29th August 2003, 5:32 PM
Quote:I said that because I remember in previews somewhere hearing it characterized that way, and after playing the game I agree... it IS a lot like a FPS, with WASD movement and the mouse to point your aim...
So F-Zero plays just like Mario Sunshine because you use a controller and buttons to move?
Quote:I haven't played much of any Elder Scrolls game, Privateer, or Freelancer (beyond the demo), so mostly I can just base it on what I know... ie that its non-linear. I know. And sure, only the main story missions would often be warp-fight-warp (like the demo... you warp, fight baddies, warp, fight more baddies, warp, fight baddie base, warp home... made me think of StarLancer, or Wing Commander... not terrible, but somewhat boring...)
Sure, most of the game isn't that. I know. Which is why I focused on how the combat system works, not that style of tedious Wing Commander combat...
That's not how Privateer, Elite, or Freelancer work. First of all I can't believe you've never played much of a non-linear space sim (the best kind there is), but I'll get to that later. What you do in these types of games is find jobs, join guilds, etc. and take jobs to make money. You can use the money for upgrades such as weapons, shielding, thrusters, or for buying new ships. There are several different jobs you can take. You can become a smuggler and transport illegel commodities between various worlds, you can become a bounty hunter and kill or capture people for money, you can become a legit trader and buy and sell commodities for a profit, and various other jobs. The more money you make the better ships, weapons, etc. you can buy so that you can visit new worlds in new solar systems, and basically just do whatever you want to. The freedom is what makes these types of games so much fun.
Quote:As for the X-Wing series, it is certainly linear, but its perfectly good that way. The missions are a lot of fun, its challenging... the games are just plain a lot of fun to play!
But they lack longevity. With something like X-Wing you can beat it in a relatively short amount of time and there's really no reason to go back, while with games like Freelancer and the upcoming X 2 you could literally play them for years without getting board, as there's an almost endless amount of things to explore. I love these types of space sims because of the amount of freedom you get.
Quote:Oh, by the way, one reason I love TIE Fighter so much is because it was the game that got me into space sims. I got it in the Lucasarts Collection 2... something I bought to get Rebel Assualt 2, really, but I was somewhat interested in TIE Fighter. Needless to say it turned out to be ... better than I expected ...
Its not great because of super-complex missions... its because of the combat, and flying the ships. Its just so much fun to dogfight in the X-Wing games! Dogfighting while controlling your ship's fairly complex systems is the core of the game , and its so, so much fun to do that...
Wing Commander (and by extention Privateer and Freelancer)'s simpler combat system just isn't as fun, that's the core of why those games' combat doesn't intrest me much.
Then you like them for the management during combat rather than the combat itself, which is vey simple.