Space Rangers 2: Anyone played it?

[Sandman]

I recently found out about this interesting sounding Russian-developed space strategy game. It's had rave reviews, and it sounds like pretty good fun (Mount&Blade in space, anyone?).

Eurogamer review

Boomtown review

Has anybody tried it? It's not out in the US, BTW.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Hmmm.... looks interesting.

[Kinjiru]

I've been playing it for a while now. Fun game, but defintely not a 4X game ala MOO or GalCiv.

There are basically four things you can do at any given time:
- run official missions for the various planetary governments (which themselves come in four flavours, see below)

- Be a space merchant/smuggler

- Be a pirate

- Fight the big bad robots

All activities will net you cash which you can use to upgrade your ship in piecemeil fashion.

Those official missions come in different varieties:
- Courier
- Assassin
- Text-based adventure
- RTS-lite

What is interesting about the game is that the variety of things to do keeps it fresh.

Also, each time you start a new char, the galaxy map is randomly generated.

All in all, it is a game that is a nice diversion from the usual. I can play it for an hour or two once every several days when I want a break from something more involved.

[Sandman]

Sounds alright. I snagged an inexpensive copy on eBay, so it should arrive in a few days.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Originally posted by Sandman
Sounds alright. I snagged an inexpensive copy on eBay, so it should arrive in a few days.

I think that was the one that I was bidding on.

Oh, well, I'll try to get another one.

[ravagon]

I enjoyed it immensely. It probably isn't everybody's cup of tea, so to speak, but, IMHO, it's well-worth every one of those rave reviews.
It does include Starforce unfortunately but that didn't give me too many issues beyond an irritating half minute delay each time I started it up.
I picked up a cd version, rather than the UK dvd version (which is supposed to include SR1 iirc?), but I think they're supposed to be otherwise identical.

A couple of words of advice - Don't try and engage the Dominators in space too early. They'll carve you up like an Xmas turkey. Try and go in with a fleet of battleships (you'll frequently find them assembling in an adjacent system).
Secondly - Be careful which courier missions you choose to take on. Check where the destination system is first and ensure that you won't have to fly to/through unfriendly or Dominator-controlled space.

Links to probably the best (English) ersatz FAQ's around ...

http://www.octopusoverlords.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14837

http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20267

[Spaced Cowboy]

Well, I've got it now, just need time to play it.

BTW also got UFO aftershock and started playing that first. still doing the tutorial.

[DrSpike]

No room for another game for me.

[Sandman]

There's no denying it; this is a nifty little game.

My first experience was with a human fighter. Previous experience with this sort of game made me decide to go for a combat orientated character, since my idealistic merchant/trader approach often fails...

The open-ended universe is pretty funky. For example, whilst doing some errand, I was attacked by a pirate called Whalerazer. Luckily I had good relations with some nearby battleships, and together we chased him out of the system.

Later on, I joined up with some Coalition forces to fight the Dominators. The attack was a disaster, but I managed to kill a weakened, fleeing cruiser away from the main melee. With the rest of the Dominator fleet bearing down, I fled the system, although not before bagging a good-quality missile pack the cruiser had dropped.

In the system I escaped to, who should I run into, but Whalerazer? With my new missile pack, he was easily subdued, eventually begging me to let him go. Which I did. His pirate ship was only slightly slower than my missiles - he'd probably have escaped anyway.

[Sandman]

Some more notes:

The game doesn't actually have a hard-and-fast job system - only different starting situations. You can start out as a merchant and become a respected mercenary, or become a villainous fighter-turned-pirate. Somehow, the game will recognise your actions and adjust your job accordingly.

The item system is excellent. Every ship component has a unique size and effect, and can be upgraded twice - once at a science centre, and once with a specialised micro-module.
Obviously, the best components are both light and powerful - but they cost the most, both up front and in maintainence. And heavily upgraded stuff is the most expensive of all, although there are micro-modules which cut the cost of the item.
All of which leads to choices galore. Do you add a cost-saving micro-module to that new 30K engine you just bought (potentially saving thousands in maintainence)? Or will you take the financial hit and boost its already great stats even more?

The RTS section of the game is surprisingly good. It's not brilliant by any means, but it's a nice change of pace. It's somewhat like Total Annihilation - a zillion different robots and limitless resources.

[DrSpike]

It does sound interesting. I'm usually suspicious of the many mini games approach though. Is this Pirates! (the remake) in space?

[Spaced Cowboy]

Okay UFO aftershock is getting old already....time to give this one a try.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Hmm....just played the first tutorial missions and am quite surprised. Did not like the space combat. This is no elite. Your space combat is on a 2d board and you have end turn to deal with.

Seemed kind of strange that a battle could last a few weeks.

Actually the game is quite impressive so far. I hold judgement on it til I get a couple more days in on it.

[Grumbold]

I've just finished my first marathon session. My first trader died horribly just trying to defeat the tutorial drone, but the second one smartened up fast.

I think the space combat is reasonable, after all we are talking vast distances here. Its a bit like WW2 naval warfare, with some pursuits going on for a long time, ships chased into port etc.

So far I've not been able to earn a living other than by doing ranger missions. Trading seems very hit and miss, with many planets seemingly having nothing to sell low or buy high. The business stations sometimes have good tips and their loans can help, but after a while I concentrated on going from planet to planet looking for missions and only ferrying cargo or picking up space debris as a sideline. The xp earned has helped raise skills too, so that helps as much as the money.

I've just spent all my cash fitting out a new, much improved ship having spent ages dithering about which new hull to get. Any lone pirates better watch out now - if the mission timer isn't critical - and with a jump range of 32 parsecs it usually isn't - it'll be me chasing them all over the star system now! It costs me more in repairs than I earn to blow them up, but the satisfaction is tremendous

The text puzzles are fun and frustrating in equal measure. The slightly odd phrasing makes solving them a bit hit or miss at times, but I love the change of pace. The mini adventures are a hoot. I'm now an intergalactic rock star, official xenomorph zoo expert and champion mechwarrior among other things

[Sandman]

You can enter planet names in the in-game search engine to get prices - handy if you want to combine missions and trading.