Reviews: S.P.A.Z.

S.P.A.Z. (Space Pirates and Zombies)

Pros: A fun, value priced title that will bring back memories of classic games.

Cons: Repetitive game play and a lack of variety in content.

Final Judgement: SPAZ lives up to what it’s trying to be and will entertain most gamers, definitely worth the download price.

Available for: PC (Steam)

Does anyone remember the old Star Control series from the early 90's? Or more to the point its follow-up title Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters? That, my friends, was a game that was air tight and dipped in gold. Pull up a stump children, and let's rap about this for a minute. In this diddy of a game, you found yourself in a galaxy made up of hundreds of stars and planets. You were the captain of a ship that was completely customizable. Your job was to fly around this galaxy meeting aliens, building alliances, and forming an unstoppable armada of ships which often resembled the end result of an out crazying contest between Gene Rodenberry and Disney. All this so you could tear down an evil empire made up of evil squid like creatures who’ve enslaved the human race. Why did the evil octopi do this you ask? Because, once they were enslaved, and they didn’t like it very much and after emancipating themselves they figured they should try the whole Overseer gig. Now that I think of it, the plot of Star Control II actually makes a compelling argument for the whole “Learned behavior theory” in violence.

As I said... Out crazying contest.

Star Control was awesome. It was an excellent mix of role playing, resource management, and arcade action. The story was spiced with humor, the characters were original and the plot was entertaining. What’s more, though its graphics were simple, it was chalked full of content. Every system you explored had something unique about.  Whether it be mineral rich planets, earth like moons teaming with life or the colony of one of alien races populating the galaxy there were endless means to exploit them all. Star Control II just had plenty for you to do. Provided, of course, that your idea of a good time was exploiting the fuck out of everything you laid your eyes on. Come to think of it, in the Game you, the hero, use the fact that your race is enslaved as an excuse to exploit, lie and more or less weasel your fellow sentient races into destroying each other and dying at your whim. I gotta say, in retrospect, this game kinda goes to a dark place.

Although Bio Wares Mass Effect series comes close to replicating the feel of Star Control even making that comparison still feels like a stretch. Star Control was a completely unique experience. One that would only really work in the way it was originally presented - a 2D top down space fighter game. It’s unfortunate so few people that I talk to have ever heard of the game let alone played it. That being said I know of at least two brochachos that have not only heard of Star Control II but quit their day jobs and spent countless hours crafting a game that was a love letter to it. Two hombres who if they continue on their current path may prove to be for video games the next incarnation of the Buddha. Two pillars of digital justice who created the game which is the focus of this week’s review. Richard Clifford and Andrew Hume who created SPAZ or Space Pirates and Zombies.

Richard Clifford and Andrew Hume, two guys who worked together for several years at RadicalEntertainment.( the studio behind the Prototype series).  After working on two projects that were cancelled half way through development and seeing sixty of their co-workers and friends get laid off, the two decided that working for Radical and its cancel-happy ways was not for them. Their response? Stick it to the man by quitting and working for free from the dim and dank basements of their respective homes. The two decided that they wanted to take gaming back to its roots and to create a game that was in the same vein as Star Control and Master of Orion.

I have a lot of respect for these dudes, what they did took a lot of balls... So much so that here is a link to the slow clap from Cool Runnings to help underscore their achievement. Respect.

The results of the efforts, exactly what they promised... A 2D top down shooter that takes a hugechunk of inspiration from Star Control and Master of Orion.

