Space Pirates and Zombies 2

I loved SPAZ, and SPAZ 2 did not disappoint me either, despite being somewhat different. What I loved specifically is the choice you have about your play style. You can effectively play completely different games from a mostly strategic political simulation (not my favorite, and I think fans of the genre would find some features missing, but still) with relaxed combat to an almost action space shooter. What you shouldn't expect is a fantastic story - the campaign really is more of a tutorial for the sandbox. And you shouldn't expect too deep political strategy - it's there, but for focusing on it, it's too clunky. And don't expect a super fast shmup either. Of course, if you are looking for something shooter-like that doesn't require extreme reflexes and can, if you want, be played very relaxed, you'll like this! But do expect a lot of fun, if you like figuring out how to build your ideal ship, gathering components for it through various means, loads of flexibility in what you do. And zombies (unless you disable them in the sandbox, which you can!)

Graphics, mechanics, story, art, acting, voice overs, etc. A 4-5 all around. All just what I would expect from this crew. Unfortunately though the game is unplayable. Its not unplayable due to controls etc but rather the scaling in the game is SO bad it cant be finished even with cheats. That is, unless, my game constantly has the same bug over and over. If anyone ever played Urban Terror on nightmware mode. That, is a cake walk. Once the zombies hit they level from 0-95 in 5-10 minutes both on bases and forces. Then even neutral factions start hunting you down who are also, you guessed it, 90+. I decided to cheat, as Id really like to play the end story that I paid for, and leveled my character to 98. I had a full ship with massive components. Tried torpedoes, missles, lasers, swarms, you name it. At one point I had so much KITTEN flying around the screen I actually caused the game to lag. My ship... Couldnt even kill one of the tiny little ships flying around the larger zombie ships. It damaged it but after 3 minutes of a solid beam of light the size of my ship slamming the tiny ship and watching the red pixels creep down maybe 1 every minute at most. I gave up. You know that level 30 fight with Jamison? This is stage Im talking about. Not that fight but just encounters. The game was fine up to that point but soon as that stage came on it wasnt down hill. It was a cliff. I have restarted. Ive tried the easiest mode. Nothing works. Even with cheats no story for me. At least not the one I downloaded. And just when you thought it cant be worse I actually used a weapon off one of their ships that had been used to kill me repeatedly. I tricked npcs into the fight and their exploding ships did the trick. The same weapons that would destroy my ship in seconds did quite literally NOTHING to them. Could have been 4 stars now its 2 for effort. If Im in a masochist mood I might try one last time but at this point I consider the game busted.

SPAZ2 is an OK game that's hurt by the existence of it's predecessor. If this had been the only entry it'd probably be 3 star game but it's too hard to ignore the regression from the original. Taken by itself the game-play is OK, while the game is 3d combat is only 2d (like Rebel Galaxy - which is a better game) and not the most interesting. You'll spend a lot of time piloting around an icon on the galaxy map just going from place to place. combat is "encounters" that drop you into some space to fight. While you can pilot any of your wingmen really you want to stick to your mothership because that's the ship that matters. Your mothership is "modular" and horrible to work with. I came to this game off of "Reassembly" which has a top notch builder letting out make awesome ships. The UI for managing your ship in SPAZ2 is god-awful. your ship parts float around in physical space and you use a tractor beam to try to guide them into place. or detach them. You can swap parts but only outer parts. If you want to change a core in the middle of your ship you have to explode the whole ship and tediously reassemble it. Parts are hard to recognize by sight and can get lost easily in the clutter. I literally have no idea what they were thinking. Graphically the game is dated, most ships look pretty boring, low quality textures. This game would fit in 20 years ago. and compared to the unique designs and detailed 2d graphics of SPAZ1 it's a big step back. Reminds me of how N64 games have aged worse (and now look worse) than SNES games. Building and customizing your fleet is also more boring. the craft are similar but souless and far less interesting to modify, you also get a lot less of them and since you almost always want to pilot your Mothership have less interest to you than in SPAZ1. The UI has also somehow gotten worse. Spaz1 had such a nice little UI for managing your fleet and designing different loadouts for your ships.

This game is very similar to the Space Rangers that were released back in 2002. I went through the company, and will write my opinion. Advantages: Constructor Ship. This is a very cool thing that changes the gameplay and makes the game more varied Game optimization. I played on a laptop with a core i5 and 950gt at medium settings at 60 frames. You can create your own scenarios and go through them. Many different weapons. Disadvantages Allies are useless in battle, only as meat to distract the enemy for 10 seconds. Coalitions with allies are useless. You can form a coalition with your allies and assign them to manage the bases, but why? If you put them to manage the base, then you cannot receive profit from the base. I wanted to fight together with my coalition. You can't gather allies and send them to recapture base, in the 2002 Space Rangers it was possible.

At first glance i wasnt sure. Even playing for first 30min i wasnt sure. After learning the ropes i have to say the game is unbelievably fun. And pretty too. All the visual effects and audio mesh together. The dialogs are awesome and interesting, the world is lively and combat with explosions is the best. Ship design has so much freedom!! Damn this is unreal good game.