When it came out in the early 90's, it was the most awesome thing ever, unparalleled by anything else on the PC. The music was ground-breaking too, for its time. It's still one of my favorite games ever, and one of my favorite pieces of Science Fiction of any media.
It's very good, sure, and I would give it an 8/10. It's true that the story, complete with all the dialogues and voice-acting, remains excellent. The soundtrack is also very good.
The gameplay, though, is very easily broken if you spend the first year or so on getting the nearby resources and the technology until you research the target computers. Once you have three of those, + frontal, diagonal and side weapons, your flagship can blow up just about anything that's not a Mycon, Ur-Quan or Kohr-Ah (or the Sa-Matra, obviously) without sustaining any damage in process. After that, encountering scores of the same ships in each galaxy of a certain race does become quite tedious.
And I wouldn't say Quasi-space is that bad, since you get all-but-told where it is from what, 3-4 races? Zex's beast, though... a triumph of Save Scumming search (unless you just looked it up) if there ever was one. "The boss fight" against dozens of identical Vux ships, with no way to know how many there's to kill as an alternative, is no better.
Still, it is a pretty great game (and a great science fiction story) though I would say Iji is a greater freeware title on the whole.
I suppose it's a difference of taste then, because for me the difficulties of the Early Game Hell just made getting a powerful flagship satisfying. It also makes that gauntlet of VUX ships much easier, since all their armament is short-ranged, and one can simply park the flagship in place and open fire at range.
In fact, having a powered-up flagship really does make the sidequests that rely on encountering several enemy craft much, much easier.
All of that said, I certainly see where you're coming from if you wanted a more-challenging game experience. I can definitely agree to disagree about that.
I'm surprised that the franchise hasn't been revived yet via Kickstarter, along with every other beloved game of the 90's (and I certainly wouldn't object, Star Control II is amazing). Perhaps the rights to the title are a mess, or something.
Perhaps the rights to the title are a mess, or something.
In a way, they are. Check out the Ash Can Copy page for more information.
You've summed all what I think of this great game. Superb review.
I've to agree, however, on what's said above about early gameplay. Once you've a flagship fast enough to outrun your enemies, especially the Slylandro probes (and play well your cards in what refers to getting allies as well as resource gathering), everything gets easier.
Alas, the game would gain a lot of replay value if, except location of Plot Coupons and races
Lost somewhere in the Laniakea Supercluster.
Personally, hyperspace wasn't bad at all to me. It was great cruising across the stars with a badass theme to go along with it.
"In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war."
^^^^^^Um, what are you talking about? I don't think there's any part of the game where you're forced to fight any amount of VUX.
Me? It's the sidequest where you keep apologizing to them.
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Truly Great Today, *Incredible* For Its Time
Judged today as a freeware indie title, The Ur-Quan Masters still mostly holds up. There are a couple of annoying moments of Guide Dang It related to some of the sidequests (QuasiSpace and the location of ZEX's beast are standouts), the Early Game Hell can put off first-time players, the lack of Mercy Invincibility in HyperSpace is legendarily awful, many "antagonist" ships, like the Terminator and the Avenger, benefit disproportionately from being computer controlled, and several quests have nasty time limits the game doesn't actually tell you about, while actively recommending you Take Your Time.
But, really, that's about it. While the gameplay is difficult out of the gate, once the player gets the hang of it and starts getting upgrades and better ships, it quickly turns fun and engaging. Exploring the galaxy and encountering new races is exciting, and though the unlabeled star chart is a bit archaic, it certainly adds to the atmosphere.
And the story is amazing. The jokes and parody are genuinely funny, but the drama is intense, and the diplomatic portions often require careful thought on the player's part to come out on top. Even the more-generic aliens, such as the supox or the zoq-fot-pic, are interesting to learn about and contact. And the tragic story behind the villains of the piece is rightly-famous. In short, an excellent example of how to do a Dramedy right, avoiding the pitfalls of tonal dissonance.
This game is a great resource-based sandbox RPG even today. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to when it first came out in the early ninties. Story-based video-gaming wasn't exactly in its infancy, but it was definitely in its awkward teens, and the high-camp parody married to well-executed drama exhibited here demonstrates a level of maturity in story telling, in both possible senses of the word, beyond much of the competition.
An amazing piece of gaming history and a great video game in its own right that remains, unlike many relics of the time, thoroughly fun, engaging, and playable even today. (Once you get out of the Early Game Hell, anyway.) If you haven't tried it yet, give it a whirl!