Playing the game is fabulous. I love the ship UI. Makes me feel like a salty old pilot sailing the stars. The gamplay loop is reasonably fun too, and there can be some very tense encounters. Unfortunately, reading through the game's reviews here and elsewhere it's been abandoned juuuust on the cusp of achieving technical stability and possibly even greatness. Others have covered the faults better than I can - please do read through. But in the meantime do NOT waste your money on this. It's a nifty tech demo but not much more.
When this game comes together, when it works, it offers a seriously great time. Combat keeps you on your toes and can be genuinely thrilling - flying *through* a capital ship, guns blazing, only to have it explode around you counts as a peak gaming experience. I love the story, the characters, the original setting. It looks gorgeous, espeically if you have Ray-Tracing enabled; the alien architecture (for wont of a better word) is very reminiscent of the game "Control", which I adored, so it was fun to see that general aesthetic here too. BUT. Weird design choices abound. Your ship can't reverse or traverse in any direction apart from forwards, with exception of a very limited side-step function. Targettting ships and even mission goals is a bit of a nightmare, normal targetting functions are split off into obtuse pilot powers that need refreshed every few seconds. And the Boss fights....! I hate Boss Fights in most games but these are exceptionally obnoxious: enemies are given all the cheaty hand-holding trickery to nullify your advantages that you can think of, including -and I kid you not- an infinite tunnel of constant exploding obstacles that you have to navigate seemingly endlessly while still trying to find a way to land a shot on your feeling target. They feel desperately unfair, and what makes this worse if that when you die and try again you might still have unskippable cut-scenes or conversation to wade through. I did beat the game, with relatively few repeats but that generated a fair bit of swearing and I have no desire to play again now that I've done it all. Lastly, bit of a minor gripe: only two ships skins?? (one in game and one DLC) That's a bit rubbish. If a sequel could address all this it's probably be one of my favourite games. As it is. I can only recommended to PATIENT fans of space combat games.
If you loved Rebel Galaxy (Hello!) prepare to have the same game but re-skinned and tweaked so it's less fun. If you loved Privateer (Hello!) this game is basically that but with worse combat and more grind. I have some personal stuff I know shouldn't apply here but I'll say it anyway: 1) Gods, but I am fed up of the Honky-Tonk Space Cowboy milieu; the 'Frontier' comparison is lazy, cliched and overworked. Where's my Space Samurai? Space Brits? Space Mexicans? Space Metallers? Space-anything-else?? (Borderlands, please also take note) 2) Dogfighting that consists of endless spinning to achieve a lock is SO 20th century. I'm really done with it. It shouldn't ever come down to boring medieval jousting either. Please, for the love of god, somebody do something more interesting and inventive in this space. Even current airplanes don't fight this way anymore. Back to the game itself: The graphics: are nice, but look more cartoony than the original. I'm not a fan. I do appreciate the retro-style ship HUD but honestly it's designed with so many greebles that do nothing but distract, that I find myself wanting something cleaner and more modern. Mission types are few and repeated endlessly. I can stand only so much repetition before I get bored. Possibly why I haven't missed Privateer or Elite that much: people forget that they're grind-fests. I hate that the intro-movie is 10x more interesting than actually playing the game. Controls are not as intuitive as in Rebel Galaxy. In short: I wanted to love this game, was upset when it went EPIC Exclusive, waited until now to buy it (on sale, for less than a fiver) and am still disappointed with it. Sometimes old games were classics because we didn't have anything better at the time. And sometimes the old is made fresh but without really understanding what made the first game so good (Carrier Command, *coughcough*) This is an example of both, I think.
Starpoint games always chase that Freelancer dream but never quite get there. Warlords was an interesting diversion into Fleet Management but SPG3 returns to main-series roots - solo pilot, zipping around doing missions, making bad guys dance the explodo waltz, upgrading your/your character's space-ride...it's a well-worn template a la Privateer, or even Darkstar One if anyone has played that. However this series has always lacked elegance. Controls seem overly fussy. Combat is...weird; ships tend to end up flopping around in front of you like landed fish. And it does feel like this time Little Green Men have aimed at the more casual space gamer. Dare I say it: the console gamer? If you're looking for something reasonably brainless and pretty to play, look no further. Avoid Trade. It doesn't work. Real Talk: the main character is a grade-A jackass. But, weirdly, he grows on you, and it's actually kinda fun listening to other characters have to deal with his dumb crap. And it's refreshing to have the chance to play a selfish, arrogant jerk instead of all these lily-white heroic-journey types. For the Faint of Eyes: the game uses character models from a decade ago. And the Voice Acting ranges from Decent to Cleaning Lady Was Asked To Voice Someone. For a game wrapped around a narrative it's a shame the story characters can be so...amateurish, but then Starpoint Games are no stranger to this, imo. Game engine is pretty but Starpoint's systems and sectors have always felt weirdly cramped; that feeling of walking only a couple of steps but game tells you it's a mile. SUMMARY: I've scored this quite highly because, for all its faults, it's an entertaining - if shallow - experience, perfect for winding the ol' ThinkMeat down after a hard/long day. **Word to the wise: do the upgrade grind early and often. The game will quickly overwhelm you if you just run through the missions.**
If you bought into NMS's original hype you'd likely have been crushed by what was originally released. We were aming for the stars and this hit like a leap off a tall building on earth. SPLAT. Some very clever coding, some pretty planets...but very little to do but GRIND GRIND GRIND. Hello Games receive gaming's largest and most righteous kicking, but promise to do right by us. It's 3.5 years later. March 30th, 2020. I've played the game once or twice since launch, the most recent about 8 months ago (approx) when the Next update dropped. I was having a blast but, eventually, got distracted and moved on. today I reinstalled it, having found out that there were two huge updates since Next, the lates of which introduces LIVING ships! finally I can make my Vorlon/Shadow dreams come true! Loading up my old save I find so much has changed, including plenty of old complaints having finally been addressed. HG are the only company out there that takes care of their games post release (Hello, Egosoft) but dear lord the amount of love and investment put into this game since release is approaching legendary. If you tried NMS in the early days and rage-quit as many, did, you owe it to yourself to take a look at what the game now offers. It's finally become something genuinely wonderful to play, especially if you have friends willing to play with you. There's simply nothing else like it - a 70's era sci-fi dream writ large - and urge everyone to give it a go.
X: Rebirth had a rocky launch, and proved highly contentious for all who loved the previous X3 sub-group of games. With Rebirth, Egosoft stepped away from the safe and familiar, returning to the core concepts of what they'd been trying to achieve with those earlier games. Having put a solid 30 hours into Rebirth as of 4.0 I can say they've achieved something remarkable. I struggled hard with previous games which were largely inaccessible to anyone but the most hardcore armchair capitalists. I LOVE this conceptual rebalance. After a 17 years there is finally an X game that puts me at the centre of a rollicking space adventure WITHOUT requiring that doing so means becoming a mega-industrialist. X: Rebirth is a dream given shiny new form. While it still has some of Egosoft's trademark rough-and-ready aspects, particularly the NPCs, the main game world is stunningly beautiful and enormously detailed. So much to see and there's so much to DO. It's still not a game for casual players - it still requires a touch of effort and thought to get the best rewards - but those who love space games now have NO reason not to buy this. An incredible achievement, Egosoft. More of this, please!
