Faustus
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 2748
From: Austin, Texas
|  Posted: 2003-01-08 20:06
Here is the new review translated from french into english...
Darkspace is a Massive Multiplayer Online Action Strategy Games. As a
matter of facts, you have to pay 10$ US per month to play it. Most of
the time, you only have to say that to discourage people from playing
your game. DarkSpace comes a little bit from nowhere, but they give us a
great quality game that really merits the monthy fee.
Past months, the gaming industry has offered us a whole bunch of MMOG
that took place in space like Earth and Beyond Online. Almost all of
them were not really interesting and got boring because of bugs and
horrible gameplay. Now, here comes a little free game of about 32 Mo. It
may look insignificant compared to the others, but it offers us a really
interesting and fun experience.
The game does not offer us a precise story and is exclusively
multiplayer. However there is a good tutorial that you can do alone.
There are 3 factions in Darkspace: the ICC, UTGO and K’Luth. Each of
them possesses advantages and ships that the others do not have. Those
factions are constantly in conflict and we found ourselves in an
intergalactic war in which you have a part to play.
DarkSpace has a really intelligent system of teamwork. As a matter of
fact, playing on your own without helping your team will not be really
useful and you will find it very boring. Everyone has a part to do. It’s
important to note that Darkspace does not take place in a continuous
time. The game somehow works like a giant StarCraft one. There are a
lot of maps with planets. The world is really big and you must navigate
via a navigation window to find the place to colonize, build, or attack.
A team will gain an advantage while stealing enemy’s planets. When the
game is finish, it starts again with a new map.
For a small game like that, we can say that the graphics are really
amazing. We can clearly see that they are deep when we move our mouse
around to get different view points of our spaceship. The planets are
really big and greatly realised. A thing that bugged me is the fact that
the vessels have a lot of similarities. It can be difficult to
difference the ships when you are a newbie because some of them are
really similar. But all in all, everything is very interesting.
It’s important to take note that there are no big music during the game.
Everything is really calm and it really looks like we’re in space. The
sound effects are good. Well, we have really good sounds of navigation,
control panel, combats, etc. On this aspect, no one can complaint.
However, I would have like to hear some something musical during the
games.
Before starting a new game, you will arrive in a lobby. There, you will
be able to see all the latest news and chat with other players of
various subjects. When you click on the play button, you will be able to
join a server. There are a lot of them, and of course, there is one for
newbies. It’s strongly recommended to start there if you don’t have an
idea of what you will be doing.
When game starts, you will arrive at a screen where you must choose your
faction. Following that, you will have to choose your ship. Each vessel
has a particular function and it’s interesting to communicate with the
other team members to represent all classes of vessels. There are recon,
attack, bombers, extractors, transport, engineering vessels, etc. Like I
told you before, there are all useful. The developers really did a great
job on this aspect.
The vessels that can take possession of planets are the transport ones.
They bring infantries that you can drop on the planet to take its
control. Interesting fact, you have to wait about one minute to know if
you action has succeeded. The transport vessels are really useful at the
beginning of a game to take as much planets as possible. Next, the
engineering vessels can follow and start building stuff for defence and
development of the colony. Also, the recon vessels are really useful
they discover the opposing team’s ships location, etc. They are not very
powerful, but they can put beacons on the enemies, giving us the ability
to see them coming from really far away. The other vessels have other
functions that I will let you discover.
The tutorial is really interesting and useful. Unfortunately, I don’t
think it will be enough for you to be in perfect autonomy in your first
games. I had to play 3-4 hours before I started to understand all the
secrets of the gameplay. The beginning is quite difficult, but the fun
gets on at the moment you start to understand how to be productive. As
you progress and do stuff, you will get points that will get you
promoted. With that, you have access to more powerful ships and some
other things. It’s like a level and experience system, if you like. In
general, everything is well thought, requires strategy and teamplay, and
should keep you stuck to your computer screen for a little while.
All in all, we have to say that DarkSpace is a really amazing game. If
you buy the game in a shop, you get one free month and other goodies. If
you download for free, you have to pay right now without bonuses. The
little small point that could be better is the number of players. There
are always 150 people online at the same time, but rarely more. Now, you
have to divide those people by servers and we get games of 20-25 people.
It’s interesting, but it would be better and better with more player, as
there will be more action and competition. However, DarkSpace is a
really good game that for 10$/month gives you a really amazing spatial
experience. A lot a fun in perspective!
Graphics: The graphics are really interesting for a 32 Mo game. The
space environment is really deep and the planets are great. However, I
would have liked more diversity in the look of the different vessels.
18/20
Music/Sound: The music is absent. Everything is very silent and we
really feel we are in space. We hear all the little sounds from our
control panels, which are very well done. In general, this aspect is
pretty good.
15/20
Gameplay: The game is very complex at the beginning, but the tutorials
are useful and well done. I had to play a few hours before I could be
really productive. The essential is based on the teamplay, which is very
interesting. A little lack of players…
15/20
Interest:
The game will give you a lot of fun when you are started. The beginning
can be a little bit boring for newbies when you try to figure out how
everything works and find strategies. But the game is great once you’re
started. The game has a great length and will keep you online for a long
time. I really liked it.
17/20
Final: Finally, DarkSpace is a game that came from the backdoor and we
were not waiting for it. It reveals itself has a really amusing and rich
game. It could be complex in the beginning, but you will find out all
the possibilities of the gameplay that will make you like this game even
more. Also, let’s notice the absence of big bugs. If something goes
wrong, the development team will try to solve it ASAP. Will, it’s a game
that is really interesting for 10$ US a month, but could be greater with
more players. I really recommend you give it a shot!
_________________
|
English
Deutsch
Nederlands
)
