Score
Gameplay:	7
Graphics:	5
Sound:	6
FunFactor:	8
PlasmaFactor:	7
Overall:	6.6

Starscape Review
October 24, 2004 by Brian Callam

by Brian - October 24, 2004

From the desks of Moonpod comes Starscape, an old school style space shooter which combines elements from various classic games in the genre such as Asteroids and Star Control 2. For gamers old enough to remember those games, Starscape will be a welcome addition to your gaming library. However, for all the younger gamers out there, you may want to try the demo first.

Old School Goodness

In Starscape, you are part of a deep space research team conducting experiments with a new type of technology that allows them to create wormholes to speed up space travel. On their first trial run, something goes horribly wrong and they end up in another dimension full of blood thirsty aliens who happened to steal your dimension drive. With the crew scattered, and the Aegis (the researcher�s main vessel) badly damaged, it is up to you to defeat an armada of aliens and return the dimension drive so you can return to your own universe.

As you travel throughout this foreign galaxy, you will tons of enemy forces, some friendly bases, and a whole lot of asteroids. Your first fighter will not be very extravagant, armed only with a single laser and a tractor beam, but as you progress through the game you can build new ships with more weapons, cargo holds, shields, etc. You can have a total of four fighter ships at one time. If a ship blows up, you are able to escape back to the main vessel in your escape pod to switch to another one, but you have to be very careful because it is both weaponless and fragile.

In order to build those new ships though, you have to collect enough resources to both research and build the upgrades. Resources cannot be gained through combat, but rather are harvested from asteroids throughout the universe. In the beginning you will have to blow them up yourself and use your tractor beam to pull them into your ship, and then return to the Aegis to drop them off, but as you get farther into the game and are able to equip the Aegis with better weapons, the Aegis will be able to do all of that on its own. You aren�t the only one who needs these resources though, so some enemies, especially bosses, will drop them too.

The controls are a little bit awkward at first, and thus take a little time to get used to. Movement uses the arrow keys, and the other commands use Q, W, E, and R. The only time you will ever use the mouse in this game is to navigate menus and when you are on board the Aegis. All of the actual flying and combat uses the keyboard. Unlike a lot of console shoot �em up games, you won�t just be moving in one direction the entire time, the areas are large square worlds and you can go anywhere.

Welcome to the 90's

Before I played this game, I read a couple of other reviews for it in which people praised the graphics using such terms as �eye candy� and �gorgeous.� I�m going to have to disagree with them. As good as the gameplay is, the graphics are severely lacking. Most of the in game graphics are sprites, and not fantastic ones at that. Animation and effects are also fairly average. It seems that the game is targeted at gamers of the 80's and early to mid 90's, and the graphics reflect that, but I think Moonpod would have made out better if they used some 3D models for the ships, asteroids, and enemies.

The sequences where you are inside the Aegis and cut scenes are pretty good though. Again, it doesn�t do the 3D thing, but the characters are drawn in a cartoon style, and although a few of them look somewhat generic, overall its done well.

Bew Bew Bew

Like the graphics, the sound effects reek of averageness. If you have heard one space shooter, you have heard them all. You have your typical sounds like lasers, rockets, thrust, explosions, etc. You get the picture. Nothing really impressive.

The music is another story. While not neccessarily impressive, it�s better than average. You might even say its good. It certainly fits in with the atmosphere of the game with a bunch of thumping techno beats when you are in combat with ruthless aliens, mellow tunes when you are mining, etc. Its pretty much what you would expect from a game like this, but it takes it a little bit further.

Who doesn�t like blowing up aliens?

All in all, Starscape is a pretty fun game. The boss fights are top notch, and regular combat can be very exciting when you get a lot of enemies on your tail. Mining... not so much, but eventually you won�t have to worry about mining that much when you get the necessary upgrades to the Aegis. Because you have a lot of freedom in Starscaoe, you can play through it several times and not be bored of it. Oh, and let me stress again how awesome the boss battles are. They�re awesome.

 

 

The definition of �Old School�

If you can remember way back when arcades were full of games that weren�t DDR and the latest Time Crisis, or remember the days of the NES and SNES when games like this were extremely popular, this game will be kind of like visiting an old friend. For the new schoolers, I�d suggest trying out the demo first because you may just like it. One thing is for sure, Starscape isn�t for everyone, but for its target audience, it�s definitely a worthy purchase.