mllange
Posts: 527
Joined: 2/5/2005 Status: offline
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I gave myself a good 24 hours after purchase, trying to get enough playing time in to develop my impressions, but I guess I'm in the minority on this game; I find myself somewhat dissappointed. After reading much of the fanfare prior to release I built up very high hopes for myself that aren't quite satisfied in Distant Worlds, (at least not at this stage of development). I'll elaborate a little momentarily, but first I want to say that this is a good release - it holds up very well when compared with other games in many respects. For a single-programmer shop, this title is a major effort, and the author/programmer/designer should be commended. That said, the combat falls short of either SOTS or SINS and is vastly sub-par compared to Aurora. If you enjoy the tactical combat control aspects of Aurora even in the slightest, you'll probably be dissappointed here. Research and ship design is another area that feels somewhat shallow, not because there isn't enough to research, but rather because gaining a new technological improvement simply feels like 'leveling up', certainly not like a research scientist or ship systems designer. This probably matches the design goals of the game perfectly, but it feels a bit blah when again compared to Aurora. There are no jump points and jump engine technologies, meaning another huge strategic and tactical element is missing, with similar results. The sense of scale feels a bit odd to me as well, it certainly looks massive, but at the system level that scale is largely lost for me. Whereas both SOTS and Aurora provide a good naval-like sense of search and destroy via sensors and detection, (especially Aurora with Active/passive/thermal/EM), in DW it rather feels like "jump everything into the system and then it becomes a free-for-all". Lastly, you won't find officers, leaders, research scientists, or anything of the sort in DW. Not a huge deal, and probably matching the design goals of the game, but again I miss it in comparison.
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There's a simple answer to every complex question - and it's wrong. -Umberto Eco
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