KingsGambit
Caldari Knights
   |
Posted - 2006.10.07 19:02:00 -
[1]
As others have mentioned there are many spacey, action games that are quite fun, although invariably none are Eve, whose community, economy and skills aspects make it rare indeed. Good offline space games I've played:
- Freelancer
- X2: The Threat
- X3: Reunion
- Space Rangers II
- Darkstar One
- Nexus II - The Jupiter Incident
X2 and Freelancer are a little dated now, but still quite good fun with interesting stories and cool gameplay. Space Rangers II is a very odd game, with lots of sub-games. The graphics are simple and so is the game on a basic level but it's bizarrely some of the most fun I've had in a long time. Even the odd, text based sub-games (the submarine, the mortok dinner party, rescuing the husband, etc) were fantastic. It's not Eve by any stretch, but a lot of fun in a galactic, spacey sorta way :)
X3 is also a great game, with a fantastic universe that lives & breathes around you, and is probably the closest to Eve, except combat is real time (eg twitchy) as opposed to just hitting F1-F$ and toggling ALT+F2 :) It's good, but when I played it it had just come out, and prior to 1.03 patch was quite unstable, and I encountered one bug that actually prevented me from proceeding with the storyline. I'm currently 1/2-3/4 thru Darkstar One. Not sure how to describe it...it *is* fun, looks good but apart from the combat which is truly exceptional, nothing else stands out. Trading is simple, so's smuggling, ship upgrades are different from what you'd expect, not in a bad way, but nowhere near as versatile as eve, where you can fly a cruiser or an interceptor. I've not touched it in a while since Age Of Pirates came out, but as that one is terrible and kept crashing I may pick it up again.
Lastly, Nexus, as peeps have already mentioned, though a bit more strategy than anything else, is an absolutely outstanding game. As well as a gorgeous and intuitive interface, great sound and easy controls, the story, characters and ships are brilliant and the missions are exceptionally well crafted. I remember a couple of them in particular to this day as being great fun and extremely challenging, some taking several attempts before I beat them (especially the last one with the battle royale). The cloaking bits were a little rubbish I think, and were IMO just there because the game designers wanted to show that they could, rather than it needing to be. I remember only one or two lvls the cloak really came into it's own.
If you're looking for an offline alternative to Eve, you won't find it, I've looked ;) But X3 comes quite close, and the others are all good fun and space-based games you won't regret playing :)
-------------
My T2 Shop |