Oolite
Review
Brings to life the old memories that many of us have of Elite
by Marko Susimetsä
reviewed on PC
Career choices
In Oolite, you can choose to play as a trader, bounty-hunter, pirate, cargo hauler, passenger transporter or any combination thereof. Different planets will have products to sell at different prices and the only thing keeping you from getting rich quick and easily is the piracy that runs rampant in most of the star systems. But getting rich is still possible the hard way; by going through those pirates and making them fear you instead. Each dead pirate also earns you some bounty credits, so fighting them can also add to your fortunes. But be forewarned, it can also, quite easily, get you killed unless you have the right equipment to keep you one step ahead. Therefore, it is perhaps wiser for a beginning trader to accept smaller revenues by keeping to the safer systems - or avoiding the pirates by staying away from the major star lanes.
Oolite also offers some new career choices in comparison to Elite. You can, for example, agree to haul cargo or passengers for a fee. This is not as easy as jumping from one star system to the next. You usually have to jump several times to get to your destination. As such, one should keep track of whether the deals are really worth it. Earning 200 credits for a three jump trip that requires you to land at three different space stations and face however many pirates is not really worth it when you can earn several thousands more by buying and selling cargo independently.
Ships and equipment
You start the game in the trusty old Cobra MkIII, but instead of spending the rest of your career with one ship, you can trade it in for another should you see some other ship that catches your fancy. One popular start-up method is to trade the MkIII to MkII (expansion pack ship) or some other smaller ship, which gives you enough credits to equip your ship to face a real battle right from the start. Otherwise, you'll have to try to haul enough cargo to be able to upgrade the Cobra or to purchase a bigger and better ship. The ships, however, do not automatically get better when they are pricier. Some ships are designed as fighters first and lack the cargo space to make them useful for a trader. On the other hand, some of the best cargo haulers are big and easy targets to pirates.
Nevertheless, even a big and clumsy cargo hauler can benefit from some well-chosen extra equipment. Naturally, a better laser will help bring those pirates down, but even better is to get an extra energy unit, a shield booster, some good missiles and witchdrive fuel injectors. The last one lets can help you get to safety quickly if you find yourself overwhelmed, or you can use it to quickly out-maneuver the enemy. The only downside with this equipment is that the strongest pirates are likely to also have them...
Modders' heaven
Oolite is produced under the Creative Commons License, which basically means that anyone can join in on the scripting and create their own special missions, ships, space stations, or try their hand at the development work of the core engine itself. Fan-made mod packs offer a variety of new storylines, missions and ships, but also add more life to the star systems. One of these mods adds a group of flight training students outside the space station at Lave. They cause an interesting navigation hazard when you attempt to dock at the station and I must admit to having been the cause of a couple of students' deaths... Another pack offers a set of sounds that makes Oolite sound almost like the Amiga Elite version, and yet another brings about pirate coves in some asteroid belts, ready to attack an unwary ship passing by. These mod packs really expand the game world and they keep the universe exciting even for those who have reached the Elite status.
Overall
For a die-hard space gamer who started playing the genre when it was born, with Elite, Oolite is not to be missed. No other game has ever succeeded in bringing back the true feel of flying a Cobra Mk III and Oolite does much more than that. And if the trading starts to feel repetitive and too easy, there are many other adventures and challenges to be found in fan-made expansion packs. The graphics will not blow your brains away but they, like the rest of the game, evolve as development continues.
The screenshots in this preview depict some ships and details that come with some of the expansion packs.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
