Starpoint Gemini 2

So, I've seen this game being reviewed recently and that it is just coming out of early access.

Usually I'm a fan of space sims, especially great open world ones. However, I know the first game wasn't exactly well received. The reviews all seem to be good for this one however.

I wanted to canvass everyone, to see what they thought, if anyone's played it: is it worthwhile?

From what I hear, the story is... poor. But the sandbox mode really make sit. Normally I like to have some core story, or at least a world where your actions have some form of impact. Are the factions meaningful in this? Does the open world feel organic or "real"?

Basially, does it feel like you're actually a space captain, or is it more like Eve Offline, grinding through samey sectors which look pretty but with no personality?

I gave it a whirl, but found it incredibly disappointing. The control scheme is... frankly, it's shit. If you select the option 'Keyboard and mouse (+ joystick)' the joystick is disabled. If you select 'Joystick/gamepad + keyboard' the keyboard and mouse are disabled.

The graphics and actual gameplay were not good either. My rig isn't exactly new, but it's not over the hill yet. If I can get into a brawl in X3 without too much slowdown, I'd expect to be able to take on two enemies in SG 2 without the game turning into a slideshow - unfortunately, this isn't the case.

edited 23rd May '15 7:13:02 AM by Tharrick

I bought it, mainly because I saw something saying it was good if you liked Master Of Orion 2, and partly because it was 80% off on Steam. I played some yesterday.

It's ... alright. I haven't gotten very far in the main storyline, and honestly I don't even remember what the heck I'm supposed to be doing. You get a whole shitload of sidequests, which 95% of which are "fly here and kill everyone," against enemies you will either curb-stomp, or get stomped by. IMO it's impossible to enter combat manually, since the camera is fixed to the front of your ship, but 90% of the time the person you're trying to shoot is above/below/behind you, where your guns can shoot on automatic but impossible to target manually. Trading is fun, but so far it has been literally impossible to upgrade my ship in any meaningful fashion - you literally cannot replace modules like shields/power/propulsion without buying a new ship, but you can't buy a new ship without gaining rank, which takes forever. I've made a decent amount of credits, except for the time my entire cargo got seized because I looted something that was apparently contraband.

Overall, my honest impression so far is a C+. Some parts of the game are fun, but others are just frustrating in the extreme, and nothing of the plot so far is intriguing enough to make me remember it.

I guess it's worth bumping this thread to let people know that this game is free until May 24th to help build up hype for their new game Starpoint Gemini Warlords, which is coming out of Early Access tomorrow. This is one of those deals where if you click on the Play Game button on the store page, it will stay in your account beyond the free period, making this one of those "Free Forever" type deals but only if you put it in your account before then.

Seeing how we dont have a page for it anyone wanna give me a quick rundown?

Open world sandbox starship game, but not X3 starfighter types, more Capital ship, MMO crossed with Homeworld combat (Full 3d space, broadsides, turrets sort of thing, charging powers)

Factions and two ways to play the game - open ended sandbox with missions and terribly voice acted plot. Seriously, the main character is... awful. Gameplay is good, but a bit sprawling and the camera controls are a tad wonky. Big learning curve to it too.

Got it on the giveaway, and I find it relaxing enough to play. I tend to like these kinds of games, and I somehow don't get bored very easily even if it's very repetitive. Trading, combat, and random missions aren't too varied, but if you like the first of them (which tends to be repetitive by nature), the others aren't bad either.

It feels like there are way too many keys for everything (maybe 70%-80% of all keys on the keyboard, plus a three-button mouse with scrollwheel), but after a while, you get used to it. The camera has a few settings that work depending on what you're doing. The main flaw to me is that the regular view has the focus way too high up (you're flying straight towards a target almost at the top of the screen, maybe a sixth of the total height down from the top, rather than in the middle, which would feel more natural). Chase camera is the most useful in combat, I find, since it keeps it locked on the target, which makes it easy to aim backwards or sideways relative to your own ship's bearing.

Overall it could really use some more polish. Graphics and loading have a tendency to momentarily freeze the game, and there are some questionable decisions in the interface and ship management design (especially the inability to transfer or stock enhancements, which means you have to go and find the right ones if you switch to a new ship), but most of it is okay or good.

It's an okay game.

I gave up on it after roughly 3 - 4 hours. Probably because most of that time was spent in transit, trying to figure out the controls, dealing with various graphical and engine hiccups, and then inadvertently taking a REALLY long trip to the next objective due to not understanding that this game uses (rather expensive) jumpgates for fast-travel.

One thing about transit times is that there are a few ways to speed those up:

• Power to engines. Rather basic. Removes combat capabilities in favour of speed. Always use while travelling anywhere farther than shooting range.
• Energy distribution. You can change energy distribution by clicking in the triangle in the circle down left on the screen. You can give the PTE an additional 100% speed boost if you maximise for speed, which lowers your shield and weapon reloads by 50%. I'd recommend binding a hotkey for that (by default no key is assigned to that). In comparison, I usually fight with minimum speed and half-and-half on shields and weapons, unless either I'm capturing a ship (full shields), or if my shields aren't stressed (full weapons).
• Speed boost. For longer travels, consider using speed boost consumables. I get a bunch of them from loot, and I never buy any.
• Wormholes. They're free, unlike the T-Gates. They're more limited, though.
• Riftways. Those annoying green lines that sometimes mess up where you're going if you don't want to go their direction, especially if you're towing a ship or fighting. They're extremely fast, so if you plan to jump off in the middle, it's not unusual to miss by a sector or two, especially since they have a strong gravity pull.
• T-Gates and T-Drives. I don't recommend those. Too expensive. If you do have the money, they're very effective, though.

With all those, I don't find it too tedious to travel, unless you plan to cross the map.

Been playing the new game, Warlords. It's pretty decent. Weird mix of X4 and Space sim. Reminds me of X3 without the economic focus.

Combat controls are weird though. You use capital ships rather than fighters, so it's all turrets. So no first person view.