Разработчик: Iteration 11
Описание
Please note:
Void Destroyer is a mix of two genres - both of which tend to have a higher than normal learning curve, many controls, features and challenges. If considering a purchase, please be ready for a learning curve and challenging game play. Thank you for visiting, and I hope you enjoy the game.Combining the best of space combat and real time strategy. Victory can be tactical, a dogfight or capital ship slugging match - depending on how you decide to achieve it.
A desolate asteroid field on the edge of the solar system erupts in war. Your forces rely on you to take the battle to the enemy. Build up defenses and fleets, repair and upgrade your command ship, lead your forces to reclaim and conquer territory.
Game play:
The seat of a fighter, the bridge of a cruiser and a tactical battle map are your tools of war. Void Destroyer puts you in command and gives you ultimate freedom over the your forces and the art of war.If you ever wanted to directly control your forces in a real time strategy game or be able to build ships and command to your wing-men and fleets in a space combat simulator like you can in a RTS - this is the game for you. Void Destroyer combines elements from space combat simulators and real time strategy games. No longer are you limited on how to control and command. Battles are waged on your terms, you are given the tools. How you use them is up to you.
Jump into a fighter to engage in dogfights, then switch into a frigate to take out an enemy corvette. Build defensive platforms to augment the security of your base. Issue commands to your attack ships to distract enemy defenders to allow your marine frigates to board an enemy's base. Defend and oversee asteroid mining craft to have the resources necessary to support your fleets.
By combining elements of two genres, enemies can be more brutal, fights can be larger and you can overcome greater challenges.
Think there's not enough time? Use time dilation (slow down time) to make time for tactics.
Features:
- A mixture of space combat and real time strategy games - two games in one, how you play is up to you
- Tons of features, control options, challenges and a learning curve
- A story line, opportunities, plot twists, boss fights, and many surprises
- Pilot ships - from small drones to heavy cruisers
- Instant ship switching - all ships are pilot-able
- Multitude of weapon systems in the hands of both friends and foes
- Tactical Mode - easily issue orders and manage your forces
- Build platforms
- Build ships
- Research new technology
- Upgrade your command ship
- Combine the use of command ship abilities for devastating tactics, use a tractor beam to pull an enemy closer then annihilate it with a upgraded main gun
- Asteroid mining
- Flight engine combines six degree of freedom with Newtonian physics, balanced to allow for dogfights
- Pilot via joystick or mouse (mouse flight - includes two different modes)
- Multiple controllers (HOTAS and other) are supported
- Command view - camera and mouse controls optimized for controlling turrets and piloting larger ships
- If the role of a pilot isn't your thing - you can let the ship's crew do their job
- Capture enemy bases and ships
- Mod support - "mod nearly everything" philosophy
- Instant Action scenarios - unlocked via playing the main game/story mode
- Arena (dogfight) and Skirmish (RTS maps) modes
- Battle Editor - create your own maps, unlimited game play on your own terms
- Unlock system - as you research new ships and defeat enemy ships, they become available for use in the battle editor
- Formations - pre-defined and custom
- Community input valued by a responsive developer
- In game guide/manual and tutorial system
- Difficulty options - make the game more forgiving to get through a tough spot if you so chose
- Made for the PC and PC gamer market, no "consolization"
Поддерживаемые языки: english
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP
- Processor: Intel Core i3 or equivalent
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce 9800 or later
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Additional Notes: Works with most Intel graphics cards, but not recommended. DRM free.
- OS *: Windows 7
- Processor: Intel Core i5 or better
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 550 or better
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Additional Notes: DRM free.
Отзывы пользователей
The UI is just too inconvenient for me to get into this game, I have tried twice. Also I don't understand what this game is trying to be, it tries to do everything. Is it a RTS where you can fly a single ship for fun or is it flight simulator where you occasionally have to manage a fleet? You can't do both well simultaneously.
game is brutally difficult and very unforgiving but an absolute BLAST! picked it up long time ago only recently got around to playing it. definetly going to pick up 2 soon!
TL;DR: Atrocious controls, horrendous unit AI.
I have tried this several times over the years, usually quitting on the same mission, the first one that pits you against a large force with a sizeable fleet of your own (capturing Petra and Nottingham).
