Galaxy On Fire 2

[keith.lamothe]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/212010/

Anyone heard of or played this game?  Any good?

[LaughingThesaurus]

My goodness, that looks good.
I want it. I haven't even heard of it. I hope it's good.

[Coppermantis]

I agree, it looks great. Can't say I've heard of it before but I might buy it once I get the money to do so.

[BobTheJanitor]

I'd really like a good freelancer-like, which is what this looks like. But a decade of experience has taught me that anything I hope will be like freelancer is instead going to be some kind of overly complicated boredom simulator. But I still hold out hope...

[keith.lamothe]

I'd really like a good freelancer-like, which is what this looks like. But a decade of experience has taught me that anything I hope will be like freelancer is instead going to be some kind of overly complicated boredom simulator. But I still hold out hope...

Yea, that's kind of my outlook too, but I figured I'd ask around.  The combat effects look interesting, at least.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

This is also on iOS and it features a freemium setup, despite costing $9.99 just to get the game, so that's why I have not gotten it. I refuse to support this kind of business model. So it may be the best thing on earth, and I wouldn't know.

[BobTheJanitor]

This is also on iOS and it features a freemium setup, despite costing $9.99 just to get the game, so that's why I have not gotten it. I refuse to support this kind of business model. So it may be the best thing on earth, and I wouldn't know.

The steam version doesn't have any dlc... yet. If they start selling a lot of post-release dlc for a single player space shooty game, that would be kind of depressing. Although I guess Saints Row 3 got away with that sort of thing for a single player (sometimes) game, somewhat. They actually did add more maps and missions as dlc, but most of it was just silly clothes and guns or cars or whatever. I usually just wait until that sort of dlc gets packaged up and goes on sale for 2 bucks for the lot, if I have any interest in it.

[doctorfrog]

Sometimes I think I'm the only dude who wants to fly a spaceship from inside a spaceship, instead of hovering some ways behind it.

[Mánagarmr]

I'd really like a good freelancer-like, which is what this looks like. But a decade of experience has taught me that anything I hope will be like freelancer is instead going to be some kind of overly complicated boredom simulator. But I still hold out hope...

You mean like the X series?

[zebramatt]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/212010/

Anyone heard of or played this game?  Any good?

Love it, love it, love it. Favourite game on the iPad by a wide margin. I played it for an hour an a half on my commute this morning, in fact.

Although it's got a fair number of varied mission types, plenty of ships and upgrades and a pretty big galaxy to explore, it does lean slightly towards a pick-up-and-play affair - if you did nothing but the bare minimum, the main story might only last four hours. As it was for me, for the initial asking price I got a good 12 hours of gameplay out of it before the story was done and dusted and the grind-to-progression ratio tilted slightly too far in the wrong direction. Then I picked up the first expansion and it not only added more story but also a lot of shiny new kit, a broader and better range of ships and even a space station to call my very own, if I can ever afford the 30 million credits (and a bucketload of legal highs) to buy the damn thing.

Thing is, this game isn't freemium. The original game might only entertain for 8-15 hours - depending on your playstyle - but it's a great experience on its own. Sure, the story and voice acting (oh God ,the voice acting) are a bit hammy. And there aren't hundreds of ships (I think there are 30+). But you definitely don't have to buy the expansions to have a good time and get your money's worth.

And in fact, I was stoked to buy the expansion after my 12 hours of time with the base game. I'm yet to be disappointed by it. I'm excited there's another one due out soon!

It's not a perfect game by any means but if you're looking for a solid Freelancer-lite in this day and age, you'd do far worse than Galaxy of Fire II.

[keith.lamothe]

zebramatt, I think my wallet will want vengeance on you at some point in the relatively near future, but I'll be happy

("must... hold out... for sale...")

[zebramatt]

Sometimes I think I'm the only dude who wants to fly a spaceship from inside a spaceship, instead of hovering some ways behind it.

Darkstar One for PC (2006) or Xbox360 (2010) is a slightly richer but less polished Galaxy on Fire II (/Freelancer-lite) wherein you control the ship from the cockpit only. If you can get over the fact that you only ever get the one ship throughout the entire course of the game (albiet with an RPG-esque experience and skill tree system and all the shiny bits and bobs you'd expect) then it's worth a look. It's on gog I believe.

zebramatt, I think my wallet will want vengeance on you at some point in the relatively near future, but I'll be happy

("must... hold out... for sale...")

As I say, if you're OK to veer toward the lighter side of Freelancer, you shan't be disappointed. It's certainly got a hook or two to sink your teeth and time into!

I take full responsibility for the state of your finances as a result! 

[keith.lamothe]

Darkstar One looked really really interesting to me when I saw it a year or so ago on steam.  So I picked it up then.  And I couldn't even get it to start.  Total crashfest, literally: all I could get it to do was crash, and boy did it love crashing!  And all the googling/foruming I could do to find it told me the same thing: forget about it, not gonna run on Vista/7 (there may have been some other aspect particular to my platform too, I forget).

Is the GoG version more compatible?  I've generally had better experiences with compatibility from them.

[BobTheJanitor]

I'd really like a good freelancer-like, which is what this looks like. But a decade of experience has taught me that anything I hope will be like freelancer is instead going to be some kind of overly complicated boredom simulator. But I still hold out hope...

You mean like the X series?

If by that you mean to refer to the 'overly complicated boredom simulator', then yes. 

Everyone likes to say it's like freelancer, but it isn't. For one thing, you can fly a ship in freelancer in about 30 seconds of looking at the controls. I've had some X games for a year now, and I still can't remember how the controls work. Sometimes I just want to jump in and blow up pirates and explore galactic sectors that don't all look the same except for a different skybox, and I want to do it without a phone book sized manual or a 30 hour long youtube tutorial series. Anyway, I'm ranting. They're not bad games, I'm just not a kid with hours of free time to spend getting to the good parts of a game. I rather expect the good parts to come to me quickly if a game wants my attention.

[zebramatt]

Keith: I can't personally attest to the stability of the gog version on Vista (I own it on the Xbox) but I concur that they do put quite an emphasis on compatibility; even going so far as to actively respond to the community to resolve issues. I suppose it's hardly surprising - running old games on newer systems is their bread and butter after all.

Bob: Darkstar One, for all its faults, has sectors with a fair bit of variation - different numbers and sorts of space stations, different kinds of aliens/pirates/traders roaming about, alien artifacts and asteroid fields scattered around - but Galaxy on Fire II is a pretty stock "every system has one space station, one asteroid field, a spattering of various craft and a different skybox" affair (albeit with 100s of different station models, random mineral types in the asteroids and a variety of aliens and humans, fighters, freighters, pirates and random wormhole events). Still, it's just about varied enough to keep things interesting within what's a pretty distilled & polished take on the genre.