I don't have past memories of this to cloud my view of it. I loved the look of it and was excited to try this out. The levels look great, graphics are fine as is the sound and music etc... but the controls. The physics, or rather, LACK thereof was incredibly annoying! The game would be awesome if all I had to do was to drive in a straight line! But as soon as you try and turn, the car spins and skids out of control as if you're driving on ice! I tried very lightly tapping the turn, it skidded and spun out of control. So I tried slowing way too, far slower than the cheating computer cars were, then turn at a slow speed, TOO slow to win the race, and it spun out of control, and when it comes to grabbing any of the items on the track, good luck with that, with the ridiculous controls, and that driving on ice feel, you can barely stay in the race, let alone grab anything on the track. Every race I tried, ALL the computer cars got done LONG before I did! I REALLY WANT to love this game as it looks great, but I just can't. I don't play games to annoy myself, and this is VERY annoying. I don't understand all the glowing reviews AT ALL.
I loved this! I wish there were more levels, but for what it is, I was impressed. It ran smoothly on my system which I build cheaply in 2019 and added a 3060 (12G model) later on. I hope this is expanded to more levels later, but certainly well worth the download.
Keep in mind that this game was one of the early games which used CD-ROMs, and as such one much judge it according to the standards at the time. In my experience, this was a lot of fun to play. I completed this game back in the 1990s when it first came out without any walkthroughs, without any cheats. Just good old fashioned saved games. I don't recall reaching any dead ends in this. I loved the puzzles. It had some fun and comical characters, some interesting locations (the ship in the bottle) and an overall good story. The intro alone was worth getting this for, at least when it first came out. I always thought it was brilliant how it transitioned from the text adventure into the graphical. This is not a difficult game, at least I didn't find it difficult. Just a lot of fun and well worth grabbing. I feel that criticizing graphics from a 1993 game decades later is unfair,especially considering these graphics were fairly new and modern at the time, CD-ROMs being new. This game, The 7th Guest and Myst were three of the first games to come out on CD-ROM. It was all new territory, and these games pulled it off quite well at the time.
The pros: This is the same great game which has been fixed to run on modern systems at high resolutions (defaults to 1080P). There's an option for antialiasing of 1x, 2x and 4x. I selected 4x and didn't notice much of a difference to be honest. This game also fixes the issues with multimonitor setups and you can now select which monitor you wish to use to play the game and your mouse won't wander out from it (you can tap WinKey to move outside of the monitor if needed though). The reflections are fixed in this so they line up with what they are reflecting. If you have a custom skin you like to use in the game for your character, it will still work. Old saved games can also be copied over to this one (the saved games and settings are in your Documents folder, in a BloodRayne1 folder, just copy your saved game from the old game to there and you're good to go). The cons: Same as the pros, this is the same great game. If you were expecting more, like newer, better graphics, you'll be disappointed. This is basically a fix for all the problems running the original game, nothing new that I could see. This is well worth getting as I love the game but, I was expecting more from this other than fixes to be honest. I give the game 5 stars, this fix 3 stars for only being a fix and nothing much more, so I went halfway and gave it 4.
Unlike the newer game that ripped off the name from this classic. This is the REAL Space Rogue, which bears absolutely no resemblence to the newer game. This is a classic, and fairly unique style of game. It mixes 3D and 2D game play, and does a really nice job of it. You start out on a salvage ship when you discover a small ship drifting in space. While exploring it and salvaging it, the ship you started on is attacked and destroyed leaving you the lone survivor on this rogue ship. That's all you know. Why were you attacked? Why was this little ship you now command derelect in space is something you will have to discover. The answers are out there. When flying through space, it's all 3D, with a 2D map of the sector you are in. You travel between sectors, each one unique with various space stations and enemies you encounter. When you dock at a Space Station you switch to a 2D view and interact with people in the station, talk to them and gradually put together a story about what is going on. You can also buy and sell upgrades for your ship, which starts out fairly weak, but over the course of the game, you can build it up so it eventually can take out anything that is foolish enough to take you on. But early on, you will have to pick your battles carefully, if at all. Other items you can purchase are trade goods which you can buy and sell at various prices in different sectors. Some legitimate trades, some illegal, but worth more... with the right papers. You will need to have a pad of paper on hand and take notes on prices, eventually you will discover some lucrative trade routes and upgrade your ship, take on side quests and piece together a story that ultimately will answer the question about where the ship you pilot came from, among other things. It's a great game and requires a little patience at first, but there's a large galaxy to explore with some interesting stories and locations. Well worth the price.
If you're looking for a new version of Space Rogue, keep looking. If you're looking for FTL part deux, for a higher price that rips off the name of a classic game, congrats, you found your game. This is extremely annoying to see a classic like Space Rogue ripped off like this. The only thing remotely like the game in this is the name, and space. That's it. They're merely cashing in on a name to sell their trash. Giving it 1 star is being generous. If it had a different name, maybe. But this sort of trash is infuriating.
This isn't just any old strategy game, it has elements that makes it unique, even after all these years since it was released, it still stands out and retains features unique to it that make it a lot of fun. The first thing you will notice is the graphics. The terrain is much nice looking than other RTS games from the same era, it has smoothly rolling hills and avoids having a grid look to it but a more natural look which I remember impressing me at the time. The units, when you first start playing you have a couple units to choose from, but as you progress you will notice more and more and soon you'll be overwhelmed by the incredible variety of units you have to choose from, this includes base defenses as well as vehicles etc. At the time you could download more units online, then there's the expansion packs that add even more. This is probably the only game I know of where you can have an entire base in the water (with expansion pack). I once played against my brother and defeated him by constructing my entire base in the water. Another feature I loved was the ability to recycle destroyed units. They don't merely become random debris on the field, but destroyed enemy units can become a source of metal, you can recycle their units you destroy (as well as your own) and use the metals to create more, you can also use things like trees, rocks etc... the game doesn't stick you with one path to victory, you have many you can take. Need energy? Burn down some trees, create solar or wind generators, need metal? Find a deposit, or perhaps extract it from some rocks or destroyed units, or if you live on a world with a metallic floor, just extract it from anywhere you wish, then there's the water generators... you get the picture. Everything counts as a unit in this game, including base defenses, so you have to plan things out, you can't just build 10000 base defenses, or you won't be able to build as many units as offense. You need to balance things out. You can have a lot of units in game, no worries there. Also the map sizes can be HUGE. For the price, with two expansion packs included? If you ever liked RTS games you NEED to buy this one, it's simply the best RTS ever made, and when compared to newer RTS games, you'll probably play them once and that is it, this is one you'll keep coming back to.
