It was a very addictive game for it's original release period, but now, about 10 or so years later, I really don't find that it has aged as well as some other games from this time period. I'm not talking about the graphics, they are what they are, but rather the GUI, and game play itself is very dated at this point. I understand GOG is all about releasing old(er) games and all but sometimes some games should just be left to the sands of time. If you're really into "busy bee" type of gaming and can get back into this type of GUI I'd still have to say... Wait for a sale, as $9.99 is just too much for this package. When it goes on sale and you can get it for half that or less and really do enjoy heavy micro-management type of gaming then give it a shot.
Startopia has always been a very addictive (just 10 more minutes please) AND enjoyable game. It may not be one of those games that you want to play for weeks on end, but a day or two every week might surely be what you can expect. I played Startopia when it was first released in 2001 and remember how many hours I put into it back then. It's really a space station building game that is sure to be fun for most City Building game fans. It works well on widescreen, at least it does on my 16:9 (1600x900) screen resolution without just stretching the images, and it still to this day plays solid on my Windows 7 computers. Graphics: Cute and whimsical. They still hold up well today in 2012 in my opinion. Narration: Seems very typical British humor and is done quite well. Music: In my opinion, was pretty darn good for 2001, though you may tire of it and need to turn it down or off today in 2012. Controls: Remarkably well done for a game from 2001, I can think of many games from that era who's GUI was absolutely abysmal and they were considered to be AAA titles. Startopia does it really well with minimal amount of clutter on the screen at any one time. Game play: If you enjoy building cities in games like the original SimCity then you may very well enjoy Startopia. It's all about building well... buildings on a space station, the strategy really is to make sure that you can include all of the buildings that you need within the limited amount of space on the space station. Camera: Once you learn to use your keyboard and the mouse then moving the camera around the space station is a breeze. You can zoom all the way down to deck level or way way out. I only wish that we could zoom maybe one more notch out, it's fully workable and doesn't inhibit the playing of the game at all but one more notch out would have been nice. But as it is now you still can see plenty on your screen at one time, the camera will zoom, pan, and twist as you decide. For a game from 2001, it's actually an excellent camera system. Recommendations: I definitely recommend this to my city building gaming fans, it was a lot of fun back in 2001 and is still a heck of a lot of fun in 2012 as well.
