Space Rangers Review

By Kieron Gillen Published 5 October, 2005

Old Firm battles with Space Celtic ensue.

Version tested: PC

This review was meant to be in on Monday. Not this Monday, but two Mondays ago. There’s been as determined procrastination over writing the review as any game ever, with me attempting to distract Kristan by sending in lots of other work which isn’t due yet to avoid him asking where this Space Rangers review has got to. Thank God that Nintendo saw fit to release the most exciting gaming news of the year recently too.

Essentially, the game’s amazing, but I had to put myself in quarantine for a week to make sure it’s actually something I have to recommend to the world. Because it might be just because it’s precisely aimed at my soft spots – emergent situations, freeform universes, sheer quirkiness, and being constructed by an underdog developer in the middle of nowhere (Vladivostok, apparently). And it’s not that it doesn’t have enough flaws for a more sober minded reviewer to kick it down a little. But sober-minded reviewers give the latest merely competent game in a big franchise ninety percent because it exists, so to hell with them.

Space Rangers is, in the language of the illiterate, Teh Aw3s0m3.

It’s also the sort of game which makes me think that the tongue-in-cheek post-genre label I made up for the Darwinia review was actually onto something. This is a game made with absolute, brilliant disregard for the accepted conventions of gaming niches. It’s almost as if someone escaped from the Wario Ware design team, snuck off to Russia and performed a putsch at an unwary strategy game developer.

'Space Rangers' Screenshot 1

This is actually an exciting space battle. No, but really.

In terms of the structure, it’s essentially a more complicated turn-based Pirates set in Space. So Elite meets Pirates, basically.

You play an eponymous Space Ranger, looking down on a two-dimensional view of the solar system you’re currently in. Planets rotate around stars in perpetual motion. Meteors float along. Other space ships go about their daily business – Pirates, pirating, Traders, trading, Diplomats, diplomatting. Space Stations float silently. Dominators invade and destroy all life, but we’ll get to them a bit later.

You’re free to do whatever you want. Travel between solar-systems via your jump drive, exploring. Try a little trading, by buying high, selling low and swiftly going out of business. Take missions from planetary governors for cash rewards and honours. Either turn to intergalactic thievery or help innocent merchant vessels beat off attacks. Explore, laying down probes on uninhabited space areas. Mine space rocks. Join the war effort against the dominators, who, no, really, we’ll get to eventually.

'Space Rangers' Screenshot 2

I don't know about you, but I really fancy him.

This all accrues money, experience and honours. The former is used, like Elite, to increase your ship’s equipment, slowly climbing the long tech tree from utterly useless to the sort of firepower that makes the Death Star feel a little inadequate. The experience is used for the small role-playing aspect, skills able to boost your performance in combat or trading. The latter is the equivalent of the “Rating” in Elite, climbing the ranks in the army and your reputation among the Space Rangers of the galaxy. There’s also individual reputations with all the characters in the universe, with pirates holding grudges from previous attacks and individual planets declaring you a wanted man and launching police-vessels whenever you’re around. In other words, there’s lots of ways for your decisions to bounce back at you in positive and negative manners.

That’s the basic game – 2D turn-based space-adventuring. Pirates meets Elite.

So it’s a big game, an unusual game, but a game you can just about understand. You’re happily playing when – biff! Bang! Pow! – the game goes insane and does something you were never expecting. Now, Pirates has done this sort of subgame thing before, but is a much simpler and shallower game than Space Rangers. That the subgames were relatively light and the strategy games were similar in tone meant that it became easier to view as a single cloth. Not so here.

So, for example, when you go from an exploratory space game one minute to a Williams-arcade-game style shooter when you go down a Black Hole, it’s somewhat unexpected.

Or when you get a planetary mission where you’re placed in charge of a simple – but functionally complete – RTS with you commanding an army of robots whose components you choose from a lengthy list of options.

'Space Rangers' Screenshot 3

The arcade game bit in full effect. Madness.

Or when you get thrown in prison or take certain missions, and it becomes an old-skool text based adventure, with you selecting multiple-choice options to progress. And not just a small questionnaire, then back in the game – an actual lengthy mini-game.

