Intelligent Game Reviews

 By: Christian Schock

In recent years only space combat games that have stuck to the basic Wing Commander formula established many years ago have seemed successful. There have been many attempts to crack the duopoly of Origin and LucasArts but until Descent: Freespace no one seemed able to both figure out the formula and create a competent game. But the genre has definitely stagnated both in terms of quality games and new ideas.

Three years ago the developers at Vicarious Visions decided to have a go at creating a really new kind of space combat game. When I first read their plans and took a look at the basics of the game at the 1999 E3 show I was filled with hope that finally, someone, would both innovate and create a game worthy of playing. So it was with interest that I tried out a preview version of the game Terminus.

Basics of Play

Terminus has a few interesting and different ideas that should help it stand out from the crowd. For starters you can play the game as one of four “sides.” The game is set in the Solar System in the future, mankind has discovered alien technology that allow ships to warp from point to point and the solar system has been colonized. Earth is ruled by a single government that also lays claim to all colonies in the Solar System. The Mars colony is on the verge of a break with the central government and civil war is imminent.

With that as a background you will be able to play a starship pilot in the Earth navy, one in the Martian Navy, or play a Mercenary/Pirate or Trader as independent factions. This alone should give the game a lot of repeat value. But more than that, the game is a persistent universe. What that means is that as you go about your business things are happening in the Solar System beyond your control. What you and other non-player forces do impacts everything. So if you choose the life of a trader you might get to your destination and find the price of the goods you wanted to sell has plummeted because another trader arrived just before you or because a blockade has been lifted.

Another important difference between Terminus and other space combat games is that it attempts, with some success, to model real space flight. Most space combat games use an atmospheric flight model but remove gravity. That makes “flying” a spaceship a lot like flying a plane, only you don’t have to think as much about speed and altitude management. But Terminus throws that model out the window in favor of a model that attempts to use real life Newtonian physics.

The trouble with the real world is that it isn’t all that fun… or so the theory and implementation in games up to now has indicated. Why is that? Well because in space there is no “drag” so once you accelerate to a give speed you will coast at that speed and direction forever. So, in order to turn a space ship around and fly in the other direction you have to accelerate “backwards” until you stop and then keep on accelerating until you are up to speed. The implications for dogfighting are that if you have high speed you simply fly through the furball and keep going… minutes or hours later once you stop and come back the battle might be over or you might be out of fuel!

But despite this, Terminus uses a Newtonian model. And surprisingly it works pretty well. You can use it to full advantage by rotating your ship to fire while still moving along your original vector, or you can use piloting aides that attempt to use the ships thrusters to set your ship along the course you point the ship in. If your speed is low enough the ship behaves much like a typical space sim… if at high speed and with aides off you can get into some interesting situations and the possibilities for new tactics are quite interesting.

The game is also non-scripted, or mostly so. You can choose which mission to fly, there is always a variety or so this early version suggests. This open-endedness really intrigues if it can be done properly. You can play the game the way you want, rather than the way the script runs. Of course, the “plot” goes along around you and your actions, or lack of them, influence the ultimate resolution of the story. Cool.

The flight engine in this early build was the furthest thing along, and it worked very well. Controls are more complex than a typical sim, but not so much so that it isn’t easy to get used to them. I found the sensation of flight and the combat interface pretty good. The plotline missions were not included in the preview version, save one, but the small glimpse I got was intriguing.

If anything Terminus is going to be a game that dares to be different… so much so that it will run on not only the PC, but the Macintosh and even Linux with one package containing all three versions. While the preview version only supported Direct3D on the PC, the final version is planned to support GLIDE and OpenGL as well.

Graphics, Sound, etc.

Terminus probably isn’t going to win any awards for “best looking space sim” if this build is indicative of the final look, but the graphics are still pretty good. Visual effects like lens flare are used just enough to be interesting without being in your face with over the top eye candy. Weapon effects, backgrounds and ship graphics all looked quite good, although on the dark side overall.

Pre-rendered interiors looked very nice, but some of the other screens such as the ship builder and news interface were a bit on the awkward side with a host of tiny meaningless icons and a Spartan look. One can only hope this gets an overhaul before release. Also somewhat problematic was the HUD in flight. While it has everything you need, I found the overlay screens too dim to be of use at times. I also thought the HUGE boxes around your target looked terrible. A big red square that really detracted from the view in space. If these problems were corrected the in game graphics would certainly stand up to the competition from X-Wing Alliance or Freespace 2 even if they aren’t quite as slick as in those titles.

I had all sorts of trouble with the sound in the preview version. The spoken dialog in the training exercises was always too faint to make out over the music, even if I had the music volume down to nothing. I’m not sure why this is, the settings in and out of game were correct and it does not happen in other titles. In any case, the music itself was good. It plays from the CD and there is a lot of it. I liked it, but because it is CD audio it does not always match up well with what you are doing. Still, it’s a very good original soundtrack. The sound effects were also well done, though nothing groundbreaking in any way. Competent, well conceived, what you’d expect in a space combat experience.

There was no manual in this preview build, simply an interactive tutorial to teach you the very basics of flying your ship. It did a decent job of explaining these basics, but for a game with this much depth a good manual is going to be needed.

Prediction

It’s hard to be objective about a game you hope will really be awesome. I’ve got that problem with Terminus… the ideas behind it just deserve to make a great game. Whether they will or not remains to be seen, and releasing a year later than initially promised doesn’t fill you with confidence. Even so, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the entire game lives up to the bits I had a chance to play with for this preview. If it does, Terminus could be a genre defining title.

Terminus P Screenshots

Though the graphics engine looks promising, a few things like the awkward boxes in the HUD could use work.	That’s what we like to see, another victory for our hero!
The game is open ended, you can usually choose the mission you want to take.	The universe keeps on going while you sit around, news broadcasts and pages keep you abreast of developments in the war between Mars and the Earth.

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