In the far flung future the universe is populated by numerous races all of whom live in fear of the invaders, The Dominators...

Space Rangers 2: Reboot is another in the Space Rangers series of games. At first glance the game looks very much like an average fighting and trading game with you playing the role of a rookie cadet who has to fight and trade in order to increase your standing, experience and ships capabilities.

Initially you get to choose between a number of races and professions, for the seasoned player there is little here that will surprise as you get the usual options for things like trader, pirate and ranger. Following your choice, and having tweaked the game to your desired settings, you finally get set loose on the map.

Your little ship zips around the galaxy looking a lot like a colourful version of Galaxians. If this was all the game had to offer it would be slim fare indeed. However, this is just the opening shot. Play the game for a while, or like me until three in the morning, and you discover that it has many more layers.

For a start there are the planetary missions to undertake using giant Mecha which trundle around gleefully blowing the poggies out of each other. The robots can either be remotely commanded or you can take control of a single one yourself, which is a lot more fun. You get to build bases, though the amount of resource administration is less than I would have liked, and can even plant various defences against the dominators. This part of the game is all about strategy, so blundering around hoping to win every encounter is likely to get you killed.

Another type of planet based sub game is also included in the form of text based adventures; these are more fun than they sound as the puzzles are taxing and the script witty. Here you get to do anything from taking up the pizza challenge to spending time in jail.

The real meat of the game is the galaxy spanning invasion where you zip from planet to planet picking up assignments from the local government, which can either entail hunting down another ship or a straight forward delivery, either are fairly lucrative. At the same time you have to tackle pirates and Dominator ships you come across, that is if you think you can win. This may sound a little tiresome but the truth is, it’s a great deal of fun. Obviously, if you are overly aggressive or just plain foolhardy, you’re going to die. In Reboot that isn’t a problem as it saves your last planet fall so there’s not that much to repeat.

The game is pretty easy to get to grips with and I didn’t feel that the learning curve was unduly steep, that said, zipping around in a little ship does wear a little thin at times, but there are always the silly side quests to keep you amused.

I guess the good mark of a game is that I shall continue to play it even after the review is finished. With the randomly generated galaxy map the game also has a great deal of replay value.

8

Charles Packer