Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters (PC, 1992/3DO, 1993/PC, 2011)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8 Control-8/6.5* Challenge-7.5 Story-7.5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-8 Fun-7.5 Originality-7
Overall Score-7.5
*Outside of ship combat (see encounter issue)
+
Large world (many solar systems/planetary systems large - something like 120+)
Starflight-inspired exploration and NPC interaction gameplay (mostly open world, scan and explore planets via a dispatched vessel (mining, combat; can only dispatch if the atmosphere allows it and there's anything to mine), NPC encounter dialogue trees, space wars-style ship combat, many different alien races with different personalities and motives, pretty detailed ship customization (crew/fuel/mineral capacity, thrust and rotation speed, weapons - can equip several modules for more firepower as well as secondary weapon modules (point-defense laser - short range but auto-aiming and rapid fire), energy recharging, extra landers) - can buy tech upgrades for the flagship from a couple of species)
Fleshed out dialogue trees for NPC encounters with meaningful choices (options can change depending on prior actions or dialogue choices, one choice can take out two races by making them fight each other and one choice can start a civil war within another race, diplomacy is generally the way to go though it's possible to kill pretty much anyone, can sign contracts with slave traders and battle thralls, some hostile NPCs try to bluff the player)
Build a ship fleet (follows your main ship outside of combat, one ship at a time is used during combat) and ally with some alien races who'll provide you with escort ships that you can select and pilot in combat
Fairly unusual premise (isolated explorers turned settlers find an ancient advanced civilization and use its technology to make an advanced space ship - they return to earth and find that humans lost the war and are now oppressed)
Dialogue speed options (can also skip lines)
Some interesting items/devices (Emergency warp escape can be used to exit ship combat quickly (uses some fuel if used by the flagship rather than a fleet ship, fleet ships are placed in the flagship until a battle is over, there's also 5 seconds of delay where you have to be still before it activates so it can't be used right before death) - however if there are multiple nearby encounters then only the last one is avoidable following your escape (if surrounded while trying to leave a planet it can sometimes help to let them come to you and clump together more before escaping), Burvixese and Umgah HyperWave Broadcasters for impersonating certain NPCs+summoning the Melnorme+to communicate through planet slave shields, QuasiSpace Portal Spawner - costs 10 fuel, Shofixti Maidens revive a certain species, Taalo Shield protects against psychic manipulation by a certain race, Talking Pet drives away a certain fleet of ships)
Upgradeable ship (maneuverability, speed, crew complement (size but no role distribution - serves as a ship's health bar), energy reserves, weapons) and planet lander (mineral cargo capacity, rate of stun beam fire, speed, protection from alien life attacks, heat shielding, lightning resistance, earthquake shock protection)
Nameable captain/player char and ship (as well as the alliance between races though for this one you can only pick from a few pre-made names)
Very good map system (shows star names and color which helps tell which ones are worth visiting for mining, max exploration range (one way trip) is shown with a circle based on your current fuel supply, spheres of influence are shown for races that you've gained info from via dialogue or searching their wrecked ships, auto-pilot command which can be canceled at will), zoomable, can type in stars to quickly select them (- key), radar while in hyperspace - shows enemies and stars, shows how much fuel a one-way trip will cost when moving the cursor around, alien spheres of influence are updated on the star map over the course of the game)
Avoidable enemy encounters (black dots in hyperspace which is basically the game's overworld; can also talk to an enemy before engaging in battle and sometimes talk them out of it)
Fast travel via QuasiSpace (a separate area (alternate dimension) mainly used for teleporting around the star map but you can also find a hidden species here)
Various cool weapons (flamethrower, upgradeable auto-aiming laser for the flagship (8 levels), homing upgrade for the first three flagship weapons (auto-tracking systems, 3 levels), homing missile, charge attack, Space Marine - enters enemy ship and kills crew (can also use the gravity whip move to get close fast), Syreen Song - lures up to 8 crew into jumping ship and they can then be converted to your side (can still be reclaimed if the enemy wins), autonomous fighters (unaffected by gravity, similar to interceptors in starcraft), Blazer form (fast battering ram of sorts), F.R.I.E.D. clouds that destroy enemy shots, Glory Device - suicide bomb, Anti-matter Cone which destroyes projectiles, Reeunk Afterburner - speed boost+plasma trail) and fleet ship combat tools (one per ship; Switch forms (x-wing or y-wing - different main weapons and one turns well while the other is fast), Confusion ray - makes enemy spin+disrupts turning and secondary weapon, Force shield - repels all but syreen song/limpet/glory device/planet damage, Cloaking Device (protects from homing weapons, hostile craft still retain some awareness of the Avenger's approximate position, can't shoot while cloaked however the ship auto-turns towards the enemy if you start shooting while cloaked), Tractor beam, Random Teleport, Advanced maneuvering system (Blade; accelerate sideways/strafe or move in reverse however you can't thrust forward while using it), DOGIs (energy draining drones that avoid enemy fire while moving towards them and also change their trajectory upon collision), Retro-propulsion - move in reverse at high speed, Insult - recharges energy, Limpet - drone that slows down the enemy ship, Absorption shield (Jugger) - turns damage into energy and toggled at will by holding the button however the ship doesn't regenerate energy besides this (its main weapon also doesn't cost any though), Convert crew to energy, Regenerate crew - fast but costs all current energy, Energize - Probe ship uses it to break down asteroids into fuel as it has none of its own, )
Planets are present during ship combat and their gravitational fields have an effect on it - can use this to avoid shots and to perform a temporary speed boost/gravity whip (asteroids are also presents and can be used for cover or bounced off of)
Comical tone overall (kinda similar to The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy, some sexual jokes, meta and fourth wall breaking during the staff roll)
Rich lore (the hyperwave caster's use to attract the ur-quan/kohr-ah might've inspired the psi emitter from starcraft)
Items sell at their purchase value (makes experimenting with customization much easier)
25 different ships
Temporary and partial message log (press space to review the current topic of the current conversation)
If you run out of fuel you might be intercepted by the Melnorme and offered to buy more but it's more likely to be an enemy (30% chance of the former each day)
Some environmental storytelling (the machines on the moon, precursor colonies and mines+relics, ruins)
Pretty nice intro and ending (artwork stills and text though) and .mod-based soundtrack (mostly contemporary ebm/industrial, ambient, techno and synth rock)
Animated dialogue portraits
Mostly memorable races and some memorable characters (Zex, Fwiffo, Tanaka, the Neo-Dnyarri)
Some decent puzzles (dealing with tanaka, a lot of info can be gained from multiple sources, sun device use)
Cool final battle (bomb super weapon kamikaze attack after taking out a large ship's defenses (two-part weapon combined with an escape pod while the warp escape and other weapons are removed for a more climactic final confrontation where you have to rely on your fleet ships to fight the target ship's guards, can also get reinforcements during the last battle via the Yehat)
Ur-Quan Masters (3DO ver. port to PC w/ some tweaks):
Fully voiced NPCs (pretty good overall)
Rewind+fast forward dialogue options
Much larger viewport for planet exploration - makes it easier to spot hazards in advance and feels less claustrophobic than the tiny window in the corner used in the first PC ver.
