Zealous's Review
Well, let me put this out in the open first. Ive been a long time Escape Velocity fan. Ever since the First Escape Velocity came out, I was hooked. So if you believe that this game isn't as good as i say it is, well, that's your opinion, this is mine. So here goes.
Escape Velocity: Nova is a one of a kind game. You wont find anything like this on a PC. A lot of PC users get mad (mainly my friends) because they cant run this game and just because its Mac. Although there are Mac 68k emulators out there, Tom "Woozle" from the EV:Nova Web Boards has not been able to find an emulator capable of playing Nova. Most PC users are wrong about Macs when they think that Macs suck for gaming. Well look at this game, it proves your wrong. Any ways, onto the Gameplay
Gameplay
One of the best things about Nova is
because the game is ALL about gameplay. In my opinion, Gameplay is more important
than everything else. If it doesnt have good gamplay, its not a good game. Ill
play anything if it has gameplay, even though its graphics are text and there's
no sound, ill play it.
Nova's star system is GIGANTIC. Even now i haven't yet discovered all the planets, and ive already put about 24 hours of game time in it. The planet graphics are amazing, and pretty much all different. Same goes for the space stations, all are amazingly detailed and almost all different. ATMOS and Ambrosia have also made the jumping from system to system as easy as it was before. They added one thing though. The star gates. These things have to be the most ingenious things the team has added. All you do is press the "L" button (that is if you didn't change the controls) near the star gate, wait for it to open up, press it the "L" key once more, pick the system, and your off. With no wasted fuel, your there in a day. This makes shipping a hell of a lot easier to make dead lines. Now with the whole jumping in mind, let me tell you about the controls. The controls are awesomely simple. Arrow keys, that's all i gotta say. Although piloting is a little harder with the ship differences. Its mainly: The bigger the ship, the harder it is to pilot. Duh.
Another factor is that people always think this game is for fighting. Although you can fight anyone in the system you want, its not really about that. Its about the great stories in Nova that makes it exciting. To get these missions are simple, every time you land, check in the bar (that is if the planet/station has one). The "employers" simple come up to you in the bar and ask you if you would like to help them. You have the choice of saying yes or no to it, but becareful, some of what the people say to you is just a trick, watch yourself.
Outfitting your ship has to be the most popular thing in the game. Upgrading the ship you pilot is one of the most fun things in the game that you could possibly do. You simply click on what you want, buy it (if you have enough credits), and go test it out! There are a HUGE variety of weapons, armor, engine upgrades, software installments, etc. All for your ship. There are endless combos of what to put on your ship, so have fun with it.
The Shipyard is also nothing but fun. There's nothing like clicking the "Buy" button on that new Manticore your buying, so you can kick the living hell outta those Feds. There are also a HUGE variety of ships. There are Fighters, Frigates, Warships, Missile Variented Warships/Frigates, Gunships, Freighters, Shuttles, and much much more. There are even used ships for you to buy. That is, if you cant afford the brand new one. Also becareful here, some people are trying to rip you off on their s*itty ships for a jacked up price.
Another key feature in the game is the "Commodity Exchange". This is the feature that can make you REALLY rich, REALLY fast. Although, you have to find on your own which are the correct systems to trade with. Some systems will make you a little money or, if your lucky, you'll come across the perfect system and make a ton of money. Similar to the Commodity Exchange is the "Mission BBS". You will find a variety of missions to do there, although they are all quite the same (go here, pick up this, drop it off here, get your pay). But thats another alternative to makeing money. Also, on the same note, once you do some of the main story line missions, all different sorts of missions will come up, but this depends on who you did it for. Say you did it for a Bounty Hunting Guild, they'll give you missions where you go and kill someone firing upon others without warning for a price, hence, "Bounty Hunting". Along with the story line missions come more ships also, the people who you work for also comes into play again. Obvisously, if you work for the Feds, your not going to be able to buy Rebel ships but, you'll be able to buy Fed ships. Anyways, enough about gameplay babling, lets move on to the "eye-candy".
Graphics
A lot of you should wondering what the graphics look like
in this game by now. Well, i have to tell you that they arent the-best out there,
nor 3D, But as 2D sprites like in Starcraft. These 2D sprites have amazing detail
done to them. Ships turn and bank nice and smooth, the engines flare up
when you move to add a cool effect, and the missles have beutiful trails of
"smoke" (although it doesnt look like smoke, but its really cool lookin). Its
amazing to see about 30-40 missles flying eveywhere and all you can see are
trails of smoke from all the missles. The giganic lasers also have trails to
them. When you get some of those huge blue lasers fired at you from 20 different
angles, you know your pretty dead. The explosions of the weapons and ships arent
all that great though, they dont seem to realistic, and the explosion graphics
get repetitive. But, all-in-all the graphics in this threequal are damn good,
and theres practically nothing to complain about.
Sound
Sound in this game is a must, if your Mac cant run the
sound, i suggest that you not play. Its a great help to know whats going on
in the system and what to look for, whether other people are fighting and you
need to go around them or the sirin goes off that someone is attacking you and
you need to get in gear and run. But the sound in this game can also be a bit
quiet, since theres no BGM. But once the weapons start flyin the sound can get
a bit hectic. The only thing that i think brings down the game is how many channels
it has. To those of you who dont know, channels are how many sounds can be played
at the same time. The problem i see in it is that when you get in a gigantic
battle, the game seems to run out of channels to play the sounds on. Therefore
the game is soundless for a couple of seconds, "regaining" its channels to play
sound on. This happens quite often, and i hope they fix this in a future update.
But other than the channels, there are a large variety of sounds in EV:Nova.
Almost each different weapon has its own sound. You will soon become familiar
with the weapons sounds and know each ones origin and what kind of gun it is.
Whether its a missle, a heavy laser, or a light laser, you'll now what to expect
when it comes hurling at you. I think this helps the game, but it also hurts
it a bit. The sound does get a bit repetitive, especially the alarming "your
dead" sirin that goes off. This can be very annoying but, oh well, i can live
with it, so you can too.
Conclusion
Well, all in all, this is truley my favorite game on the
Mac. Its up to you whether or not to play it, but i HIGHLY recommend it.
Any Mac user should try this game out, its worth it. The gameplay is great,
the graphics are cool lookin, and the sounds add the perfect touch. So what
are you waiting for, download it already!
Pros
- Totally customizable
- Hundreds of missions
- 6 Great story lines
- Hundreds of outfits and ships
- User built plug-ins
- Only 30 bucks?!
Cons
- Sound channels are a bit scratchy
- Graphics dont really compete with the others, but thier
pretty good
- Can be overplayed REALLY fast
My grade on the game - 9/10
Happy flying!