Now I realize (after trying it again and beating it) that the biggest obstacle was not the difficulty, but the atrocious controls and horrible unit behavior. You can't just order units to defend a position - they will aggro on something passing by and drift away, ultimately getting killed by the endlessly spawning waves of enemies.
The game also uses localized resource system (aka each base gets its own resources), so you often have to transfer them. However, transport ships cannot figure out who is supposed to go where - I've seen them aimlessly warp around, and they get stuck as soon as they try to pick up resources in space. Same goes for ore gatherers - if you have 2 or more, the 2nd one will try to pick the rock the first one is holding, and they'll just get stuck - I've had that happen time and time again.
Then you get to a mission where you're supposed to defend your base against waves of incoming enemies. The problem? They warp into the map, and then just warp off into the distance, never actually attacking your bases. And since they are apparently special, they can warp without having a destination object, so you can't catch up. After trying to chase those things for 40 minutes, I finally gave up again, for the final time, this time not because it was too hard, but because the game actively refuses to be actually played.
Every time I have tried to play this before I found it a bit much to take in and have given up. Finally after years of having it sit in my library I gave it a earnest go. Now I am just pissed off. Finally figured it out trying to enjoy it and in the first mission I am sitting in my beat up base trying to upgrade my ship and build ships constantly getting attacked by suicidal enemies. My corvettes are tissue paper apparently even when I try to keep em at a distance since they seem to be missile boats. Then when I build a shipyard it triggers a whole bunch more enemies to spawn. I think I am at ship max being 6 corvette 10 fights + 6 drone and 4 frigs and the enemy jumps in with a ton of ships ignores my fleet and runs straight for my command ship ending the mission in moments even with most of the upgrades done. I even tried to hide the ship and put my fleet in the way. The ai just rushes my command ship and wipes it faster then I can do anything since the ship is slow and impossible to maneuver. SO I am permanently removing this from my steam account.
I really wanted to like this game, but I couldn't get past the overly complex controls. There are so many cool things about it, so much that went into it, and if it were easier to control. Ship control mode is fun, tactical needs more right click context menus so you can set things moving. I must have started this up 7 or 8 times, remapped the controls, tried it again and again to wrap my mind around it, but it was just too clunky. If the developer made an update to the controls, I'd try it again, but currently it's not worth my time to try to wrap my head around the odd control schemes.
Sorry to be so negative here, but with each tutorial mission I became more and more frustrated and disenchanted with VD's obfuscated, anti-intuitive controls. On the first tutorial within seconds my first thought was how horrid the ship reacted to mouse inputs. As I progressed I was bombarded with more and more bizarre key combos and "shortcuts". The UI became ever more inept and useless IMO. By the 5th tutorial (which I could not even understand let alone complete) I'd had enough. Uninstall and find another game.
I do not normally have any troubles with games of this kind. So VD is doing something wrong. Sorry to be vague, but other than p-poor UI I can't really give the developers any more feedback that would help them fix things.
It was just one of those games I disliked at first try, which grew to hate as I persisted.
Looking at other reviews and the forums I am not alone in this opinion.
Of course, others love it - but I say a big "caveat emptor" to anyone thinking of buying this!
The concept for this game is extremely good, it reminds me of Home World and with the element of being able to control the ships manually adds a whole new level of gameplay.
The execution of this game could use some work, which is why i have a negative review of unfortunetly; specifics below
- It is very complex to learn, just to say the learning curve of the this game is quite high. Its very satisfying once you get the hang of it but many people will probably put the game down before figuring it out
- It is extremely hard from a story driven perspective, the missions are far and away some of the hardest i have ever dealt with in years.You will need to move between manual control and RTS frequently to get the win. The developer has commented, he expects this to be a very hard game to win, which it is but i would argue its probably too hard. To note i did beat this game, but i used some very odd strategies that only work due to bugs/broken mechanics.