In SPAZ, you play as a Space Pirate in command of a cobbled together star ship called the Clockwork. The galaxy has been populated by humanity and most of our efforts as a species revolve around the mining of a special element known as "Rez". The goal of the game is to escort the Clockwork to the galactic core where rumors abound of a "Rez" mother lode. The only sticking point is that the Galaxy wide authority, known as the UTA, has closed down interstellar travel by blockading the various warp gates that connect star systems. The UTA's reasoning?   “To prevent the spread of interstellar sicknesses through careful inspection and stringent regulations.”  As you are a Space Pirate, your response to the UTA is a big Yo-Ho! And YARRR! as you mercilessly blast your way through the many blockades between you and the galactic core. Now as this game is called Space Pirates and Zombies, I suppose it is no surprise that as you wind your way towards the core you discover the interstellar sickness the UTA is concerned about containing is a parasitic alien that turns humans into brain munching Zombies and ships into Zombie carrying spores of doom. Zombie carrying spores of doom which quickly transition from being a novel distraction from blasting the UTA into “those fucking things that make every mission a hundred times more difficult then they need to be.”

The Clockwork just kinda floats around, it would be nice if it helped out a bit more often.

That is more or less the plot of the game. Some nifty features of SPAZ include a randomly generated galaxy that you define the size of as well as a plethora of ship designs which you pick up through the game. The ship designs have a number of slots and systems that can be customized and reconfigured which allow for a fair amount of experimentation and play. For example, I found myself playing around with various weapon configurations in an attempt to find the optimum mix that would allow me to burn through an enemy space stations shield while still having the armor piercing punch to crack its hull open.

The game play itself is fairly straight forward, you command a fleet of three ships. You personally pilot one of them while the other two are controlled by AI. You use your mouse to target and orient your ship and you use the "WASD" keys to control its Thrusters. Combat is an arcade slugfest where you basically trade fire until one ship explodes. There isn't a lot of strategy involved as the Space you do battle in is more or less devoid of any meaningful terrain. The combat in SPAZ doesn’t require a heck of a lot of thought, but that’s not such a bad thing. Sometimes you just want to blow shit up, not agonize over the details of how you're going to do it. More to the point however, the quick paced combat in SPAZ is fun, so who cares if it’s simple. 

As for the graphics in the game, MinMax did an excellent job of sprucing up the 2D style of play by adding 3D backgrounds and layers of space debris, clouds and other effects on to the 2D gameplay. The background is full of, planets, nebula, ship wrecks and space junk which adds eye candy polish to the presentation of the game.

Engaging in battle with the aforementioned fucking zombie ships.

For all of the good to be found in SPAZ, after a few hours of play players are likely going to start feeling that the title lacks variety. At this point players will have seen everything that SPAZ has to offer. Every mission in the game involves blowing up enemy ships. Enemy ships which are all the exact same design as ships that you have access to. Aside from the Zombies, which only appear in the last third of the game, the only other things you encounter that you can meaningfully interact with are the two factions: The Civilians and The UTA. Both factions are in every system and more or less fly the same ships. The only change from star system to star system is the randomly generated relationship level of the two factions in relation to you. I would have liked to see a bit more variety; maybe some missions where you need to assist with research or transport items between systems or maybe a couple of more factions such as Pirates and local governments. As it is, the SPAZ galaxy feels a bit empty and incomplete. Yes you have a giant and nearly endless galaxy to explore, but when it’s all the same, why would you want to?    

And they will all look almost exactly the same.

To be fair, Hume and Clifford acknowledge this short coming in SPAZ and have even said that they had wanted to include four factions and more types of ships but as the game grew in complexity and the release date got pushed back they were unable to add in all the content they had originally intended. Given the nature of how SPAZ was developed. I have to say I can’t be too upset with their decision to release the game without all the brainstormed content.

I picked up SPAZ off of steam on sale for four bucks and it gave me a good few days’ worth of nostalgic game play. When I last checked its regular price was ten dollars. I can guarantee you that even at twenty dollars SPAZ would be a good investment of your time and money. Yes it lacks variety, but it makes up for it with its simplistic charm and fun, fast paced arcade style.

In closing I would also like to mention that while I was researching for this article, I came across a website entitled “The Ur-Quan Masters”. A port of Star Control II which was developed by a group of guys who had gotten together to re-master and re-release the original game which I believe is now considered abandon-ware. It’s ready to go and it’s completely free! Check it out and let the good times roll.