A choir of angels began chanting as I reached for this game. As my finger-tips touched the case, a brilliant shard of light cut through the clouds, through the window and illuminated the room with brilliant white light. Then, as the light began to subside, the legendary Cozy Powell kicked in on drums and a chorus of angels started a crescendo. The camera started switching dramatically between my eager eye and the case. Back - forwards - back - forwards. YES!
Is Star Control II that good? Better. Much Better. An epic of epic proportions. The objective is to build an intergalactic fleet, to make allies, to save a galaxy, to save the earth, to meet aliens and kill the ones that you don't like. What more could a blood thirsty prey-being want? Well, except perhaps for a fully kitted out precursor ship...
Am I exaggerating? An infinitesimally small proportion of video games could survive from 1992, when SC2 first appeared on the PC through to 2006 with these god awful graphics and these slightly camp looking aliens without being good.
In a nut shell Star Control 2 is a role playing game set in space. You take the role of a confused Captain of an alien ship - a ship built be mysterous race of people called the Precusors.
This ship must be modified and enhanced until it is powerful enough to fight the dreaded Ur-Quan. To achieve this rebellion and in addition to enhancing your Precursor space craft, you must also make alliances.
The Star Control universe 'lives' in a very real sense. Upset one group of aliens and reap the effects later. Your influence has effect. Part of the depth of Star Control II is enveloped in the need to explorer the entire universe. A universe that has been so lovingly hand crafted, that, despite the lack of 3D super-graphics it feels like you are part of a real universe. Not a developers model of a universe. It is difficult to fully explain.
To achieve your goals you must sweet talk the multitude of alien races in the universe into joining you. This isn't always quite so easy and you'll find yourself scampering-off on plenty of sub-missions simply to keep them all happy.
These dialogues between yourself and the extraterrestrials are hilarious and brilliant. Which is good - because there are a heck of a lot of them and would they have been quite awful, the game would have suffered.
When your not having difficult conversations with none-humans, you are shooting and trying very hard to kill others. This part of the game is where the amount of thrusters, guns and boosters you have strapped onto your Precursor ship becomes all important.
To get these 'bits' for your craft you must pay for them. To earn the money you must scour the planets in the universe and mine them for rich minerals - once you have done that, you must sell these minerals and so Star Control continues.
This same game is available for free these days from Sourceforge http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ and has a huge fan-base. Seems that a classic story and engrossing game-play do make great games. A crazy concept - who would have thought?
It is brilliant, utterly brilliant. Reportedly voted #17 in the most important video games ever by Gamespot. (Wow! - and I'm betting you ain't played it!)
Obey your Ur-Quan masters Hunams. Play - Play it damn you!
Star Control II for the 3DO still fetches between £20 - £30 on eBay.
3DO Kid.
Cozy Powell... Was he in Rainbow? Black Sabbath? Dio? I know he played for Yngwie Malmsteen late in his career.
Anyway, definitely a brilliant game. An EXPERIENCE. It's epic, fun, hilarious, open-ended, huge, and has an intricate plot. Every alien race has a detailed and interesting story behind it. Often viewed as the best game on 3DO.