Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

Before I begin this review I must stress one point: this is a very niche game. Space RPG: Starpoint Gemini is an independent space sim/strategy RPG for the PC by LGM games. During play, you take command of one of many customizable ships to explore the galaxy while completing missions, trading, mining, or just blowing stuff up. This game potentially has hours of gameplay if you are into this kind of thing.

The campaign of this game puts you in the position of a spacecraft captain who was frozen in space for 20 years due to a strange stasis rift phenomenon. You start to rebuild your life while piecing together what happened in the war that ended with you frozen in time. The story is presented in many ways: traditionally, through voice over and text boxes, but also through captain’s logs which can either be recorded text of previous story events or new messages that characters in game send you.

Before playing this game I must really recommend that you either run through the tutorial, which is super slow, or give the manual a quick read-through while the game is installing or downloading. The learning curve can be quite brutal. Also, make sure to patch the game. I initially hated my experience but after a quick patch, new interface options opened up to me and made the gameplay much more tolerable. Gameplay style in this title is not an action game despite what an initial glance may lead you to believe. In essence, this experience is similar to table top space battle simulations with a game interface. You can select which parts of your ship to focus on for repairs and energy management as well as select where on the opponent’s ship you want to fire at. Combat is a game of positioning to fire weapons on their firing arcs and keep your shields facing the opponent. You can also employ one of the many special abilities which are hardwired into ships. These can be a wide range of things such as improving your combat effectiveness or jamming enemy communications.

Alternatively you can also have your crew board the opponent’s ship to take over and wipe out the opponent’s crew. After which, you can either keep or sell the enemy ship after towing it back to a station. Buying ships is very expensive but you can usually steal one pretty easily after weakening the enemy ship. You'll want to do this considering how antiquated your starter ship is according to the in game storyline and its stats. You need ships with specific level slots in order to really progress combatively in the game. Another small tip is making sure to upgrade your thrusters as soon as possible due to the slowness of travel.

Combat is not the only gameplay feature of this game. You can also mine, salvage, and trade commodities to raise money. There are also quite a few commission missions that give you extra XP. The site boasts about 300 that allow you to explore scientific anomalies that appear sometimes in space rather than the normal anomalies such as energy fields and radiation which hinder your ship. With XP you can upgrade your skills and strategies to make you more survivable. In this same vein, you can also buy new crewmen which provide intrinsic bonuses to your ships when bought.

The one thing that holds this game back from being truly enjoyable for fans of the space sim genre is the wonky interface. Hotkeys make this much simpler but small things like knowing whether your weapons are ready to fire or not are sometimes hard to discern unless you are constantly monitoring your systems. Combat is difficult due to managing all of the systems of your ship but is made much easier by the ability to freeze the game and plan out strategies. Another point is that ship control is quite difficult to get used to. Adjusting the direction of your ship can often be quite jumpy especially during combat. There is no ability to move in reverse, meaning turning is the only way to keep your sights on a target. Another thing I think that should have been implemented is a following system to make maneuvering in combat or in missions much easier. As the game stands at the moment, you control your speed by adjusting a gage up and down and in order to follow another ship you must adjust your speed to match or be lower than their speed. These little problems do add up but this does not prevent the game from being ultimately fun.

If you are a fan of space exploration or table top games like Federation Commander you will probably really like this game. If you are looking for an action packed adventure title with twitch gameplay stay away. This game is not just an RPG it is also a strategy game even if not of the traditional type. I for one enjoyed getting lost in this game; this is the type of game you invest hours into leveling and ranking up in order to collect all the ships or try beating on one of the three difficulties. I can see this game being a success in the space sim genre.