Evochron Legends for Windows

User Reviews

• Lone wolf space simulation at its best

  tha_ramiFebruary 7, 2009

  Pros

  - Well presented - Extremely versatile control options - Freeform gameplay - Clearly developed with love for the genre - Seamless gameplay - High level of interaction with everything

  Cons

  - Graphics might be slightly 2005/2006 compared to AAA-titles

  Summary

  The first time you launch into the universe of Evochron Legends, you'll find yourself in the cockpit of a small, cheap but speedy spaceship, staring into the distance towards an impressive space station in the far distance, against the backdrop of the planet central to the fictional Evochron sector, Sapphire. If you decide to throttle up your speed, eventually you'll find yourself flying straight past a space station, and ultimately descending into the atmosphere of the planet, where you can visit several cities and colonies. No loading screens, no cutscenes, no delays. Evochron Legends is a space simulation in the way it was intended when the original Elite was released - like in the classic, you play a lone mercenary vying for reputation and wealth. What is Evochron Legends, then? Evochron Legends is a lonewolf space simulation. It's an hommage to Elite and feedback-centered design by Starwraith 3D Games; the game went through several iterations before Evochron Legends, and that user-centered evolution is something that you can see and feel when playing the game. The game has an impressive list of features, including a seamless universe, realtime planetary descent, direct and full control of ship, dynamic economy, commodity crafting, newtonian physics, mercenary and military gameplay. Besides those, in-game customisation of your ship, more than 500 locations to visit, multiplayer gameplay and modability are features that certainly deserve to be mentioned. A great thing about Evochron is the lack of the RPG-ish 'classes'. If you want to mine, you can go and install a Mining/Tractor Beam and start mining away. If you get bored of mining, then decide to go pirate, you just load up some missiles and start blasting carriers away (although some of those are better fought with some friends online only) for their cargo. There are no menus to go through, or skillpoints to be distributed. What matters is your personal skill at things. If you're too impatient to mine, you probably shouldn't. If you need more training at combat, you probably shouldn't raid capital ships. And if you feel like exploring, just fly to a station, go into the Shipyard and customize your ship for more fuel capacity and speed, upgrade your wing-system and remove the cargo bays, or buy a totally new ship and start outfitting that for exploration purposes. There are more things about the Evochron series that are special. While there are trade lanes and jump-gates, players are able to use their onboard Fulcrum Drives to jump from any point in space to any point within range nearly instantly. This gives unrivalled freedom to do as you wish - where you wish, and avoids the 'time compression' feature some games had to implement to keep the game fun. The fuel is something to mention, as well, with it being an important commodity to monitor. The reputation system is well-balanced, with your actions affecting the way local factions think of you and thus changing advantages, contract availability and system hostility. The most important thing that makes Evochron Legends stand out is the 'visit-all' philosophy. Unlike in some other games, everything you see besides the backdrop can be visited in realtime. Do you see a star? Fly up to it and use a Fuel Converter to gain fuel from the stars' particles, but watch the gravity. See an asteroid field? Find a contract to clear it, or mine it directly. See a planet in the far distance? Jump to it, descend into the atmosphere and retrieve oxygen, water or plant-material or trade with cities or colonies. A nebula cloud? Jump into it to hide from radar and hostiles, or to search for secrets. Asteroid caves can be explored. Black holes can be an amazing location to dogfight. Everything in the universe can be explored and interacted with in a fun and convincing matter. And when you're done in single-player, multiplayer is an fun place to pit your skills against others, or join clans to even further enhance your ship or wealth, attempt missions against odds impossible in singleplayer. It's easy to underestimated how much something as multiplayer adds to the replay value of a game, even if its fully optional whether you want to play online or not. While many recent titles in the genre, like Infinity: The Quest for Earth and EVE Online might lead you to believe the opposite, space simulations aren't always massively multiplayer online games. While Evochron Legends does feature a multiplayer mode that can support around 30 people playing in the same server, and integrates nearly seamlessly with the singleplayer mode. Evochron Legends is a game that illustrates the most important traits a space simulation can have: rich in features, easy to learn - hard to master, directly controlled and as interactive as possible, and finishes its impressive feature-list with multiplayer and widespread control support. For its price ($24,95 at the time of writing) any self-respecting flight/space-simmer should pick this up.

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