Or… well, one of the reasons why I wanted to continue playing this was the constant thought that Elemental Games may have hidden something else entirely unexpected in its crevices somewhere, and I didn’t want to miss anything.

What are the problems? Well, it’s a little shoddy around the edges. A couple of the subgames may not particularly appeal – the RTS isn’t exactly great, for example. However, you’re free to avoid these if you don’t want to get your fingers dirty. Particularly iffy is the level of the translation, which borders on gibberish at its worst. And I’d hammer down on that if it wasn’t for the small paragraph in the manual, which notes that you may notice a few errors in the text, but this is due to the game being written in the dialect of the far future, where the natural drift of meaning in language has lead to certain differences. They’re not errors. They’re local colour.

And you can almost imagine them trying to keep a straight face while writing it.

See – that level of shameless, balls-out audacity permeates every byte of the game.

It’s also a uniquely challenging game. It doesn’t pussy around with the player. In the first game I played, my merchant-man was a little over-aggressive in leaping to the aid of travellers being attacked by pirates. Hell – I’m a Space Ranger! I’m not going to slink by and let them hurt the fellow innocent travellers. But while I save some people, I’ve made enemies of all the local pirates, which leaves me being constantly harassed whenever I take to space. I end up spending a month on Neptune, waiting for them to move off. I just wasn’t capable enough yet to deal with them.

I restarted as a Mercenary, and used my improved array of fire-power to show them what time it was.

(I now realise that what I could have done was get as much fuel as possible and head to a distant corner of the galaxy, where my foes weren’t around. Also, I should have used my rocket boosters to outrun trouble. But only experience taught me that – the one thing I didn’t have back then).

You see… thinking. Not just going through the motions, but thinking.

'Space Rangers' Screenshot 4

You've got to love the bra-waistcoat combo.

I’d say that it’s another game to make this the year where non-sequels are where all the real action is, except it’s actually Space Rangers 2 and only called 'Space Rangers' as the first wasn’t properly available in the west. However, that’s also included on the CD as a freebie, meaning that it adds unbeatable value to its other attractive attributes.

Let’s finish with an anecdote which tries to sum up of how Space Rangers has charmed, frustrated and enthralled me for the last couple of weeks. It’s not even the best one.

I receive a mission from a planet towards the north end of the galaxy. They want me to get a rare medical ingredient from a few solar-system hyperspace leaps away, and return it to them in a time limit. The price is right. I head off, making the first leap.

I discover that the system I pass through has been taken over by the Dominators. Now, these are the central “plot” in the game, a group of invaders who want to take over the galaxy. They’ll appear in places, and try and annex them – with the computer military trying to defend. The ebb and flow means that the playing map for your adventure changes depending on the flow of the war, and even when you’re ignoring the ongoing fights – which you can do – they can get in the way of your misadventures. As it is, I’m the only non-Dominator craft in the solar system, so every single enemy ship homes in on me.

Activating the boosters, I pass through the system and make the leap away. Phew. I’ll have to come back another way.

Arriving on the planet, I pass through one of the text adventure sections where I have to hunt, kill and collect animal parts as part of a ritual of manhood or something. After clubbing a few beasts to death, I get the ingredient and start considering the route home. I see I still have over two months of game time to get back, so figure that I could actually take another task to do on the way back. I talk to this planet’s governors, and discover that they have a delivery they want make to a planetary system fairly near my destination. Great – I accept it, and head off.

Wanting to avoid the Dominators system, I head the slightly longer route back only to discover that a planet in this solar system wants to arrest me for some trifling previous misdemeanour, and launches military vessels after me. I try the engine boost, but my previous abuse left it on its last legs and it burns out, meaning I can’t jump and escape. I’m dead.

Reload to the autosave, and I consider my options. Now, I can’t go back that way. I can’t go back past the Dominators, as I’d have to use the engine burn to get through there too. So, I need to repair my engines. Problem is, I’ve got no money. That’s why I wanted to do the mission in the first place.

'Space Rangers' Screenshot 5

Maybe best to avoid the sun on this occasion.

