Customer Reviews

Weird Worlds Return to Infinite Space

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Sometimes you just don't want to spend months or years teasing out every possible path and romantic relationship and dialogue tree in a gorgeously rendered labyrinthine RPG.

Weird Worlds 2 comes right out and says it's great for "lunch break gaming". It's like a geekier, more sophisticated version of Minesweeper. There's no RP involved. You don't get to save--you end the game one way or another, or just shut the program down. This isn't a big deal, since time only passes when you actually travel in-game, and each game doesn't take long to complete.

You can choose: The length of your mission, which that means the size of the randomly-generated map; the type of mission (science, pirate, or military: science starts with more cargo space and tech, but you're weak in a fight; military gives you good starting weapons but has little room for cargo; pirate is in between); and nebula density. Nebulas are basically speed-bumps from hell in this game.

Your job is to explore the unknown space around humanity's new home system, and haul shiny cargo back. You go from star system to star system, picking up goods and sometimes friends. You can collect valuata, weapons, ship drives and thrusters, artifacts, and companion vessels. The more--and the more valuable--the higher your score. There are alien races; some are always hostile, one is always friendly, and the others can go either way depending. There are some events and items that only show up rarely; even relatively common things don't show up in every mission.

The sound and the graphics are great, especially considering the age of the game and the relative obscurity of the studio. The star systems and planets are randomly assigned delightfully geeky names--Amber, Zelazny, Asimov, Szilard, etc.

If you enjoy PopCap games, you'll love Weird Worlds. It's a perfect little gem.