RATING:
Graphics: 7
Gameplay: 6
Sound: 5
Overall: 6
Pros: True to the Battlestar Galactica franchise, fun dogfights.
Cons: Can feel a bit empty and lacks direction.
In case you’re Sci-Fi addicts or simple love good TV series, it’s absolutely possible that you’ve already heard of Battlestar Galactica. Originally launched in 1978, this Sci-Fi show has become a giant hit when being rebooted ten years ago, allowing the franchise to reach a much wider audience. In 2011, Bigpoint thought that it was about time to offer a new browser MMO based on the popular franchise to all Battlestar Galactica enthusiansts, thus launching open beta testing for Battlestar Galactica Online.
For we’re into the series and recently felt a bit nostalgic, we hopped into the MMO in order to check it out, hoping it would evoke the magic and atmosphere of the TV show once again.
As usual these days, registering to the game was a quick and simple process; all we were required to do was activating the button “login via facebook”. Our first undertaking in the game was deciding for a faction: either Cylons or Colonials. For those among you who don’t know anything about the TV series (watch it, as it’s incredibly good!), Cylons (a.k.a. Toasters) are man-made robots to be servants, but turned against their human masters and disappeared into the space after a huge war. They’ve now returned for revenge and the annihilation of humankind. The human Colonials are therefore escaping from the former, trying to reach the promised land after their colonies have been devastated.
As we yearned for meeting with Chief Tyrol, Starbuck, Commander Adama and all the other characters from the series once more, and also longed for piloting a viper, we opted for the Colonials before being taken to the character creation screen, which was a pretty simple affair: you’re given a limited choice of preset faces, hairstyles, clothes, etc. in order to customise your character. From what we’ve seen in the game, your character’s appearance isn’t more than a mere "role-playing" element though, for players won’t see him or her again with the exception of the character info screen called Pilot Log.
We were then presented with simple story mission chain that functioned as a tutorial, meant to help players familiarise with the basics of movement, combat and asteroid mining. Controls and combat systems in Battlestar Galactica Online are an interesting mix of action and tab-target. Players typically see their space ship from a classic 3rd-person point of view and will use their mouse wheel to regulate their speed while pressing the right mouse button and moving the cursor to make their ship turn in that direction and selecting their target and interacting with the UI through a left click. The keys W, A, S, D are used to shift the ship up, down, left and right, and the space bar activates your boosters; there are also other keyboard shortcuts in addition to these basic controls.
At the centre of your screen, there’s a reticule and when aiming at an enemy and the target being at range, your standard weapons will automatically fire. The entire thing was a bit delicate to get used to and felt slow and unresponsive from time to, which could, of course, be due to the fact that we were complete newbies and definitely needed some practice. However, Star Conflict, for instance, uses a similar control system and was much more intuitive and easier to pick up.
Having completed the tutorial, we docked to the Galactica (even if we only got to see the bridge) to meet some of the most popular characters from the TV series: Chief Tyrol, Apollo, Starbuck, and Commander Adama, who function as key NPCs, providing players with story and daily missions and granting the ability to repair their ship, use the DREDIS (a kind of mini-game that rewards players with currency and items) and access to other services.
At its core, Batlestar Galactica Online is basically a mix of mission-based gameplay and free exploration across the sectors in order to fight Cylons, collect resources and acquire money to be able to enhance your current ship, purchase additional and better ships and learn new skills by spending money and real time (in EVE style more or less).
After the initial (and by the way pretty basic) tutorial about movement, fighting and mining, players are given very little direction, which was a quite frustrating thing for us. We didn’t had the foggiest idea of how to use the various menus, how the complex item and weapon stats pages had to be deciphered, how our ship could be customised or upgraded, how to join PvP, or what we were able to do, resulting in a feeling of being completely lost. Sure, by clicking shift+h, you are provided with a comprehensive guide to read, but going through hundreds of pages to learn what you are able do after just arriving in the game when all you want is shooting things isn’t exactly fun.
We therefore went on with the story missions assigned by Commander Adama and faced several Cylons, escorted colonial ships, gathered resources and so on, until he told us we had to be more "experienced" to get access to the next mission. At this point, we tried our hand in a bit of exploration, jumping around safe and more dangerous sectors, fighting against the occasional enemy drones and joining some sort of “dynamic events” that tasked us with protecting colonial ships under attack by enemy forces (we can’t say whether there are other kinds of events or whether that is the only available one …). Throughout our whole journey, we didn’t meet a single other player, just NPCs, so that the entire world felt a bit empty and boring after a while.
The full 3D graphics are powered by the Unity engine and pretty nice; however, you are starting to realise their age when comparing them to those of the most recent Unity games. Nevertheless light and stable, the engine allows for magnificent space battles. The character models aren’t as detailed and polished as the ships, asteroids or planets, but as you’ll be flying your ship most of the time anyway, it’s no big deal.
CONCLUSION
Battlestar Galactica Online is a unique and fun browser-based title that delivers enjoyable 3D graphics and fast-paced dogfights in space. Based on the popular Battlestar Galactica franchise, the MMO targets the fans of the series as well as Sci-Fi enthusiasts in general. It unfortunately suffers from a few flaws though, e.g. a total lack of direction after the initial basic tutorial and a general feeling of emptiness, which prevent it from shining and may drive new or casual players away.
In case you’re interested in finding out more about this game, feel free to have a look at our first look gameplay commentary video or our profile which is accessible via a click onto the INFO button below.
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