Starpoint Gemini 2

The title says it all. This is THE most frustrating experience I've had with a game. Let me first say that you should NOT play with a controller. The game has incredibly poor optimization for controllers. There are so many controls in the game that 90% of them can't even be mapped to the controller anyway. The game also seemed to think it was a good idea to put very essential controls (like target lock and firing heavy weapons) mapped to the keyboard in awkward positions rather than trying to map them to the controller. Also, if you decide you want to use a controller, the game completely SHUTS OFF the mouse, so you can't use it AT ALL! I'm in the tutorial mission and the game is asking me to scan the wreckage of a ship. I have no idea how to do it. I'm searching all of the controls that the game has set and none of them are working. It looks like there's a "SCAN" button to the left of the wreckage, but there's no way for me to click on it. So I'm just sitting in a ship trying to figure out how to do one of the most BASIC functions of a ship, scanning wreckage. There's also conveniently no tutorial help on how to do it too. On top of that, the game requires a reset EVERY TIME YOU CHANGE ANY VIDEO SETTINGS. This includes changing the game resolution as well as going from full screen to non-full screen. Also, don't Alt-Tab out of the game if you're playing in Full Screen mode. It puts it into windowed mode and you have to be able to save the game so you can change the settings to not be in full screen mode, then restart the game, then re-enter the game, reset the game to go to full screen mode, exit the game AGAIN, then go back into the game. But here's the kicker, YOU CAN'T SAVE THE GAME IN THE TUTORIAL MISSION! So if any of your settings are not up to par, guess what, you either have to wait until the game finally decides it's okay to save your game, or you have to REDO THE ENTIRE TUTORIAL MISSION OVER! Total waste of money... do not buy.

I've never seen a space game with such a convoluted and complicated control scheme and interface. Starpoint Gemini tries to reinvent the wheel when solutions for all its problems already exist and are standards in these types of games. All it had to do is copy the solutions, theres no shame in that. What you end up with is a game that controls like you are trying to juggle while blindfolded, under water, on fire, naked in the Arctic on a polar bear. For the game itself? I don't know because I cant enjoy a single minute of it without cursing the interface.

Nice exploration/space battle. Pros: 1. Good space battles 2. Good upgrades 3. Decent variety of ships (some look very nice, others look retarded) Cons: 1. Campaign/story/dialogue is a joke 2. Getting from one place to another takes forever 3. Can only save game at a space station/port - not while in space 4. Somewhat clunky controls when play with a keyboard/mouse Buy it when it's on sale. Starpoint Gemini 2 is not worth the full price but will keep you busy. Also, don't both playing the campaign... complete waste of time.

You're no hotshot fighter pilot in this game. Instead, you command larger ships, from gunships all the way up to battleships. But the combat just doesn't work for me. Enemy ships move nimbly like they're dogfighting in Freelancer, but yours only slide around like reluctant elephants in water. Let the computer fire at will for you because aiming is too awkward when your ship can't turn fast enough to see enemies, even in turret view which theoretically should be the ideal view for a battleship-style game. You get missiles, but I didn't find them effective. And then, fights the game says are easy are often punishing, while fights it rates as over your level might be laughably easy. It's a crapshoot, and the aiming problems make it feel like you have little control over the outcome. One thing about combat I did like is that you can capture enemy ships to sell or keep for later. That's neat. As for other game features, it's a mix. The best feature is probably the ship customization. You can name every ship you get and see that name on the ship's side while you fly. You can put a logo on it, and choose from a generous color gradient the colors of your logo, name, and the ship's primary and secondary colors. While the poor combat is what sunk the game for me, the shallow (and weakly voice-acted) story didn't help; but I grant I didn't get far into it, so maybe it improves. The open world is pretty and ok, but lacks personality. You don't actually see your ship dock with anything. Instead, your ship freezes in space a hundred meters or so from the place, and then the window comes up with buttons for trading, repairs, etc. So every place feels identical. I bought SG2 because reviews here at GOG said it was a worthy successor to Freelancer. But after 7 hours of play (spread out over several months, as the game was never fun enough for me to be excited about returning to it), I've finally given up and uninstalled. The Crossfire mod for Freelancer beckons to me...

I'm rather fond of space sims and while patiently waiting for such titles as Elite : Dangerous, Star Citizen and No Man's Sky (although that looks a bit different), I suddenly noticed a game called Starpoint Gemini 2 was released. I read a bit about it and bought it on a whim. Then, I completed the main story and then some. The game reminds me of Freelancer and it's both easy to get into while at the same time having depth enough to entertain you for a while. If you've played these sort of games before, Freelancer, Frontier: Elite or X3, then a lot of it will be familiar. You can trade, be a pirate or mine stuff. You get missions to beat up crooks, escort people to other stations, check out stuff .. it's familiar. But that's also what I wanted, so in my case that's all good. Something which is a little different is the combat system and I think it is a lot of fun. Different sides of the ship have different shields, so you have to take care of how you orientate yourself in relation to your enemy. It helps keep battles a little dynamic. You also have to manage how power is diverted between propulsion, shields and weapons, so that adds another element which I thought was alright. Just remember to ALWAYS manually give full power to propulsion when travelling long distances. Yes, even when activating the "full power to engines". So what's the bad? Well, there is some stuff, but most of it doesn't really come in the way of entertainment. I wish you didn't have to face whatever object it is you're targetting to read the info about that object and I wish space in SG2 was a little more realistic and perhaps bigger. The game has plenty of space to move around in, don't get me wrong, but you're generally confined to one solar system and that one system doesn't feel very realistic, f.ex everything seems rather close together and you can land on every planet. Is every planet suitable for colonization? The astronomy geek in me complains a bit, but the game is fun fun FUN.