Startopia Review

The game consists out of two modes: mission and sandbox, plus the multiplayer mode. I sincerely recommend you first to complete the missions, which will serve as a sort of a tutorial for further playing. The missions slowly and gradually introduce the races, objects, and principles of game from the simplest to the most complex. It is a real shame that there are only ten missions altogether, and when you complete them all, which will take no more than a couple of days of slow playing, you can only go for the sandbox. This is practically a freestyle game mode working according to the principles you can predefine: will you be the only one building your empire, or will there be other colonies on the station? If so, will you fight each other? If you decide to fight, what will your goal be - energy, territories, research or points? Will rough play be allowed?

One interesting thing about Startopia is its sense of humor. All from the interesting intro which will remind you of Cubric's Space Odyssey, to the HAL... sorry... VAL computer which gives you useful advice and from the Matrix-like analyzers in labs to the aliens which will remind you of Mars Attacks is full of zany humor... The security guards never do anything on their computers other than playing Pong. I died laughing when I first met Gem Slugs, the aristocratic race, which is very hard to please, but still presents an important asset as they produce the important substance "turdite" ;-) Not to speak of the possibility to manufacture "black market" goods on the bio-deck...

Unfortunately, not even this humor is always sufficient to make you keep playing. However interesting the game may be, it just couldn't keep me tied for long. I would play it for two days and then I would stop for a couple of days without any wish to continue the mission I started. Sometimes it just gets dead, so it's a real shame the developers did not include an option to speed the time up... Fortunately, the background music is good enough to help you not to flip your lid.

The graphics are very nice. Startopia lost absolutely nothing it might have gained by using detailed pre-rendered 2D graphics. All objects and characters have been fairly done. The people at Mucky Foot prudently decided to set all the action into small confined spaces, thus making the screens look rich in detail and objects with only an average number of objects on screen. And if you take in regard that all the objects and characters have neatly been animated, all this looks even better... Most 3D games that were actually sequels of a 2D game seemed as though they lost something on their way to the third dimension, but here, well, I never even paid any attention to the station design, number of polygons and texture quality... everything has been done just in the right way to focus the attention to gameplay... This is why I (who used to spend pages of reviews on visual appearance) have nothing to add on the topic...

Playability can be a problem. Even though it has a simple concept, you will still need some time to get used to it, especially to the way the left and right mouse button function, beaming objects, and the Sims-like method of equipping facilities. The same goes for moving through 3D space, which is similar to the method used in newer 3D RTS titles like Dark Reign 2: I kept spinning and hitting the walls unintentionally time and time again.

All in all, Startopia is very playable and is sure to get your attention. However, the relatively small number of mission, and the occasionally dull atmosphere may cause that attention to become short-lived...