I have extensively played the Star Control 2 freeware edition Ur-Quan Masters. I would rank that game among my most favorite titles. Combat was satisfying, the writing was simply wonderful, and the exploration seemed endless. For the most part, Origins almost matches these expectations, but comes up short. Combat in Origins starts out very satisfying with many diverse ships, opponents and weapon types. However, in late game basically all opponents end up in one of two categories. Trivially easy to defeat in one or two volleys with no chance to respond, or turning into bullet sponges with weapons that are near impossible to avoid. Most of the fleet ships you acquire become useless almost as soon as you get a couple of upgrades for your flagship, and with the amount of wrecks you find, you'll never have to buy any. When exploring the universe, it seems impressive at first. And for all accounts it is. However, there eventually comes a time when you stop finding things of interest. Much of the fascinating aspects of exploration are taken away by the manditory objectives that are given to you to go explore most of the galaxy, will little to be found on your own inititative. UQM had a ton of extra content that could only be found if the player wanted to explore on their own. Over all, I feel like the handholding hurt the exploration experience. On the other hand, the writing in this game is spot on. All the characters are distinct and wonderful. The voice acting was spot on. It was a joy to talk to everyone I could. Overall, I think the devs did a decent job bringing this universe back, particularly after the disaster of SC3. But it did not reach the level of the UQM. I think that there needed to be less handholding and more cool things to find in the galaxy without being prompted to go look for a manditory mission objective.