- Its an extremely unforgiving campaign, the difficulty aside it doesn't help guide you through the game very well and as the difficulty ramps this becomes quite tiresome. For example, there are some missions that have requirements from previous missions, sometimes 2-3 missions back. If you lose the ship needed or don't get the upgrade, it allows you to progress and then you get stuck. Forcing the player to have to go back many missions, which sometimes don't autosave correctly (The last save in the mission can be in a very bad spot, not right at the start of the mission. Like when you are surrounded by enemies)
- There are some seemingly built in tedium tasks. Most of the missions revolve around fighting over a space, then later fighting over that space again, and then again. In between the missions it will say, build up your forces. This essentially means, if you want the best ships click build and wait, sometimes taking 20 mins or so of just sitting there doing nothing. This really slogs the game, and when its assumed you need to just walk away and come back in 20 mins something is off
- Bugs, bugs, and more bugs. There is a shocking amount of bugs for this being the final version of the game. The resource gathering mechanic being broken is pretty appaling to say the least, while not all missions require you to aquire resources some of the hardest missions do. The ships that gather resources will randomly (but consistently at least once every 5 mins) just stop, and start ramming eachother. I am guessing they are trying to mine resources from eachother, and the more miners you have the worse it gets forcing the user to say "drop resources" getting them to start the mining task over.
- Another huge bug is the gravity drive/hyper space, every single mission after a certain period pathing seems to hit a critcal mass where both yours and enemy ships will start hyperspace jumping randomly everywhere. Sometimes its like they are running away or just flying off into nothingness. Sometimes you can use this to your advantage, as the trigger event for the next wave/sequence will be kill all enemies, so you can 'hold off' a wave with enemies just flying around randomly, but this is cheating persay (but sometimes i couldn't win without a break long enough to build some ships) and the fix can cause even more problems. I.e. to resolve this save the game and load the file, this forces all 'lost' enemies to b-line to where they were trying to go. This can help sometimes, but other times sends hundreds of ships that should have been coming in groups of 10 all at once to your base. To note this is triggered by loading a save file, so you can essentally break a mission if you got too far in the mission and died but due to the bug you need to start completely over because while technically you were doing OK it was 2 bugs that make it unwinnable (1st being ships getting lost, second being loading forcing them all to appear at your base at once)
I really like this game personally, but as you can see from my review had some heartache getting through it. I unfortunetly couldn't recommend this to anyone because the learning curve is so high and trouble getting into it would shy away 95% of the population with all the bugs. Its telling that most of the achievements, especially the ones for winning the game have only been gotten by less than 1% of people who have the game.
That all being said its a good game, and the dev (who did this solo) clearly spent alot of time on this creating a very unique experience. I would just say its not for most unfortunetly.
It's hard for me to talk about this game without falling into rapsody...
After playing a lot of space games (both FPS and RTS) it was the first one beeing a true challenge.
The game is a mixture of an RTS and a FPS creating a whole new great adventure for every lover of the good old space genre.
The game fulfils so many wishes:
Wanna fly the flagship, and toss everything to pieces? Do it!
If your wish is to corner a giant destroyer in a small fighter and make them fear your painful railguns? Do it!
If you want to feel like the strategic mastermind watching your army and silently showing them the way to glory and victory? Just do it!
It doesnt really matter which type of ship you wanna fly. They are all pilotable.
Now be professional:
Pros:
-A very well executed unique game concept.
-A great balance between scientific accuracy and fun.
-A large set of lovely designed and challenging missions, guarenteeing you a lot of fun while at the same time demanding your attention, strategical knowledge and skill to guide your fleet through the fire and lead them to victory, peace and safety.
-A beautyful cell shading graphics with unique artstyles for each faction in the game supporting the dark, dirty and dusty atmosphere of the Oort Cloud.
And to put the final touches on the game, it features a engaging story line with depth and a lot of suprises! Wanna know what they are? Find it out by yourself!
Cons:
-The missions can be too challenging for light hearted ones. Requiring a lot of patience sometimes if you are (like me) not such a great strategic mastermind.
-The strategical formations can be very challenging and difficult to execute due to the game using Newtonian physics.
To sum it up:
I can really, really recomend the game to everyone who loves space RTS's and FPS's (especially to those who played the Homeworld series) and has an open mind for new mechanics and concepts while seeking for the next great challenge.
SO on the fence about this one! Short version: Homeworld meets X3, with big bugs and frequent crashes, but frequent auto-saving and short loading times to partially compensate. There are achievements for each of the endings - highest is 0.4%, total is 0.9%; that means less than 1% have even finished the game... Maybe the fact I have will add a little authority to my review.
Update: You know, I might go so far as to say ignore the positive reviews because they don’t know what they’re talking about. If you look at them, notice how many hours played and the fact these reviewers haven’t finished the actual game: xsmasher, Morally Bankrupt, templelord, and Cyrus (90 hours, must be a beta tester). I know this makes me look stuck up “I've finished the game, I'm H@rdc0r3!”, but we can see the highest-rated helpful positive reviews are likely beta testers. And if anyone else gets the game, they’re less than 1% likely to finish.
