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43 of 44 found the following review helpful:
 Jaw dropping, awe inspiring beautyAug 23, 2001
By croll
Stunning. Beautiful. Can I fall in love with a computer game? Maybe not, but if I could this would be it. Wow. Hard core gamers rejoice, the techonology and graphics available today has allowed the space sim genre to truly blast towards the heavens. I've only just begun the game, but I'm speechless. I'm leaving work early to get back to it... I never do that, after all, they're just computer games. But this is... this reminds me of the joy I had as a junior-high student playing Wing Commander I and II. The story is well done and immersive, if not stunningly original: your father is murdered by a loan shark and your left in the hands of an "electronic guardian", ala Max Headroom (sp). The guardian takes you to your (also dead) grandmother's old pirate base, hidden deep within a nebula gas cloud where you discover her old warship and... well, you begin to live the life of a pirate while questing for the revenge of your father's murder. But let's get back to what's important. This is a hardcore gamers delight. The physics are detailed and you'll have to learn to deal with inertial trajectories as you dogfight, but you can also use them to your advantage for some wicked strafing moves. Additionally, you can utilize thrusters to suddenly push your ship up/down or left/right while otherwise maintaining an idential course and heading. The weapons systems are detailed, primarily focused around energy/cannon weapons and missles. I've only begun to explore the customization options available, but it looks like you've got tremendous flexibility to modify your ship as additional resources become available to you, including propulsion, fuel cells, targetting, shields, countermeasures, active and passive sensors, etc. The combat is -very- difficult at first and you're going to get killed... a lot. Suck it up, enjoy it. Your skills will be pushed more than they've been by most of the space sims that have been cranked out in the last few years. The graphics are... well, beautiful. The in-game level of detail is incredible, accomplished through a nice balance of polygon-count and texturing. Smooth and seamless, I have yet to encounter a single stutter in the action. Similarly, the sound is fantastically well done, adding a great immersive factor to the game that truly draws you in. A subwoofer if a definite must to appreciate this game. Only problem here: you'll need the latest drivers and make sure you've installed Microsoft's codec, something you'll need for smooth voice playback. Without it, speech becomes choppy and bothersome. A joystick is also a must. They say you can use the keyboard, but don't believe it. The action can be simply brutal and if you don't have full and instant control, you're toast. A hatstick is also a highly recommended option for the joystick, as the in-flight command menu makes liberal and heavy usage of it, but also allows for a surprisingly intuitive (and ingenious) interface not only inflight but also at base and working through the game's techinical menus/screens, almost making the mouse obsolete. You quite simply must buy this game if you're into simulations and miss the challenge of the old flight/space sims. This may very well wind up a contender for GOTY--I was right about Deus Ex, maybe I'm right about this. Don't miss it! This is the first 5-star rating I've given to a game in over a year!!! Reviewed on a P3 800/Coppermine, SB Live! Value, Hercules GeForce2 GTS/Pro, and 256 Meg of Ram at PC133.
25 of 25 found the following review helpful:
The first independence war 2 'edge of chaos' reviewJul 06, 2001
By Paul Brennan
i bought this game on the 29th of june (uk release date), and so far lets just say im totally impressed.i bought the original and i still play on that after 4 years, so this one will last even longer i hope. the whole game is not just a take a mission and complete it, you still do have missions but you dont know when you will get a new one. but in the mean time you can launch from your base, and go and pirate freighters and other valuable targets (you are a pirate after all). you can build up your stocks and trade it for better things, or re-manufacture it into weapons and so on. but technically wise the game is airtight, just make sure you have an up to date 3d card driver or you may experience glitches, but the people at particle systems are very happy to help out. its very smooth, lots of information in one screen, and lots of nifty weapons and ships to pilot to boot, you can see the graphics of the game at: www.edgeofchaos.net they just cannot be explained, the new 'flux' graphics engine runs the in game gameplay along the same lines as the fmv sequences, so they look almost the same. also, the game is more challenging, because you start off in a small ship and have to steal or buy new ones, so you need to use your head more and not just a rapid fire finger.
16 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 Space Sim TryoutMar 06, 2002
By Erik Zenhausern
Having never tried any space simulations, except for Destination Earthstar for the original Nintendo console, I thougt I'd be open minded and give it a try. So far, I have logged about 15 hours on this game and it does have a lot going for it. The graphics in this game are pretty, although they tend to become a little repetitive after a while. The different views and perspectives of the ships are fun to look at, but are disorienting for gameplay. There is certainly a lot of detail in the renderings. I run the game on a P4 1.7 gHZ machine with 256 RAM and an NVidia GEforce 2MX video card and it runs very smoothly. Overall I'd give the graphics 4 out of 5 stars. The sound is clear and there is some catchy music. I especially like the way the music builds while you're in the space station if you stay there for awhile. Although I'm still in the first act of what is essentially a 5 act game, I'd have to say that the music is a bit repetitive, but that's pretty standard for most games I've played and isn't crucial to the overall "fun" factor. The sound effects for the ship and the weapons are of good quality and are what you would imagine a space ship's weapons and engines to sound like. I'm not overly pleased with the sound of the characters in the story, because it's a bit scratchy and garbled. I understand that it's supposed to sound like it's coming through a radio, but I hope that communications are a bit better than that 200 years from now.
