By Vincent Haoson, Onrpg writer
When you hear the word, Pirate in a game, the first thing that comes to mind is a game that concerns sea-faring outlaws. But add the word Galaxy to the title, the game then makes you think of pirates in space. However, Pirate Galaxy is not about pirates, you won’t get to control space pirate ships as you’d first expect.
Welcome to the war
Pirate Galaxy is a 3D Sci-Fi space RPG game from Splitscreen Studios. The game ushers you into a world that is devastated by an alien civilization. Humanity was at the brink of destruction: the Mantis, an alien civilization was hell-bent on acquiring Cryonite (the most precious mineral in the Universe of Pirate Galaxy) at the expense of whatever civilization they obliterate.
Your role in the Mantis-Human conflict is that you are a newly recruited hotshot pilot for the humans. You are given the role of becoming the best of the best in the ranks and to finally cripple the Mantis.
Gameplay
When you talk about spaceships the first thing that comes into mind is that it’s going to be a definite 3D Space Shooter, well, Pirate Galaxy is not. The game’s controls utilize both the mouse and the keyboard. You can use the move to make your ship move by clicking the area you want your mouse to go. You also use the mouse for locking-on your enemies. However, your ship won’t automatically attack when you locked-on an enemy: you’d have to press the corresponding key in your keyboard where your attack is located.
Speaking of the keyboard, up until recently, the controls in Pirate Galaxy does not include the W, A, S, D keys for steering your ship. So the ship control was solely done with the mouse.
Quests Galore
As you play Pirate Galaxy, you will be required to do a series of quests as part of your job being a “pirate”. The quests are a mixture of eliminate specific targets to search missing pods of NPCs that were attacked by the Mantis.
Pirate Galaxy offers two types of quests for the moment. It’s the storyline quests, this are the quests that center on your story as it unfolds within the game. Besides the storyline quests the game also has the normal quests. These quests can be redone if the game allows you to.
The quests in Pirate Galaxy are the lifeline of replayability of the game as of the moment, With the PVP related systems still untested the cycling through quests in the game would be your main attraction.
Pimp my Ship
Customization in Pirate Galaxy is reliant on items called blueprints. These are items that opens certain customization features or, gives you ship add-ons that you can attach through your ship’s hangar. The main body of your ship is provided by default and you will start off with a small ship, you can upgrade the body as you progress through the game and earn crystals so you could buy for it.
Blueprints are won through quests or are dropped by monsters in-game. You can also change the color of your ship as long as it is already enabled in your hangar.
Conclusion
Pirate Galaxy is an MMO that is has a unique shop control system in itself. The MMO feel of the game is another aspect of Pirate Galaxy that seems to be steering away from the usual gameplay we find in 3D spaceship games.
New players may find Pirate Galaxy’s controls awkward. Cycling between the ship controls and the weapons system can be a little bothersome especially to those who are not used to using the mouse only for locking-on while the keyboard is used for shooting. Though this navigation issue would be of little worth when you are playing the game in the long run.
As of this writing, the quest system in Pirate Galaxy is still bugged. This should be fixed as soon as possible because the quests in Pirate Galaxy are the only thing that players can really do to make the game interesting for the moment. The PVP system is still untested but it would be very interesting how the PVP would work out especially with a gameplay like this.
Another thing I can say the game lacks is sufficient customization. Basically your ship’s overall design would be highly reliant on the blueprints you get and on the base design your ship will be having. This could really be a bad thing for players who are more into customizing their own “dream” ship.
However, it may be true that the game still lacks enough eye-candy beauty that other 3d spaceship games have, Pirate Galaxy has one of the better FMVs in the f2p 3d sci-fi game market. The cut scenes where your ship would go to and fro the planet and to the orbital station found on atmosphere is a sight to behold.
Also, the game’s background is very static. You can see the stars moving as you progress through the game. It’s as if you are seeing whatever is unfolding outside Vega 2.
The game’s music and SFX is right on the dot. The BGM is very intense when you are fighting and it mellows down a bit if you are just adventuring or just lounging in-game.
Pirate Galaxy is still in closed beta stage, and the way I see it, the developers are still putting a lot of things as the closed beta goes on. The game may ultimately change once it goes Open Beta or commercial. So before that happens all bets are off, Pirate Galaxy is an interesting game in itself and it may turn out even more when the proper time, effort and attention is given to it.
Pros
– FMV is one of the better seen in an f2p sci-fi
– You can also play on your browser
– Game is still in closed beta things may change
Cons
– Controls are awkward at best
– Quests are still bugged
– Not much customization available