Super Melee/head to head combat mode selectable in the main menu, Network support added for this mode
Interface options (PC or 3DO-style for various things)
Less abbreviations in the menus
Some remixed music tracks as well as some new ones (CD redbook) - optional and the PC mod tracks are also included
Higher res and scaling options
In-game key config
Smoother transitions between the few pre-set zoom levels during combat (they're still pretty quick and stop at certain points but it's better than jump cuts) - not added to solar system zoom levels though
+/-
Mostly non-linear structure after the first couple of quests (multiple ways to deal with various races and allying with some of the potential allies is optional, several optional secrets, various events are on a hidden timer, alien ships often move about from planet to planet so combat can often be avoided, four ways to deal with the thraddash)
Save anywhere outside of combat or in the middle of dialogue (multiple nameable slots)
Few directions when you begin besides the main objectives to go to Earth and to fight the Ur-Quan mentioned in the intro (you don't even know where the isolated planet you came from is located but you do start very close to Earth) - however at certain points you'll get clues from the earth starbase commander in case you haven't made progress in crucial areas
Resource management (fuel, crew - these serve as a vehicle's health bar, minerals - turned into resource units for buying flagship upgrades and crew/fuel at the earth starbase, inventory space (can drop lesser minerals if needed), can salvage the wreckage of a defeated opponent ship for resources as well as biological data from creatures on planet surfaces which can be sold to one race for quest info/fuel/tech and planet lander upgrades, credits=alternate currency - can sell rainbow world info and buy fuel for the credits to then sell it to make money/resource units, can trade certain artifacts to the druuge for fuel (can fill up a whole ship of fuel tanks this way) or mauler ships)
Some unavoidable damage during planet exploration (some weather hazards like lightning storms and fire storms on high temp planets - the latter can be avoided to an extent but sometimes you have to lift from the planet to do it)
Areas don't loop around vertically when exploring planets (only horizontally; you explore a mercator projection (abstracted "foldout" of the planet's 3D surface into a 2D top down map)) - when reaching the edges of it there's just black walls instead however you can go back to your ship and re-dispatch at will so it doesn't cause backtracking
Unintentionally funny first scene at the space station orbiting earth (unfitting music and flashing lights make it seem like they're having a rave on board while the dialogue is completely different in tone), key config outside the game only, melee/dog fight mode is also external/not an option in the game itself
Vaguely star trek-like sci-fi setting
Slightly randomized landing location when dispatching a planet lander and you can't choose which direction you'll be facing when landing - done to avoid repeatedly landing and lifting off to avoid hazards though a short cooldown period could also have been used
Can't conquer alien homeworlds
The biological scanner also detects machines
Different zoom levels depending on how close you are to a planet in a solar system (jump cuts) - some issues come with it
Somewhat randomized starting positions when entering combat
Only one race to sell biological data to and they're a bit tricky to find (Melnorme; check the gas giants in the brightest solar systems, the Melnorme never appear in the same system twice in a row however if you keep leaving (for at least a day) and coming back to where you last found them then they'll soon appear again - generally takes about 3 tries)
Kind of ugly main ship/flagship
Fetch+exploration (rainbow worlds)+eliminate or find and eliminate quests
Can have the CPU fight for you (cyborg toggle, can also speed these battles up) but it kinda sucks
Planets stay in place rather than orbiting their stars (added in HD ver. of UQM)
Pretty detailed backstory in the manual
Energy-based weapons which recharge slowly during battle (different recharge speeds depending on the ship, can be upgraded for the flagship with dynamo (shorten delay before each recharge) or shiva (more energy regained per recharge) modules)
No controller support toggle in-game - use external program or joytokey, ship descriptions are in the manual (race descriptions are in-game at the earth starbase)
Limited number of total crew you can recruit on the starbase at earth before costs increase (+2 resource units after 1k - the 2k number mentioned in-game isn't actually true, if you ally with the Shofixti the cost goes back down and this tally is removed, if you sell crew as slaves then it goes up by 7 after 100 and then 15 after 250 (the human commander catches you) so it seems not worth it in the long run)
Time stops at various points (in orbit around a planet or moon, in a menu, waiting for confirmation on quit, exploring planets or moons, in communication, waiting for talk/attack decision in encounter, at the Starbase, in battle) but also fast-forwards by 14-15 days at three points (when the starbase is being prepared so that it can service your Precursor vessel, when you get compelled by the Dnyarri to "Seek death at the hands of your enemy", when the Chmmr install the Utwig bomb on your ship)
Can commit suicide w/ the Utwig Bomb
Can only buy one tech upgrade at a time and it's picked by the game
Each fleet ship has a pre-determined primary and secondary weapon/tool which can't be switched out - would've been cool to be able to make your own combination or to unlock some of their abilities for use with the flagship (it only has one secondary weapon which is the point-defense laser (not really needed either) - mines or cages/nets could've been interesting)
Starts off pretty tough (can't beat the probe encounters nor a group of ilwrath ships without some upgrades or a decent fleet)
References to andy kaufman (spathi on the moon) and star trek (some names and ship designs)
The story leaves some questions unanswered in the end (fate of the Precursors, rainbow world arrow pattern?, what the Orz really are and how they relate to the Arilou though it's implied that they killed them)
The Melnorme will sell info that you might already have (quasi-space warp hole and dreadnought wreck for example) - seems they have a set order of info that they'll always stick to
Tanaka is basically an asian stereotype (might be a Hiroo Onoda reference though? seems to fit)
The lyncis constellation clue is pretty vague (my first guess was hyades based on the description by zex - lyncis looks more like a kite with two strings attached but at least the name is kinda similar to Linch-Nas-Ploh) - it is possible to get the info from the Thraddash instead though
