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The Ur-Quan Masters..
Basically a port, or remake of Star Control 2, one of the best games ever, and if you understand it a bit, and decided to spend some time with it, you'll love it. Guaranteed.
Star Control 2 was a brilliant game for it's days.. Large plot, lots of dialogues... A very large universe to explore, while there is still a basic plot floating around you...
Even though it's a sequel, you don't really have to have played Star Control 1.. SC1 didn't have much of a plot, and actually looked a bit like your average strategy game, but then in space.. Why don't you have to have played SC1? Because ALL THE INFO you need about the "great war" (what SC1 is about) is presented to you in SC2 in a brilliant way..
The story? Earth and the Alliance have been fighting the Ur-Quan Hierarchy for quite a while now... Battles everywhere.. Losses on both sides... While the Alliance lost quite a lot of their defense lines, a research team in an Earthling Cruiser were doing some coreward secret missions near Vela, when they got ambushed by some Androsynth (oh, you'll find out what they are when you're playing the game).. They quickly did a crashlanding on a planet near them..
Once there, they begin to explore the world they're doomed to be for a while, when they suddenly find a huge underground city....
Years have passed, and after a lot of research, the crewmembers of the damaged Cruiser --after colonizing the planet-- have found it's purpose..
..It's a factory of alien design, for building starships..
However, there aren't enough materials on the planet to complete said starship, and they have to do it with a souped-down version of it... But that must be enough to get back to Earth, and give them the technological details of their ship, in the hope of finally winning the war.. Ofcourse, every ship needs a captain.. And, since you're the one that knows the alien ship's computer best, you'll be the captain!
So, that's the story.. When you return to Earth, there'll be quite a few surprises for you..
Immediately when you start the game, you should do ONE thing, and the plot will unravel itself (though sometimes quite slowly)... Just go to Earth, third planet from the sun (the blue one)...
http://sc2.sf.net
So, is this a direct port from the Star Control 2 PC version?
--Nope! It's actually a port from the SC2 3d0 (a gaming console) version.. One of the major features the 3d0 version had over the PC version, was speech.. That means that in UQM, you'll be able to actually HEAR the aliens speak..
It's also got higher resolutions and some nice scaling algorithms inbuilt! Oh! So what does this game have that others don't have?
-Explore a large universe!
-Talk with aliens which actually have reasons for what they do!
-Some are funny!
-Some are depressed!
-Some are so evil, but actually aren't when you take a close look at them!
-Try to make peace with as many aliens as possible!
-Combat when negotiations fail..
-Play with against the computer, or a FRIEND (!) in the added "Super Melee!" game, which is basically a 1v1 ship combat game.. There are 25 ships to choose from (some of which you can find in the game, some you can only find in Star Control 1, but which are added for nostalgia/fun reasons), each with their UNIQUE look, UNIQUE handling, UNIQUE weapon, and UNIQUE (and fun!) "Special ability", which reaches from tractor beams, to afterburners, to shields, to energy disruptors..
-Have some *** with a sexy alien!
-Collect minerals, to soup up your Alien Vessel!
-Lots o' damn nice music, which often beats today's game music!
-Each alien has it's own conversation graphics, music, font, speech, dialogues, style, ship....!
-Frungy!
So, yeah... End of rant...
http://sc2.sf.net
Oh, and if you're not sure yet as to if this game is nice or not..
Google "Star Control 2" or "The Ur-Quan Masters", and read those comments/revies
edit: the original game is actually on Abandonia (but it doesn't really work on modern PC's)... http://www.abandonia.com/games/144/5
Shame the "your rating" is only a 3, though..
edit 2: They actually released UQM 0.4 the 21st of May, which adds the SC2 PC version's intro!