Only solution I can think of is to quickly mine a load of meteor rocks in the area and sell them to gain enough cash to do a quick patch-up job. However, this has taken up so much time that it’s clear that I won’t be able to satisfy both my mission contracts within their time-limits. Dilemma. However, I also notice that in the passing time the Dominators have invaded the solar system where I started, and taken over the entire place. I can’t complete that mission even if I wanted to, as the planet is in enemy clutches. Damn.

So, I head to the system for the second mission, passing through the place where I’m a wanted man at full burn. Time’s clicking down, and to have a chance of completing the mission, I end up burning through the next system too. I know that this will end up breaking the engine, but if I don’t, I’ll lose the money and have my reputation drop in another planet. I can’t have that. However, the engine gives out as I’m approaching the final destination. I pull into the nearest planet, and work out what to do.

Repairs, clearly. But I can’t mine, as there’s no time. I don’t want to pawn any of my equipment, as it’s all too vital. But I need cash, now. At which point I realise I have the rare medical item I was meant to get for the first mission still in my hold. Checking, I realise I can sell it for thirty credits more than it’ll cost to repair the engine.

Awesome. I burn across the remainder of space, and get to the destination one day before the deadline.

Drama, excitement, adventure, challenge, thought: these are the best reasons to play videogames.

And this is one of the best reasons this year for you to play videogames.

Play this videogame.

9 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Kieron.

About Kieron Gillen

Kieron is one of the founders of the lovely Rock, Paper, Shotgun and nowadays writes comics for Marvel starring characters that even his mum has heard of.

Read more articles from Kieron by visiting the Kieron Gillen archive page.

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Comments (89) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Hench #1 6 years ago

    It not my type of game, but I am easily persuaded :)

  • old_boy #2 6 years ago

    This game looks teh Aw3s0m3!


    Oh, er...

  • Hicksy #3 6 years ago

    /scrolls

    /sees score at bottom

    /blinks

    /blinks again

    /heads back to top to start reading review avidly

  • Blerk #4 6 years ago

    Play this videogame.

    It's not a video game, it's a computer game. ;-)

    /pedant

  • jellyhead #5 6 years ago

    Exactly my reaction Hicksy. :)
    It's only £18 so i may pick it up if i've some cash left.

  • Hicksy #6 6 years ago

    /orders

  • itamae #7 6 years ago

    That sounds excellent. Except for the bit where it says PC. Can we expect a console version anytime soon?

  • Hicksy #8 6 years ago

    This sounds superb!!!!

    £18 at Play - bargaintastic! :D

  • lemonfist #9 6 years ago

    Elite meets Pirates?

    TEH AMAZINGNESS OMG!!!


    PS. you forgot to add a buy link

  • Psi #10 6 years ago

    ooooo tickle me pink, im gonna order £18 thats a bargin! XD

  • Rankin #11 6 years ago

    Excellent review. Ordered.

  • Empedocles #12 6 years ago

    Finally something a bit original - ordered!

  • Razz #13 6 years ago

    O_O

    /blows dust of PC

  • Vex #14 6 years ago

    Excellent. Another game that Mr Gillen talks about that I end up parting with money for (Mount & Blade being the previous one). This is becoming a habit sir!



    Keep doing it though, these games are a breath of fresh air to someone such as I, who often feels jaded with certain other 'mainstream' games.

  • sleepless #15 6 years ago

    Why review few years old game when there is very good sequel - Space Rangers 2? And as far as I know, Space Rangers is part of the Space Rangers 2 package. At least in my country :)

  • Celeborn #16 6 years ago

    /me Recommends sleepless reads the review

    "....except it’s actually Space Rangers 2 and only called 'Space Rangers' as the first wasn’t properly available in the west. However, that’s also included on the CD as a freebie......"

  • UncleLou #17 6 years ago

    It’s almost as if someone escaped from the Wario Ware design team, snuck off to Russia and performed a putsch at an unwary strategy game developer.


    Hehe, nice one.

    That sounds excellent. Except for the bit where it says PC. Can we expect a console version anytime soon?

    If you pay the royalties? ;)


    Sounds intriguing, I can't say I ever heard of this one before.