The Spathi lie to you about studying the slave shield around earth in order to remove it and will instead use its technology to isolate themselves a few months after forming an alliance with them - you do get a notification on the star map though meaning the caster they had is easy to acquire
No strafing/dodging/backwards moves for the flagship however you can use the thrust controls to strafe and move backwards while firing
Can have sex with the Syreen commander (lights out and during dialogue)
Can't explore alien homeworlds or earth's satellite base/starbase beyond talking to a representative/commander NPC (you do encounter some non-commander NPCs though)
The Stinger's Tongue attack is too hard to use (could've been semi-homing or let you grab and "throw" asteroids perhaps)
The Skiff moves without inertia (takes some getting used to) - these are a bit underused in SP as they are so fragile and you can't build more of them
Suddenly have to rely on fleet ships for the finale (you get one of the best ships before this though and you can also get reinforcements during the last battle via the Yehat)
Can't fight more than one enemy ship at a time
Can't fight alongside allied ships
No 2-player co-op
Nothing to beta herculis in-game (mrrn tried to colonize it)
Ur-Quan Masters:
Non-nameable save slots - they instead show some valuable stats though so it's not that much of a loss
No option of filling a Syreen Penetrator's crew to its peak of 42 crew from your Starbase here
Slylandro Probes can appear in solar systems here (apparently it's a bug fix)
The inventory capacity of the planet lander vehicle is a bit smaller here (50 vs 64) - the mineral capacity can be upgraded to 2x (bio data capacity is unlimited)
The AI was improved to register the Thraddash afterburner flames as an attack (so using them is more of a challenge)
-
Can get stuck in an endless stream of encounters and eventually run out of fuel from escaping (happened to me near the Pkunk homeworld and again near Lacaille, this could've been fixed by adding some invincibility frames after escaping or winning an encounter - the game even does this for non-battle encounters while in a solar system; related to this you keep running into other neutral/friendly encounters who act like you've not met while in the same constellation/sub area after allying with some races - would've been good if the nearby and identical hyperspace encounters just disappeared after the first one since this contributes to getting stuck in the encounter loop in some areas)
No in-game tutorial (an explanation of what atmosphere aspects to keep in mind when exploring would've been good - gravity affects fuel spent per trip for example, class 5+ weather and tectonics (earthquakes) severity and 500-600+ degrees temperature are often not worth it - if you upgrade your lander's speed it can avoid most earthquakes though)
No game speed or fast-forward option for when you're traveling between points of interest (slow initial speed which strangely is slower when near planets than when far away from them during solar system exploration, moving between solar systems can take quite a while during which you're really just watching the ship move in a straight line for the most part) - it could've been on fast-forward up until you spot an enemy on the radar and then you could choose whether to keep it going or not (much less of a problem after accessing QuasiSpace and getting the QuasiSpace Portal Spawner for fast travel though - if you focus on buying info from the Melnorme you can reasonably do this in a few hours but a first time player will most likely discover it way later)
Some control/interface issues (the text message displayed when exploring a building on a planet can't be logged and pressing up goes forward instead of letting you check the previous part of it, no global/persistent quest log/message log, can't mark points of interest on the star map and explored planets/systems aren't marked either (would've also been useful for naming the quasi-space portals), various abbreviations (overly small pause menu squeezed into the GUI, substances), can't get explanations for various things in the menus, overly floaty space flight movement, can't use the mouse while navigating the overworld or selecting a destination on the zoomed out star map - that or a faster (accelerating) selection crosshair for the map view would've been optimal, no breaking or backwards movement, forward momentum is lost when moving in and out of the most zoomed in view in a solar system (near planets) unless you keep pressing up, overly small hit boxes on medium-large sized planets, the closest level of zoom during combat could've been optional as it makes it harder to read your surroundings, fully explored dialogue branches could've been grayed out a bit or new ones could've been marked, if you turn to face away from a planet as you approach it then you'll end up on the other side of it when the camera zooms in, no "wait/sleep for x days" command, scrapping fleet ships and refilling ship crew/hp is kinda slow)
Some trial & error (lacking clues to the mycon homeworld location and none for the shattered worlds (these have egg case fragments on them needed to make the Syreen help you take out the mycon and get a relic from them - it would've made sense if their commander told you about Syra's location at least since they came from there; the clue to the planet with their ships on it is also pretty vague - "red or orange star in ur-quan space and not that far away"; have to go to beta brahe to get a clue about the mycon homeworld location), can only communicate with the Chmmr through their planet's slave shield using a Caster item - not other shielded planets, have to talk to the slylandro and then battle a probe to be able to talk to them about the probes being hostile even though you've found this out before as well as talked to the melnorme about it (trigger issue), the umgah suddenly attack after having freed them from the neo-dnyari - no reason other than that it was boring to call you a hero, can't choose to kill Zex directly as he has an unlimited supply of ships, you can still get hit by a planet after winning a fight, the jump cuts within solar systems makes it so you can be a screen's length away from an enemy and then be touching it as the camera zooms out - seems to help to wait for the enemy to be in the middle of the current screen, can't tell the difference between a friendly or enemy encounter in the overworld/hyperspace, time limit of 4 in game years which is only hinted at by the Melnorme - can be delayed only a bit and eventually it becomes impossible to get a good ending, scrapped alien ships cannot be repurchased unless you currently have an alliance with that alien species and you have to go to their homeworld, more than 3 dynamo units won't add more to their effect (same with auto-tracking systems for an added homing effect on your flagship's shots), planet colors are only partially reliable as rich worlds and poor worlds of every color exist, the way combat arenas loop and the camera focuses on both the ships makes it so that a planet can suddenly pop into view meaning you have to try and memorize its location while fighting - in SP the camera could've focused on your ship and made sure the zoom never got too close to avoid this (or there could've been arrows when they're close but off screen), encounters that you barely dodged when moving into a solar system will still be there waiting when you exit - it might be better to let them follow you into the system or try to get further away from them before entering, the jump cut zoom while exploring a solar system can make it so that you fly right into an enemy ship just as the zoom level changes since it does so when reaching the edge of the screen, the other alpha pavonis 7 item mentioned by the melnorme seems to be a red herring - not mentioned in the ultronomicon wiki, )
