Cat reviews games you've never heard of

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

That's right, it's me and I"m back with another review thread.  Only this time, I'm not reviewing FF mods, I'm reviewing other PC games, ones that most of you have never heard of.  Some of these are from really tiny indie developers, some come from foreign lands, and some just were never promoted well and got lost amidst the flurry of big budget, big name, loud explosive games that are a dime a dozen these days.  As an added bonus, most of these are very inexpensive, although that is not always the case.

Please feel free to suggest other obscure games for me to check out and possibly review.  I can't guarantee I will, but I'll at least consider it.  Other comments are welcome too.

Enough for introductions, on to the reviews.

EDIT:  I put this in the wrong forum, if a mod could kindly move it for me.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Space Rangers 2 is one game that's hard to categorize.  At it's heart, it's a sandbox style turn based space trading/combat game but incorporates bits from several other genres as well.

You play as a Space Ranger, an independent semi military agent of a loose organization dedicated to fighting enemies that threaten galactic civilization by using more unconventional methods.  In spite of this description, you don't HAVE to do anything.  You start out picking one of five races, and five classes, as well as two starting skills and some bonus equipment for your ship.  All the race and class really determines is what starting ship, equipment, and cargo you start with.  You can change everything around, including your race and appearance, later on, if you wish.  

Once you get going, you are free to progress as you wish. You can run Fed Ex missions, scan planets for forgotten goodies, trade, commit piracy, fight piracy, join in in military campaigns, play old fashion text based adventure missions, and play real time strategy missions.  Along the way, you gain experience, invest in better ships and equipment, and watch the universe around you change.

And that is one of the best parts to me.  The in game universe is not static or scripted.  Other pilots fly around, trade, attack each other, thread you, threaten each other, have robberies, mine minerals.  The bad guys, meanwhile, assault star systems, sometimes the ones you need to visit or fly through, and the Rangers fight back against them, with or without your help.  You can leave this world alone, or influence it by using your money to fund research, build new bases, order attacks, construct military fleets and so forth.  There is a story, but whether you complete it or not is entirely up to you.  Me I'm having too much fun become a rich merchant trader.

You aren't going to find this game in stores, but Impulse and Steam both have it and its expansion.  Two thumbs up from me.


Gameplay video

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Flotilla's a odd little gem.  The sounds effects are all generic effects purchased form a cheap generic effects website, the music is classical music, the graphics are simple with almost no detail, yet it all comes together to form a strangely appealing little indie game.

The premise of the game is simple.  You play the leader of a small flotilla of space ships with but 7 months to live.  You spend this time flying from star system to star system, encountering weird anthropomorphic animals instead of aliens and making simple choices with often unseen consequences at most places.

The meat of the game, however, is the combat system.  It's in full 3d, although the ships are represented by simple team colored block shapes, and uses a simultananeous turn based system.  You plan out your ships moves for 30 seconds, then watch that time play.  Anticipate the wrong moves on your opponents side and a clever plan becomes a disaster.  It's almost like a 3d space dance, trying to manuever your ships to hit the enemy's weak back or bottom armor while trying to keep there weapons away form those same parts of your own ships, all without being able to respond to anything that happens for the next 30 seconds.

You will die in this game.  A lot.  Even if you don't, your character will die rather quickly from his disease anyways.  The games are very short as a result.  The longest one I played was 40 minutes and most are under 30.

Even better news--this game is brand new, but still only costs $10.

You can find this game on Impulse, Steam, GamersGate, or the official homepage.  There's also a demo available.

See a gameplay video here.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I'll post a new review soon.  In the mean time, Impulse happens to be having a sale on a bundle of both these games (Indie Strategy Game Bundle) for only $15.  That's quite a deal folks.