  • deepmenace #18 6 years ago

    This looks a bit like Captain Blood on the ST...

    or Sundog....what a game that was, first properly immersive game i played
    Edited by 1 at 05/10/05 @ 11:15

  • bloke #19 6 years ago

    Sundog??

    ..........holy shit............I just had a flashback!

  • Stickman #20 6 years ago

    Blimey! Never even heard of this one, but it sounds great.

    /orders.

  • groovychainsaw #21 6 years ago

    a pleasant surprise.... might see if i can pick this up somewhere....

  • sleepless #22 6 years ago

    /me Recommends sleepless reads the review

    I see now. Sorry, my fault.

    My hastiness aside, Space Rangers and Space Rangers 2 are both great games and their low price seems kinda bizarre to me (in a positive way) :)

  • President_Weasel #23 6 years ago

    All right then.
    If you've taken a couple of extra weeks to make sure it's worth recommending and then given it a 9, and if it really is some sort of cross between elite and pirates, then SOLD.

  • jellyhead #24 6 years ago

    The "Purchase" link in game info is wrong it should be Space Rangers at Play.com.

  • StarchildHypocrethes #25 6 years ago

    Ooooooh, sounds excellent. Cheers for the heads up EG.

    Consider it ordered.

  • jellyhead #26 6 years ago

    Just so i don't feel left out... ordered! :)

  • BremXJones #27 6 years ago

    "Laptop here you go... some fun for you!"

    This was one of my thoughts too. Its a perfect laptop game.

    KG

  • Teeth #28 6 years ago

    I only had to read a few paragraphs to know I want the game right now.

  • Salaman #29 6 years ago

    Ooooow sounds lovely!

  • Wobble #30 6 years ago

    /ordered.
    //obligatory extra slashie.


    /now with added spelling.

    Edited by 1 at 05/10/05 @ 14:05

  • Huxley #31 6 years ago

    "Laptop here you go... some fun for you!"

    This was one of my thoughts too. Its a perfect laptop game.

    KG

    Hmm....

    Just bought this from Game based on this review. I've recently bought a Dell XPS2 with nVidia6800pro video card to play F.E.A.R at work. Installing this it says the highest resolution is 1024x768. Oh well gameplay first eh?

  • Teeth #32 6 years ago

    Damn straight Huxley! I played Doom in 320x240! Yeah, you heard!

  • Huxley #33 6 years ago

    And this morning I was playing DoomIII in 1920x1200.

    Man I'm excited about this game, slowest install EVER!!!

    And lunch time is almost up.

  • Huxley #34 6 years ago

    Oh no, StarForce protection.

    Damn, I hate that stuff!

  • asha #35 6 years ago

    Anyone know of a Mac version?

  • TheDifficult3rdAlbum #36 6 years ago

    > "Thank God that Nintendo saw fit to release the most exciting gaming news of the year recently too."

    They're thinking of making another Mario?

  • Stickman #37 6 years ago

    Let us know what it's like Huxley.

  • StixxUK #38 6 years ago

    Anyone ever played Escape Velocity on the mac? It's pretty bloody old, but it was excellent at the time I played it, many moons ago. By a shareware house called Ambrosia (whom you'll certainly have heard of if you were playing Mac games at the same time I was).

    I think they released one of the upgrades to EV on the PC a few years ago, not sure how well it turned out or indeed if it was as good as the original...

    Anyway, this one looks interesting and I fancy a change from the norm so I may well check it out on the strength of this review. Nice one EG.

  • reflux #39 6 years ago

    Star Control II.

  • Huxley #40 6 years ago

    Only got to go through the tutorial. Boss doesn't like me playing too much.

    So far just been doing the flying/trading/mining stuff. The review is bang on with regard to those points.

    Looking good. Me likey.

  • Teeth #41 6 years ago

    w00t

  • Teeth #42 6 years ago

    EV Nova isn't too bad actually. Give it a go!

  • kangarootoo #43 6 years ago

    @Blerk

    Put define:videogame into google sir.