Overall sound: 3 stars The gameplay itself is fun, but it doesn't have that addictive quality that some games have. On the plus side, there seems to be many destinations to go to and the game is open ended so you don't have to go in any order, although you are given some "hints" as to where you should begin. As the game progresses some of your missions get more defined, but it's up to you when to attempt and complete them. The mechanics of flying a spacecraft is somewhat difficult as changing direction is tricky as you will continue moving in the same direction for a while. It took a couple of hours to get used to this but now that I've got the hang of it, it's really a blast! Unless you're traveling large distances or docking to something, you've got to use your manual thrusters to have a chance in a fight or to avoid one. When you're dogfighting with enemy ships the action is fast and furious. There are also lots of other nice details that are fun to play around with. You can customize your ship with different loadouts and trade or recycle cargo that you've pirated. On the negative side, you can only save the game when you return to your base which means that if you get killed you must start your mission over again from your base. Because distances can be great, even traveling at light speed, it sometimes takes a few minutes to go from your base to your next destination. During these times you'll have your ship on autopilot so there's not much to do, except cycle through the different views. I usually get something to eat or go to the bathroom during these "long" journeys. The problem is that because you can only save back at the base, if you happen to get killed soon after arriving at your destination, you've got to make the journey from your base all over again. This can be rather frustrating and takes away from the excitement of the game. As you get more experienced at the game this is less of an issue but it's difficult to stick with it at first.
Gameplay: 3 stars Overall, I find this game to be a lot of fun. It's nicely detailed, there's a big game world, and the graphics and sound are more than adequate, but the interruptions in the action take away from the immersive quality that are the hallmark of a really great game. In a really great game I'll play for hours, waiting to take one more turn or complete one more quest. In this game after getting blown up three or four times, I'm ready to call it quits. I guess in that respect this game has been really good for my marriage and my sleep habits! If you're a fan of space sims, you'll probably want to get this. If not, I'm not sure this is the game to change your mind.
13 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Amazing GameSep 20, 2001
By H. A Huffman
"haumf"
Based on my first 20 hours playing I-War 2, I can safely state that this game is great. I liked the first Independence War game alot, this sequel is a big improvement over the original. In "Edge of Chaos", you play the role of a privateer who becomes involved in a power struggle in a distant part of the galaxy. Players have many options regarding how fast the want to move the plot along, which is wonderful. Game missions are presented as options rather than a series of tightly scripted events. The gameplay itself is cleverly designed. Gone are the first version's confusing and complicated ship "stations": Engineering, Navigation and Command, replaced by a easy to use HUD (Heads Up Display) interface. The game's physics are just like the first game, which makes dogfighting an incredible experience. On that note, alot of critics complained that the game's learning curve is too high and dogfighting is too difficult. I disagree, all you need to do is:
1. Read the manual first. Really, this will help.
2. Stop playing the game after the beginning, after the "tutorial" segment, then play the "Instant Action" game until you feel comfortable dogfighting - you should be able to last at least 10 minutes in Instant Action mode before continuing on with the main game.
3. Never show an enemy your back, one shot into your ship's engine exhaust port will "blow you up real good". Retreat backwards. I rarely play a game that is as fun to learn to play as Independence War 2. Buy it and enjoy.
15 of 17 found the following review helpful:
My Husband Adores This GameOct 16, 2001
By Annie B
"Annie B"
It's true. My macho husband gets all misty when he tries to explain to his freinds the fun that playing this game brings into his life. He says it's the best space simulation game he's ever seen. Although I'm not a big gamer, I enjoy watching him play it because the story is pretty good and the characters are very interesting. The action is fun to watch because it looks so much like a 5-star sci-fi film. It looks pretty challenging to play -- my husband says he thinks this game might not be as popular in the US as in other places because it's not as easy as a lot of American games. He's a good gamer, though, and really appreciates the challenge. He told me he thinks the game is worth much more than we paid for it at Amazon.com. It has a lot of depth to it. It's fun to watch him enjoy something so thoroughly, and it's fun to see him get satisfaction from a game over such an extended period of time.
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based on 28 reviews