Planet exploration could've been a bit more advanced (no need to pay attention to mountains or liquids - you just hover over them (a bit more advanced in Starflight MD which also had manual landing/taking off as well as non-lethal weather effects (moving clouds w/ shadows under them+rain)), basic combat due to the lack of strafing/dodging/blocking/jumping or even backwards movement)
Salvage/loot value isn't tied to how powerful an enemy ship is - the cloaking ilwrath ships take fairly long to beat with the eluder ship you have early on and if you screw up a bit you'll quickly lose it while the probes give about 3x as much despite being easier to beat with the same ship (when you've upgraded your flagship enough you can stomp them but before that you'll lose a bunch of crew due to its lacking maneuverability)
Building exploration on planets is automated (you just get a hard to read text report of what you found and in the case of the guarded starbase at one point you can't do anything about the guards)
Kinda slow early gameplay during which you mainly gather resources and try to avoid combat
The story is a bit impersonal in some ways (your player character and crew don't have personal avatars (or stats), you don't talk to any human characters besides the starbase commander (though the Syreen are basically human) and there's no personal motivation for your character like your family still being on the isolated planet or something like that)
Half-assed title screen design
No difficulty options
Very slow turning speed at first - can be upgraded pretty quickly but feels unnecessary
Some plot oddities (when you first encounter the Spathi as an enemy encounter they don't react to you having allied with Fwiffo even if his eluder ship is in your fleet and you also can't tell them about it - can do it when finding their homeworld though, after befriending the Spathi and helping them they talk about having a hyperwave caster taken from the Umgah but you can't ask them to give it to you - have to go back to their homeworld after some time and find it on its moon instead, can't ask the Umgah about getting a caster after having freed them (they only had one apparently), can't immediately ask about the Ultron when encountering the Utwig even if you gained info on it and them from elsewhere before meeting them, can't ask the Supox for help against the Ur-quan/Kohr-Ah however they end up having allied with you when you return to the earth starbase anyway, can't ask the Druuge about fixing the Ultron even though the Supox tell you to start there - can buy one of the parts but also a couple of useless artifacts, the time limit on being able to encounter the pkunk as they are traveling to unite with the yehat is a red herring (while it seems you have to convince them not to until you've caused a revolution within yehat society for them not to take out the pkunk it actually makes no difference if you do it before or after they're "absorbed", timer starts after you get informed of it at the earth starbase))
The 5 second delay when escaping is sometimes enough for an enemy ship to reach and kill your flagship even if you were at a good distance from it
No upgrades for the fleet/escort ships (just ap/dp/turning speed/forward speed/crew or hp/energy regen stat upgrades would've been fine; Star Control 1 had a mechanic where you could find old Precursor relics on random planets that would upgrade an attribute of the ship that found it - there could've been something similar here)
Sometimes scratchy sounding music
Some GUI visuals and some sprites look more 8-bit (planet exploration sprites and the flagship while in a solar system; there's also no death animation when killing certain enemies on planets)
No combat simulation/training room for testing out your flagship setups in the main game - can use the melee mode for the other ships
Some fleet ships are stronger than their melee mode point value suggests (guardian, avenger, jugger, eluder with a skilled player, y-wing?) while others are weaker (fury, torch, blade - however the torch is useful in skilled human hands and supposedly the blade too; mauler?, marauder?, dreadnought?, podship?)
Some annoying VA (Pkunk, Utwig) and some mediocre VA (Druuge, Syreen)
No bestiary and you can't read the collected bio data yourself (something like in X-Com would've been interesting)
Pretty underwhelming beast fight (zex's quest) though the scene when you return with it is cool
Too easy to convince the Mycon of going to Organon where the Syreen will take them out while you grab a relic from them - no bad responses
Weird that the Druuge aren't interested in either resource units or credits (could've been something to spend money on in the mid-late game as there isn't enough elsewhere - a few more pieces of info to buy could've also been added such as for the Mycon or the Supox (while their sphere of influence is added to the map you're not given their homeworld location by anyone))
The escalation of ur-quan/kohr-ah/druuge attacks could've been better in the late game
Most enemy races' personalities and values aren't particularly nuanced and some don't develop at all over the course of the game
Unskippable staff roll
The yehat ships are too slow to be useful during the final battle
No notification that the yehat civil war has ended? - I waited about 7 months and after that I got the reinforcement but no notification
Ur-Quan Masters:
The Mycon don't mention the location of their homeworld here - needed for a quest though you had to first explore Beta Brahe to get the clue and you have to find out about it through the Yehat after their civil war? (https://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Star_Control_II_Gameplay_FAQ)
No specific item explanations in-game (can learn some things from the earth satellite base/starbase commander)
No movie intro unless you manually add it to the game?
