| Starships | ||
| Genre | RPG | |
| Enjoyment |
| not great but worth trying |
| Diplomacy |
| Regular diplomatic happenings |
| Complexity |
| Not simple, but not difficult |
| Fairness |
| Nothing to worry about |
| Reliability |
| not great but playable |
| Overall |
| Some good points |
| Ratings | 7 | |
| URL | http://starships-rpg.com/login.php | |
| Review(s) of Starships |
|---|
| 11 |
| This game is easily my favorite game out there. Here is why. First of all it's super fun. There's surprises, and just a lot of wild unexpected craziness, the kind that makes you sit and laugh like watching the hitchhiker's guide. I also like it because you can form into groups, fleets which basically act as clans, and these things are built into the game. There are even group missions designed for fleets. The game is HUGE. I love huge games. Theres always more being added and the univers is growing faster than One can explore it. This makes it great when you are talking to some other captain of a starship and he's relaying a tale to you about some adventure he had in some system you've never heard of. The game is totally fair, bugfree, and the customer service is tops. Overall I'd give this game the highest possible score because it's truly free, and you can play it without ever spending a single dime, unlike other games that trick you into spending money. I LOVE THIS GAME! submitted by Samus4 on 04 10,2007 |
| Review Rating: 9.9999 (1 people have rated this review) |
| Space the final frontier.... If youŽre a sci-fi fan and enjoy space exploration, STARSHIPS is a game to try out. As commander of a starship (there is no limit to the number of starships per player) you travel through space, mining asteriods or assalting cargo and merchant vessels gaining extra cash to gardually build up you starship. There are over 20 diferent spaces (galaxys) where you can travel to, full of several star bases, supply depots, fleet bases, jump gates, etc. You start off in Human Space, but with your starship sufficiently upgraded and with the right passport you can jump to other alien spaces for further exploration. The game has much potential but there are some issues that could (should?) be optimized. Firstly the site design is poor compared to other space games like O-Game. And secondly the FAQ section is very brief and does not give any deeep explanation on how the game works. Personaly I find the last aspect unimportant (IŽll explain further on, why), but would like to see the garphic part of the site much inhanced. STARSHIPS is all about exploration, so the FAQ section along with other small links, will take you to a couple of yahoo groups where much infomation is stored on the vast space that lies ahead. So the exploring part of the game will impel you to explore some sites as well to get that precious info on what is best to build up your starship and where to find it. All Spaces are based on a 1000x1000 grid, so thereŽs much space to explore. If you wish to play it solo, the Yahoo groups are issencial, but joining a fleet will notibly, enhance your compreehension on how the game works (and what targets to hit inicially). There are also two ingame mechanisims to contact people ingame. One is a java or IRC base message board called the BAR, where you get to meet many community members. The other is the "SubSpace Radio" which is an Ingame message board, where several members launch distress calls or loctions of supply depots (amongst other things). When you overcome the inicial setbacks youŽll find Starships a very easy game to play. Its also quite a stressless game, ideal for many players that just dont have the time to be online 27/7. You can roam space without much agressive encounters. There is however the ocassional pirate player that snaches some credits off you, or the occassional fleet war. Still its quite easy riding.... But if you want a more agressive approach the game will give you the tools to be a space cowboy. For those that like to search for hidden secrects, or alien technology to enhance your ship, you wont want to stop exploring, and only the amount of fuel will make you stop. submitted by Roger on 02 05,2006 |
| Review Rating: 9.5000 (2 people have rated this review) |
| Close to completion, but still officially in beta, this is a game with potential but poor execution and documentation lets it down seriously. It is based around a Star-Trek (tm) type universe with the player as a new captain who will shoot asteriods, comets, merchant vessels and maybe other players in an attempt to earn money and upgrade your ship and increase your rankings. There are a lot of ranks and it is quite rewarding to advance through them. Interface is quite simple.. You are in the center of a grid and move by clicking on adjacent squares. When you reach a square you can attack anything in that square by clicking the attack button. Until you improve weapons nothing beyond small asteriods will prove easy targets. When you run out of fuel your moves end. Fuel regenerates slowly thoughout the day real-time so you can login and make a couple of small moves during the day/evening. If you find a supply depot you can upgrade your ship's capabilities. There are options to band with players in fleets which can provide you with additional support. An in-game communication system is provided, activated when you have played the game for several days and built up enough points, but it is only for in-character communication and so newbies cannot use it to ask for help. Players are sent out into space with nothing more than the co-ordinates of one space station and some extremely generalised advice. There was some more useful information held at the yahoo group but this was nuked without notice. Other players can be helpful to greenies but only if you have IRC or java. Without these two technologies, which are not required to play the main game, your attempts to find out anything are totally scuppered. Whilst I am all for exploring in games, the fact is that just in the interest of realism no-one would be launched into space without at least a basic training in how ships operate and what different technologies do. Why should I buy different types of bot, or a Tech Upgrade when I have no idea what adding this to my ship does. After all do none of these space stations have shop assistants/technians to ask before they require me to part with 20,000 hard-won credits? Here the game shows its rough edges. Despite telling me I couldn't upgrade technology without cargo space the game took the money off me. Other bugs abound. A fuel boost, a very precious resource, was granted by my recruiting another player but I never received. Though one of the few things the faq says is that the author wouldnt part with the code except for lots of money my general impression was that the coding was nothing to write home about and about on a par with other similar games. Whilst the game is free, for which they are to be commended, nonetheless paying money to them allows a player cut out many tedious hours of shooting asteriods. So for example a new player can purchase for $500 US (a ridiculous amount of money) a fully-equiped ship taken off a player who has left the game. This gives serious question to their concept of fairness. Whilst many games will give bonuses to subscribers, or those who donate, I've not come across such a blatant example of profiteering before and I found it objectionable. My first try at the game came to a very abrupt end when I encountered a random death which is one of my pet hates. By all means kill people for doing stupid things like shooting better equipped vessels, or give a random chance of being damaged by doing things like shooting asteriods, but killing someone with a system-controlled ship, for moving into a square, with no chance to do anything, seems to me just plain wrong. Particularly when so little information is given to players about what is safe and what is not. That said, for its flaws I have given the game another go. submitted by on 25 04,2006 |
| Review Rating: 2.6667 (3 people have rated this review) |
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