Amazing little gem (I recommend this game)

[fabittar]

This is NOT for casual players. This is not a moronic, casual, easy to grasp, quick to finish (there's no end, anyway) and fast to master type of game.

This game has AMAZING depth and complexity. It's really great, and I love it for the hardships and learning curve because, really guys, the fun is in learning from and overcoming these hardships.

After about 40 hours in, I can finally say I'm a competent fighter pilot. And my beautiful Phoenix frame, which took a lot of work and effot to get, is a trophy to remind me of my accomplishments thus far. But I haven't even scratched the surface of what this game has to offer.

If you're looking for a casual run of the mill game, don't buy. If you want to just "finish" games in the afternoon, don't buy.
If you're looking for an easy, no brainer game, please run away.

You pay 50-60 bucks for a game that takes maybe 5-7 hours to finish, maybe replay once or twice, and do so because of media hype and graphics (save the few expensive games that actually tell a -sometimes- good story, but even then these are overpriced), then you might be surprised what you get for the price of this little (yet gigantic) gem.

And then there's PvP, too.

I strongly recommend this game. :)

[Yurgon]

Thanks, I was just trying to figure out whether EM would appeal to me and that's exactly the type of summary I was looking for. Will give it a try and maybe report back later. But from what I've read, that's probably going to take a while. :-)

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I just finished Wing Commander Saga the other day, which I really recommend as well. More info on wcsaga.com (http://www.wcsaga.com/).

Looks like EM might be able to fill the void that WCS has left in terms of having no space flight sim/game to play. :-)

[Vagrant Storm]

Any one care to share any comparisons with this game to the X3 games? I like X3, but there are some glaring sour points that even with mods to combat them still bug me. I really would like to shelve it for while and try something else.

[hallowass]

I dont reccomend this game to anyone. the videos and screenshots make it look better than it really is. turns out,its boring and nothing like what is shown. there are no massive space battles or cool customization and the learning curve is HORRENDOUS. everyone like yeah this game is amazing. yeah right its all lies.

[SeeJay]

I dont reccomend this game to anyone. the videos and screenshots make it look better than it really is. turns out,its boring and nothing like what is shown. there are no massive space battles or cool customization and the learning curve is HORRENDOUS. everyone like yeah this game is amazing. yeah right its all lies.

All lies? I would say it's all different taste!
You either like it or not! I love it!

You can mod just about anything in this game, including writing your
own quest that others can try out!

The learning curve is steep yes, but not worse than any other sim
I played. Once you get the hang of it, it's very logical and easy.

What I really like is that you don't have to to anything (quest/storyline)
to improve. You do what YOU want. That's why it's so much better than
Freelancer as an example. There you are told what to do all the time.

PvP and CvC is great fun and very challenging!

That's just my 2 cents. I always recommend to try the demo before
buying. You can reinstall that as many times as you want for additional 90min if you want to try it out some more.

/SeeJay

[Yurgon]

everyone like yeah this game is amazing. yeah right its all lies.

WTF is wrong with you, dude? As SeeJay said, it's a matter of taste and, I would add, a matter of expectations. Calling people liars just because you don't like the game and/or it doesn't meet your expectations is just low. I guess it's this (lack of) behavior that people think about when they complain about how rude people are on the net.

Whatever, back on topic, I have to say that I only scratched EM's surface so far. From a very preliminary look the game still looks very promising and interesting. However, the interface feels very... oldschool and I think a complete interface overhaul would have made the game feel a lot more accessible. On the other hand, I'm amazed by the game's depth especially given that AFAIK it's basically a single person's work.

The main reason I stayed away from EM after just a few hours is that I started to learn A-10C Warthog, but I'm sure I'll get back to EM sometime (hopefully soon).

[thebriarfox]

Any one care to share any comparisons with this game to the X3 games? I like X3, but there are some glaring sour points that even with mods to combat them still bug me. I really would like to shelve it for while and try something else.

If you can believe it, this is even LESS linear then the X series, even the latter ones. Otherwise, there are a lot of overt similarities to the style and feel and overarching goal of design of EM and X. The universe is large, open, and ready for you to do unto it what you will. Personally, I feel that despite the "throw you in the ocean to learn how to swim" approach EM takes, it improves a lot on some of the nuances X3 missed. The newtonian physics of spaceflight in EM make manual long distance travel less of a pain, and the iteration of the seemingly requisite to the genre quick-jump system is well done, convenient, accessible, and yet insulated against abuse. Much of the mundane that you were tasked with in X3 (like mining) is still present, but streamlined to a perfect balance of making you feel like you're doing something to earn your keep without it actually being a chore. And despite their current sparsity, I love the addition of planet flight and the seamless transitions that get you there. In that regard, the way the universe truly unfolds around you, EM improves on X greatly. As mentioned prior, the online/multiplayer community is awesome and quite active.

