The controls in the game will take a while to get used to, but once you learn what everything does they're quite simple, just unlike anything I've ever seen before in a game. Enemies are relentless in their pursuit of life and happiness, generally meaning they're going to kill you, take your cargo and spend it on their happiness. Learn your keys, and practice in here until you can at least hold your own for a bit. A huge slow ship with lots of cargo space, but short on weapons isn't a good choice for a bounty hunting mission for instance.Ĭombat is hectic, and it's a darned good thing that there's a training mode. The missions you can take on will depend quite heavily on how you've got your ship rigged out. (A REAL life saver when you're out in the dark somewhere and you have an accident or have your engines shot out.) Just working on getting a bigger and badder ship could keep you occupied for weeks. The number of ships and equipment upgrades are simply mind blowing, from different types of laser/energy weapons and missiles to mines, counter measures, different types of engines, armor and even repair droids. The Flatspace site claims that the game boasts over 100 different ships, and from what I've seen so far I believe it. Your initial ship is chosen for you based on your profession, and can be upgraded as you have the money. An excellent example of this is me forgetting to buy more counter measures, and getting a missile launched at me in my next sortie into space. All it takes is one small mistake in battle and you're one dead SOB. Due to the fact that I die quite frequently in this game, especially when I first started playing, I have to be undead. Undead characters may reload their save games on death, but are not allowed into the high score listing. If you want to get your name into the hall of fame, you must choose death is permanent. There's two different types of game to choose as well. Frankly I didn't get into this part too much, as I was enjoying killing things too much. You can also purchase trade items if you're going to be working on the trading aspect of the game. When on space stations you can also repair your ship, buy new ships, weapons and equipment (more on this later), and hire crew. Was it really a living universe? I jumped in a few times to the same sector after waiting a few more minutes each time, and the situation I wandered into on the other end was different every time, as the battle progressed. I'd saved just before, and I was curious as how exactly the game engine worked. Once I jumped into the middle of a huge firefight between police and pirates. As I mentioned a few sentances ago I've even sometimes died by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can radio for help when you get jumped, and just like in real life: Sometimes you get the good guys, sometimes you get more sharks. Some ships will ignore you, some will help you in a fight, and some of them will try to kill you and loot your corpse. All of the AI controlled ships in the game actually exist and are actually playing the game as you do (more or less), and playing in a vast and living universe makes for a very interesting game indeed. For instance, some bounty missions require you to simply hunt down and kill a character, some require you to bring them back with you, alive. There's quite a variety even within mission types. Space Stations that are scattered around will give you missions, ranging from courier and taxi jobs to bounty hunting and mining. In my case dead or alive often means dead, my favorite type of prisoner. My personal favorite was the Bounty Hunter, as there's nothing like hunting down scum and bringing them in dead or alive for the cold hard cash. If you so choose the game will also pick a class randomly for you. You can be a trader and do risky cargo runs across the galaxy, sign up as a police officer, or be a pirate (arrrrr matey!) and prey on the aforementioned characters. "There are a wide variety of missions and gameplay available, largely based on the career path you choose to pursue. Excerpts from the excellent review at says it all: One of the best space combat/trading games I have ever come across, Flatspace from Cornutopia Software is a stunning and addictive game that is well worth the $20 price tag, and fondly recalls the good old days of Privateer and Elite series.
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