Longer:
Graphics: Cell shaded. Nothing special, but the models don't get boring or look ugly. Good.
When contolling ships (only in the first few levels) the ships will shake alot, like when you try to glitch through a wall and your character oscillates rapidly between two positions. The dev says this is due to "Intel graphics chips". Well I have a graphics card, but almost everybody has an Intel processor. Bad. When placing stations, icons for some items are very small (and the build method is unintuitive).
Story is alright, gets into improbable coincidence territory, but alright. Need to find if there's info on the character/faction backstories.
Ship-to-thip combat is ok. Like a flight simulator. Flight modes are kind of whacky. Cockpit, camera chase 3rd person, and 'command' view where you control the turrets. For fighters, cockpit view. For everything else, chase view. Command view is pretty worthless since you won't be dodging fire well that way. Turrets do auto-track with Shift+A, I think. There's also a view to move the camera around your ship and admire it. There are some command ship specific issues I'll address later.
Tactical mode (Homeworld) is eh. An issue that only appeared toward the end is that engagement rules and ship orders will revert. You'll see dudes fly halfway to a target (target's still alive), and they just turn around and go back. I don't know what causes engagement rules (tiny buttons!) to revert, but I've given the same order 5-6 times to a group only to watch them stop caring until I gave up. Ouch.
The command ship is also iffy. At least 4 of its abilites are worthless except a few parts in the story. Command: take over enemy ships! Except about 1/3 the way through enemy ships stop being capturable. Radiation field: damage yourself and anything right next to you! Useful for two engagements where enemy drones are trying to saw their way through your ship. Quick-ish reverse: accellerate backwards sorta fast. Rarely could that benefit you. Right side shield: temporary energy shield on the right side of your ship. By the time you get this, the enemy laser weapons seem to ignore the shield. Worse than having a million bucks on a desert island. The other abilities are also iffy: tractor beam the enemy, but make sure they don't hit your ship; rapid repair, but lose control of engines and inertia takes you to wherever. The ship does passively repair, too, which is way more useful. The main gun of the ship is only useful when upgraded 5/5 during the last 1/3 to 1/4 of the game.
Extra: The game is continuous - your fleet, ship upgrades, etc are preserved between areas/levels. It does feel like one big activity - first fighting miners, then running from overwhelming aliens, then fighting back against those aliens that were supposed to be overwhelming. Upgrade progression is awkward. Would have rather gotten most (except shield and the main gun) as soon as you got the command ship. Instead it's "you're at this point in the game; here is some research that should already have been done and some upgrades/repairs you should have already been able to access". The game is supposedly focused on numerical superiority, but your fleet usually forms up with the command ship and it feels like your fleet is really just one really big gun turret. The rare few times you send ships away from the main group is so you can control one of them, to act as distractions, or two instances where enemy fleets just sit there and you can irradiate part of them to death with a Bear. You'll lose/reload a lot, part from crashing, part because the game gives you a bunch of "FU" situations - the digger Cruiser you can't control, and figuring out how to keep it from drilling you to death (hit 'F'); Teardrop drones that latch onto your ship, and figuring out how to keep yourself alive (you die fast); aliens that can warp into the map wherever, and realizing they just completely bypassed your defenses. You do get an additional cruiser and carrier through the story, and the carrier's pretty boss, but they'll mostly chill far away from the fight so they don't die.
Awesome idea, but ultimately you just end up loading a lot to argue with your units that refuse to reposition correctly. And the dev is working on the second game so these issues are here to stay.
Thumbs up if the review is helpful.
Void Destroyer is an indie FPS/RTS Hybrid that builds off of inspirations such as the Homeworld Series and Battlezone of yore. Overall, this is a very strong game made by a very passionate one man development team that used kickstarter to generate some surprisingly good visuals and art, and I would strongly recommend it.
The story premise is as follows: You are a retired veteran commander of a military space force who is thrust back into a command role in response to a surprise attack in an un-named star system far from Earth. A series of gates link these systems. Miners and military folks don't get along. Pretty standard sci-fi space game stuff. Void Destroyer is, however, a unique and interesting execution of this concept, most notably because you can, in fact, win the game in a variety of ways, focusing on your own piloting skills, fleet/strategic management, or more likely, some mixture thereof.