Annoying "phone alarm" sfx during the remixed combat music
Notes:
-Sol to QuasiSpace takes about 25 days at max speed
-Detailed version comparison: https://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Version_Comparison
-Gas giants are worth checking out for their moons and the Melnorme (they are not explorable themselves)
-There's nothing to the other beasts mentioned in passing by Zex (procyon and vega)
-Best to worst minerals: purple, orange, yellow/gold, green, blue, gray, red, cyan/light blue; Hottest to coldest stars: white, blue, green, yellow, orange, red
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-8 Fun-7.5 Originality-7
Overall Score-7.5
*Outside of ship combat (see encounter issue)
+
Large world (many solar systems/planetary systems large - something like 120+)
Starflight-inspired exploration and NPC interaction gameplay (mostly open world, scan and explore planets via a dispatched vessel (mining, combat; can only dispatch if the atmosphere allows it and there's anything to mine), NPC encounter dialogue trees, space wars-style ship combat, many different alien races with different personalities and motives, pretty detailed ship customization (crew/fuel/mineral capacity, thrust and rotation speed, weapons - can equip several modules for more firepower as well as secondary weapon modules (point-defense laser - short range but auto-aiming and rapid fire), energy recharging, extra landers) - can buy tech upgrades for the flagship from a couple of species)
Fleshed out dialogue trees for NPC encounters with meaningful choices (options can change depending on prior actions or dialogue choices, one choice can take out two races by making them fight each other and one choice can start a civil war within another race, diplomacy is generally the way to go though it's possible to kill pretty much anyone, can sign contracts with slave traders and battle thralls, some hostile NPCs try to bluff the player)
Build a ship fleet (follows your main ship outside of combat, one ship at a time is used during combat) and ally with some alien races who'll provide you with escort ships that you can select and pilot in combat
Fairly unusual premise (isolated explorers turned settlers find an ancient advanced civilization and use its technology to make an advanced space ship - they return to earth and find that humans lost the war and are now oppressed)
Dialogue speed options (can also skip lines)
Some interesting items/devices (Emergency warp escape can be used to exit ship combat quickly (uses some fuel if used by the flagship rather than a fleet ship, fleet ships are placed in the flagship until a battle is over, there's also 5 seconds of delay where you have to be still before it activates so it can't be used right before death) - however if there are multiple nearby encounters then only the last one is avoidable following your escape (if surrounded while trying to leave a planet it can sometimes help to let them come to you and clump together more before escaping), Burvixese and Umgah HyperWave Broadcasters for impersonating certain NPCs+summoning the Melnorme+to communicate through planet slave shields, QuasiSpace Portal Spawner - costs 10 fuel, Shofixti Maidens revive a certain species, Taalo Shield protects against psychic manipulation by a certain race, Talking Pet drives away a certain fleet of ships)
Upgradeable ship (maneuverability, speed, crew complement (size but no role distribution - serves as a ship's health bar), energy reserves, weapons) and planet lander (mineral cargo capacity, rate of stun beam fire, speed, protection from alien life attacks, heat shielding, lightning resistance, earthquake shock protection)
Nameable captain/player char and ship (as well as the alliance between races though for this one you can only pick from a few pre-made names)
Very good map system (shows star names and color which helps tell which ones are worth visiting for mining, max exploration range (one way trip) is shown with a circle based on your current fuel supply, spheres of influence are shown for races that you've gained info from via dialogue or searching their wrecked ships, auto-pilot command which can be canceled at will), zoomable, can type in stars to quickly select them (- key), radar while in hyperspace - shows enemies and stars, shows how much fuel a one-way trip will cost when moving the cursor around, alien spheres of influence are updated on the star map over the course of the game)
Avoidable enemy encounters (black dots in hyperspace which is basically the game's overworld; can also talk to an enemy before engaging in battle and sometimes talk them out of it)
Fast travel via QuasiSpace (a separate area (alternate dimension) mainly used for teleporting around the star map but you can also find a hidden species here)
Various cool weapons (flamethrower, upgradeable auto-aiming laser for the flagship (8 levels), homing upgrade for the first three flagship weapons (auto-tracking systems, 3 levels), homing missile, charge attack, Space Marine - enters enemy ship and kills crew (can also use the gravity whip move to get close fast), Syreen Song - lures up to 8 crew into jumping ship and they can then be converted to your side (can still be reclaimed if the enemy wins), autonomous fighters (unaffected by gravity, similar to interceptors in starcraft), Blazer form (fast battering ram of sorts), F.R.I.E.D. clouds that destroy enemy shots, Glory Device - suicide bomb, Anti-matter Cone which destroyes projectiles, Reeunk Afterburner - speed boost+plasma trail) and fleet ship combat tools (one per ship; Switch forms (x-wing or y-wing - different main weapons and one turns well while the other is fast), Confusion ray - makes enemy spin+disrupts turning and secondary weapon, Force shield - repels all but syreen song/limpet/glory device/planet damage, Cloaking Device (protects from homing weapons, hostile craft still retain some awareness of the Avenger's approximate position, can't shoot while cloaked however the ship auto-turns towards the enemy if you start shooting while cloaked), Tractor beam, Random Teleport, Advanced maneuvering system (Blade; accelerate sideways/strafe or move in reverse however you can't thrust forward while using it), DOGIs (energy draining drones that avoid enemy fire while moving towards them and also change their trajectory upon collision), Retro-propulsion - move in reverse at high speed, Insult - recharges energy, Limpet - drone that slows down the enemy ship, Absorption shield (Jugger) - turns damage into energy and toggled at will by holding the button however the ship doesn't regenerate energy besides this (its main weapon also doesn't cost any though), Convert crew to energy, Regenerate crew - fast but costs all current energy, Energize - Probe ship uses it to break down asteroids into fuel as it has none of its own, )
Planets are present during ship combat and their gravitational fields have an effect on it - can use this to avoid shots and to perform a temporary speed boost/gravity whip (asteroids are also presents and can be used for cover or bounced off of)
Comical tone overall (kinda similar to The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy, some sexual jokes, meta and fourth wall breaking during the staff roll)
Rich lore (the hyperwave caster's use to attract the ur-quan/kohr-ah might've inspired the psi emitter from starcraft)
Items sell at their purchase value (makes experimenting with customization much easier)
25 different ships
Temporary and partial message log (press space to review the current topic of the current conversation)
If you run out of fuel you might be intercepted by the Melnorme and offered to buy more but it's more likely to be an enemy (30% chance of the former each day)
Some environmental storytelling (the machines on the moon, precursor colonies and mines+relics, ruins)
Pretty nice intro and ending (artwork stills and text though) and .mod-based soundtrack (mostly contemporary ebm/industrial, ambient, techno and synth rock)
Animated dialogue portraits
Mostly memorable races and some memorable characters (Zex, Fwiffo, Tanaka, the Neo-Dnyarri)
Some decent puzzles (dealing with tanaka, a lot of info can be gained from multiple sources, sun device use)
Cool final battle (bomb super weapon kamikaze attack after taking out a large ship's defenses (two-part weapon combined with an escape pod while the warp escape and other weapons are removed for a more climactic final confrontation where you have to rely on your fleet ships to fight the target ship's guards, can also get reinforcements during the last battle via the Yehat)
Ur-Quan Masters (3DO ver. port to PC w/ some tweaks):
Fully voiced NPCs (pretty good overall)
Rewind+fast forward dialogue options
Much larger viewport for planet exploration - makes it easier to spot hazards in advance and feels less claustrophobic than the tiny window in the corner used in the first PC ver.