    /pedant...er

  • tincanrocket #44 6 years ago

    It would be interesting to see how many orders Play received within hours of this review being posted, as I too have ordered it - sounds great and a snip for less than £20. Mr Gillen, you don't happen to have shares in Play or something??

  • Rankin #45 6 years ago

    Oh no, StarForce protection.

    Fuck, no :-(

    Starforce is teh shitz0r

  • tincanrocket #46 6 years ago

    There's a very detailed discussion about the game over at: http://www.octopu soverlords.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14837&postdays=0&posto rder=asc&highlight=space+rangers&start=40&sid=9653923a0563a2 ed09ac251c7d10e186

    (wow, craaazy linkage ^^)

    Nabbed this long very good post from there (I would never type this much myself): credit to "flying j"
    ___

    Here are my impressions cross posted from Qt3:

    Ok, here's some extended impressions from about 6 hours play:

    The game so far is excellent.

    It is like Escape Velocity meets Star control 2, but with the polished presentation of the latter. Planets move along orbits, comets and meteors have newtonian trajectories (which makes mining them a bit of a challenge). It is also turn-based while in space... which makes it a lot more strategic than Escape Velocity.

    There are some great UI conventions introduced which enhance the experience a lot. For instance, while on planets, every information screen has a little "i" button at the bottom of them. If you press this button, it will make a new "i" button at the bottom of your interface... almost like a taskbar. If you mouse over this new "i" button, it will display the entire contents of the screen as a tooltip. This is an extremely effective way of making a personalized journal, and invaluable when comparing buy/sell prices at different planets for trade.

    The customizing of the ships seems extremely deep as well, with many different ship types and components. There are also a lot of loot-type items that can be used to enhance existing components, give overall stat bonuses, etc.

    The universe is extremely dynamic. The overall plot point is that there is an alien race (three, actually... three different types of aliens all working together) trying to take over the galaxy. There are frontline areas where these aliens are expanding, and large battles that take place between the occupying sentient races and the invaders. There are also all sorts of military, trade and pirate ships duking it out all over the place as well.

    To go into these dynamics further:

    One time I was flying to the edge of a sector when I saw about 6 friendly ships circling eachother. I hailed one of them, and he said that in 5 days they were launching a counter-offensive against a neighboring system that was recently attacked... and said I could join them if I wanted. I passed turns for 5 days, and then the whole attack fleet warped into the neighboring system and commenced the attack. It was a great battle.

    Another example is that I got jumped by two pirates. There was a neutral transport in the area. I hailed them and asked for help. Because my charisma was high enough, the transport decided to aid me, and we beat them easily.

    In addition to general loot you get from blowing up enemy ships (you can also salvage a LOT of good stuff if you see a battle in progres by swooping in and grabbing debris while the combatants are distracted) there is another layer. The enemy alien races drop "nodes" which can be brought to a science station and researched. It appears there is a bit of an XCom-type research tree, where you invest these nodes into technologies, which get researched over months eventually resulting in a new piece of alien technology that can be used.

    Next up is the RTS segment of the game. Every once in a while, a government will ask you to liberate a planet's surface from the alien invaders. This loads up a complete 3D RTS engine. It definately doesn't compare to warcraft III, but it is fun nonetheless. I generally don't like RTS games, but this one has a cool feature: you can take direct control of any of your units at any time, using WASD and mouse to attack.

    The units you create are made up of several components that you can pick for every unit. These include chassis size, weapons loadouts, special items and leg type. All the units basically Mechs...

    One of the nice features is you can pause and give orders to some extent... it seems that you can only give orders to units that are grouped while the game is paused for some reason. Ungrouped units can't be given orders.

    Yet another aspect are "away" type missions you sometimes get from planets. These are like "lite" text adventures you go on, and are pretty fun. The only one I've done so far was a sort of "pod race" where I had to select the type of pod racer I would use (fast, protected or maneuverable) and then it would present me with a piece of terrain I was on and how fast or cautious I wanted to drive on it. This would decrease my overall shield, but may give me a lead if I'm aggressive. There is definately potential for some of these missions to be really interesting.

