Customer Reviews

Space Trader

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

So much potential unrealised with a finished product that looks like a first draft. And yet this flawed game is still a ton of fun to play and once you get into it, it's very very addictive.

What we have is a futuristic space trading sim. You hop around the solar system buying low and selling high. There are enough visual queues to assist with your purchases and if you do it right, you'll just about always make a profit. About half the goods you can buy are your standard commercial fare and the other half are black market type items. The game states there could be problems carrying black market type items either from other vendors or from the authorities. It was fun starting off with a pittance and building it up to millions.

The other part of the game is a shooter and it's cleanly woven into the trading sim. Merchants, bartenders and/or citizens may offer you a job bringing in or stopping a criminal. The trading sim takes a back seat while you take on this new action shooter business. As far as shooters go, it's way dated (mid 90s?) but there were no system hiccups so all was good.

Technically, the game is a pure old school throw back. But because the trade sim and shooter elements together are so rare, the game gets a huge amount of credit. The vocalization is horrible - probably the game makers themselves. Additionally, the vocals many times do not match the character or the words on the screen, The graphics sorta remind me of "No One Lives Forever" (NOLF). But the music, while it's repetitive, is good and works with this game. I put in about 10 hours with the game and only had one CTD.

Beware there are no saves. The game saves itself either when you reach a new destination or after you finish a shooter mission. So if you're gonna quit the game quit after you finish a shooter mission or land on another destination. Also do not jump out of what ever game play you are in (Challenge or Campaign). Popping into another game play will reset your game to the beginning of whatever chapter you are in. As I said in the beginning, a draft product.

Still, the price is great and it makes for a very pleasant diversion from my AAA games that require months to complete. I like this game and can see myself playing this thing in short spurts for a very long time.

Ok lets face it this game is a great idea that didn't quite make the cut. You start off working off a debt. Items are all over the map and it plays like an rpg. but you also have fps sessions when you bounty hunt.

the biggest downside i had was the game gets boring. buy up cheap goods and bounty hunt travel to another location sell off goods and repeat.

like i said a great idea that just doesn't make the cut. i was hoping for a spacesim like freelancer or freespace. Its not bad but not great either.

I am actually angry at this game. First, installing the game, it automatically installs an online patching/connection service that I did not want. But that is the only way to install the game and then that is the only way to start the game. I didn't like that, as I didn't need online aspects to play this basically solo game. That connection software then runs in the background and slows my whole computer to a crawl, even after several reboots and even after turning it off.

So far, I have played 10-15 miniutes of the game and have suffered about 30 crashes. And since you cannot save the game (it saves it at periodic points, but you have no control), you lose all progress on most crashes. Many of these crashes, crashed my whole system. I have tried several resolutions, all patches are in, etc. but have been unable to stop the crashes.

So, I am giving up on thi one.

I thought this game would be more like Privateer, and less shooter. I was wrong. The trading is lame and the game wasnt worth the 2 or 3 bucks I paid for it.

Purchased the downloadable version, the biggest challege was learning the in's and out't of the game, and the game gets boring FAST........

Biggest problem is the body guards for the bad guys, they just never seem to die, yet two shots from them and your dead.

I expected to at least have a choice in regards to game level of play, but no, just zero to impossible in 60 seconds.......

Since the manufacture didn't list the minimul requirements, here they are.

1. Broadband (Steam comes with this game)

2. Windows Vista/XP, 1.0 GHZ Processor, 512 MB Ram. DirectX 9.oc. DirectX compatible 128 graphics card. DirectX compatible sound card. 200MB of available hard drive space ... and Broadband.

If only I'd know about that Steam/broadband issue I never would have bought it...I don't have broadband. I have nothing against Steam (I have a dozen copyrights myself to protect...but since Steam REQUIRES broadband...that means nobody can play any of their programs without broadband.

So, which is there, more broadbanders....or 5.6K dialup'ers?

bye.

After years of playing Space Trader on the BBS (Bulletin Board Service)and then played it again on the Palm Pilot, I finally stumbled across the PC version. I downloaded it from Amazon and began playing almost instantly. No hassles, hang ups or any such thing and I run a 64 bit version of W7 Pro, so it will work on just about any platform from XP SP3 on up.

The game takes some patience to play, the tutorial is a bit on the 6 yr old explanation level but you get the point of the game, MAKE MONEY. When I say the game takes patience, don't expect to beat the game on your 1st time playing. Yes you need to trade goods and find free goods at the various ports, but at the start of the game you have to beat certain challenges to advance. Failure is not an option. I've found that if you do "favors" for certain people you can get big rewards and then grab their goods and sell that stuff for a pure profit. Its a fun game and addicting, well worth a few dollars.

There is a manual available online if you do a search for it. Its free for the taking. Search for "Space Trader Manual for PC" and you should see the hit your looking for. There is a Palm OS version of the manual out there as well but you do not want that one as the games are vastly different, so be careful. There are no real walk through's for this game and no real cheats either, just commands you earn as you play the game. So save some time and don't bother looking.

Again this is a great game, 5 stars. Oh yes and the music seems to have been ported over from the Carl Sagan "Cosmos" Series. You will recognize the music if you can remember back to the late Dr. Sagan's PBS series. What a hoot.

It's definitely not one of the greatest games out there. But for only $5, I got enough enjoyment out of it, it was worth the price. The concept is pretty simple; buying, trading, bounty hunting. But the challenges and campaign are a lot more challenging that it seems at first glance. I'd recommend it.http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/ref=cm_cr_dp_wr_but_right?ie=UTF8&nodeID=468642&asin=B001CUCZDM&store=videogames