Overall most helpful review

Posted on: November 19, 2016

CLBrown

Games: 1220 Reviews: 15

This is a TRUE "Classic!"

When I saw, a while back, that "Space Rogue" was coming to GoG, I got excited... and then discovered that the game using that title was another, entirely unrelated game. This is the ORIGINAL "Space Rogue." For those who want, or expect, a truly modern, glitzy game... or who want fast, twitch-based gameplay... you'll hate this game. It's nothing of the sort. This game was literally the very first PC-based game I ever purchased. (Or rather, IBM-PC based... as they were called back then.) I'd played games on my old TI-99/4A, and on friends' Apple IIs or Amigas (and a smattering of consoles, like the Atari 2600). But this was the first PC game I ever tried. I didn't own my own PC at the time (they were incredibly expensive) but we had one at work, and I tried it there. This game was the first major release from Paul Neurath, and was the first major game or its genre, short of the ORIGINAL (line-graphics only) Elite. While Elite was purely space-based, this game merged the Rogue-like aspects of the Ultima games (also from the same publisher) and Elite's space-flight elements. The biggest issue I have with the prior reviews of this game are the claims that "it's boring" or that "there's nothing to do." Some reviews you may see will claim that it has "no story" or is a "pure sandbox game." Nope. None of that is true. But it's not designed for modern "console kiddie" gamers who have no patience. There is a real... and DEEP... story here, and everything in the game plays into that story. But you need PATIENCE and the ability to think and analyze in order to get to it. It doesn't simply spoon feed you onto an "on the rails" experience, like so many modern games do. Suffice it to say, the Manchi are not "mindless enemies" and you have to learn WHY they've become aggressive and hostile... and find a way to resolve the conflict. That's what the game, ultimately, involves.

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Posted on: February 15, 2018

NiteHackr

Games: 268 Reviews: 10

The REAL Space Rogue

Unlike the newer game that ripped off the name from this classic. This is the REAL Space Rogue, which bears absolutely no resemblence to the newer game. This is a classic, and fairly unique style of game. It mixes 3D and 2D game play, and does a really nice job of it. You start out on a salvage ship when you discover a small ship drifting in space. While exploring it and salvaging it, the ship you started on is attacked and destroyed leaving you the lone survivor on this rogue ship. That's all you know. Why were you attacked? Why was this little ship you now command derelect in space is something you will have to discover. The answers are out there. When flying through space, it's all 3D, with a 2D map of the sector you are in. You travel between sectors, each one unique with various space stations and enemies you encounter. When you dock at a Space Station you switch to a 2D view and interact with people in the station, talk to them and gradually put together a story about what is going on. You can also buy and sell upgrades for your ship, which starts out fairly weak, but over the course of the game, you can build it up so it eventually can take out anything that is foolish enough to take you on. But early on, you will have to pick your battles carefully, if at all. Other items you can purchase are trade goods which you can buy and sell at various prices in different sectors. Some legitimate trades, some illegal, but worth more... with the right papers. You will need to have a pad of paper on hand and take notes on prices, eventually you will discover some lucrative trade routes and upgrade your ship, take on side quests and piece together a story that ultimately will answer the question about where the ship you pilot came from, among other things. It's a great game and requires a little patience at first, but there's a large galaxy to explore with some interesting stories and locations. Well worth the price.

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Posted on: December 15, 2016

neosapian

Verified owner

Games: 1044 Reviews: 37

very good(and underrated) game!

