Gameguru reviews/specials archive                                        << back to the main page Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos (hx) 12:44 AM CEST - Jul,22 2001 Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos is the follow-up to Independence War, visually impressive game for the hardcore space-sim pilots. The game is set in the 24th century, 100 years after the setting of the original Independence War, in the "Badlands Cluster" of space. You are Cal Johnston (son of Felix who in turn was the son of ex-pirate Lucrecia Johnston) an escaped prisoner. The man who originally imprisoned you is Caleb Maas (also known as Caleb Maaaarss) The same bastard who murdered your dad on his birthday. Really bad luck isn't it? This scene is set by a hugely impressive 15 minute intro with professional voice actors and gorgeously rendered characters. The gameplay revolves on a central simulating part where the player is the pilot of a number of small space-ships, particularly suitable for combat (If you ever played games like X-Wing or Wing Commander, you will be very quickly "in" ) In Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos you can pilot your ship, communicate, trade, recycle items, buy or modify your possessions, etc. You can travel everywhere you want, just you cannot travel into another dimension (like in X - Beyond The Frontier), it's shame :] I bet you will like autopilot which does most of the work in getting you to your desired destination (because manually it's not so simple) For faster travelling you can use the number of stargates and interstellar turbo boosts, or cheats :P Honestly I preferred cheats, because I'm too impatient to wait minutes before my ship will reach some destination. But I heard some weird people likes this feel...no comment :) I almost forgot - You will need a Joystick - a half-decent one with a throttle and a POV hat switch. Sure you can control the game by keyboard, but it's pervert idea. Try it and you will get mad in 2 minutes, because over 8 separate keys are required just to move and steer - I wasn't born with 20 fingers, though they say am an Alien :)) Fortunately, the combat interface similar in style to a FPS (A/D/W/S keys + joystick). Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos is definitely the best combination of hardcore simulation, space strategy and shooter action hybrid ever. If you like space sims, don't miss this excellent game with impressive graphics. Download playable demo (198kb) [mirrors: PCZone, 3DFiles].The Demo contains time limited Instant Action, a training mission, the full intro movie and 2 missions from the game. snd: 5/5 - professionally devised sound track, superb sound effects, voices fits perfectly with the rest of the game gfx: 5/5 - impressive, realistic physics, amazing attention to detail, great detail true-to-life simulation of a space vehicle, bombastic 15 minute intro movie, but no FMVs during game playability: 4/5 - multi-genre game(sim, strategy, dogfighting), for dedicated / hard-core space sim fans only, 50 in-depth missions, multiplayer, joystick-driven interface, endless weeks of free-form gameplay - though takes too long to get into genre: space sim release: June 2001 developer: Particle Systems the game is similar to: X - Beyond The Frontier publisher: Infogrames Overall: 84%

last 10 comments:

DJ_BJ posted - Sep, 13 2001 - 20:49 mmmmm... i do NOT recomment that you buy this game. There maybe 16 starsystems but if you play the game you won't know it because i'll just jump from one station to the other. You cannot communicate with other NPC and you can only do the missions , another minus is the controls , its very difficult to have a dogfight or to even turn in a normal way. Don't even think you can trade because you can't. the only plus is the graphics. thank you and bye Mendaliv posted - Sep, 17 2001 - 03:33 Damned good game. It does have a few problems though. Firstly, it is too straightforward. You are almost forced into missions, and, even though you can do most anything on your own, the fastest way is to play the missions (many of which are way too obvious for us I-war vets, particularly the one where you steal some turret fighters from an enemy base. It's similar to the mission in I-war defiance in which you have to switch a buncha cargo pods on a transport, except you only have to steal one, and you don't need to dock it to anything. Plus, Clay pretty much gives it away.) Also, you're stuck in one system (even though it's huge, probably over 25 billion square kilometers) until you get a capsule drive and you can use the lagrange points, and you need to finish a mission to do that too. There are a lot of missing things in the gameplay too. You can't buy and sell at stations, you can only do that at your main station, and only after you get some trading partners and pirate some cargo. You can't sell for money, just bartering. There are a number of just plain dumb things. The controls are fine, that is, if you are good at FPS games. You can't capture ships (as far as i've seen). If you're looking for a 3D escape velocity (an arcade-style space trading game for the macintosh), don't go for this, X-BTF is the closest you'll get to it. JD posted - Sep, 25 2001 - 15:11 I don't know if it's me or what, but the very first dogfight has wasted me within 10 seconds like 5 freakin' times in a row now! wtf?! I've had this game barely 2 hours and it's pissing me off big time. Major frustration factor with this one. Christopher posted - Oct, 02 2001 - 18:23 This game quite simply ROCKS. It isn't Wing Commander, it isn't Tie Fighter...it's Independence War with real physics. Momma's boys that wanna fly a spacecraft like a World War II fighter plane need not apply...this one's for men only. Mendaliv posted - Mar, 08 2002 - 21:08 hmm, forget what i said earlier. This game sux0r compared to the original. In addition, it gets way too friggin' boring. The game is way to irritating. not an EoC fan !! posted - May, 02 2005 - 16:47 I agree with the guys who say this game sux sh1t- big time.Yeah,lets all go get our joystix and shit like that but when a game reaches this level of reqd manual control dexterity, I for one feel like I wasted my cash. Lame controls,nice grafix + sound , sh1t gameplay. 2 outta 5. Go figure. BUY IT! posted - Jul, 22 2001 - 03:45 ITS GOOD. ITS VERY GOOD BUY IT NOW. I COMMAND YOU! BUY IT! dfggg posted - Jul, 22 2001 - 15:26 This game has very GOOD gfx, BUT, yes, we have a but... hmm, the game lacks ALL nice GUI options for reconfiguration of controls, and if the game IS for "hardcore" space players, then its NOTHING for people that don't even know what happens if the skin on the penis is going up and down very fast! :( the game just STINKS when I think on this! I mean, DOS edit of CFG file is stonage, so while the DEV-team for this game masturbates, lets go and PLAY GOOD GAMES instead of this asshole!!! FEED ME posted - Jul, 22 2001 - 18:20 YES MASTER I SHALL BUY IT!  write a comment The old comment system has been replaced. Check out FORUMS!