Set somewhere at the close of Season Two of the latest TV show Battlestar Galactica Online is a free to play browser space shooter where players can control their own crafts, mine resources, complete quests and go head to head against the enemy in a battle for territory. In the game players can choose from one of two factions as they are forced to compete in a distant unknown sector of space, seeking out ancient technologies and battling for their survival. The game has a its ups and downs, but for now we’re focusing on what we love about it.

• Battlestar Galactica Lore - The game stays true to the lore and setting of the TV show. So many game spinoffs that jump on the back of a franchise do everything they can to twist and abuse the lore to fit into whatever game they want to make, thankfully Bigpoint didn’t do that with Battlestar Galactica. From the onset players will meet their favourite characters and get to interact with them, picking up quests and missions to head into the unknown and face off against the enemy. Staying true to the main storyline from the more recent BSG reboot at least means that fans can feel more involved with the plot and part of the bigger picture.


• Play the Bad Guys - You get to play as Cylons! Whilst there’s plenty of MMOs where you get to play as more than one faction, but as often as not even the “bad guys” are just those with a different philosophy that has ultimately lead to conflict and war (Jedi vs Sith in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Alliance vs Horde/Forsaken in World of Warcraft). In Battlestar Galactica, and the MMO, the Cylons are outright “bad guys”, they simply want to destroy Humanity, and you actually get to play as them (.. or the Colonies).


• Great 3D Graphics - The game, surprisingly, looks great. It’s far too easy, and far too common, for browser games to have fairly average graphics and settle with the mind-set that... well… it’s a browser game so that makes it okay. Wrong. Technology in the gaming industry is way beyond where developers get to rest on their laurels and thankfully this isn’t the case with Battlestar Galactica Online, the 3D graphics make space travel and combat more of a simulator than the type of point and click 2D platformer we’d expect a browser space shooter to be and so that, combined with the pretty good 3D models of the various characters appearing in cinematics, all contribute to capturing the flavour of the show.


• Strategic Combat - For a shooter there is a surprising amount of strategy needed. The game lacks a traditional arcade still shooter style, at least as far as we’re concerned, particularly when compared with other space shooters on the market that do seem to focus more on quick instanced matches and lack the open world element. With movement and traveling being considerably slower there is a lot more thought and forward planning that needs to go into combat, approaching a target enemy player from the right angle, keeping out of their radar range, knowing how to maneuver your ship when combat begins, which order to unload your arsenal of weapons; there’s more to it than point and aim. PVP in particular feels worthwhile and being in contested areas can be quite exhilarating when either hunting out enemies or trying to mine planetoids for rarer resources in more dangerous locations that are rife with pirates. Grouping together with a Wing (an in game guild) and finding enemy faction players is one of the most fun things you can do in the game.


• Mining - An intriguing and integral part to the game. Whilst the game doesn’t have any real crafting (just upgrades and resource gathering) the Mining system is actually quite fun and interesting. Players extract ore from asteroids primarily by blasting them to pieces with cannons or using focused Mining cannons, however players can also use Industrial Mines. Industrial Mines will typically give the most yield of resources from an asteroid, however it can take players up to 2 hours to completely deplete an asteroid and in that time mines place actually show up on the system map for all enemy players to see! The risk reward is high, but using them as bait to lure in the enemy is also particularly effective!

These are some of the things that we love about Battlestar Galactica Online, but what do you think? What do you love about this game? Would you add anything else to the list? We await your opinions! Let us know!!!!!

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2015 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Articles, MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.