Article Type: Review
Article Date: April 28, 2002
Product Info
Product Name: Starships Unlimited: Divided Galaxies
Category: Space RTS
Developer: Apezone
Publisher: Matrix Games
Release Date: Released
System Specs: Click Here
Files & Links: Click Here
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Getting Started
The first major problem was the manual. It’s a .PDF file 140 pages long. Okay, I usually try to start a game and move along by trial and error referencing the instruction manual as needed. You know. You start your sim or game and get killed but you move some vehicle around and do something. When you need to know what key fires missiles or navigation help on your new sim/game you pause and check the manual. This is a little different.
Since I desired a printed copy, I had my wife use the laser printer at her work instead of my old, slow inkjet. It took several hours even on an industrial strength printer! This was probably due to the black border on three sides that took all that imprinting. In the meantime loading the game didn’t get me anywhere but the view of a planet and finally a scout ship to fool around with. This game is RTS in theory but not so as you can click on your ship and tell it what to do and where to go. When I read the manual I began to comprehend the immense scope of Matrix Games’ Starships Unlimited: Divided Galaxies (SUDG). It is very ambitious in that all aspects of the real world ingredients must be taken into account to accomplish anything much.
The manual tells you the keys to use and the goals to aspire to, but the overview does not say exactly “do this by clicking and keying.” Yes, there is a keyboard legend but using it in-game when you are new still doesn’t explain how to accomplish the goal you desire. You must fumble through it. There are in-game tips that seem just as ambiguous. Clicking on the control buttons at the top of the screen gave me too many “you ain’t got that” or “you can’t do that” messages.
The program installs fast, in about four minutes, since there’s only 245 MB to lay down on the hard drive. Tip: That means you’re not going to be dazzled with graphics and sounds and the huge files that come with them. System requirements ask for a modest P II 300 MhZ, 64 MB RAM, 16-bit sound card and a 2 MB, 8-bit video card with Direct X, though version is unstated. This will run on Windows 95/98/NE/2000/NT 4.0.
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Average planet you'll see repeatedly  |
Graphics are quite average but not that poor considering the object detail and simple nature of objects along with the lack of “a screen full of ships and planets.” Ships are not highly detailed and cities on planets are simple repetitive icons. The planets and suns are fairly good and need no higher detail. All this goes along with the concept, which is broad and strategic and not much tactical in scope. The setup put screen resolution at 800 X 600 and I found no option to change it though that size is workable.
Sounds are equally understated. Background music is present but not overwhelming and it is not loaded with dozens of sound effects sometimes overlapping.
You can’t punch through the first thirty-five seconds of the Matrix intros using the “enter” or “space” keys to get going either.
Gameplay
Your objectives are not to just kill the other races of which there are seven. Look, imagine Sim City in space and you have a grasp of the premise. You must do much more than outfit ships. You must consider exploration, colonization and contact with other races requiring diplomacy. There is research of weapons and less tangible things like spies. The player must keep an eye on finances and politics as well. Sound complicated? It is. And it is slow. Figure on saving games to continue regularly. It may make you nuts to watch your patrol vessel compete the same circuit around your home world as freighters whiz to and from bringing minerals equaling dollars to your world as research minutes tick by.
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| The starmap |
You begin research in which each item takes a predetermined amount of time to achieve on you world. This era can begin as ours is atomic, or be fusion, anti-matter, or singularity. You can progress to the next age if you play long enough. And like Sim City the tiny ones on your planets will give you feedback pro or con as to the state of the union. There is cost to upkeep ships, spies and colonies to worry about. And then foreign spies will abscond with some of your funds form time to time with nothing much you can do about it other than read the message that it occurred. And the dollar amounts stated for financial things are meaningless. $5? At least make it $5B to mean billion.
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| Your homeworld, spacedock and scout ship |
Make no mistake, all these unfolding events take time even at five times normal speed or using a cheat that accelerates to 10X. This is a completely different mindset. Pretty much while your ship is patrolling endlessly about and a research project taking 500 plus seconds you can go to the bathroom or get a beverage. Even combat is pre-determined in its maneuvers, which it ultimately controlled by the AI and not as directly by you as you would probably like. So even when something is happening, you could still be in the bathroom or kitchen and your input would not be vital. The manual has a long list of cheat codes too. Is this to assist the frustrated? To move this mama you’ll probably resort to the cheats to speed things up.
