zotquix

Oh BTW. This same company later put out a game called Silpheed which was a better effort all around despite being a rail shooter.

This one brings back some memories. Played on a compaq 8088 machine where you really could only get just beyond the long pool of lava in the second area before running out of energy. Brutal game where, while in robot form your laser locks on to targets but then may not shoot them enough to kill them before switching to the next target, resulting in you shooting each target a little until you finally have killed them all. In plane form you at least shoot straight but enemies are fast and some will fly just out of the line of fire. Later on, I played a port on an Apple IIRC that was much easier and I was able to get to the end of the game without issue. The idea of a game where you can be either robot or plane is great. The execution on this one is deeply lacking though. It just isn't very fun being in robot form and having your laser auto lock on -- especially if it can't kill anything.

Very chill game. I quickly have reached a point where I'm not certain of the next move. I probably wouldn't recommend unless the price was very low as the amount of content seems limited.

I'm not very far in but I will say that maybe the missing element to space sims all along has been A KILLER SOUNDTRACK. This probably isn't the best space sim I've ever played (and I use that term to include all 3D first person space games), that honor goes to Tachyon: Beyond the Fringe -- at least until I've got some more hours into this. Also, most of the action in this game more or less takes place in a 2D plane making the spaceflight and control structure feel very strange so far. I'll post again later on and maybe I'll have gotten used to it then. The story and voice acting appear to be a well done component so far. Also I've heard there is a followup game in the works that will improve on this version in all respects. I hope so because there is a lot to like here if they can just make the heart of the game more playable.

I love this game. The story flows along with your progression well. It has enough structure that you always are moving to the next thing to do at just the right pace (unlike, say No Man's Sky which might actually be too open). I'm not saying it is right for everyone, and having played a bit of the early access for their next installment (Subnautica Below Zero) I'm not convinced they'll be able to capture lightning in a bottle twice but this game definitely rewarded a little investment of time.

I'm going to agree with others that after a point you are sort of coasting in this game and it doesn't feel very engaging. Sometimes it feels like the game is actively trying to slow me down from conquering the galaxy. Some of the writing and little bits of plot are neat. Maybe this is just the wrong genre for me -- I wish there was a space exploration game with that degree of story and questing that also let you progress through builds. I'm imagining No Man's Sky meets Escape Velocity I think. Don't make the story into flavor text -- instead, engage us in the story.