Starglider 2
| Developer: Argonaut Software | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Rainbird | Sound: |
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| Year: 1988 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Shoot’em up | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
8/10 | |
Bolstered by Starglider’s success, Argonaut’s young programmers continued to perfect their 3D engine, trading the “wireframe” style for “solid surface” polygons. Players now roam freely in a genuine open world, spanning an entire solar system, with no loading times!
The spacecraft is very simple to handle, and I find the interface far more intuitive than other representatives of the genre, such as Frontier or Warhead. The challenge lies in understanding what needs to be done, which has always been a secondary concern for me, after the ability to explore and blow up my surroundings! I remind you that I waited five years before inquiring about my mission in Hunter.
From the little I understood (without having read the second novella), you must destroy a secret space station before its occupants complete the assembly of a weapon capable of annihilating your home planet… Well, the source of inspiration hasn’t changed direction.
There are, of course, plenty of things to test your weapons on in complete abandonment: buildings, spinning objects, pirate ships, flying … cetaceans? And you’re equipped with a “tractor beam” to recover any cargo abandoned by your victims, which you can later trade for new weapons. This “adventure” component, with freedom in a vast system, considerably enriches the scope of action compared to the rather basic mechanics of the first Starglider.
Surprising anecdote: the same game disk worked on both Amiga and Atari ST. A unique case to my knowledge.
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