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Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of--space whiskey? Piracy is one possible career path in Jack of All Trades, wherein you play a freelance star pilot in the middle of a galactic war zone. You fly from system to system, buying low, selling high, and carrying out missions for the highest bidder.
Obey the law or turn pirate--the choice is up to you. We're suckers for the well-worn formula, but are less thrilled with the game itself. The sound effects and two-dimensional graphics are just adequate, and combat involves little more than spinning around spewing laser beams and missiles. The one-hop-at-a-time hyperspace system quickly becomes tedious, too.
On top of that, the game gives you only a handful of customization options, including the ability to adjust the game volume and reconfigure the control keys. It's an ambitious effort, but like most jacks-of-all-trades, this one is more impressive for how many things it does than how well it does them.
Publisher's Description
From Dingo Games:
Explore the galaxy in search of fame and fortune in this exciting new space adventure game. Become a trader, bounty hunter, rebel, stock market guru, or even a deadly space pirate. Buy from a large selection of ships including freighters, fighters, and capital destroyers. Upgrade your ship with powerful weapons and modifications. Will you be savior or scourge of the galaxy. It's your choice captain.
What's new in this version: Version 1.3 is a bug fixing release.
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All versions:
1.5 starsout of 5 votes
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Current version:
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My rating:
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Results 1-5 of 5
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"Its OK for a 2d space adventure..A little cheesy."
Version: Jack of All Trades 1.2
Pros
It is rather addictive.. You can make all kinds of money as a trader. The missions are challanging.
Cons
Game play is slow..The bigger the ship that you buy ...The slower it moves. This is frustrating.
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"Too simplistic."
Version: Jack of All Trades 1.2
Pros
It's a 2D space thingy with some explosions and trade.
Cons
Elite it is not.
The UI leaves a lot to be desired. A couple of examples - ship stats and upgrades are confusing, can't watch starmap without entering warp, can't list accepted missions without undocking.
Oh, and it wreaks havoc on other directx applications running at the same time on my dual monitor setup.
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"JOAT is a 90% ripe off of the Escape Velocity series from AmbrosiaSW"
Version: Jack of All Trades 1.1.2
Pros
Innovative Securities exchange with ingame trading system.
Cons
The game is a pure rip off of Escape Velocity. Dingo Games did a horrible job at that. AmbrosiaSW should be given full credit for 90% of the game. Poor writing, plot, and engine. Even though the EV series has ended the games are still widely being updated by the community. Try EVN and see how much you like it... you will loose sleep, your grades might suffer, and you will learn to love the StarBridge ^_^ For many other good games check out by first love!
Do yourself a favor and google "AmbrosiaSW" and "Escape Velocity [Nova/Overide]" and play a true Mac Gaming Classic... Almost better than marathon ^_^ (and the original Mac version of Halo! *Darn you Microsoft!*)
Give credit where credit is due.
My actual review on the game:
If you are looking for something to fill your need for a space trading game this game will keep you occupied for a couple hours for 3 or 4 days. It's only innovation is a security exchange within the trading system. If find that to be the most interesting. Besides that, game play is rather boring and too simple to keep you occupied for long. The ship upgrade system is clunky and it is hard to clearly figure out what upgrades are better than others without actually having to test each and every one (in other words you do not get what you pay for). Besides the technical aspects the writing is horrid (not that I could write any better...) and the plot is rather boring. Back to the technical aspects, the amount of ships and bells and whistles for those used to a much more robust game are more than lacking. I could ramble on for a while but when it all comes down to it, this is a poor substitute for those trying to quench their EV addictions.
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"Boring!"
Version: Jack of All Trades 1.1
Pros
none.
Cons
boring traditional space shuttle approach...nothing new.
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"I just love this highly addictive game"
Version: Jack of All Trades 1.0.4
Pros
This game is very similar to interspace, asteroids and even freelancer. There is so much to do that it's just not even possible to finish the demo before the trials run out. Even though this is a pretty small game, it's so complex that i'll be buying the full version too.