    The final type of gameplay that I haven't tried yet are "blackhole" fights. In these, your ship is sucked into a blackhole and has to fight against an alien ship. The big difference here is that all the action is realtime, and from what I read plays just like Star Control/Escape Velocity.

    Another thing to note is that the entire universe is randomly generated each time you play... giving this some incredible replay value. There is even a "top 20" scoreboard once you die. That's not to say the game is short by any means. It looks like it would take a good 40 hours to win a game. You can also save anywhere (except during the RTS fights... you can only restart those).

    It also comes with Star Rangers 1 on the disc, which is a completely different game. The only difference is that I believe there are no RTS planetside battles in the first one.

    So, there you have it. I REALLY like this game so far.

    EDIT: sorry for the presentation order of features, it was mainly just train-of-thought. Another thing I forgot to add is that you can actually mine planets as well. This is a pretty cool feature and it works like this:

    You can buy planetary probes from various vendors. You can then fly to an unihabited planet. The planet will have a certain percentage of mountains, plains and oceans. Each probe has the ability to scan one or more of these. So, while in orbit, you can drop one or more probes into various orbits around the planets. Depending on the quality of the probe, it will scan the planet's surface for any resources over the period of weeks or months. You then return to the planet and can collect any found resources.

    The UI comes into play here as well... there is always a bubble at the bottom of the taskbar that lists all probes and stored items, and their location. So you don't have to write down where you left probes scanning stuff.

  • jellyhead #47 6 years ago

    Thanks TinCanRocket, sounds good.

  • sumanai #48 6 years ago

    "It's not a bug, it's a feature!" -anyone else thought this with the language announcement?

    So not "it rocks" but "it space-rocks"?

    *cough* sorry, seems exceptionally good though.

  • anthule #49 6 years ago

    Glad to see Im not the only one who thought 'ooh - it sounds like a proper commmercial version of Escape Velocity' when they read this. EV Nova is indeed really rather good, and I believe a PC version is available too.

    Alas, I got into EV because Ive got a Mac, so I wont be able to play this. Bother, it sounds really rather excellent...

  • Ryuken #50 6 years ago

    Could be something.

    "the RTS isn’t exactly great"

    Not great as say... the rts part of Imperium Galactica (II)?

  • BremXJones #51 6 years ago

    God, IG2: Now there was a game.

    KG

  • MightyPenguin #52 6 years ago

    @TheDifficult3rdAlbum

    KG is referring to the Rev controller announcement.

  • Stickman #53 6 years ago

    IG2! I'm going to go dig that out right now!

  • The Old Bill #54 6 years ago

    Will this be on the High Streets?

  • illuminated_523 #55 6 years ago

    Well, the Elite Pirates line had me hooked and the rest of the review reeled me in. Ordered - it never felt so good to follow a crowd :-)

  • Genji #56 6 years ago

    Ooooh! A PC game I want to play! Wonders will never cease.

  • GitSomE_UK #57 6 years ago

    Just placed order with Play not played a good space trader for aggggeeess

  • Shrimp #58 6 years ago

    Sounds fantastic!!

  • Argh #59 6 years ago

    Does anyone know anywhere this can be purchased for download? I only know of direct 2 drive, and they sure don't seem to have it.

  • Razzle #60 6 years ago

    "You've got to love the bra-waistcoat combo."

    LMAO!!!

  • Stickman #61 6 years ago

    Wow! it's in the middle bit where the fancy stuff goes now! I feel part of a movement.

    /checks pants.

    Oh, where can I put my face....

  • Khab #62 6 years ago

    /orders

    /sees mention of Starforce

    Is this true? :(( If so, I'll have to download a cracked version to install or something, I'm NOT letting that thing on my PC.

  • #63 6 years ago

    sounds awesome, and the review has comedy value too!:

    'Thank God that Nintendo saw fit to release the most exciting gaming news of the year recently too.'

    bwahahahahahahaha!

  • Huxley #64 6 years ago

    The translation is brilliant...

    From a text adventure bit in a Pizza-Hack
    "plus you notice several girls - in the far corner of the hall. The prostates were having some wild conversation"

    Hmm. I wonder if I could train my prostate to talk?

