Space rangers: Partisan warfare. Game Review.

muxec · March 4, 2003, 11:06

The new game developed by Elemental games inc. is considered a new word in the genre. People, who compare it with Elite and Star Control say, that Rangers is better. The Universe is full of various characters and elements. Rangers and freighters, liners and pirates, fighters and diplomats converse with each other as real humans in real life. There are 5 different races and alien's characters are really different and depend on race. Stars and planets, asteroids and minerals, weapons and equipment, artifacts and wormholes that you can use.

Who are you in the game? At 1st Jan 3000 most humans and some other species celebrated New Year. But you did not. You arrived recruitment office on the Earth and now you are part of the Federation Armed Forces. You are one of the numerous partisans. You can be fighter or pirate, trader or courier and the selection depends only on you. Your purpose is to kill main enemy ship or to make peace with it. But your primary objective is remain alive and do not let aliens enslave or kill all humans.

Each NPC want to remain alive, make more money, kill his enemies, etc. All the time ships ally and fight, trade and explore. You live in world of competition.

Who is your enemy? They are called clissans and they are organic spaceships that behave according to orders from their mothership named Makhpella. They attack coalition's ship without any message and all attempts to converse with them failed. Scientists are developing Clissan Communicator and you must help them by bringing mortal remains of clissans.

Who are in coalition? Coalition is union of humans and four other races, who know to understand each other. They live in relative peace for a long time and they managed to destroy most pirates and solve most economical and cultural problems. Half of planets in known part of galaxy are populated by one of the five races and each planet have own government.

Each planet produces and consumes different wares and ships help them to trade. Also planets sale ship equipment that rangers can use. Planet can give to ranger a quest or delivery order or ask ranger to kill pirate. If you complete the task you receive money. Also planets produce battleships to defend themselves. The planet's opinion about you depends on your behavior.

The graphics in the game is full 2D. But it looks nice. Different ships, that move on the screen firing, landing on and taking off look realistic. Planet's axis rotation looks realistic and even moons look cool. If you use old computer you can select custom installation or switch graphics details off.

The music is also OK, but there is no audio messages. Only simple melodies. Also firing is supported with sound.

Four difficulty levels and cheatcodes make everybody able to pass the game. If you got good result you can post your topscores on official internet site. Special rating for cheaters is available.

The most important disadvantage of the game is random map generator. If you are lucky the map generated on hard difficulty will be easy. The developers promise to fix this in the next patch.

The game is not one more sequel of Elite, it's new game. It is good for those who love turn based strategies and role play games.

muxec · March 4, 2003, 11:13

The official site is http://elementalgames.com . See screenshots there.

pg · March 4, 2003, 11:16

is it out yet? any reviews?

i think i remember reading about this on some russian site a yr ago or something.

muxec · March 4, 2003, 11:38

Yes it is still not translated to english but must russian gamesites consider this game best strategy of 2002 and say that it's better than Warcraft3. I offered to developer my help in translating but developer declined my proposal. I do not know english enought but i can translate the sence and i know people who can fix my translation

muxec · March 4, 2003, 13:18

Please report me about style and spelling misstakes. Thank you forward.

AlexSav · March 4, 2003, 16:13

Quote:

Originally posted by muxec
Yes it is still not translated to english but must russian gamesites consider this game best strategy of 2002 and say that it's better than Warcraft3. I offered to developer my help in translating but developer declined my proposal. I do not know english enought but i can translate the sence and i know people who can fix my translation

There is english version of Space Rangers. At this moment developer search for publisher. Russian version really cool!

muxec · March 5, 2003, 11:53

AlexSav, and why the manual says, that english version is still unavailable?

Did you vote for Rangers in topgames 2001/2002 ?

AlexSav · March 5, 2003, 16:42

Quote:

Originally posted by muxec
AlexSav, and why the manual says, that english version is still unavailable?

Did you vote for Rangers in topgames 2001/2002 ?

I didn't find this message in manual. You can ask ElementalGames directly.
mail@elementalgames.com

I visited ALL forums and toplists, which find. Russian only, of course

If you will give new links - I visit them. And I will vote for Space Rangers!

2All: sorry for bad English. If You know Russian - write to email. Muxec, you too.

muxec · March 6, 2003, 12:57

AlexSav, you forgot to say that the game is cool, as otmorozki.

muxec · March 14, 2003, 10:13

Now i'm playing at hard dificulcy. The game at hard really hard and easy is really easy. Very good balanced dificulcy levels. And good game balans- there is no such thing as "ideal weapon"

AlexSav · March 19, 2003, 03:42

Quote:

Originally posted by muxec
Now i'm playing at hard dificulcy. The game at hard really hard and easy is really easy. Very good balanced dificulcy levels. And good game balans- there is no such thing as "ideal weapon"

Yes ! Balance really good. Normal level is normal, not very easy (usually in other games). And expert level - for experts only

I'm prefer hard too: all game - from start to finish intresting, expert level - very heavy start.

Scouse Gits · March 19, 2003, 08:18

Sounds great - I have emailed an enquiry

SG[1]

Jamski · March 19, 2003, 08:30

What's going on when a great game is only available in Russian? This sounds so backwards that it has to be true. I hope it finds a publisher/distributer soon.

-Jam

AlexSav · March 19, 2003, 15:30

Quote:

Originally posted by War of Art
What's going on when a great game is only available in Russian? This sounds so backwards that it has to be true. I hope it finds a publisher/distributer soon.

-Jam

Can you help to find publisher/distributer?

muxec · March 19, 2003, 16:23

Yes, it's rumored that english version is already fully translated and the developers are searching for publisher. We adviced them to avoid raising game price.
Also it's rumored, that game developer was conversing with the developer of "Cossaks" about selecting the publisher. The trouble is in the primary publisher 1C, that do not advertize and do not translate the game.

muxec · March 19, 2003, 16:39

If you want english forum on developer's site go http://elementalgames.com/forum/msg....me=8&page=last and vote "Yes". The registration is not required. Post your opinion about international perspectives of the game.

General Ludd · March 19, 2003, 17:41

Strategy First seems like a pretty decent publisher. They focus solely on the distrubutation of products, I believe. (ie. they don't fund the development like many do)

Sarxis · March 20, 2003, 04:28

The game title is terrible. Game might be good though.

muxec · March 20, 2003, 06:34

The game title? Yes. What do you suggest?

Strategy First? Their Disciples seems to be good advertised. Maybe they will do the same with rangers, if they publish it.

muxec · March 26, 2003, 13:55

Hurah! The 1.3 patch is released. A lot of added and fixed features.

Added at 27.03.2002
I've tested the patch. A lot of added disbalance. The normal difculcy in v1.3 is as tough as expert in previous version. The developers were asked for canceling the patch.

muxec · April 5, 2003, 09:09

Patch 1.4 relesed. Disbalanse fixed, new features added, added weight in equipment search dialog.