Spaceforce: Rogue Universe
Preview
For those who enjoy FPS games, especially shootouts in space
by Marcus Mulkins
previewed on PC
SpaceForce, All Grown Up
Whenever I see a number at the end of a game title, I get curious about what came before. It is, after all, a sequel - which suggests that the predecessor was good enough that the manufacturers feel assured that continuing the storyline will be a profitable venture. But then again, these days it seems that many times the continuation of the preceding storyline is tenuous at best. This seems to be the case with SpaceForce 2. The original was little more than a first-person shooter (FPS) seen from the cockpit of a space fighter. I generally dislike FPS's because they're usually all reflexes and negligible use of the higher brain functions. I have, however, played a couple of FPS-in-space games, namely Freelancer and DarkStar One, mainly because they had a fairly deep (and distressingly similar) storyline that revealed itself over the course of many hours of play. Plus they tossed in at least a rudimentary merchant activity component.
The original SpaceForce, however, was little more than an adrenaline rush as you primarily shot anything that moved. The storyline - what there was of it - was that just as humanity was about to take its first steps into the Great Beyond, some particularly nasty aliens, the Allied Aliens (like, they would actually call themselves that?) decided it was best if we were dealt with (as in, exterminated) before we got into space. The sneak attack wiped out several major cities and killed some millions of humans, and forced the survivors to move underground. The military-industrial combines of all of the nations went into overdrive in order to develop appropriate weapons and spacegoing vessels. According to the storyline, you have just graduated from flight school with such impressive marks that the Powers That Be decided to entrust you with the latest-and-greatest fighter spacecraft - now go get 'em, Tiger, and break the siege! Several hours of wham-bam-blam!, destroying everything that gets in the way and ta-da! GAME OVER, you've won, wasn't that fun? [It's worth noting that the official fansite hosted by the company in 2004 had a sum total of five posts, most of which translated to, "Wow! We're the first posters on this site!"]
Now here comes SpaceForce 2, so what should we expect? Well, if you believe the publisher's hype, it will be the best thing since sliced bread (or whatever clich? you want to use). To quote their website, "[a]n open ended, beautiful and innovative 3D space environment decorated with stars, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, black holes, star bases, floating cities and open for exploration, trade, crafting, diplomacy, fight. An in-depth storyline and plenty of opportunities which will inspire the action oriented player but also the real adventurer and the trader. SF2 offers small-scale as well as huge space battles, a vast range of numerous different quests, and a story-filled game." The publisher, Croatian company Provox Multimedia, has posted lots of screenshots and a couple trailers from the game which, quite frankly, look incredible. The most impressive of them appear to be concept drawings and in-game trailers, however.
