I`ve played this long ago, wanted to refresh some memories. ..however - this installation is entirely unplayable. The game just runs in background, but does not start at all. I`ve searched through for a solution, wasted couple hours trying to solve an unknown problem. This is not, how it`s supposed to be - GOG should patch or find and inform about solutions, how to make product work. Otherwise - they should not sell products, that simply do not work.
Tried this, and at first I was mesmerized - illustrative parts of visuals are fabulous, reminds me of great works of Rosinski or Andreas. Technical graphics and interface are fine, not great, but a good supplement. Sound is fine as well. Gameplay looks interesting...at first. But it quickly turns shallow and simple - and it would be ok, provided had it had more dynamics. For a simple one - it`s too slow and repetitive. Main "quest" is very basic, it`s just a grindfest through bigger and bigger ships. Very generic. The game quickly loses its charm and feels more like a chore.
Part 3 beeing quite disappointing, this remains the best of 3. Scenario and atmosphere wise it`s similar to part 1, but it`s bigger, and has a lot of gui and gameplay improvements. Also - definitely try out community mods - extra maps and content.
The best part is fighting system, although a little repetitive it can be a challenge. Graphicts is stunning at first, but during the game it turns out it`s rather copypaste and static drawings. Gameplay and game mechanics is bugged and sometimes simply ridiculous - like it`s better to starve most of your men to keep morale high. Or it`s possible to trigger a dialogue with characters previously killed. The story seems catching and interesting, but it has many unfinished and unclear threads. Scripting is very easy to see through - we are given abundance of characters and event and dialogue options, however most of them are totally forgettable and seem to have no meaning. A random event usually has plenty of options - but only one is fine, and after one playthrough we know it all. Most of choices are unimportant - only one really matters, and final is linear with two almost identical endings. As for gameplay - devs claim it is 10hrs+ In reality most of it is average dialogues and watching people walking. Like LOTR, but dull. The game has almost null replayability, because everything is the same and it turns into click-through-fest. Although the basic idea is great the game value is not worth the amount of money, especially with all the backing cash. Devs need to add 2-3 times content and fix all bugs and tweak game mechanics. After this, the game may even reach 4-5 mark, bu now it feels just like a demo.