Void Destroyer thus allows you to choose between jumping into a big honkin cruiser and duking it out, trying to dodge and prioritize your turrets, or you can hit space and zoom out, ordering your ships to focus fire on an enemy or attacking from a different direction to exploit a weakness. The developer has stated that this is by design, and appears to have accomplished this.
The game has campaign, skirmish, and sandbox modes. There is no multiplayer mode. Items used in sandbox or skirmish modes are based off of campaign unlocks, although the developer has posted instructions on how to get around this.
The campaign is difficult, and will require some study *You can't simply brute force your way in a "BUILD X OF THIS SUPER UNIT, KILL THOSE GUYS", but there is carry over (Your fleet persists over the campaign). The story depth is about average for its genre, not overly sophisticated, although there is a minor amount of world-building that takes place, but the dialogue (Which is text based, likely due to cost constraints) is surprisingly witty and even funny at times.
Base management and resource management is minimal, but well situated (There are only three resources, which run off a percent of crew devoted to producing them). THere is a fleet size cap that varies over the campaign, and some unique units that can filter in, as well as hero and unique units. The centerpiece "Hero" unit is your command ship, a cruiser class ship that can be upgraded in a variety of interesting ways (Such as a tractor beam to to pull objects, both friend and foe) or special engine upgrades.
Overall, there is a learning curve, however, there is a surprisingly helpful and frankly worded in-game guide of "If this is too hard for you, don't forget to try X and Y." Developer response and support, from my personal experience, has been strong, with pointed and considered responses over steam and in forums. If you have a serious problem with the game, there is a decent to above average likelihood the developer will respond.
A note on downsides: There are situations in the game where the game will put you in unwinnable scenarios, IF YOU SO CHOOSE (Between 2 and 3 times( , without always making it completely clear through dialogue. Some players appreciate this appeal to player decision making, others will be driven up a wall by it.
Overall, if you liked Homeworld or similar titles, enjoy fleet or strategic command games, or are simply a die-hard space nut, I strongly recommend Void Destroyer as a worthwhile purchase.
"Void Destroyer" is a stunning achievement. If you ever played one of the "Homeworld" games, and wished you could jump into the driver's seat of a ship - now you can! The game "plays" very smoothly. Once you wrap your head around a few of the interface conventions and shortcuts, you'll be pretty quick at switching between crew and manual control, as well as managing your ship's throttle and picking which ship to actually sit in.
The reality that the developer managed to marry an actual, working space sim with an actual, working, "Homeworld 2 recognizable" tactical mode is a feat to be applauded. It all works about as seamlessly as I imagine is possible, and it's even more impressive when you realize that the strategy simulation can NOT be dumbed down to a "stats battle." The computer has to actually handle ship-to-ship combat with real maneuvering - and it's VERY good at it.
The CPU is so good at ship-to-ship that it actually opens the door to one of my negative points. It's true that the player taking control of a ship does not (and is not meant to) confer "superfighter" status on that ship. However, the advantage conferred by player control is so small that it easily becomes insignifcant. Yes, there were certain situations where human control did make it possible to really beat the pants off an opposing unit, but this was because the opposing unit simply could not handle a ship that was "strafe jinking." Also, the opposed unit did not have the advantage of numbers. This is not the situation the game seems to put you in most often, however, and most of the time the combat will very efficiently grind you up. Actual fighters and turret-bearing heavies will track and hit you very reliably, and "many against one" scenarios where you are at the disadvantage are not likely to go your way - lateral thrust tricks or no.
All of this is to say that I find the game marketing's empahsis on the single-ship control to be a little off the mark. Grabbing personal control over a ship really isn't the key to victory. Managing the RTS scenario is absolutely essential, and with the CPU being as good of a dogfighter as it is, you're often better off just letting the computer fly while you issue the overall orders. This deeply undermines the "fly any ship you want" idea, because it tends to make that ability a mere curiosity.
A "YMMV" point (which I happen to enjoy) is that the game combines a basically manageable learning curve with very little hand-holding. I was especially impressed that the first mission with actual RTS elements did little micro-managing. You have a number of things suggested to you as things to do, but exactly how you go about them is quite freeform. You get space to make your own decisions, and you don't get artificially railroaded into checking off a bullet-pointed list in a certain order. I found it nicely refreshing. (I also found it refreshing that the "get through with minimal casualties missions" allow you enough creative leeway to actually pull off the objective with flying colors.)
