Temporary free game: Space Interceptor

Frem

I've got this site called "Game Giveaway of the Day" in my RSS reader. Every day they distribute a different commercial game for free. 99% of the time it's "Yet another Tetris Clone written in Visual Basic that noone in their right mind would pay $20 for". But occasionally, once every month or two, a good one comes through. Today it's Space Interceptor.
It's free for the next 22 hours or so.

Looks like a generally good, on-rails arcady 3d space ship blasting game. Kinda shortish, a comment said it takes about 5 hours to play through. Not that I've got that much free time right now. :P

It got decent reviews. (Averaging a 7 or 8) *Steals links from comment*
http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r22002.htm
http://pc.ign.com/articles/567/567710p1.html
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/projectearth2/review.html

Download:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/space-interceptor/

Note that I'm going off the Game Spot review posting this here. I can't say if it lives up to the hype because I'm still only 15% into the 400MB download.

Oh, right. Screenshots!


So, what say the masses? Is this a good /decent game to grab?

Mojo_Jojo

Odd, neither the download link or the mirror are working for me. This looks fun too. A real shame.

Re: nholder

Downloading now.

Gameplay sounds fun, looks great, and I've been looking for a new Space/Sci Fi type game. Win! Plus, I have the day off so I'll post some crap about it later.

BaronVonSnakPak

this looks cool as hell. downloading.

Imperfect

Yup. Is ish brokenah!

archonwarp

Working again; I'm downloading. I love this game-a-day site, thanks for the heads up!

jothki

Not working for me. I assume it'll probably be sporadic.

Kane Red Robe

Hmm, the tutorial seems, rather unpolished and sparse, and I can't seem to figure out how to lower the turning sensitivity (mouse sensitivity is already minimum). I'll give it another shot in the morning, but for the moment I'm going to file this under "likely to get uninstalled within the week."

Frem

Hmm. Finally got it downloaded and installed. Despite the "ATi" logo at the start, it's a bit jerky for me. Stupid integrated card. I agree on the mouse sensitivity. The default definately seems high.


And yet... shiny. Meh.

Dagrabbit

I like it. It's a pretty basic Starfighter/Rogue Squadron type game. There's not a lot of variety, and sometimes it's hard to see where the enemies are, but I'm 5 missions in and it's pretty fun. The options to upgrade your ship are a nice touch and it's pretty to look at. Definately worth the download.

subedii

What are the controls like? Does it control well with mouse or would it be better with a Joypad? I'd go with joystick but my last one is pretty much out of commission.

Kaputa

Nice, a free space combat game. I need to pay more attention to that site.

Dagrabbit

subedii wrote: »

What are the controls like? Does it control well with mouse or would it be better with a Joypad? I'd go with joystick but my last one is pretty much out of commission.

I've been using the mouse and keyboard, default controls. You need to turn down the mouse sensitivity a bit, but after that, it controls pretty well. I also skipped the tutorial since a quick glance at the control list tells you everything you need to know. The mouse does weapons, speed, and turning/pitching, with hotkeys on the keyboard for rolling, switching weapons, boost, and some other stuff I don't use much. It's pretty easy to get the hang of. I haven't tried the joypad, or even checked to see if it supports it.

Kaputa

I tried to extract the files and my computer exploded.

Edit- Okay, it worked that time.

BaronVonSnakPak

normally any flight game that starts the first 3 missions as escorts gets an uninstall from me, but this has some charm to it, and its fun to play.

cwapfobrains

doh, i missed it. it looks pretty good too

Nerdtendo

Decent enough of a game. Pretty short and easy though. I had it on hard, and was able to beat it without much trouble. I could see some pretty cool mods being made for it. I wonder if there's anything out there, doubtful.

jothki

Is it just me, or are the allied ships completely useless? I'm on the sixth or seventh mission or so, and I've only seen them get one kill.

Nerdtendo

The AI is pretty horrible in general. I've seen enemies crash several times.

It does make me want to play Freespace 2 again though.

jothki

It's also kind of annoying how the larger ships are completely defenseless, especially considering how much more easily enemy fighters seem to die.

Dagrabbit

Yeah, it's got some flaws, but I liked it (just beat it). The controls are wonky (it sometimes forces you to re-center, even in space), the plot is pretty threadbare, and the sound effects suck. Also, all the missions are pretty much the same. Still, I had a lot of fun with it, especially for free. I just never want someone to tell me that they have a new ace or "good shoot" ever again.

Strifer

Let me sage this thread with some juicy info.

This game was originally called Starmageddon 2: Something and it was released in Poland way back when. It was a low-budget production, but rather enjoyable. The dialogue was of course in Polish and it was quite decent. Regardless, the steering was rather... sloppy.

Now it seems the guys are expanding on the internets with a rather weak English version.

Also, FUCK THAT ESCORT MISSION IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. That is the hardest thing in this game.

korodullin

Damn, I totally forgot to install this after I downloaded it.

Buchwald

damn this game looks cool, and here i am 2 days late.

darleysam

yup, also ashamed i missed it. Last one i got from there was really good, too.

Nerdtendo

Don't worry about it. The game is decent, but missing out is no big loss. Although, it did make me want to play space cowboy again. I might go redownload that and start it up.

There's stuff out there that's definitely much better. If you've played Freespace 2 and Freelancer, Space Interceptor is somewhere in between those. It's mission based, like FS2, but the combat is a bit lacking, like Freelancer.

And if you haven't played freespace 2, what the fuck is wrong with you? There's no excuse anymore since the game is available to download now. Play it, now. Right now.

darleysam

i've played the hell out of Freespace 2, although i should go about getting the full super sparkly updated edition, as i don't think the one i played was.

Dagrabbit

I always wanted to get into Freespace, but I've never liked the controls. The mouse control was awful, and joypads feel very inaccurate (turns too fast to make fine aiming corrections, even with sensitivity down way low).

Htown

You... you did try using a flight stick, right?

Dagrabbit

Htown wrote: »

You... you did try using a flight stick, right?

Don't have one. Why should I need one? I don't for any other flight sim game.