TL;DR - If you liked X, it's a fair bet that you'll love this, possibly even enough to put off diving in to Rebirth when it rolls out.

[Pwntmaster]

Excellent - just what I hoped it would be. Really deep and engrossing gameplay (though the tutorial is kind of like reading a long instructional book, as you would expect.)

I'm not a big space sims guy but I've played X2: The Threat before this and one of the only bad things I remember is JUMP GATES! And this game doesn't have them, or at least you can travel seamlessly through the environment which to me is super important.

Took me a while to buy this game due to my meagre budget and it was really my first step into the genre (I also expected it to get a random 75% off sometime... but that never happened) but I knew from the store blurb it was going to be an interesting game.

These free roam games are awesome and this one really takes it to another level entirely..

[TheInsaneDump]

Can you control large fleets and capital ships in this game like the X series? Or are you basically flying solo?

[dblade]

I second insane's question

or maybe this sums it up: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=8708

[ElazulHP]

This game is great, but if your looking for a space opera then your going to be let down. That said I slightly prefer the X-Universe over the Evochron one because:

*You can fly every ship in the X-Universe while you are stuck to just your one ship in Evochron

*There is a plot/backstory in the X-Universe

*Trading! If you want to form a trading empire that spans the entire galaxy then that is a huge plus for the X-Universe. You also don't have to do the heavy lifting yourself and can automate other ships to do it for you

*Massive battles with you leading a whole fleet of AI at your back

*Grahpics - Easily better

What I like about Evochron more:

*You can go down to planets

*No gates or load screens

*Newtonian Physics

*Multiplayer

[Gene]

I'm going to agree. This game was 6-7 bux on sale and the entire X Superbox was 10, so near the same price point they definitely deserve to be judged equally.

Evochron's physics are definitely a hell of a lot better, but the place where this comes into factor... fighting, is terrible.

Why am I blinded and my screen shakes uncontrollably every time I'm hit? I could understand MAYBE if my shields were down, but this is REALLY annoying. And missiles... the way missiles are implemented is just horrible and tedious. When you're going 15v1 as this genre often does the AI should not just spam missiles.

I thought it was cool to design your own ships but the frames and stuff really need more variety... It feels like you're just slapping on straight upgrades. X3 has standard ship loadouts that aren't customizable, but at times it feels more interesting to determine your loadouts (mostly corvettes only though).

And pretty much everything else besides fighting is a joke. Cleaning solar panels, blowing up asteroids. Real fun ways to grind toward the interesting part of the game. :rolleyes: Whoever said in the topic it feels like you're earning your keep, I bought a mining laser as soon as I figured out how to mine then pressed alt+b at station 6 and alttabbed waiting for my bay to fill up. Meanwhile in X3 you have to set up all those scripts and loadout all your ships for major operations to make big bucks. Still can afk it, but you have to work to be able to afk it.

What else, the sound is ok at first but gets really grating, especially in MP where you get to hear the click of someone chatting or a server message every 5 seconds. Nav computer! Nav computer is broken, right clicking a sector more often than not zooms in on the layer not of interest (ie completely blank, etc), makes it a major pain to get around. Why can't you just drag it? I could go on and on.

At any rate, stick with X3 unless you're looking to dogfight actual people. If you want to fight AI and you think X3's AI sucks I suggest you check out Xtended mod as it improves them quite a bit.

EDIT: Oh also why can't I target something directly in front of me? Why is there no button for that?

[JohnnyFronthole]

I'm going to agree. This game was 6-7 bux on sale and the entire X Superbox was 10, so near the same price point they definitely deserve to be judged equally.

Evochron's physics are definitely a hell of a lot better, but the place where this comes into factor... fighting, is terrible.

Why am I blinded and my screen shakes uncontrollably every time I'm hit? I could understand MAYBE if my shields were down, but this is REALLY annoying. And missiles... the way missiles are implemented is just horrible and tedious. When you're going 15v1 as this genre often does the AI should not just spam missiles.

