Maurog
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I'm surprised this game doesn't have a thread yet, but the search came up with nothing, so here you go. The Ur-Quan Masters is a remake of one of the best games of all time, Star Control II. It plays like a cross between a quest, space exploration and 1 on 1 spaceships battle arcade. The story is - the evil Ur-Quan race has conquered almost all the other races, including Humans, and the only hope lies... blah blah blah play the game.

The visuals... were pretty good back at the time. Yeah. The interface is minimalistic and powerful, just like it should be. The music and speech are awesome, I kid you not. The speech style for each race is unique and expertly done. Especially the Ur-Quan. The gameplay overall is excellent in all aspects, the plot is nice, the game is kinda long (the starmap is huuuge), but a new player can probably finish it in like a week or two of non-stop playing.

Overall score - 10 out of 10. Few games are built for ages, but this is one of them.

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Znirk
Level: Smitemaster

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Maurog wrote:
the game is kinda long (the starmap is huuuge), but a new player can probably finish it in like a week or two of non-stop playing.

Does that require starting over a few times, I wonder?
I've got star control II (actually sc3 with a bonus cd containing the first two games), but never really got into it because it gave me the definite impression that the game would end after a certain time, whether or not the plot is finished.
So, briefly, I stopped playing because the frustration potential seemed too high (all the conversations with the aliens are fun, I grant you, but twice or three times? I'm not so sure.) But is my basic assumption (playtime limit) even correct?

eytanz
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No, there isn't a playtime based limit. At least not of the type you describe. There is a story-time based limit - if you take too long, bad things happen, and eventually you lose the game. But it's perfectly natural given the plot, and it's pretty difficult to run into the time limit unless you are actively trying to.

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mrimer
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briareos wrote:

mrimer wrote:
I never got to play this excellent game way back when, but I tried the remake and could hardly last 10 minutes...after trying several times. Maybe I just don't know the rules?!

Ummm... would that be "hardly last 10 minutes in space battle" or "hardly last 10 minutes into the game, period"?

If it's the battle, try melee mode to get some practice.

I can gather resources from the planets without too much trouble, but as soon as I'm outside the system, every fight is hard. I've played the melee a fair amount but it still just seems hard. I can survive a battle, but after that I'm weakened and rarely survive a second one. So I guess ten minutes for the game. A battle lasts about one minute. I probably don't know some essential strategic game control here. Maybe there's a strategy guide online I can look up...

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Znirk
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eytanz wrote:
No, there isn't a playtime based limit. At least not of the type you describe.

OK, thank you. I might dig it out again; after all I keep hearing about how great Star Control II was ... which might, of course, simply mean that the fanboys are more persistently vocal than the people who didn't like it

silver
Level: Smitemaster
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mrimer wrote:
I can gather resources from the planets without too much trouble, but as soon as I'm outside the system, every fight is hard. I've played the melee a fair amount but it still just seems hard. I can survive a battle, but after that I'm weakened and rarely survive a second one. So I guess ten minutes for the game. A battle lasts about one minute. I probably don't know some essential strategic game control here. Maybe there's a strategy guide online I can look up...

did you thoroughly explore all of the Sol system?


when you first leave the sol system, try heading SW. most encounters are friendly in that direction.


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goldenlion
Level: Master Delver

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The hardest part of the early game, in my mind, is dealing with the robotic probes (the guys who want to break you into component parts) that come after your ship all the time and can't be escaped. Those things are *extremely* annoying, but if you can get the hang of dealing with those, you'll be able to deal with most of the encounters. This is a phenomenal game -- hang in there and let it grab you.

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'"Exit hurriedly, pursued by a bear." You'll find it in one of his plays.'

Schik
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goldenlion wrote:
The hardest part of the early game, in my mind, is dealing with the robotic probes (the guys who want to break you into component parts) that come after your ship all the time and can't be escaped.

Can't be escaped? IIRC you just hit ESC during a fight with them to get the heck out of there. Make sure you're far away from them before you hit it though, because you're a sitting duck for a few seconds while you charge up to escape. Until I get a ship good at fighting the probes, I run away from them every time...

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goldenlion
Level: Master Delver

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Registered: 11-30-2003
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Oops, I wasn't clear. They can't be escaped on the space travel screen until your engines are majorly powered up, but you can certainly escape once you're on the combat screen (although you'll take some damage, IIRC, and that's not usually good for you...).

____________________________
'Remember what the poet Shakespeare said, Jeeves.'
'What was that, sir?'
'"Exit hurriedly, pursued by a bear." You'll find it in one of his plays.'

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[Last edited by goldenlion at 12-06-2006 05:58 PM]