Star Command II

If any of you know me, you know my inherit weakness for anything electronic. Cameras, videos, gadgets, robots, games, they all fascinate and delight me. Lately I've been playing a particularly delicious game called "Star Command II."

Star Command II was released a long time ago, but a few years ago the source code was released, allowing for a geeky fanbase to remake the game for all modern operating systems. The result is a free-as-in-speech game they call "The Ur-Quan Masters."

This game is not a game in the usual sense that you play for some mindless entertainment or puzzle solving. No, it goes much deeper. The story is the main feature, and the immersion you feel while your character explores and manipulates the galaxy will be the reward.

The story kicks off with a cinematic telling the backstory. The people of earth have been fighting a loosing battle with an evil alien race called the Ur-Quan for many years. Your parents were part of a research mission that were sent to an alien planet to find alien technology. Underneath the suface of the planet a vast factory was discovered, but for unexplained reasons Earth lost contact with the reseachers, who had to make due on their own. Eventually they discover the factory can build spaceships, but they only have enough recourses to build one skeltal cargo ship. Your character was born and raised on this planet, and selected to be the captain of this ship. Your mission is to fly to earth and find out what happened.

Of course, that's where things get interesting. Turns out Earth lost the war and is now encased in a red shell called a "slave shield." A solitary starbase orbits earth, crewed by an enslaved regiment of humans. Depending on your actions, the commander of the starbase will help you out, and earth becomes the base for your foray into deep space.

The gameplay mainly consists of visiting other worlds and exploring them with your lander, collecting resources and information on indigenous lifeforms which you can use to hire crew, buy fuel, acquire new technologies, etc. In this way, it's a little like an RPG. Along the way you will meet over a dozen alien races, each one with a unique and often humorous history. I've made contact with at least 11 races already, and I still haven't met many that the other races refer too. (e.g. Syreen, Mmrnmhnrm, and the Sylandro are still somewhere out there.) The guys in the picture on the right are one of my favorites, the Yehat, who were one of the human's greatest allies in the first war and speak in Scottish accents.

You'll want to keep a notepad beside the computer while you play this, because the conversations are only had once and you'll want to take notes. Often the aliens will drop a critical piece of information, such as the location of a homeworld, only once. If you don't write it down, you'll spend hours searching the hundreds of star systems for the right place.

The other part of the game is the battle sequences. Some of the aliens you meet are unfriendly, and allied with the Ur-Quan. While you can still converse with them, it almost inevitably leads to a battle. Personally, I try to avoid battles as much as possible. It's almost impossible to get through one without some of your crew dying. It's not hard to get more recruits, but I still feel bad when any of them die.

Now for the real meat of this post. This is one of the few games that I've ever played that actually had a real story. I'm not talking about the "let's go save the princess" story, I'm talking about a story that is as good as or better then any book or movie I've ever seen or read, especially better than all the sci-fi ones. It has so many side stories such a full history that rivals Tolkien's Middle Earth. All in all, it is the greatest science fiction experience I've ever had. I think I'm about halfway through, but I don't want it to end. It has my attention like a good book. It's easy enough to put down (you can stick a "bookmark" anywhere), but I don't want to because I want to see what will happen next. The histories and cultures invented in this game are absolutely enthralling. Unfortunately, like most sci-fi, it approaches the universe from a naturalistic viewpoint. The aliens repeatedly speak of their "evolution" and how they "invented religion" when their good friend died. Typical. It's sad that that sort of worldview is typical in every science fiction movie, book, and tv show, with the possible exception of "Firefly." It's especially sad since it's a very fun genre.

In conclusion, if you want to play one of the greatest game/book combos ever made, one that lets you feel like what it would be like as a genuine starship captain, download "The Ur-Quan Masters." Make sure you download the optional voice and music packs, it makes the game a ton more enjoyable. And if you don't like computer games, well, I feel for you. You're missing out. No one else in my family likes them, (except my brother, but he won't admit it to anyone including himself) so I can understand it. But not really, because this game is way too fun.