I really wanted to like this game, the premise was good; an open world game with crafting, taming all kinds of beasts, learn whatever abilities you want and the classic quest to save the realm. But I can't get over how ugly the sprites are and how unappealing the animations are. I feel a bit of shame admitting this, as this vanity and superficial focus is hardly a good look. But it's the truth and how I really feel, it keeps me from wanting to play the game. I don't care to level up and find loot if it's all ugly and poorly animated. I might also add that the combat isn't satisfying. This is a huge dealbreaker for me as well.
This game has three very good things going for it. 1, Combat - it's fun and intense with a good amount of choices for how you wanna murder stuff, be it with claws, gauntlets, throwing weapons, bombs and various item abilities. I'm not so sure yet about enemy variety. But the game lets you play in different ways and that's good. 2, Story - it's a bit confusing, in all honesty, but it's obvious that they put a lot of effort into this. I don't want to spoil anything here but it's pretty interesting and weird. The game world itself is the same, and it keeps you wanting to explore more! 3, Character building/customization - this kind of ties into combat but it deserves a mention too. Your character has various body parts to integrate into yourself as well as runes and nodes that go into your core. These change your stats in various ways, adding another layer of fun, depth and customization. But the title, I mentioned something about the kickstarter? I was not a backer. I did, however, learn about the very ambitious goals the developers had that were never realized. There were supposed to be 7 characters to play, there are only 2. There were supposed to be many different worlds (7?), there are only 2. The game was even slated to release in 2018. Essentially, the game contains only a fraction of what it was supposed to have. I can see why backers are disappointed. But I still enjoyed the game while I didn't know about all that. Now that I do know, I'm a little bummed out though the game is still fun to play, which is pretty impressive. All I can hope for is that they stick with it, and maybe try to add some more content down the line.
I've played this game for about 40 hours, and so far it has been very enjoyable. Like others have said, it is quite similar to Freelancer, which coincidentally is my favorite game of all time. So I'm sorry if I seem a bit biased. I was leaning towards giving it 3 stars, but decided that was too harsh. The Gemini system isn't particularly big in my opinion, but there are tons of things to do, such as completing missions, hunting down wanted pirates, mining, collecting gas, boarding ships, exploring and of course the campaign. However, my biggest gripes with the game so far; AI and faction diversity. The AI seems quite poor, as it simply flies in a straight line towards you, with weapons firing. Once you're close enough, they do start to turn and maneuver. Most of the time, enemies will try to escape just before dying. They simply do not have any tactics besides "fly towards and shoot enemy". Now, in Freelancer, factions and their members had way more defining features. Factions used certain types of ships, weapons, patrol routes and even maneuvers. In Starpoint Gemini 2, factions do seem to use certain ships, but I have not seen any special behavior regarding weapons or maneuvers. Good: - Many ships and weapons - Classes and Perks are decently implemented - Great graphics - Boarding - Sound effects and music - Ship enhancements and customization - Modding - Responsive and helpful dev team Bad: - No multiplayer - Poor AI - Factions have almost no defining features at all - Instability issues (I've crashed about 4 times so far and also encountered some bugs)