  • tincanrocket #65 6 years ago

    Heads Up: this was in the 2 for 30 quid sale at my local Virgin Megastore, so I now have two copies (one in the post from Play - will make a nice Xmas pressie for one of my lucky friends!). So, you can find it out on the High Street.

    /itching to get home and install

  • Madder-Max #66 6 years ago

    Will this run on a 750mhz Windows '98 system? I just got a C on that spec for free...

  • Xerx3s #67 6 years ago

    Ye dont see this quality on consoles, now do you?

    /wanders off to buy this game.

  • lemonfist #68 6 years ago

    Got this from Play yesterday, played for about ten hours, and can confirm that it's TEH AWESOMENESS (TM).

  • Khab #69 6 years ago

    Just to let those who are concerned know... the Starforce protection was also an issue for a lot of people on the official forum, but according to them, most of the nastier issues around this particular copy protection system have been fixed in the latest versions... so hopefully, it should be okay this time :)

    Oooo...k. I'm not taking any chances, I think.

    /starts looking for cracked version so he'll have it in time for the game's actual arrival

  • jellyhead #70 6 years ago

    Don't worry khab this version of StarForce seems to be a well behaved little piece of evil shite as opposed to the ropey, nasty badly written, drive killing versions before.
    It just takes AGES to start, though, 20-30 seconds on my machine.
    ffs! I want to play the game not watch the bloody protection start up, stupid shonky StarFarce.

    The game itself is pretty groovy, i drop in for 10 minutes and wander out 2 hours later, i'm now stuck with a ship with no money, tiny cargo space, pooey armour and dominators everywhere. ( and they hand me my butt on a silver platter evrytime )
    Need a get rich quick scheme! Now! :)

  • Madder-Max #71 6 years ago

    Can anyonr help with the system requirements? Really wanna get this..sounds like gta in space...
    Edited by 1 at 10/10/05 @ 12:30

  • jellyhead #72 6 years ago

    System Requirements - Space Rangers 2: Dominators

    Minimal (This configuration does not support planetary battles)
    Operating System Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
    Processor Pentium-2 450 MHz
    RAM 128 Mb
    Hard Disk Space 800 Mb
    Video Card 800*600, High Colour (16-bit)
    DVD Drive Required
    Controls Mouse + Keyboard

    Optimal
    Operating System Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
    Processor Pentium-IV 1.6 MHz
    RAM 256 Mb
    Hard Disk Space 1,400 Mb
    Video Card DirectX 9.0 Compatible
    DVD Drive Required
    Controls Mouse + Keyboard

    Recommended
    Operating System Windows 2000/XP
    Processor Pentium-IV 2.6 MHz
    RAM 512 Mb
    Hard Disk Space 1,400 Mb
    Video Card DirectX 9.0 Compatible
    DVD Drive Required
    Controls Mouse + Keyboard

    Straight from the Excalibur games site, Max
    It's not GTA more like 2d top-down turn-based elite but i'm enjoying it so far, it's a nice game for a break break from Fahrenheit.
    Edited by 3 at 10/10/05 @ 12:53

  • lemonfist #73 6 years ago

    It's not GTA in space, Madder Max.

    Thank fuck for that.

  • MoFo #74 6 years ago

    Just bought it too. Looks like this could finally be a game to keep me interested for more than twenty minutes.

    Non-linear games are the daddy.

  • lemonfist #75 6 years ago

    Yeah, non-linear games rule when done right. And Space Rangers 2 certainly is.

    The more I play it, the more I see it as the game which corrects most of Pirates' flaws: travelling is fast, fluid and painless; there are actually detailed, interesting missions to be done; the interface allows you to store information such as prices on each of the planets; and most importantly, there are many friendly, AI-controlled rangers competing to achieve the same goals as yourself, so you don't feel like you're TEH MAN (tm).

    But still, the RTS part sucks.

  • jellyhead #76 6 years ago

    but good on them for allowing you to NOT do mission types you don't like.
    It's a nice little game, i'm enjoying it lots.

  • GitSomE_UK #77 6 years ago

    Now that I've got it, I'm enjoying it lots... dunno why you all diss the RTS side of things I think it's well done considering how much else there is in the game.

