Starport: Galactic Empires Review: Pew pew!
By Kei Beneza (dividelife), OnRPG Journalist
Remember the time when you were busy dreaming about being a space cadet? Well, now’s your chance! Introducing Starport: Galactic Empires, a futuristic Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) set in outer space. The game isn’t entirely combat-based, meaning there are options that may take the entire aspect of action out of your in game lives. The game doesn’t really have a story, nor does it have a plot of any sort. Although the visuals and ambience depict the entire storyline for you (which is that you’re in outer space), I couldn’t help but wish they would expand the storyline rather than allow it to be stuck in a specific moment in time.
Oh so that’s where it was!
Unlike most MMOs that present the story head on, this game has a variety of quests that will tell you YOUR story instead of simply being a part of the lore. This is by far what grants you your role in the game. Don’t worry though, you’ll be in charge of what particular role you’ll be playing, whether it’s a delivery boy, space pirate, bounty hunter, overlord, etc.
Starting Out
After creating your character (or naming it), you’ll be given a quest in order to increase your starting money. This quest/task isn’t mandatory so you can just jump into the action whenever you want. You’ll start out in U.N controlled space where you glide through the place to find your way out. You will be vulnerable to enemy attacks once you enter this area even though it’s considered the training grounds. You can also gather various resources and kill enemy monsters for experience while flying here, so better make the best of it. You can also capture colonies that are scattered around the place in order to gain more workers. You could say that the game is rather lenient when it comes to newbies since they do give a lot of options for those who want to be rich ingame. You can start earning money as soon as you enter the world (great, cash=king). The only problem here is that you’re not the only one, so be careful. Unlike other MMOs, the game does not respect the typical selection of archetypes. This is actually an excellent feature since it allows players to mold their ships the way they want them without having to worry about which goes where and what doesn’t fit.
Note: you might want to earn as much as you can though, since things like upgrades can be quite expensive. Since you’ll be starting off as a small ship, you would want to speed things up in order to become an unstoppable force.
Super Fast Combat Moves
Where it all comes down to – WE NEED MORE FUEL!
The game is a bit fast paced regardless of how slow your ship is (contradicting but true). The game uses a system known as “Warping” which allows players to go from one solar system to another. This is a mandatory feature since it allows you to browse around for a merchant who will offer you the best price for your cargo. You lose warp fuel every time you use a warp portal, so it’d be best to keep track before you end up getting stuck in another galaxy. You don’t really have to be the biggest ship out there in order to get your part of the economy working. As long as you gather enough resources and keep capturing scattered colonies, you should be far from bankruptcy (unless you act like a total dimwit and start wasting all your cash on useless items).
Enter the planet!!!
The best part of the game is that the planets and space stations aren’t just aesthetic and can be accessed or entered as a persistent zone. You can enter a world by pressing the F1 key (enter mode) and bumping into the station or planet. This is an excellent method of exploration since there are tons of areas to explore.
When You Feel Crowded in Space: Go Visit a Plant
Controls
One of the best things about this game is the easy to use control scheme. Moving around is as simple as using the arrow keys to navigate your ship. Your CTRL key fires your primary weapon while your TAB key fires your secondary one. I don’t know how technical combat can get with these easy schemes, but at least newbies will be motivated to play.
Graphics and Sounds
There’s not much to say about the game’s graphics. Not only do they look old, they’re ULTRA old in my opinion. The sounds are poorly synthesized as well, giving off that weird low bitrate explosion sound every time you blow something up. Aside from poor explosions, the game lacks BGM as well, giving you a dull and silent view of space. I know that the galaxy is supposed to be silent, but how dull is it to fight other players while listening to the wind? The game is pretty old and cannot be compared with other games when it comes to visuals. I wouldn’t go as far as to bash this since it did shine during its time. All I can say is that, the graphics and visuals will no longer appeal to the most up to date gamers.
Space Can Feel a Little Crowded
The verdict
I wouldn’t really recommend this game for those who are looking for a hefty challenge. Almost everything in the game has been simplified, which is good at some point, but loses its replay value quite fast. If you know that there’s no other way to evolve further, that’d bore the buhjeezus out of you. I guess that’s the biggest problem of this game so far. The areas are quite diverse but look a lot like something that the super Nintendo could run. It’s quite old I know, but you can’t really push everyone in the 21st century to do the Macarena right?
Pros:
– Diverse galaxy
– Lots of sub areas like planets and space stations
– Character customization (through equips)
– PVP is good
– Easy to play.
Cons:
– No mercy for newbies when it comes to PVP
– Outdated graphics
– Too easy sometimes
– Needs BGM (and a lot of it!).
