When was the last time you played a game set entirely in space? It's been a while hasn't it? If you care to change that, perhaps I might get you interested for Star Wolves. (Line break to dispel the title from being repeated so closely to itself.)
Star Wolves is a tactical RPG by Russian developer X-Bow, released in 2004. As the opening cinematic will quickly remind everybody, Star Wolves is set in the future where Humanity has yet colonized a huge area living under the reign of Emperor Ezar III. In reality though, space is ruled by the three mega corporations U.S.S, Triad, and Inoco. The game follows the adventures of the average unnamed hero-type, who after having been raided by pirates once again, decides to give up his freight pilot career in favor of creating a group of mercenaries together with his friend Ace. (I imagine the nameless hero type as an unassertive guy who just gets caught up in something, and goes with the flow. You seem to suggest that this hero is very brash.) They slowly work their way up, have other people join their group and play an increasingly large role in a series of events that stir up the established equilibrium. Along the way, the story generally allows you to choose between being utterly self-serving or self-serving with the occasional sprinkle of altruism.
[img_inline height="280" width="300" caption="The up-close perspective is beautiful, but not practical."]http://images.amazon.com/images/G/03/videogames/features/Star_Wolves_2_large.jpg[/img_inline]
Despite being a strategy game at heart, the story made for a big part of the experience. It creates a small cast of likable characters and features well-written dialogue. The only exception being your Hero. His parts of the dialogues are not being voice-acted, supposedly so you can read it out aloud and pretend you're him. Surprisingly enough, he has a voice though. but He only uses it for RTS-style unit responses along the lines of "Yes" and "Into battle!" The voice-acting in general is good though, so even characters with only a few lines in the entire game like your Alter Ego sound surprisingly professional and succeed in showing emotions. (This is a good paragraph. It tells me everything I need to know in a mostly succinct manner. Just cut down on the run-ons.)
Star Wolves plays like a Homeworld with less units, but more RPG elements. Basically, you lead a group of up to six mercenaries and their mothership through various missions and battles. In between those missions, you spend experience points to acquire new skills and abilities for your mercenaries, sell possible loot, equip your pilots, and choose which mission to tackle next. Those few RPG elements, sprinkled on top of an already pretty good Strategy game, turn it into an addictive experience. Trying to finally reach top-tier equipment for your mercenaries or seeing how your newly equipped crew annihilates enemies they wouldn't have stood a chance against before just feels incredibly rewarding. (Build onto this a little bit more. You mention upgraded skills and equipment, but you don't explain how they're more effective. Is the next step up of equipment that powerful, or are the skills particularly useful?)
[img_inline caption="Thank God the menus are well designed, you're going to spend a lot of time in them." height=280 width=330 align=left]http://www.x-zine.de/portale/games//images/starwolves/bild1.jpg[/img_inline]
One of Star Wolves biggest strengths is its sublime balancing. Every single mission is challenging, but manageable. The right use of rockets, special abilities and the mothership can generally turn a defeat into a glorious victory. Until you find the right use for each and every mission however, you will be defeated. Often. But you will never be blown out of space in a matter of seconds. When you lose, you will lose by a small margin and you will keep coming back, because you know that you can change the outcome by cleverly using the game's mechanics. Still, do save. Often. (Second time you've broken "Often." to its own sentence. Useful, but otherwise needs to be used selectively.) Saving a lot will save you a lot of hassle.
I have to admit though, that my view is being coloured by the end-game experience. When you play the first couple of missions, you will not find the amount of tactical possibilities I described. With just two hunters and a mothership, and no special abilities or equipment, you will have little means of influencing the outcome of a battle. More often than not, whether you lose or win will just be a matter of luck. The role of chance will continuously decrease in indirect proportion to the amount of tactical possibilities you access throughout the game. but Even in the last couple of missions, bad luck will occasionally trip you up. (How? Why? Explain this.)
The missions include escorts, raids, assassinations, patrols, theft, smuggling, ambushes and giant space battles against gigantic warships, and feature interesting turns and twists mid-missions. The problem with those twist however, is that there's no real way to be ready for them. The only viable way of dealing with most of them, is finding out what will happen where through trial and error, reloading and going there fully informed about what will happen. (Explain what effect this has on the game. Does it make it painfully frustrating, or produce a "Reload-Trial-and-Error" effect? Is that a bad thing?)
[img_inline caption="Did I mention the nice effects yet?" width=300 height=300]http://img.metaboli.fr/products/Starwolves/en/screenshot3.jpg[/img_inline]
Above all, Star Wolves is about choices. You are to choose which skill you will unlock next, which equipment is to buy, which mercenary will do what during combat and will be using which equipment, which mission you do next and, of course, how you are going to complete the mission. (That is a correct, but remarkably ugly sentence. Wordy, complicated, and ultimately unfulfilling for the reader.) But the choices don't stop there. During many of the multiple-choice dialogues, you get to influence the course of your mission. Are you going to aid the helpless civilians even though the pirate who hired you tells you not to do so? Are you going to deliver the ship you just stole like your client told you, or are you going to keep it? While there are not particularly many dialogues, most of them include an interesting choice or the option of a side-quest.
Some of the choices however, are only theoretically possible. With most applicants for your team, you get to choose whether you accept them or turn them down. While it may be possible to finish the game with one mercenary less, there's just no way you could do it with the minimum of three mercenaries necessary for the story to work. It is probably the most extreme, but not the only way in which Star Wolves allows you to maneuver (apologies if this is just an English spelling, but I've never seen this spelling before. I'm erring on the side of caution.) yourself into a situation there's no escaping from. If you lose half of your equipment and ships during one mission, you will have a much harder time with the next. If you do this often enough then you probably won't be able to finish the game. Once again, this is only solved by saving and reloading. A lot.
[img_inline align=left caption="Any Sci-fi game with this many lasers visible at once must be good." height=300 width=300]http://content.playwhat.com/files/347/starwolves2_3.jpg[/img_inline]
The game is 5 years old by now, but the Graphics haven't aged too much. Sure, textures and resolution are sub-par by now, but the nice effects make up for it. After all, since the game is set in space, effects are pretty much the only thing you are going to see except from the few ships and stations. Besides, the tactical battles require you to zoom pretty far out anyway. If gob-smacking visuals are what you are looking for though, stay the hell away. (Build on this more. You say the effects are still good, but warn off graphics buffs. That's a bit of a tricky situation. I'd advise removing the warning entirely.)
All in all, Star Woves is definitely not the game for everyone. Like an old steam-powered train, with its engine humming and growling and its wheels screeching, it gains momentum very slowly. Once it finally get's going, it will take you to interesting places and new experiences. If your looking for something fast-paced and simple, keep on looking. But if you're into Strategy or RPGs and don't get frustrated too easily, give it a try. It will be the ride of your life.
Bottom Line: Buy it. The game is five years old by now, if you should really happen to see it somewhere, make sure you purchase it. It should only cost about as much as a fast-food meal by now, and while it may be less fattening, it's definitely more satisfying.
(For gameplay footage and a taste of the awesome soundtrack check this out [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97zDmvtnuw0].)