Super Melee/head to head combat mode selectable in the main menu, Network support added for this mode
Interface options (PC or 3DO-style for various things)
Less abbreviations in the menus
Some remixed music tracks as well as some new ones (CD redbook) - optional and the PC mod tracks are also included
Higher res and scaling options
In-game key config
Smoother transitions between the few pre-set zoom levels during combat (they're still pretty quick and stop at certain points but it's better than jump cuts) - not added to solar system zoom levels though
+/-
Mostly non-linear structure after the first couple of quests (multiple ways to deal with various races and allying with some of the potential allies is optional, several optional secrets, various events are on a hidden timer, alien ships often move about from planet to planet so combat can often be avoided, four ways to deal with the thraddash)
Save anywhere outside of combat or in the middle of dialogue (multiple nameable slots)
Few directions when you begin besides the main objectives to go to Earth and to fight the Ur-Quan mentioned in the intro (you don't even know where the isolated planet you came from is located but you do start very close to Earth) - however at certain points you'll get clues from the earth starbase commander in case you haven't made progress in crucial areas
Resource management (fuel, crew - these serve as a vehicle's health bar, minerals - turned into resource units for buying flagship upgrades and crew/fuel at the earth starbase, inventory space (can drop lesser minerals if needed), can salvage the wreckage of a defeated opponent ship for resources as well as biological data from creatures on planet surfaces which can be sold to one race for quest info/fuel/tech and planet lander upgrades, credits=alternate currency - can sell rainbow world info and buy fuel for the credits to then sell it to make money/resource units, can trade certain artifacts to the druuge for fuel (can fill up a whole ship of fuel tanks this way) or mauler ships)
Some unavoidable damage during planet exploration (some weather hazards like lightning storms and fire storms on high temp planets - the latter can be avoided to an extent but sometimes you have to lift from the planet to do it)
Areas don't loop around vertically when exploring planets (only horizontally; you explore a mercator projection (abstracted "foldout" of the planet's 3D surface into a 2D top down map)) - when reaching the edges of it there's just black walls instead however you can go back to your ship and re-dispatch at will so it doesn't cause backtracking
Unintentionally funny first scene at the space station orbiting earth (unfitting music and flashing lights make it seem like they're having a rave on board while the dialogue is completely different in tone), key config outside the game only, melee/dog fight mode is also external/not an option in the game itself
Vaguely star trek-like sci-fi setting
Slightly randomized landing location when dispatching a planet lander and you can't choose which direction you'll be facing when landing - done to avoid repeatedly landing and lifting off to avoid hazards though a short cooldown period could also have been used
Can't conquer alien homeworlds
The biological scanner also detects machines
Different zoom levels depending on how close you are to a planet in a solar system (jump cuts) - some issues come with it
Somewhat randomized starting positions when entering combat
Only one race to sell biological data to and they're a bit tricky to find (Melnorme; check the gas giants in the brightest solar systems, the Melnorme never appear in the same system twice in a row however if you keep leaving (for at least a day) and coming back to where you last found them then they'll soon appear again - generally takes about 3 tries)
Kind of ugly main ship/flagship
Fetch+exploration (rainbow worlds)+eliminate or find and eliminate quests
Can have the CPU fight for you (cyborg toggle, can also speed these battles up) but it kinda sucks
Planets stay in place rather than orbiting their stars (added in HD ver. of UQM)
Pretty detailed backstory in the manual
Energy-based weapons which recharge slowly during battle (different recharge speeds depending on the ship, can be upgraded for the flagship with dynamo (shorten delay before each recharge) or shiva (more energy regained per recharge) modules)
No controller support toggle in-game - use external program or joytokey, ship descriptions are in the manual (race descriptions are in-game at the earth starbase)
Limited number of total crew you can recruit on the starbase at earth before costs increase (+2 resource units after 1k - the 2k number mentioned in-game isn't actually true, if you ally with the Shofixti the cost goes back down and this tally is removed, if you sell crew as slaves then it goes up by 7 after 100 and then 15 after 250 (the human commander catches you) so it seems not worth it in the long run)
Time stops at various points (in orbit around a planet or moon, in a menu, waiting for confirmation on quit, exploring planets or moons, in communication, waiting for talk/attack decision in encounter, at the Starbase, in battle) but also fast-forwards by 14-15 days at three points (when the starbase is being prepared so that it can service your Precursor vessel, when you get compelled by the Dnyarri to "Seek death at the hands of your enemy", when the Chmmr install the Utwig bomb on your ship)
Can commit suicide w/ the Utwig Bomb
Can only buy one tech upgrade at a time and it's picked by the game
Each fleet ship has a pre-determined primary and secondary weapon/tool which can't be switched out - would've been cool to be able to make your own combination or to unlock some of their abilities for use with the flagship (it only has one secondary weapon which is the point-defense laser (not really needed either) - mines or cages/nets could've been interesting)
Starts off pretty tough (can't beat the probe encounters nor a group of ilwrath ships without some upgrades or a decent fleet)
References to andy kaufman (spathi on the moon) and star trek (some names and ship designs)
The story leaves some questions unanswered in the end (fate of the Precursors, rainbow world arrow pattern?, what the Orz really are and how they relate to the Arilou though it's implied that they killed them)
The Melnorme will sell info that you might already have (quasi-space warp hole and dreadnought wreck for example) - seems they have a set order of info that they'll always stick to
Tanaka is basically an asian stereotype (might be a Hiroo Onoda reference though? seems to fit)
The lyncis constellation clue is pretty vague (my first guess was hyades based on the description by zex - lyncis looks more like a kite with two strings attached but at least the name is kinda similar to Linch-Nas-Ploh) - it is possible to get the info from the Thraddash instead though
The Spathi lie to you about studying the slave shield around earth in order to remove it and will instead use its technology to isolate themselves a few months after forming an alliance with them - you do get a notification on the star map though meaning the caster they had is easy to acquire
