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Starshatter
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Graphics & Sound:
Starshatter is one of the latest titles available from up-and-coming publisher Matrix Games, known for its quality war/strategy titles such as Gary Grigby’s World at War as well as Flashpoint Germany to name a few. Matrix has also cashed in on the growing feature of direct downloads, and Starshatter is one such title among many that uses this handy tool. They even give you the option of downloading AND receiving a “concrete” CD and box for safekeeping for an additional $10. This space shooter/strategy game immediately reminded me of classic titles such as Wing Commander and Homeworld, but adds a few unique twists to the formula.
Graphically, nothing groundbreaking here; a lot of empty space, filled with random star clusters, planets, and other galactic matter. Ship models are pretty crude and rough around the edges, and the designs aren’t varied enough either. Weapons and other effects aren’t particularly engaging, especially the explosions; very pixilated and dated. Destroyer Studios does add some gimmicky effects like sun flares and the like, but lets us down again with limited details on the surface missions – all you have are buildings and targets at the objective location, the rest is sparse landscape.
The audio is pretty shallow as well with generic sound effects, some very familiar sounding, as if they were lifted from media like “Star Wars” or “Star Trek,” although I would very much doubt anyone would plagerize to such a degree. Maybe I just watch too much Sci-Fi channel... While thrusters roar, lasers shriek, and the lock-on of missiles whine, this doesn’t really pull you into the action. Even the massive capital ships are eerily quiet – what about the massive engines on these suckers? Shouldn’t they be humming like mad? Or the giant defense systems; I was expecting some grandiose effects for those, but was let down again.
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Gameplay:
Starshatter boasts a wealth of options, and you really should tackle the training missions first to get the basics down. You can learn how to escort, jump to “light speed,” fly a dexterous fighter, or command a massive capitol ship – complete with a full compliment of fighters itself.
Once you get a feel for what you’re doing, you can start the meat of the game: the Campaign mode. Two warring empires are out to control the galaxy, while you attempt to make a name for yourself. You start out as a lowly fighter pilot, but may soon rise to the ranks of an admiral and command a vast fleet that you can control in a RTS manner by clicking and highlighting. This system is fairly intuitive, yet requires some experience if you want to truly master the capitol ship combat, which includes frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and carriers. The latter isn’t as exciting as the fast-twitch fighter mode, but you have a lot more options available to you. Should you launch fighters to fend off an attack or deploy them closer for defense of your ship? Should you use your standoff missiles and beam weapons to pummel from afar while you flank with your smaller, faster ships? A lot of ways for combat here. Unfortunately, most of these battles end up in colossal, boring shoot-outs until one of you is destroyed. You can also pause the game to issue orders and the like, a handy feature for those massive fleet battles. Also, because of the bulk of your capitol ships, they are ponderously slow and awkward at times, something that bothered me from time to time.
If you tire of the stock missions and Campaign mode, you can toy around with the included Mission-Editor. This sucker is chock full of options from missions types to all the details pertaining to your fleet, weapons, sensors... you name it, it’s there. This feature should add some life to the game, but if the missions and campaign themselves aren’t very interesting, why would yours be any better? Multiplayer does exist here, but there are only four maps presently, and they don’t add much to the title.
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Difficulty:
The bulk of the learning curve is dismissed in the training missions that cover all the basics, but I had a few gripes with that area; namely the lack of auto-updating hints. In most tutorials, you’re tasked with something, and if you accomplish said task, the computer advances you along accordingly. In Starshatter, you have to manually click to move to your next objective, never really knowing what current goal you are on. Also, the text is rather hard to read. To its defense, you can go back and forth at least, if you know you missed something. A bit too open-ended is all. Other than that small annoyance, the gameplay shouldn’t be too tough to grasp after awhile.
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Game Mechanics:
A plethora of control options exist in Starshatter. You can use traditional flight sim control along with a default Newtonian physics option for added realism. If you want a more arcade-like approach, you can fly via the shooter-style mouse look setup. The controls themselves aren’t extremely responsive and are at times sluggish, but if you calibrate it to your liking, you may find an enjoyable setting. A variety of viewing options are also present, from third-person rotating views to first-person HUD or Heads-Up-Display. The HUD itself is pretty clean, with vital stats and readouts, along with a handy radar that relays objectives and targets clearly.
While far from groundbreaking, Starshatter should appeal to fans of the aforementioned Wing Commander or Homeworld series, as well as the lesser-known Independence War. With some nifty customizable options and its mix of nimble fighter action that later transforms into the more tactical fleet combat, this title should find its niche sooner rather than later. And for only $30, it can be downloaded directly to your hard drive in a few hours or less for some decent space simulation action. |
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-Tybo, GameVortex Communications AKA Tyler Whitney |
Minimum System Requirements:
Pentium II 400 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 100 MB Available Disk Space, TNT-2 3D Accelerator or better, Windows 98 or better, DirectX 7 or better, Mouse and Keyboard
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Test System:
Windows XP, 1800 Xp 1.53ghx, AMD 1024 MB of RAM, Geforce 4 Ti 4200 128mb |
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