An actually minor, but detail-demanding complaint is that the tactical view is not "AAA" polished. I'm not saying this to denigrate the developer's achievement, but I think it merits pointing out. The tac-view camera is actually given too much freedom, in that you can tumble the view into all kinds of weird angles without having a quick and unambiguous directional reference available to help you get your bearings back. The tumble and rotate control of the camera is very "twitchy," meaning that getting the angle you want can be a real chore. Further (and ironically) scaling the view is VERY ponderous, which is frustrating when you're trying to wrangle a bunch of ships that have run off while tracking a target, or if you're trying to get an overview of what's going on beyond your perimeter.
If I were to make a suggestion, I would ask the developer to make it such that the tac-camera's rotation and tumble were significantly slower, while the zoom and pan/dolly should be signifcantly faster. Also, I would highly recommend that the tumble be restricted to +90 degrees over the "plane of the ecliptic" (overhead view), and -45 degrees below. Full freedom of camera movement seems nice, but actually hurts situational awareness when you get all flipped around and have to re-establish your bearings.
I will readily admit that I'm taking a break from this game due to getting stymied. There's a mission that I just can't seem to crack, because I can't find the course of action that will let me endure the battering my fleet is subjected to. In that, I'm a little disappointed, because I was hoping for a title where "jumping in" to a ship would really allow me to tip fights in my favor. "Void Destroyer" doesn't do that.
But, even so, this game is a brilliant piece of work. It demonstrates that this kind of idea can actually be done, and done very well.
Woke up screaming because of terrifying flashbacks of Death & Destruction of my fleet as the enemy cornered my remaining ships and ate them... ate them all.... The nightmare ended with a giant defeat sign and the drifting of debris from the capital ship.
Rating: 8.5
-Good level design
-Interesting Mechanics
-Slightly annoying fleet grouping (I am more paitient than most too)
-MASSIVE difficulty spikes
-The Ability to command everything you own except structures. *Taking a drone, and flinging it across the map at the highest speed possible, which is none, only to having it ping off an enemy capital ship, in front of the enemy fleet, and get obliterated by Lucifer's fury, is entirely too hilarious.*
-Slightly hurt by the need to replay past levels to complete future ones.
-Cool ship designs.
-Great developer support.
An excellent game, and a true dream for space fans.
This game is COMPLEX. If you can't handle complexity, especially complexity of controls, skip this game and don't buy it and write reviews like "This game is too complex / I can't learn all the controls."
The game is complex for a GOOD REASON. Beside the fact that there are TWO game modes strapped into this one game, namely RTS and space sim mode, there are MANY ways to control your ships in space sim mode.
And it all makes sense too! After all, there are different types of ships: single-purpose fighter drones that you point and click (game lets you play point and click), and larger or capital ships that require separate movement, turret, and main weapon control (game lets you play this way too!)
Combined with the ability to queue multiple commands, including waiting, rotating etc., allowing you to do complex formations, and with a time dilation (time slow down) feature to get it all in, what you can basically do is issue all your commands via RTS mode, then jump in and make a difference by controlling whichever ship you want!
Switching between RTS and ship mode is seamless, and switching between ships is good as well (it even automatically slows time during switching between ships so that you won't be missing out!!)
Excellent concept, two game modes marvellously put together into one game with good execution.
CONS:
Complex amount of game controls. You have to play the keyboard a little like a piano, with multiple ship control modes and commands in ship mode. That said, don't buy this game if you are averse to all that, and are simply going to write a bad review saying "This game's controls are pretty complex." YOU WERE WARNED.
Homeworld with Freelancer style flight controls for jumping in one of your ships and getting into the fight.
Borderlands-esque graphical style. Brutally hard and expects you to learn its rules fast and keeps throwing new challenges throughout the campaign. Mission 1? Angry limped drones. Mission 2? Giang drill ship that chases you through a massive space melee. Mission 3? Minefields. And so on. But to its credit it's fun enough that I keep beating my head against whatever brick wall the game has thrown at me this time until I learn to climb or dig.
