SPAZ

PC game Space Pirates and Zombies.

I picked this up because it was dirt cheap, indy, and the description mentioned strategy. It’s not great-- I can see some glaring problems with it-- but I find myself addicted yet not sure I’ll see it through to the end. It heavily rewards grinding, for example, and I have a problem with grind-y games.

It also takes a long time to progress. I played for a few hours last night, leveled up a couple times, and unlocked maybe 5 new systems (out of more than 100). I can easily see this taking over 40 hours to complete.

I’m addicted, I think, largely because there are thousands of configurations to mess with.

multiple ships under player/AI control
multiple hull types (unlocked via combat and trade)
multiple weapon types, such as unmanned drones, mines, cannons, etc.
weapon and status enhancers

So, for instance, I have three different fit outs: 1) for mining and easy battles where I’m just there to snag resources 2) a cannon and beam combo where the biggest ship cracks open hulls after the smaller ships take down the shield and 3) missile-heavy with anti-personnel measures so I can blow things up from a (hopefully safe) distance.

It helps that the game provides some challenging battles-- I made so little progress last night because I was blocked from progress as the enemies were making battles too expensive.

Anybody played through it? I believe the guys who made it are working on a sequel. If this sounds like a game you’d like, buying the first one might help them with the sequel.

On sale at Steam for $2. I’ve played more than 100 hours. Good deal.

I played this back when it was in alpha (it was one of the first after Minecraft to offer a ‘buy now, finish later’ payment model), and whilst I found it fun to start, the difficulty spike when you entered the inner systems and actually fought the zombies put me right off. Has this changed appreciably?

It’s still there. Losing a battle later on hurts more. My smaller ships get chewed up. Losing my huge ship really stings. I haven’t turned the difficulty down yet.

I got this back when it came out, and while I’d hesitate to actually call it “strategy” it certainly is pretty much exactly what I expected from the trailer.

It is a little grindy, I guess, but I’m not sure how much of that is a “required” grind, and how much of that is just me going “Oooh, I’d really like the triple turret…”

I don’t recall any difficulty spikes, honestly, though you do need to adjust your tactics for zombie related stuff. I very seldom ever lost enough ships for it to make a meaningful difference, and when I did, I’d just cut my losses and go home.

Enjoyed the game a lot overall, though I’m not sure if the new bounty-hunter stuff (“new” being extremely relative here) adds very much.

If you don’t mind playing cheap as hell, just turn on holiday mode, then repeatedly collect elves and execute them for massive EXP.

I mostly avoid the bounty hunters. They have some nice ships, though.

Took a big beating last night trying to break through a gate. Holiday mode, you say…