Retroview - Star Miner Special Edition

Official Site: http://www.positech.co.uk/index.html
Source: Youtube Channel LorenzoTheComic

Yesterday was the last day of Summer Steam Sales 2013 and I decided to pick up a game I had my eye on for the longest time: Starscape.  It's a top-down, space-shooter where you mine for resources to improve your ships and weapons.  It was released all the way back in 2003, but I didn't mind as long as it provided the type of game I wanted to play.  It reminded me of another Space-shooter game where you had to mine for materials, purchase items, and fight off enemy air-ships: Star Miner SE.  I had played this game off a CD called Galaxy of Arcade Classics from eGames back in 2000.  The developer of the game was a one man company called Positech Computing ltd. and was released in 1999, 2 years after the guy founded the company.  The company is now called Positech Games which many know the company through games like Democracy 2 and Gratuitous Space/Tank Battles.  It's amazing how he started all those years ago and is still making games now.

I never did get to try multiplayer on the game, but single-player was a lot of fun.  It was confusing at first since it didn't have any real goals or set paths for the player to go, and so the player had to figure out what to do.  Blasting asteroids would drop materials for the player to collect and use to improve their ship when landing on a planet.  It was open-ended and gave the freedom for the player to explore and survive.  For a whole decade, I never really played anything quite similar up until just a few months ago when I tried out Space Pirates and Zombies (S.P.A.Z.) which was fun, but not quite the same.  Playing through the tutorial of Starscape last night, it really did feel similar to Star Miner with similar controls and goals with a much more complex story and building mechanics to improve the ships and weapons.  Then again, Starscape is also an old game that released about 4 years after Star Miner.  Still, there was something about Star Miner that I really enjoyed that I don't quite remember.  I actually still have the CD I played it on, so I think I might pop it in and try it out once more.

If you want my opinions on the 3 games:

Star Miner - It's old, but very straight-forward so you'll get the experience right away without learning complicated mechanics.

Star Scape - It only goes up to 800 x 600 resolution, so you can imagine what it looks like.  There's a lot of building and resource managing involved, so those who like management in their games will like it.

Space Pirates and Zombies (SPAZ) - It has a LOT of reading, so those looking for a stronger narrative should check this out.  And since it's the newest game out of the 3 (released in 2011), it also has the most comprehensible controls and most advanced graphics.

As far as which one is the best?  They're all different and provide a unique experience, even if the core concept is the same.