    I had to do a bit of bird cos I'd be caught smuggling weapons, I was surprised to see there was a full on text adventure for the time you were in prison !... quality.

    Love the trading, love the combat and I love the way you can go anywhere, upgrade anything and just exist.

    Massive game, lots to do and one of those rare games I think I'll still be playing a year or so from now.

    BUY IT!

  • Parafina #78 6 years ago

    I have to say that this is the greatest Amiga game I've ever played on a PC. It's as if the cream of 16-bit gaming floated to the top of the, erm, 32-bit milk.

    Hmm, I've used better analogies.

    Anyway, it's even stopped me from playing WoW; a spectacular achievement from my daylight-deprived point of view.

    Thanks for bringing this gem to the attention of your readership, Kieron!
    Edited by 1 at 12/10/05 @ 12:37

  • gizmo #79 6 years ago

    Ordered :)

    Sounds fun, dontcha just love it when a game appears out of the blue?

    edit: p.s. Check the top two screenshots, your system date is wrong.
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/05 @ 13:22

  • Flyingsub #80 6 years ago

    Just ordered it :). 29 bucks on sale accross the pond seemed like too good a deal!

  • The_Bends #81 6 years ago

    Bought this game purely on the basis of the review and I was not disapointed.

    Does exactly what it says on the tin and is awesome.

  • lemonfist #82 6 years ago

    The review title should be Space Rangers 2, btw. Neither Gamerankings nor Metacritic will list your review as it is now, apparently.

  • pixeline #83 6 years ago

    i bought the game based on this review, and because it made me think of another game in the 'elite' genre : freelancer ( http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=4589)

    SR has some fun to provide, but it's short of a little something extra to get me really involved into it: i miss the 3D flight simulation in freelancers (or elite :) ) and the space fighting is really boring, you don't control much of what happens, the best thing you can do to win a battle is to get the biggest guns you can find (or afford). the turn-based rythm also kills the action i think.

    i do enjoy the missions, some of them are really funny, like the "ambassador's tooth brush" ;-)...

    i have only played a few hours, hopefully my impressions will change, but it better be soon , or i'll just quickly forget about it.

  • uk_john #84 6 years ago

    Catch 22 - only small publishers do great games like this, so they don't sell. Company doesn't do any more. Large publishers write clones, we don't buy but they carry on making clones anyway because they can afford it.

    Great dies quickly, tat just carries on growing, gamers (at least in the last couple years) are disappearing. Doesn't the industry know to get behind ANY title from ANY publisher if it's a great game? And doesn't anybody in the business have people looking over the web and see that people love this game?!

    About every two/three years or so I give a 10 out of 10 to a game. This is one of them. May be the last one based on how PC gaming is going!
    Edited by 1 at 30/03/06 @ 15:40

  • uk_john #85 5 years ago

    One of the best, fairest reviews of this game I have seen. Why oh why are the major gaming publishers/websites so out of touch and so seemingly in the hands of the industry rather than the gamers?!

    The final paragraph of the PC Zone site was almost as positive and yet they only gave it 71%!

  • haowan #86 5 years ago

    Nice bump. One of my favourite games this!

  • bakatron #87 4 years ago

    to say this game is brilliant is an understatement. to think i was just running around bored with games looking at older games to play and then all of a sudden this one totally blew me out of the water.

    horray for indie gaming :)

  • Chicken_w/Pulley #88 4 years ago

    uk_john, i`m happy to say, that you are wrong :) this game was fairly popular in russia, and probably they just didn`t care much to try to push it to a major international publisher

    Anyway, the studio just completed a remake/sequel to King`s Bounty (an rpg-predecessor of HoMM) and just like SR it is receiving raving reviews from russian gaming sites. Exact date of international release is not yet announced, but it will be sometime this year. So you might keep a look out for that )

  • andy06 #89 3 years ago

    Does anyone know if this is at all compatible with Vista?

  • Kyp #90 2 years ago

    I have a question here. Obviously, this is the review of Space Rangers 2 even if it's not clearly explained. So why are there screenshots from Space Rangers 1 ?