Equinox

Rewieved by Sinke 


GOOD POINTS:
Nicely done briefings
Balanced between shooting and planning
Complex as much as it should be

BAD POINTS:
Bad controls
No in-game music
Crashes often 

SIZE: 7.8 MB
MULTIPLAYER: None
AGE RATING: Safe for all ages 
REQUIREMENTS:  Unknown, but quite old computer user-friendly
MY MARK: 3.7


The game «Equinox» comes from small, yet very imaginative game company «Bouncing fox».  A typical space-shooter with slight complexity will not change your world, but it might give you a few hours of fun. 

What makes this game different from the others is that you can easily notice a little more work put into it. It is not something made in one afternoon, or one of those «wow-how-great-but-unfinished-japanese-space-shooters» we all love and download every now and then. «Equinox» is complete game and one can't tell anything wrong about it (although it crashed a few times on my computer, but that could be Sinke-specific) . 

The story is very «original»- you are a pilot in separatist movement which tries to proclaim independency of its territory  from interstellar Confederation. We were helping separatist movements since the era of «Space invaders» but I guess wars are always waged for the same reasons. At the beginning, you will be asked to give your name, and name of your space ship. After that, you will go to briefing screen where you can choose which mission you will start. Since you will earn money on each mission, which will then be spent on ship improvements, your little pet will get more firepower. You can even buy equipment which will allow you to extract valuable minerals from near-by asteroids.  

While mission briefings are usually typical for the genre ( «Escort our freighters» or «Protect our mining facilities» ) they are presented nicely. Each time a different character will come and brief you, ranging from a bald and experienced star-admiral to young space tramp with cigarette in his mouth. 

You will usually be accompanied by a small number of fighters which will assist you on your mission. Their role is important, since if you lose too many of them, you won't be able to handle attack waves which follow. 

While there is no in-game music, sound effects do their role and at least they won't irritate you. Graphics are a little dull,  but configuring more complex graphical settings will increase number of particles once you blow up a Confederate ship. That could improve your experience, but you should consider that your CPU will probably have a noticeable slow-down. 

There are some bad points in this game- the controls of your ship are really clumsy and it will take some time to get used on them. They can not be changed, which is really a trouble sometimes. Having control of your ship is really necessary in this game since it is very hard. 

The other thing is that even when you get used on controls, whenever you engage your enemies you will find yourself in the middle of huge laser showdown. Your ship will probably hit as many allies as foes and it is quite possible you will blow up a certain amount of your own fleet by your own weapons. Your fighters won't mind putting a few holes in your shields, since they often hit you in hunt for  the pesky red Confederation ships.  Because of this, you will sometimes be frustrated since the ships you are supposed to escort or bases you were supposed to defend will be destroyed because of lack of support. However, the game still gives you enough room for entertainment and it's worth the download, considering it's size. 

TIP:
Hold «Shift» to pick up closest foe and hold the letter «A». Your ship will lock the enemy and follow it depending on your thrust. This can greatly aid you in big conflicts.