2 new space games on steam, Sol Exodus and Evochron Mercenary

[maniacalpha1-1]

If anyone plays these let us know if they're good. Always like space games.

 

[Gothgar]

The Evochron was on sale, but I think its off now, looked interesting, wish they did Demos

 

[Via]

Here's one, at least:

http://www.gamershell.com/download_84380.shtml

 

[SunnyD]

I guess I'll be waiting to see if Evochron goes on sale again. Looks just about the closest we'll get to anything quite as freeform as Privateer/Freelancer ever was.

 

[Puppies04]

I guess I'll be waiting to see if Evochron goes on sale again. Looks just about the closest we'll get to anything quite as freeform as Privateer/Freelancer ever was.

Isn't X rebirth out this year? Looks pretty freeform

 

[shortylickens]

Looks like good stuff.

 

[CrackRabbit]

I played an early build of Sol Exodus at PAX last year. It looks good and has good control feel but the world was utterly generic and lifeless.
Talked to the devs that were there a bit about it but I have no idea if they made any changes.

 

[Elcs]

I played an early build of Sol Exodus at PAX last year. It looks good and has good control feel but the world was utterly generic and lifeless.
Talked to the devs that were there a bit about it but I have no idea if they made any changes.

It does feel generic and rough around the edges. There are 8 missions apparently and I've done 6 + Prologue so far, not sure if that's really 6 or 7 missions.

The story would be good if they had twice as many missions and made the missions longer. You go from Point A to Point F to Point M without anything in between. It seems to progress at a mile a minute without filling in any of the gaps.

At some points you are fighting and have no mission objectives, only simply to wait or mop up the seemingly constantly respawning fighters. There aren't that many different enemies to fight but they're reasonably interesting, especially those ADD's which you will hate with a passion.

I love the sense of speed in the game and boy do you zoom along. Your standard max speed is 475m/s and you'll pass a large capital ship in some time. Hit the afterburners and you'll pass it in a couple of seconds. In Freespace 2, arguably the very best game this genre has seen, left you feeling like you were hitting tab just for the hell of it at times. In Sol: Exodus, you really speed towards your destination.

The Gun lead guide seems to be completely broken but you'll pick up the lead time required quite quick.

TLR. Short game, fun but not without it's flaws. Probably not worth the money (though I paid £15 for 6 hours of WH40k: Space Marine campaign and this cost me £6.99 for 3 hours so far)

 

[Elcs]

Sol: Exodus completed

8 missions, 3.8 hours, 2 missions replayed.

Worth £6.99? I guess £1.83 per hour of gameplay isn't too bad but I'd have to say 'Avoid' until a sale or new content is added.

 

[Lumathix]

Downloaded Evochron. Has potential but it's buggy. Had to alter files so that it would support more than 2gigs of ram on Win 7. Haven't gotten very deep into it yet. But I'm glad to see games of this type come out.

 

[BladeVenom]

Sol does look kind of tempting. http://store.steampowered.com/app/200410/

I wonder how easy it is to mod?

 

[Martimus]

Evochron Mercenary looks like X3 to me. How does it compare?

 

[aka1nas]

Evochron Mercenary looks like X3 to me. How does it compare?

Doesn't really. You still control a single ship at a time(I think you can hire merc wingmen, but that's the extent of the multi-ship ownership) and I don't believe there is a universe-wide sim going on like in X3.

I've tried the demo of EM and just couldn't get into it.

 

[ViRGE]

Sol: Exodus completed

8 missions, 3.8 hours, 2 missions replayed.

Worth £6.99? I guess £1.83 per hour of gameplay isn't too bad but I'd have to say 'Avoid' until a sale or new content is added.

I just finally got around to finishing SOL, and I'd say this is a good summary. It's not a bad game, it's just not very good. The crux of the issue is that the missing pacing is just all wrong, and the story is just there. On the final mission when it's time to blow up the final target there's no indication of its status, you just keep shooting until it goes to a cutscene and the target blows up. I'm not sure whether this is indicative of a design issue or an engine issue (UE3 not necessarily having the kind of state machine needed for space sim mission scripting), but I suspect it's a matter of both.

The dog fighting itself is okay, though I can't decide if the fact that I can't hit anything is a problem with the game or with me. Missiles are definitely going to be your best friend though.

There are some high points though. The ADDs are fun to chase down even if they are evil bastards, and the gunships aren't bad either although I've yet to figure out what to do with them other than to take the hits while firing at them. There's also one mission in particular that really stands out, where you have to hack and jump start some friendly transports before they blow up. The devs clearly have watched too much BSG, but it worked to their advantage there.

Overall even at $10 it's a tough sale; for as short as it is, it should be better. But if it goes on sale again then it's worth picking up if you like space sims.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Isn't X rebirth out this year? Looks pretty freeform

The problem with the X series (at least for me) is that it is basically an economic simulation for the first 50% of the game. The combat is BOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGG until you get a decent fleet going, and even then its pretty lackluster.

Not saying that the X-series isn't fun. It is. But i wish someone would put out a game that has the economic depth of the X-series, the space combat of X-wing/Freespace 2, and the graphical fidelity of Crysis.