No strafing/dodging/backwards moves for the flagship however you can use the thrust controls to strafe and move backwards while firing
Can have sex with the Syreen commander (lights out and during dialogue)
Can't explore alien homeworlds or earth's satellite base/starbase beyond talking to a representative/commander NPC (you do encounter some non-commander NPCs though)
The Stinger's Tongue attack is too hard to use (could've been semi-homing or let you grab and "throw" asteroids perhaps)
The Skiff moves without inertia (takes some getting used to) - these are a bit underused in SP as they are so fragile and you can't build more of them
Suddenly have to rely on fleet ships for the finale (you get one of the best ships before this though and you can also get reinforcements during the last battle via the Yehat)
Can't fight more than one enemy ship at a time
Can't fight alongside allied ships
No 2-player co-op
Nothing to beta herculis in-game (mrrn tried to colonize it)
Ur-Quan Masters:
Non-nameable save slots - they instead show some valuable stats though so it's not that much of a loss
No option of filling a Syreen Penetrator's crew to its peak of 42 crew from your Starbase here
Slylandro Probes can appear in solar systems here (apparently it's a bug fix)
The inventory capacity of the planet lander vehicle is a bit smaller here (50 vs 64) - the mineral capacity can be upgraded to 2x (bio data capacity is unlimited)
The AI was improved to register the Thraddash afterburner flames as an attack (so using them is more of a challenge)
-
Can get stuck in an endless stream of encounters and eventually run out of fuel from escaping (happened to me near the Pkunk homeworld and again near Lacaille, this could've been fixed by adding some invincibility frames after escaping or winning an encounter - the game even does this for non-battle encounters while in a solar system; related to this you keep running into other neutral/friendly encounters who act like you've not met while in the same constellation/sub area after allying with some races - would've been good if the nearby and identical hyperspace encounters just disappeared after the first one since this contributes to getting stuck in the encounter loop in some areas)
No in-game tutorial (an explanation of what atmosphere aspects to keep in mind when exploring would've been good - gravity affects fuel spent per trip for example, class 5+ weather and tectonics (earthquakes) severity and 500-600+ degrees temperature are often not worth it - if you upgrade your lander's speed it can avoid most earthquakes though)
No game speed or fast-forward option for when you're traveling between points of interest (slow initial speed which strangely is slower when near planets than when far away from them during solar system exploration, moving between solar systems can take quite a while during which you're really just watching the ship move in a straight line for the most part) - it could've been on fast-forward up until you spot an enemy on the radar and then you could choose whether to keep it going or not (much less of a problem after accessing QuasiSpace and getting the QuasiSpace Portal Spawner for fast travel though - if you focus on buying info from the Melnorme you can reasonably do this in a few hours but a first time player will most likely discover it way later)
Some control/interface issues (the text message displayed when exploring a building on a planet can't be logged and pressing up goes forward instead of letting you check the previous part of it, no global/persistent quest log/message log, can't mark points of interest on the star map and explored planets/systems aren't marked either (would've also been useful for naming the quasi-space portals), various abbreviations (overly small pause menu squeezed into the GUI, substances), can't get explanations for various things in the menus, overly floaty space flight movement, can't use the mouse while navigating the overworld or selecting a destination on the zoomed out star map - that or a faster (accelerating) selection crosshair for the map view would've been optimal, no breaking or backwards movement, forward momentum is lost when moving in and out of the most zoomed in view in a solar system (near planets) unless you keep pressing up, overly small hit boxes on medium-large sized planets, the closest level of zoom during combat could've been optional as it makes it harder to read your surroundings, fully explored dialogue branches could've been grayed out a bit or new ones could've been marked, if you turn to face away from a planet as you approach it then you'll end up on the other side of it when the camera zooms in, no "wait/sleep for x days" command, scrapping fleet ships and refilling ship crew/hp is kinda slow)
Some trial & error (lacking clues to the mycon homeworld location and none for the shattered worlds (these have egg case fragments on them needed to make the Syreen help you take out the mycon and get a relic from them - it would've made sense if their commander told you about Syra's location at least since they came from there; the clue to the planet with their ships on it is also pretty vague - "red or orange star in ur-quan space and not that far away"; have to go to beta brahe to get a clue about the mycon homeworld location), can only communicate with the Chmmr through their planet's slave shield using a Caster item - not other shielded planets, have to talk to the slylandro and then battle a probe to be able to talk to them about the probes being hostile even though you've found this out before as well as talked to the melnorme about it (trigger issue), the umgah suddenly attack after having freed them from the neo-dnyari - no reason other than that it was boring to call you a hero, can't choose to kill Zex directly as he has an unlimited supply of ships, you can still get hit by a planet after winning a fight, the jump cuts within solar systems makes it so you can be a screen's length away from an enemy and then be touching it as the camera zooms out - seems to help to wait for the enemy to be in the middle of the current screen, can't tell the difference between a friendly or enemy encounter in the overworld/hyperspace, time limit of 4 in game years which is only hinted at by the Melnorme - can be delayed only a bit and eventually it becomes impossible to get a good ending, scrapped alien ships cannot be repurchased unless you currently have an alliance with that alien species and you have to go to their homeworld, more than 3 dynamo units won't add more to their effect (same with auto-tracking systems for an added homing effect on your flagship's shots), planet colors are only partially reliable as rich worlds and poor worlds of every color exist, the way combat arenas loop and the camera focuses on both the ships makes it so that a planet can suddenly pop into view meaning you have to try and memorize its location while fighting - in SP the camera could've focused on your ship and made sure the zoom never got too close to avoid this (or there could've been arrows when they're close but off screen), encounters that you barely dodged when moving into a solar system will still be there waiting when you exit - it might be better to let them follow you into the system or try to get further away from them before entering, the jump cut zoom while exploring a solar system can make it so that you fly right into an enemy ship just as the zoom level changes since it does so when reaching the edge of the screen, the other alpha pavonis 7 item mentioned by the melnorme seems to be a red herring - not mentioned in the ultronomicon wiki, )
