Stardock owns Star Control and is planning an "XCOM-like" reboot

Man, I forgot Yahtzee existed, probably haven’t seen one of his reviews in years.

Yeah, me too. Another backlog, how nice.

So, did anyone finish the game? What are your impressions?

I finished it. My impressions are “meh”.

I think my two biggest gripes are the melee combat and the collecting of resources, which represent about 95% of everything you do in the game.

In melee, I can only best describe the combat as “floaty”. It seems that even the chenzu dreadnaught from the original game would seem nimble compared to most of the ships in this game. Its like every ship has a tiny thruster, but a high max speed. Also enemy shots will push you around.

The ship designs are also very bland. This is nothing like the original where each faction ship was very distinctive. Ships were mostly the same with a set of random weapons, which were not particularly interesting. Melee combat was also super deadly. Lots of times ships would just die super fast.

I ended up just outfitting my main ship with a bunch of deflectors, using the best nuke, and phasors (upgraded point defense). Then I would run back to earth for a refill every once in a while.

Also the story was not all that good IMHO. Basically you spend your entire time doing faction quests which are mostly fetch quests. Go here get x, or scan x and then return. Then all the faction people are totally useless except for some scripted event in the end. I hate this kind of crap, where you are the only one in the entire fucking universe who can do anything, even if it is a totally mundane thing anyone can do.

In short, it is a very forgettable game. I mostly finished it because I just wanted to see the ending and say that I finished the game.

Ohh bummer. I was interested because Star Control 2 was one of the few ‘cult classics’ that I didn’t play in DOS times.

Well, to be fair, the above is just one opinion. I would not base my decision upon what one person says.

That seems to be consistent with the Steam aggregate reviews which have been quite middling, especially once one considers the first 50-70 reviews were all positive (fanboy effect?).

No, it’s not consistent at all. The current Steam rating is 71%. That is not even close to being a “forgettable” game as stated in the review above.

Again, I would not decide upon any game based upon a single posted review here.

I give it a strong C+/B-. It is a competently-constructed and -written Star Control 2 clone, but Origin can’t compare to a classic created by a designer and programmer who were both at the peak of their creative ability.

We must have a different interpretation of forgettable and the connotation that brings. I have played many games that I would give a 6 or a 7 that are entirely unmemorable. They work and are fine for a short while but fall short of being engaging long-term or being classics. Deep’s description of the game sounds to me like it is competent but un-engaging. 71% and dropping is not exactly something to write home about. Shrug

It’s a 35th percentile rating.

And? Can you amplify?

That’s something you can easily correct as it is in the public domain, The Ur-Quan Masters - Downloads

This is based on the 3DO version which had a number of enhancements from the DOS version.

It’s simply not everybody’s cup of tea. It provides somewhat more varied things to do than Starcon 2 (essentially the same basic concept) and the graphics & sound are better. Origins is less … original in gameplay, I guess? But I kind of assumed that from the get-go, and I’d think most others did. The story lines, etc. are all unique to the game (yes, albeit with sci-fi tropes thrown in there, including sometimes intentionally/done for humor).

On the flipside: it’s had a few technical hiccups, the gameplay is still decidedly 90’s (good for some, not so for others), and can get repetitive (as could StarCon 2, but at the time it was “fresh and new” & therefore took a bit longer to experience the sensation). I really enjoy Origins, but I can certainly see why others wouldn’t.

Just finished the game.

I like it, it was good fun, and mostly i REALLY enjoyed the aliens, what a FUN bunch…I was mostly pining to get to the next event that was going on, or whatever crazy problem that needed solving.

However, that lander game, Stardock, that had a premise of being a very good shooter game in itself, why then the half baked going ons?

If you had ramped up the shooting there, I would have enjoyed picking up stuff a lot more…also at the end of the game, I just end up with a -lot- of weirdo minerals Ive been saving without really knowing what they are good for? basically I should have just sold the lot.

Space part is fun and still tickles the old school, but the story was the most fun.

The modding guide is coming along:

http://wiki.starcontrol.com/index.php/Modders_Guide

As for some of the commentary, nostalgia is a very challenging thing to compete with.

Guys like Yahtzee liked it and recommend it. And if you are familiar with him, you know he doesn’t like most games. https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/2018/10/10/star-control-origins/

I think it will be interesting to see how the Star Control games evolve over the next few years. The first expansion rolls out next month which will continue to fill out the universe and the entire game is set up to be extensible by other players.

But most importantly, it’ll come down to iteration and iteration.

Just curious if you had any new info on console release? I’m playing on Steam presently but I’d probably rebuy when it gets to Xbox.

We are in the process of porting it to the consoles as we speak. :)

Ok, just made my first little mod.

https://forums.starcontrol.com/491643/my-first-mod

The first mod for a space game starting on Earth is surely called ‘Hello World’? :-)