There, now you have no reason to play one of the most amazing space adventure/arcade games ever created.
Play the game, you’ll see what I mean.If you aren’t comfortable with DOSBox (you should be by now if you’re a regular reader of 1More Castle) and if you don’t have a 3DO (you mean you don’t? I don’t either.) Star Control 2 has been ported to modern computers and some consoles (the Wii!) since the source code was released several years ago, and it’s free to download and play, here. The Ur-Quan Kzer-Ka are probably one of the best sci fi alien races ever created.
It’s an amazing combination of great graphics, a very in depth storyline, music that today is unmatched, and a great arcade like shooting game, that is actually playable as a standalone game with one or two players! Plus I like the Ur-Quan music and voice.
This game is one of, if not my favorite PC game. The screenshots above do not do it justice. Should you be a cargo ship, ferrying minerals around, or do you need to be a battleship, with a massive weapon spread? You can also outfit your ‘mothership’ with various modules. No worries, as you can assemble a fleet consisting of your new (and old) allies, each with its own strengths, attacks, and weaknesses. Every alien has their own theme, with both music and font type (and in the case of the 3DO or free-to-play version, voice!) Aside from flying around and landing on planets (sometimes encountering planetary hazards, mind you), you may end up in combat, which is a real time ship versus ship combat played from a top-down perspective. All 18 alien races will meet with you, and you’ll exchange dialogue with them via a menu selection.
This plot is not spoon fed to you, as the game could be considered a ‘sand-box’ game, exploring wherever you like, playing as you wish, as long as you have fuel to get there. You’ll encounter a plot so vast and mind blowing that it transcends several million years and three (!) separate dimensions. Earth LOST the war), enemy races who are pretty pissed to see a human flying around, and still other races that don’t care who you are, they just want all life extinct. You’ll end up on a journey all around the galaxy meeting friendly races eager to join the fight (Remember that slave shield I mentioned? That’s right. You end up commanding that ship, on a mission, 20 years later, to return to Earth, and find out… where were you guys? What happened? Years later, a small boy born in the colony discovered that the ancient installation was a spaceship factory with enough materials to build one final ship. The ship was attacked and made an emergency landing. Towards the end of this war an earth ship was sent to investigate an ancient installation built by the long extinct Precursor race. A massive war took place pitting the forces of Earth and the Alliance of Free Stars against the evil Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. The plot of Star Control II is explained in the slide show at the beginning of the game (or for 3DO players, an amazing intro movie. A major plus of this game: is a free-to-play release that has been programmed and ported to several systems recently, combining the best elements of the 3DO and DOS games.
Similar to earlier games like Starflight and Starflight 2, It was initally released in 1992 for DOS based systems and was released for the 3DO one year later. Star Control II takes elements of shoot’em up arcade games, adventure games, and role playing games, combining them into an amazing sci-fi space based game. Tyranny, Brought to you by this race of green caterpillars.