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Escaping the Velocities
Xaviar
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
A lot of you may remember this game:
This is not Escape Velocity. This is Terminal Velocity. And okay game in its own right, but not the game I want to talk about.
What do I want to talk about?
This game. <--- THIS IS A LINK TO THE GAME'S WEBSITE
Let me paint a picture for you:
The galaxy is big. Governments and corporations are all trying to survive, and slice out a larger piece of the power pie for themselves. Naturally, this means war, espionage, developing technology, piracy, even terraforming and/or destroying worlds. Into this galaxy stroll you. After finally scrounging together enough cash for a brand new shuttlecraft, you launch, and find yourself alone in a very, very big world. Where you go now is completely up to you.
Yes, there are multiple, branching campaigns, that are actually very well written.
But the meat of the game is going out on your own. Escape Velocity was the first sandbox game I played. I'm not saying it was the first, but I will perhaps suggest that when it came out, the market was pretty small. And it blew me away. My neighbor and I would play it as we played Heavy Gear, multiplayer, with either of use controlling different aspects. In this, he was the pilot, doing all the flying, and I the copilot, manning the weapons, communications, etc. We played this endlessly. And that was the shareware version. We couldn't even complete any of the storylines because we never payed for it. But we didn't care.
So what can you do in Escape Velocity: Nova? The sequel to the sequel of the game I just gave such a glowing recommendation?
Obviously you can complete missions. In addition to the (several) main storylines to follow, there are also several minor storylines, and randomly generated missions available from the mission computer on most planets.
(some of the mission computer missions actually lead into storyline missions as well..)
Trade commodities. As you build up your fleet you will gain access to potentially massive amounts of cargo space that you can use to set up trading runs. Be careful though, the more profitable runs tend to have more pirate activity.
Build up your ship and your fleet. You start with a tiny little shuttlecraft, and you will quickly find that you need more cargo space/weapons/shields/hull/energy(gas)/upgrades to do anything. But eventually you may find yourself in a massive ship with several high-powered escorts, destroying everything that looks at you funny.
One of my favorites is to retrofit one of the massive cargo-haulers into a well-armed-and-armored carrier.
Take over planets. Is that outpost refusing to let you land, and constantly harassing you with their defensive fighters? Once you build up enough of a reputation, you can demand their allegiance (they will just laugh at you otherwise). Leave their defenses in tatters and they will not only realize the error of their ways, but they will gladly hand over a portion of their hard-earned credits every solar day so that you might be better able to "protect" them.
Be a pirate. See a ship you like? Disable it and take it over. Naturally if they are in a capital ship with 130-something crew compliment and you are in a little 2-man fighter, the two of you will have a hard time taking them out. But if you've got room on your ship, why not retrofit some of that cargo space into a barracks for your own squad of marines? That should help your chances. Alternately, just take everything that isn't bolted down (cargo, ammo, etc) and sell it at the nearest planet.
Explore, and more. The whole galaxy is out there, there really is a ton for you to do.
Well that's nice, you say, but $30? Really? I think it's probably only worth a third of that.
Ah, well let me just point out that the entirety of the previous two games have been updated to the new, much improved Nova engine and are available for free as mods!
That's right! Escape Velocity, EV:Override, and EV:Nova, for a whopping $30.
Mods, you say? Yep, the entire thing is completely modable. From adding a new system or two to your star-chart, or a new weapon and ship, all the way up to some really ambitious total conversions, there are some very well-done mods out there.
What does it look/play like? Well, it's top-down, inertial controls. (So kind of like asteroids) and it looks something like this:
So? Discuss!
This is not Escape Velocity. This is Terminal Velocity. And okay game in its own right, but not the game I want to talk about.
What do I want to talk about?
This game. <--- THIS IS A LINK TO THE GAME'S WEBSITE
Let me paint a picture for you:
The galaxy is big. Governments and corporations are all trying to survive, and slice out a larger piece of the power pie for themselves. Naturally, this means war, espionage, developing technology, piracy, even terraforming and/or destroying worlds. Into this galaxy stroll you. After finally scrounging together enough cash for a brand new shuttlecraft, you launch, and find yourself alone in a very, very big world. Where you go now is completely up to you.
Yes, there are multiple, branching campaigns, that are actually very well written.
But the meat of the game is going out on your own. Escape Velocity was the first sandbox game I played. I'm not saying it was the first, but I will perhaps suggest that when it came out, the market was pretty small. And it blew me away. My neighbor and I would play it as we played Heavy Gear, multiplayer, with either of use controlling different aspects. In this, he was the pilot, doing all the flying, and I the copilot, manning the weapons, communications, etc. We played this endlessly. And that was the shareware version. We couldn't even complete any of the storylines because we never payed for it. But we didn't care.