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| Kill of enemy ship, wow!- Not! |
Once the program allows you to explore you can find artifacts on other systems’ planets that allow your tech to improve. Again, the control of your ship is 99 percent done by the AI. You don’t tactically direct anything. You become a spectator as your craft dices it up with a couple of feeble ships guarding an artifact over a planet that has a clone in every solar system. Weapon sounds and effects are equally feeble and repetitive.
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| Configuring ship equipment upgrade |
There is multi-ship combat, but it takes a while for all the other worlds and yours to develop into space combat capable species. To my dismay, when another race’s scout ship came barreling by I could find no way to pursue it and blast it if I had wanted to. This concept is Star Trek: Armada (STA) taken to the extreme. In STA you mine resources to pay for building ships and stations and to research technology but SUDG becomes convoluted in its depth to some extent. You are passing laws, offering gifts and sharing information with other races and mucking about in diplomacy matters. Population unrest affects things too.
All of the topics mentioned go too deep into detail of handling situations also which pulls you away from what the focus should be—combat. You must balance it all to come out well. And if you don’t, you have spent many hours being educated. That doesn’t mean you will do better the next time either. The learning curve is long and you must be dedicated to investing a goodly amount of hours to be mediocre in ability. Since the AI controls most of the moves it isn’t going to get smarter like you will either. The manual actually states, “think of your starship as a glorified chess piece.”
Can We Talk?
The scenario is similar to the saga of the evolution of the Star Trek series of television shows. Captain Kirk always had phasers ready to blast hell out of threatening aliens. With Next Generation’s Captain Picard and the Deep Space Nine stories everyone was looking for nice ways to settle things with words. By the time Voyager hit the airwaves you felt like dozing through the rhetoric until the Borg showed up and made things sizzle. And now Enterprise depicts a starship that functions like a clunky used Rambler from Friendly Cal’s Auto Ranch with a crew so naive they expect to find Santa Claus in space.
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| Diplomacy screen-Your race and donkey-eared alien |
Sometimes there’s no better cure for things than a fully charged phaser bank and a captain itching to use it like Kirk was. And just as the TV series went from “ready to fight” to “ready to chat” so goes this game. It doesn’t need the intricate socio-economic, diplomatic, financial aspects to work. About the only aspect of the real world that was left out are lawyers and the filing of frivolous lawsuits. Forget chess in space and give us more user-controllable action.
But look at this in two ways. Combat itchy starship captains will be bored with SUDG while those that wish to be immersed in a long-term association with socio-political-economic aspects to achieve goals and only fight as a last resort will be intrigued. If you wish to form diplomatic relationships more than you want to blow things up then this is for you. This game requires the absolute minimum of interaction. Your wrist won’t be tired after playing this one. In fact it’s almost like a demo running with you as the spectator.
While some of the overall basic premise is fine the childish articulation of the vessels in combat reminds one of plastic models on sticks. Effects and graphic details are not good either. As this title promises the shining future it harks back to games of the past when, ten years ago, 5¼” floppies were really floppy and CGA graphics was the thing.
If it comes down to a “yea” or “nay, ” I vote “neigh” as in the sound a horse makes when it whinnies and laughs.
Editor's Note: Starships Unlimited: Divided Ground is not sold in stores. Buy at Apezone or from Matrix Games.
Mobo: ASUS A7V133 200/266MhZ FSB / 256MB PC-133 RAM
CPU: Athlon T-Bird 1.3GHz
Sound: SoundBlaster PCI 128 w/Yamaha YST-M7 speakers
Video: nVidia GeForce 2 Ultra 64 MB
OS: Windows ME w/ Direct X 8.1
Display: 17” Envision monitor .27mm dp
Media: Samsung 52X CD drive
HDrive: Maxtor 27 GB 7,200 RPM
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