I thought it was cool to design your own ships but the frames and stuff really need more variety... It feels like you're just slapping on straight upgrades. X3 has standard ship loadouts that aren't customizable, but at times it feels more interesting to determine your loadouts (mostly corvettes only though).

And pretty much everything else besides fighting is a joke. Cleaning solar panels, blowing up asteroids. Real fun ways to grind toward the interesting part of the game. :rolleyes: Whoever said in the topic it feels like you're earning your keep, I bought a mining laser as soon as I figured out how to mine then pressed alt+b at station 6 and alttabbed waiting for my bay to fill up. Meanwhile in X3 you have to set up all those scripts and loadout all your ships for major operations to make big bucks. Still can afk it, but you have to work to be able to afk it.

What else, the sound is ok at first but gets really grating, especially in MP where you get to hear the click of someone chatting or a server message every 5 seconds. Nav computer! Nav computer is broken, right clicking a sector more often than not zooms in on the layer not of interest (ie completely blank, etc), makes it a major pain to get around. Why can't you just drag it? I could go on and on.

At any rate, stick with X3 unless you're looking to dogfight actual people. If you want to fight AI and you think X3's AI sucks I suggest you check out Xtended mod as it improves them quite a bit.

EDIT: Oh also why can't I target something directly in front of me? Why is there no button for that?

I agree with a lot of your points to varying degrees. I think most of this could be solved and improved to amazing levels if there was more than one person working on this game. But that's just what it is, I guess. I'm still pretty green, so can't really say too much about it all.

Except that Y targets ships in my sights. It seems there is no way to target objects, however. Maybe that's something I missed, but if it's not, that sucks.

[driftdriver]

Fighting the AI is hard at first and 15v1 may seem near impossible at first
but it gets very easy as soon as you learn the tricks to avoiding enemy fire.

[BA_Bossk]

Each enemy ship has a rack of 8 missiles. There are 15 of them. I can assure you that they do not have an unlimited supply of missiles. Its just that 120 being lobbed at you feels like they do! The best way to fight is to use the physics in your favour, not try and fight against it. Turn off your IDS and let inertia take over. Turn your ship towards the enemy whilst drifting past them and pick them off one at a time. If you scream in all guns blazing with your IDS on you will get dead. Fight smart and you can turn the advantage to you.

This game is not to everybody taste, but you can download the demo and play the game for free to try it out.

[Finger]

20 hrs into this game and still cleaning solar panels...and mining. Random connection drops seem to happen at the worst times. Ship design is still a little confusing. About the only thing this has over X3 is the multi-player option.

Too many annoying things to list here.

I noticed people say there are no jump gates, I see them all over! They are the purple icons on the annoying nav map display. You die if you go in from AI attacks usually, and if you dont die you will just explore something else boring were you will clean there solar panels, and mine some more.

X3 is leaps and bounds beyond this armatures creation in my opinion, no comparison.

[DooMAGE]

This game is awesome! The first space sim I really enjoy since Frelancer :)

I tried X3, its has a painful learning curve and you dont feel too much in space.

Evochron Mercenary, is more like Freelancer has a friendly community, mods, in game tutorial, MULTIPLAYER, 3D Cockpit, a proper trade system, you can build your own space stations and ships, Descend into planet atmospheres, etc ...

In Evochron Mercenary you actually feels like your'e in space and not just in a zero-g room with a black wall like X3.

[blastpop]

Thanks for the comparisons and contrasts everyone. I appreciate the fact that you are for one game or another. That is the best way to determine for me at least whether I may like a game. Everyone brings out the best points of their favorite game and it allows me to find the kind of game play I find most enjoyable and want to play most with my budget.

[Chubz123]

I absolutely love this game and I'm still in awe that I paid just over $6 for it and only had to download 250 megabytes worth of data to start playing. As others have said, you can easily pay upwards of $60 today only to get 5-8+ hours of gameplay whereas I've already spent over five hours in this game learning the basics and exploring my initial surroundings. One thing's for sure: It has a very, very slow pace. Thankfully the ability to use the hyperdrive and leap across great distances at the expense of no fuel helps speed things up a lot, but even then navigating to the surfaces of planets, mining asteroids, and in some cases even docking can be pretty time consuming. If you're patient and enjoy exploring space, piloting, maintaining, and upgrading your very own spaceship, visiting planets, and oh so much more, this game is definitely worth your time and money. I'd highly suggest playing the demo first, which can be found on the game's main website (http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmercenary/downloads.htm). That's what got me started and made me rush back to the Steam store page to purchase the full version.