|
 The
dark of space has never seemed so colorful and bright as it did in Starscape
this year.
The beautifully painted backgrounds made you want to turn your ship into the
third dimension and sail off towards the nebulas that cris-crossed the galaxy
created for Starscape.
With
beautiful graphics and thumb-blistering game play, Starscape quickly became a
new standard for all Independent games when it was released in March of this
year and has already won the
Game Tunnel
Adventure game of the year award.
The adventure presented in the game is a wonderful one, and the longer you play, the more addicted
you'll get. Starscape gives just a perfect improvement plan in the game
that isn't too heavy in mindless gathering of minerals (which allows you to
build new ships, weapons and equipment) instead making the gathering of items
seem like a natural part of the game play as you attempt to advance the story
through the different levels.
In the game you can have up to four spaceships to use for mining and fighting;
these ships are fully customizable within limits; for example, you can make a
huge ship with a bunch of lasers and rockets, annihilate a node full of aliens
and asteroids, and then change into a little mining ship and reap the benefits
of your labor. You can also upgrade main base/ship with new turrets and a *big*
main gun. This way, when you're in a pinch (or just don't feel like shooting
rocks), you can just fall back to your base (or call it to you) and have it do
the work for you.
One of the things that keeps players engaged while playing the game is the way
that new weapons/equipment is researched and then built. You choose from
the different advancements available, such as missiles, what you are going to
focus your building materials and crew on. You can assign crew members to
either discovering new technologies or building new items. The fun thing
about this is the way that it spaces out the advancements in the game. I
found myself playing into the wee hours of the morning as I tried to get my crew
to research just one more item. Once they had researched it, I couldn't
rest until I had them complete building the item so I could add it to my ship.
Of course, then I might realize that I would need a bigger ship to use the item,
so I would immediately start researching a better ship. The set-up keeps
players heavily involved in the game as they fly about destroying enemies
attempting to build up an even more destructive ship.
Starscape has been a clear winner this year with
its high quality graphics, sound and game presentation, which is good news for
gaming fans looking for a great game. This is a rare game that employs a
large amount of strategy intertwined with a wonderful story and even a
well-presented "building" portion of the game that are all perfectly mixed
together into a magical masterpiece that is the 2003 Independent Game of the
Year! |