Planet exploration could've been a bit more advanced (no need to pay attention to mountains or liquids - you just hover over them (a bit more advanced in Starflight MD which also had manual landing/taking off as well as non-lethal weather effects (moving clouds w/ shadows under them+rain)), basic combat due to the lack of strafing/dodging/blocking/jumping or even backwards movement)
Salvage/loot value isn't tied to how powerful an enemy ship is - the cloaking ilwrath ships take fairly long to beat with the eluder ship you have early on and if you screw up a bit you'll quickly lose it while the probes give about 3x as much despite being easier to beat with the same ship (when you've upgraded your flagship enough you can stomp them but before that you'll lose a bunch of crew due to its lacking maneuverability)
Building exploration on planets is automated (you just get a hard to read text report of what you found and in the case of the guarded starbase at one point you can't do anything about the guards)
Kinda slow early gameplay during which you mainly gather resources and try to avoid combat
The story is a bit impersonal in some ways (your player character and crew don't have personal avatars (or stats), you don't talk to any human characters besides the starbase commander (though the Syreen are basically human) and there's no personal motivation for your character like your family still being on the isolated planet or something like that)
Half-assed title screen design
No difficulty options
Very slow turning speed at first - can be upgraded pretty quickly but feels unnecessary
Some plot oddities (when you first encounter the Spathi as an enemy encounter they don't react to you having allied with Fwiffo even if his eluder ship is in your fleet and you also can't tell them about it - can do it when finding their homeworld though, after befriending the Spathi and helping them they talk about having a hyperwave caster taken from the Umgah but you can't ask them to give it to you - have to go back to their homeworld after some time and find it on its moon instead, can't ask the Umgah about getting a caster after having freed them (they only had one apparently), can't immediately ask about the Ultron when encountering the Utwig even if you gained info on it and them from elsewhere before meeting them, can't ask the Supox for help against the Ur-quan/Kohr-Ah however they end up having allied with you when you return to the earth starbase anyway, can't ask the Druuge about fixing the Ultron even though the Supox tell you to start there - can buy one of the parts but also a couple of useless artifacts, the time limit on being able to encounter the pkunk as they are traveling to unite with the yehat is a red herring (while it seems you have to convince them not to until you've caused a revolution within yehat society for them not to take out the pkunk it actually makes no difference if you do it before or after they're "absorbed", timer starts after you get informed of it at the earth starbase))
The 5 second delay when escaping is sometimes enough for an enemy ship to reach and kill your flagship even if you were at a good distance from it
No upgrades for the fleet/escort ships (just ap/dp/turning speed/forward speed/crew or hp/energy regen stat upgrades would've been fine; Star Control 1 had a mechanic where you could find old Precursor relics on random planets that would upgrade an attribute of the ship that found it - there could've been something similar here)
Sometimes scratchy sounding music
Some GUI visuals and some sprites look more 8-bit (planet exploration sprites and the flagship while in a solar system; there's also no death animation when killing certain enemies on planets)
No combat simulation/training room for testing out your flagship setups in the main game - can use the melee mode for the other ships
Some fleet ships are stronger than their melee mode point value suggests (guardian, avenger, jugger, eluder with a skilled player, y-wing?) while others are weaker (fury, torch, blade - however the torch is useful in skilled human hands and supposedly the blade too; mauler?, marauder?, dreadnought?, podship?)
Some annoying VA (Pkunk, Utwig) and some mediocre VA (Druuge, Syreen)
No bestiary and you can't read the collected bio data yourself (something like in X-Com would've been interesting)
Pretty underwhelming beast fight (zex's quest) though the scene when you return with it is cool
Too easy to convince the Mycon of going to Organon where the Syreen will take them out while you grab a relic from them - no bad responses
Weird that the Druuge aren't interested in either resource units or credits (could've been something to spend money on in the mid-late game as there isn't enough elsewhere - a few more pieces of info to buy could've also been added such as for the Mycon or the Supox (while their sphere of influence is added to the map you're not given their homeworld location by anyone))
The escalation of ur-quan/kohr-ah/druuge attacks could've been better in the late game
Most enemy races' personalities and values aren't particularly nuanced and some don't develop at all over the course of the game
Unskippable staff roll
The yehat ships are too slow to be useful during the final battle
No notification that the yehat civil war has ended? - I waited about 7 months and after that I got the reinforcement but no notification
Ur-Quan Masters:
The Mycon don't mention the location of their homeworld here - needed for a quest though you had to first explore Beta Brahe to get the clue and you have to find out about it through the Yehat after their civil war? (https://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Star_Control_II_Gameplay_FAQ)
No specific item explanations in-game (can learn some things from the earth satellite base/starbase commander)
No movie intro unless you manually add it to the game?
Annoying "phone alarm" sfx during the remixed combat music
Notes:
-Sol to QuasiSpace takes about 25 days at max speed
-Detailed version comparison: https://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Version_Comparison
-Gas giants are worth checking out for their moons and the Melnorme (they are not explorable themselves)
-There's nothing to the other beasts mentioned in passing by Zex (procyon and vega)
-Best to worst minerals: purple, orange, yellow/gold, green, blue, gray, red, cyan/light blue; Hottest to coldest stars: white, blue, green, yellow, orange, red