I, as another reviewer, saw the other title "Space Rogue" and was disappointed it was not the Classic Space Rogue(circa 1989) to those who say it is "boring" I guess you didn't play games in 1989, a shame really :(. I am glad someone on GoG suggested this game be added to the GoG roster! I am not basing this on nostalgia(totally) nor am I basing it on modern graphics(which are absurdly used in place of plot, game play and personality and even lack true ascetic style such as in Indie and the absurd "Rogue-like" which rely too much on absurd Teddy Bears with Russian accents(Maize), one-room apartment settings(The Guest) and painfully stupid experiments with cartoon characters "Outpost" "Darkest Dungeon" "FTL", ect, and not on fun. which does not relate here. This game is a gem, anyone who plays it, with more than a 15 minutes attention span, can get caught up in Space Rogue Classic! The game was made long before 3D graphics' shading, and nVidia physics cards. What they -did- have, was EGA and a lot of talent from the Origin sim makers, is second to none! The flight and docking scenes are very well done(not as much as Wing Commander but hey, what can ya do? it was pre-wing commander series!) the dialogue is not bad, is quirky(not just weird for the sake of being weird) and full of humor, such as the stereo-type "pirate" with eyepatch and fake "piraty" attitude who often frequents many bars across the far arm and other NPCs(and ultima V-like but a bit less so) the game is not of one genre as most are today, it blends spaceflight sim, combat, good humor dialog on the many starbases, and was a pioneer trader sim and also before Privateer it had the ability to upgrade your ship and your equipment. Primarily, the game focuses on a backstory(I won't go into here) and the abandonment of you to this derelict spaceship from your previous commissioned "Princess Blue" as one of her crewmen, to the freelance role in a crippled, but running "fix'me up" called "Jolly Roger" a Sunracer class.(the prologue is not a spoiler!) and yes the ship looks boring, even back in those days, I had thought, it is just a shuttle craft with a Star Trek-like view port for the cockpit, but it was the physics and management in battle, the equipment and the cargo that made this gem so great in 1989. if we still had only EGA at our disposal and nothing else, I would wager most of the "boooring" reviews would change their minds and give this gem classic at least a 4! I did play it in 1989(a Christmas present) but I do not base reviews on pure nostalgia, some older titles I find boring too, I base it on how fun it is to play. It is not as complicated as Star Flight, but, as Shay Addams Questbuster Magazine(1989) editorial reviewer had stated "If you want to be Han Solo for a while this is the closest thing you'll find to it."

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Posted on: November 20, 2016

rob.liefeld

Verified owner

Games: 1345 Reviews: 78

A lesser Origin title - still charming

I recently dug up this game again after two decades - and wouldn't you know it, it just became available on GOG! I'm only telling you this, because I have serious nostalgia for this title. Trying it out again after such a long time however, made me realize, that this might aged the best. Space Rogue tries to be a lot of different things. Mainly a top-down RPG, a 3D space sim, and at some point, an arcade game as well. But for the most part, it is an Rpg. The whole story, the main and addition quests, the people and the environment you get to know throughout the game come via the rpg parts. As Origin states, they create worlds, and they do it quite well in this case too. The space sim parts seem mostly a "tacked on" addition. As opposed to wing commander's arcade-ish action, this seems more complicated and way more difficult - on the other hand, when I finally got the hang of it again, I felt really accomplished. I guess that's a good thing, but still - this aspect just doesn't really hold up anymore. Unfortunately space battles are mandatory at times. I don't know if the short arcade-y parts are really worth mentioning, but shooting giant space-ant/mantis things is quite fun. All in all, a charming, original sci-fi rpg from times that were more simple and more complicated at the same time. The more traditonal parts hold up quite well, the more experimental aspects do fail sometimes. But that's to be expected about experiments. Worth a try if you like old CRPG's. This one does a few things differently. 3,5/5 points in my opinion. (PS: Check out the crpg addict blog, for a full rundown of the game if you'd like to know more...)

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Posted on: March 26, 2019

jpjordan357

Games: 101 Reviews: 1

Excellent Underrated Classic

I remember playing this in grade school on the Apple ][gs. Fairly large 'world', as it were, with a fun and compelling story. Your actions have consequences throughout the game, making beating the game significantly more difficult if you choose to be a pirate or a general miscreant. What originally came on a single 5.25" disk has more substance than modern so-call AAA titles and all of their pay for play features.

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