You know when there's a game that you're super excited for, and you really want to rush out to your local store and pick it up and spend the next two days straight playing through it, preferably with friends there (who for some reason don't mind just watching you play) and a giant pizza?
But sometimes you can't do that. Sometimes there's a roadblock. Maybe the game hasn't come out yet. Maybe you're a little strapped for cash, and the 60 bucks that game would cost should probably stick around for more practical purposes. Or, maybe the game doesn't exist anywhere but within your mind.
If there is one thing I can safely boast about myself, it's that I'm creative. I have had many, many ideas for games that have, of course, never gone anywhere because, damn it, I don't even known anyone in the game industry, and I don't really know the first thing about making them myself (also, the ideas tend to be the kind of game that would need a big studio behind them.)
Back when I was in High School - freshman year, spring of 2001 - I got a game called Escape Velocity Nova. It was one of the first games I ever just downloaded and paid for online.
Anyway, for those of you who are unfamiliar, EVN was kind of an open-world sandbox game, with very simple storylines (that were told purely through text.) The gameplay had you, as a spaceship captain, slowly build up your power and wealth. You would start with a very simple shuttle that had no weapons and a small cargo hold. After a bit of buying and selling of goods, you could start to climb the rungs, getting access to bigger ships, then armed ships, and by the end of it, you could be flying around with a 15-ship fleet of massive dreadnoughts spitting out hundreds of Hellhound Missiles as you took entire planets over.
That game is twelve years old now, and was built on a pre-existing game. It was also a kind of cheap shareware piece.
I've been on a bit of a sci-fi kick lately (I'm writing a TV pilot that is in a Sci-Fi setting) and I was thinking that I'd really love to get my hands on an awesome planet-hopping action/adventure game with RPG elements, but alas, as I look through the various games available, nothing quite matches my cravings.
Here's what I'd like to see in a game:
- An open galaxy, free for the player to explore
- But with serious set-pieces to make it feel like your story matters
- A customizable character, with the ability to choose different character classes
- A combination of on-the-ground shooting action, like a more open-world version of Mass Effect 2/3's style, and deep space flight, allowing for big ship-to-ship combat that could be the primary type of gameplay if the player chose
- Lots of space stations and derelict starships for the player to discover and explore.
- Really spiffy graphics
That last one is usually not what I focus on, but I'm having a craving, so damn it, just... you know?
Anyway, the core engagement of this game would be the sense that you could be just about any kind of person you wanted in this world - from a freight captain who has to fend off pirates to a salvage ship that must brave the dangers of a dark and mysterious ship any time you want to get paid, to a soldier fighting in massive space battles, to a pirate, who tries to take the stuff from that first guy's ship. And otherwise, you might just use your ship as a means to an end - maybe you're a mercenary who has a small ship with a team that travels between stations and offer your deadly services?
Anyway, I've been trying to find something akin to that in the current lineup of games, but there's really not much that I see that fits the mold. The closest I can come to is Eve Online, but I don't want to take on the subscription fee, and I also understand that the economics in that game are ridiculous and silly. Not to mention that I kind of want a solo adventure at the moment.
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