What would you do with a million bucks? What’s that? You don’t have a million bucks? Well, if you have $9.99 you can grab Space Trader through Steam and then work your way up from being $1.5mil in debt to buying and selling a million dollars worth of bananabis and organs on the black market. Not interested in the black market? Maybe you would like to act as a bounty hunter instead, “taking care of” good-for-nothing criminals. Or you could be a hard and honest worker and act as an intersteller version of UPS. The choice of yours.
What is Space Trader?
In Space Trader: Merchant Marine by HermitWorks Entertainment and Meridian 4, players have the option of two single-player modes, Campaign or Challenges. There is also multiplayer which will be covered later.
Campaign is the story mode where players assume the role of a person who has just acquired their trading license. The player begins the game in search of a way to acquire a ship. As the story progresses, more planets can be visited and the missions increase in difficulty. To complete the chapter the player must earn an amount of money in a set time limit (based on interplanetary travel, not actual playing time.) The story isn’t very complex, but it provides players with some direction and a purpose for accomplishing their goals.
Challenge mode is similar to campaign except that it lacks the story element. There is still an amount of money that must be earned in a set time limit, there just seems to be less distraction and a greater emphasis on the buying/selling (trading) element of the game.
The game is played through the first-person perspective and is broken down into three tasks: Bounty hunting, collecting stash, and trading.
Bounty hunting is the action segment of the game. NPCs, such as bartenders, will offer rewards for your combat skills. The combat scenarios have an arcade feel to them similar to an early version of Unreal Tournament. These scenarios vary in length from 3-10 minutes depending on your skill and focus on the task at hand. There are several enemies that can be shot down for cash and items but there is always a target foe that must be defeated to claim the reward. The controls are the standard of what you would expect for an FPS and these missions are fun to play.
Collecting stash is an integral part of the game if you want to succeed in Space Trader. On each planet there are over at least a dozen bundles of stash, which are boxes levitating in the air. These boxes contain items and you will need the extra source of income if you plan to succeed in the game. Making your way through either mode is unlikely without collecting stash. Don’t worry though, you will want to because as you collect each piece of stash the very rewarding “CHING” cash register sound is made; the perfect sound effect for a collectible item.
The last portion of the gameplay is the trading. This is where the core of the gameplay is. Since the whole purpose of the game is to make as much money as possible, you MUST buy and sell. The game description tries to make it seem complex by showing you a graph next to the inventory items and throwing in percentages, but it is actually simple. Buy items that are in a vendors inventory that have a star, sell items that are in your inventory with a star. So the trading piece of the game isn’t extremely exciting and can feel like a chore at times, but once you’ve made a few trades you should have it figured out. Buy the items with the greatest possible return and you will be all set.
The multiplayer mode allows you to play through the Challenge modes with friends. It’s great if you have a friend or two you would like to play with. Don’t count on just joining a random match. Perhaps you could set a match up with someone via forums but this isn’t the type of game where you can find a “quick-match”.
Review
The FPS action portion of the game is enjoyable and there are a bunch of maps to play as the story unfolds. The trading gets tedious once you’ve got the hang of it. Collecting stash can be fun the first few times you visit a planet but eventually once you know where all the spawn points is the fun is gone.
The lack of a manual save function is disappointing. Progress is saved automatically only after travel. This means if players need to stop the game they must either travel and forfeit all the current earning potential on the planet being visited or leave their system on and waste electricity.
Another feature that has been left out that could be handy is a map with a destination point for objectives (outside of combat). Some of the NPCs for various required missions are not easy to locate. If players don’t have the patience to search for these NPCs the lack of a map could really ruin the experience leaving most of the game unexplored.
Since trading is such an important aspect of the game the developers made it extremely simple to jump from one vendor to the next via a panel on the left side of the screen. This feature pretty much saves the game. Without out…”shudder”.
The interface is attractive in shape, color, and alpha but doesn’t take advantage of high resolution monitors. The interface bars shown above should shrink as resolution is increased but instead they take up the same amount of screen real estate. Note that the interface (aside from the top panel) is only visible while engaged with an NPC but it is still cluttered.
The graphics remind me of a first-gen Xbox title, which is good in consideration of the price and performance requirements, listed here. The environments are polished enough to create an atmosphere for the player to feel a part of. The character models are amusing, but some are reused too many times.
The electronica-style music works very well with the space theme. As mentioned earlier, the sound effects make collecting stash a very rewarding experience.
Conclusion
For the price, Space Traders is a great way to spend a rainy weekend. In fact, I strongly suggest that the next time it rains on the weekend you check out this game. Write that down. Don’t forget. This isn’t the type of game that I would rush to tell friends about, but it’s a good experience while it lasts.
| Rating | Category |
|---|---|
| 7.5 | Presentation Interface is attractice but cluttered. Character models and enironments are good but nothing amazing. |
| 7.7 | Gameplay Bounty hunting, collecting, and trading done well. Repetition combined with lack of save function and map have a minor negative impact. |
| 8.2 | Sound
Electronica-style music goes well with the space theme. Sound effects are great. |
| 6.8 | Lastability
The game can last you dozens of hours, but there's not enough variation in gameplay or story depth to keep you going. |
| 7.1 | Overall
Space Traders is a great way to spend a rainy weekend. It's certainly an enjoyable experience while it lasts. |
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Casual Comments (3)
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Level: 5
November 20, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Sounds like a good time. Maybe I’ll check this out someday.
Level: 5
November 20, 2008 at 1:31 pm
LLoooooookk into my eyes….you are getting sleeeepppyyy….you WIIILLLLLLL buy this on the next rainy weekend, Danzy.
Level: 5
November 21, 2008 at 2:29 am
Unfortunately my little PC would probably crack and die under the pressure of trying to run any game released after 1999. It’s basically a big netbook.