Somewhat overlooked adventure action strategy hybrid - The UR-QUAN Masters / SC2

[Sythe]

The other day I was feeling pretty bored so I visited my old friend, the underdogs. I went to adventure section (of course) and decided to sort by rating instead of searching. The highest scoring game was something called ‘The UR-QUAN Masters' (Formally 'Scar Control 2')

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

And I must say this game is brilliant. At first glance its not much but this is because what you experience depends on how you play it â€" That is to say if you play it like an action game you will experience it that way, or if you play it as an adventure game you will end up being most entertained by very unique alien characters and fan spoken lines of dialog.

The actual game style reminds me most of Dune 1 where you play Paul Attradies and have to rally the freemen while organizing your spice harvesting efforts and meeting deadlines.

Anyway if you want to get right into the narrative of the ur-quan masters (as I imagine most of you would) you'll need a walkthrough. The reason you need one is because the number of stars you can visit is well, overwhelming. The star chart is based on real constellations â€" which is very cool â€" and you start off in sol (our solar system). Various characters you meet drop *really* subtle hints about what you can do next â€" that said the game is completely non linear so this can be pretty confusing.

http://www.cheatbook.de/wfiles/starcontroliib.htm

The above is an excellent walkthrough which will allow you to experience *most* of the narrative side of the game quite directly. The narrative part can be finished in about 8 hours using the guide.

One final note: I suggest when you download you install with their installer only the bare minimum files then download the voice package and other packages using your browser. Put the packages in the content/packages folder of your installation directory. The reason I added this is because when I tried to download the extras using their downloader client they were all corupted.

[visy (the guy who made Lassi Quest)]

One of my favorite games!

"What? A human in a Precursor service vehicle?"

The sound acting is very enjoyable. The nonlinearism + exploration combination works perfectly.

[Nostradamus]

Yeah I played it for a while, very interesting and unique game. But I got tired and bored of it in the end, the world is too huge and it was too complex.
I loved Yahtzee's Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment which was like a shorter and more to the point version of the star control styl.e

[Sythe]

Yeah I played it for a while, very interesting and unique game. But I got tired and bored of it in the end, the world is too huge and it was too complex.
I loved Yahtzee's Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment which was like a shorter and more to the point version of the star control styl.e

Yeah I was going to add I thought Yahtzee's space game was based off it. Thinking of making such a game myself.

[Helm]

There's few other types of games that would be more difficult to balance gameplay-wise than something like this. SC2 is a great game, I agree. But unless you're extremely skilled, I suggest you don't attempt.

[Mr Flibble]

I have a boxed copy of this game sitting right in front of me. I never got very far, because I wasn't great at the combat, but I adored the exploration, ship building and resource mining elements.

If I can suck at it, and still say its an amazing game, then it must be something special. 

[Sythe]

You should try a walkthrough. I listed one above.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

This game isn't really overlooked.  Starcon 2 was made for a few platforms, including the 3DO, which was superior to the pc release.  In fact, Urquan Masters uses many audio and graphic rips from the 3DO version.

PREPARE TO DIE, HUNAM!

[Nostradamus]

yeah ProgZmax it was amde for a lot of consoles plus that Ur-Quan Masters remake, but I believe Sythe aimed this post at the teenagers who post at these forums who never heard of it.