid of the challenge to put some hard work into every enemy spaceship kill, yes by all means. On the other hand if you fancy Ace Combat 6, where you only need to push a button to win, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. This is it, IW2 is the game that brought me to GOG and while it's far from perfect in technical, gameplay or story sense... to me however, it is perfect. While IW2 is quite the departure from the also great original I-War it has a few tricks that make it a lot better. First and most importantly you are now free to roam the star systems it has on offer. Secondly you can attack cargo vessels and have your crew collect the cargo containers, this alone is epic and never have I seen pirating being so much fun and rewarding as in this game. It's not easy as well, valuable cargo is usually well protected and the enemies in this game aren't pushovers. Thirdly you can customize your spacecraft to suit the mission or your gameplay style. You can kit your ship out with quad PBC's and powerful thrusters and fight it out at close range. Or you can fit missiles and duke it out at long ranges. You can also go for complete stealth and try your luck in an almost invisible but very vulnarable craft. Later on you'll get better ships and gear. I found that the earlier useless medium range PBC and when you put them on every weapon hardpoint of the A-Patcom, you have an almost unstoppable machine. The technical issues this game have are some mission scripting that don't seem to work on newer computers. You also might want to lock framerates not higer than 60fps for this game. As for the story, gamedevelopement of this game was cut short and it has a somewhat dissappointing conclusion because of that. Also I want to add that for the best experience this should be played with a joystick.