So what can you do in Escape Velocity: Nova? The sequel to the sequel of the game I just gave such a glowing recommendation?
Obviously you can complete missions. In addition to the (several) main storylines to follow, there are also several minor storylines, and randomly generated missions available from the mission computer on most planets.
(some of the mission computer missions actually lead into storyline missions as well..)
Trade commodities. As you build up your fleet you will gain access to potentially massive amounts of cargo space that you can use to set up trading runs. Be careful though, the more profitable runs tend to have more pirate activity.
Build up your ship and your fleet. You start with a tiny little shuttlecraft, and you will quickly find that you need more cargo space/weapons/shields/hull/energy(gas)/upgrades to do anything. But eventually you may find yourself in a massive ship with several high-powered escorts, destroying everything that looks at you funny.
One of my favorites is to retrofit one of the massive cargo-haulers into a well-armed-and-armored carrier.
Take over planets. Is that outpost refusing to let you land, and constantly harassing you with their defensive fighters? Once you build up enough of a reputation, you can demand their allegiance (they will just laugh at you otherwise). Leave their defenses in tatters and they will not only realize the error of their ways, but they will gladly hand over a portion of their hard-earned credits every solar day so that you might be better able to "protect" them.
Be a pirate. See a ship you like? Disable it and take it over. Naturally if they are in a capital ship with 130-something crew compliment and you are in a little 2-man fighter, the two of you will have a hard time taking them out. But if you've got room on your ship, why not retrofit some of that cargo space into a barracks for your own squad of marines? That should help your chances. Alternately, just take everything that isn't bolted down (cargo, ammo, etc) and sell it at the nearest planet.
Explore, and more. The whole galaxy is out there, there really is a ton for you to do.
Well that's nice, you say, but $30? Really? I think it's probably only worth a third of that.
Ah, well let me just point out that the entirety of the previous two games have been updated to the new, much improved Nova engine and are available for free as mods!
That's right! Escape Velocity, EV:Override, and EV:Nova, for a whopping $30.
Mods, you say? Yep, the entire thing is completely modable. From adding a new system or two to your star-chart, or a new weapon and ship, all the way up to some really ambitious total conversions, there are some very well-done mods out there.
What does it look/play like? Well, it's top-down, inertial controls. (So kind of like asteroids) and it looks something like this:
So? Discuss!
Xaviar on
0
Posts
The game is incredibly simple, but the length of the storylines (not to mention the number of different storylines), gave it good replayability.
There were a bunch of Star Wars mods for it, none of which were too polished, but it was fun to buy turbolasers.
Federation for life (though their ships suck).
Also, SoL and Forklift FTW. Original EV was so awesome. Nova I spent a good dozen or so hours on, trying the storyline where you make a space ship with the /power of your mind/. Which was pretty boss awesome.
I don't think in all my playthroughs I've ever actually done the federation line in any of the 3. I might have to go that route this time. They just always seem like such assholes though..
♫ They'll try to kill him with a forklift… ♬
I've been trying to remember it's name for ages.
Thank you.
My story is much like the OP. We had PCs in my house, but my best friend had a Mac. Whenever we hung out at his place, we'd inevitably end up playing Escape Velocity. I think he also only had the shareware version but it didn't matter. There was so much to do! Running cargo, evading pirates, buying and selling goods... Buying new ships and exploring deeper into space. Fantastic game that was both simple yet deep.
I'd love to see a more modern take on this game... All the sandboxness while maintaining the ease of play.
As it is, once the Newell releases my wallet from his dark vice-like grip, maybe I'll give Nova a whirl for old times sake.
By the way, how about sticking a link to the games site in the OP?
Oh yeah. Looks like missing it was more me than you. Or rather my phone. It butts right up against the huge image and just got overlooked. I am shamed.
Me and my Mac were all about this game back in the day.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
http://blog.naev.org/
It's an EV "clone" that's being developed by 30-some guys called Naev. They are currently in... alpha? beta? Either way, you can download and play this for free. I found it while I was reading the Ambrosia forums trying to figure out why there is no EV4 (and never will be, apparently).
EDIT: Mac & PC compatible, looks like.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Wow, EV clone is right. That looks almost exactly the same. Very interesting.
I have to say I'm still more interested in Starfarer at this point though. Assuming that continues to shape up nicely
AND MY INSTALL CODE
I AM SO HAPPY
Edit: Oh, hell. Nearly 2 years. Um.. sorry about the necro. I'm going to go.. hide.
DS Friend code: 3840-6605-3406
I gave up after about 20 minutes
Its a long shot, I don't suppose anyone would be willing to sale me their EV nova code for $10 through paypal or something? $30 is too much when your in college.