Biggest thing I can say in support of this game is the developer has been releasing patches almost daily since launch. DAILY. This game isn't a job or a hobby, it's an obsession. Never seen post-launch support like it.
It's been a while that I was as frustrated with a game as I am with Void Destroyer.
The problem is that I really want to like the game, it has a lot of stuff that it's cool or fun.
If it was simply a bad game I simply would uninstall it and forget I ever bought it. But there is so much potential and nice ideas in so it ends in a love-hate relation. That's why the frustration.
Void Destroyer is a RTS space combat game very similar to Homeworld so whoever played one of those will instantly feel familiar with it. The interesting part is that you can take direct control of any ship in your fleet and fly it yourself in 1st or 3rd person mode, blasting away at enemies like a space combat sim. At the same time you can use a tactical mode to manage your fleet and bases. You can research new stuff there, build ships or gun platforms, form fleets and have an overall view of the battlefield.
However that's where the problems start: The interface, while nice looking, has it's kinks. So you cannot, for example, select all ships of a type to form into groups. The only way to select several ships is by dragging a box or shift-clicking one ship after another. You also cannot remove ships from an already selected group (at least I haven't found out how).
The fact that there is no tooltip for anything doesn't help finding out what all the clickable commands really do.
Forming formations also is quite tedious as some ships simply ignore that order or they leave the formation at a latter time for no apparent reasons.
All in all keeping all your stuff doing what you want them to do is like herding cats. It more or less works but it is way more exhausting that it should be.
My biggest gripe though is with the difficulty spike. Since your fleet is consistent from one mission to another and in several you are unable to re-build stuff you are forced to optimize earlier missions to be able to beat later ones. In addition many missions seem to have triggers for enemy reinforcements and if you trigger too many while being not ready no strategic genius will save you from doom. In addition in some missions the enemy bases are so close that the battle turns into a totally confusing free-for-all as you cannot move one step without drawing more enemies after you. Other missions where the enemy is not reinforcing infinitely are then in contrast rather easy and allow you to finish without losing anything.
Even while the Dev is trying very hard to be helpful in the forums and seems to constantly answer questions and improve the game this is a playstyle I simply can't stand for long. While there are tactics to deal with certain enemies the only strategy seems to build more stuff faster than your enemy and if you cannot build anything then you have destroy the enemy's capabilities to build faster than your fleet dies.
Perhaps it's only me that has problems with that, perhaps I'm too stupid to play Void Destroyer, but this game is simply too much frustration for me.
Summary:
While it has many neat features and looks interesting there are simply too many frustrating problems I have with Void Destroyer to be able to really recommend it. Which is sad, since the game really has potential and the dev is active and helpful. Perhaps it's only me that has such a hard time with the game but you better make sure which category of player you fall in before you buy it. I do not consider myself too casual a player and I have played strategy games since Dune II or Warcraft I but Void Destroyer gave me The Finger.
A wonderful mish-mash of Battlezone and Homeworld. The UI can feel awkward, but that's more a symptom of the game being a hybrid of two genres that are typically fairly heavy on the controls, and generally the game does a good job of preventing this from becoming a serious inconvenience. The intial learning curve can seem a bit on the steep side, but this only hearkens back to the days of Homeworld, a game that was no pushover by any means.
To the developer's credit, both aspects of Void Destroyer (I'll try my best to refrain from using the acronym), RTS and space sim, feel tight and function how you would expect them to, and there's satisfaction to be had in the immediate availability of a variety of vessels to pilot at your discretion, each with enough differentiation to make hopping between them more than worth the player's time.
Also to the developer's credit has been his conduct on the Steam forums: always-courteous and informative responses, that are, very frequently, remarkably prompt; it's the kind of behaviour that should be help up as an example to any other developers and publishers that may wish to exhibit their wares on the Steam store, and to all those that currently do.
This developer is awesome. I've made two overly rude complaints about something I don't like about the game, and suddenly there's options to make it work. This guy seriously listens. Just starting to play the game now as it seems the blockers (for me, anyway) that made me complain were fixed, and it looks awesome and rich. Ver much recommend.
My first foray into the hybrid FPS/RTS was Battlezone, and I've not encountered anything that compares to the unique experience it provided - until I played Void Destroyer. The combat feels tight, the RTS gameplay rewarding, and everything in between just -feels- right. Bravo on a fantastic game, a truly worthy successor to my Battlezone experience!
EDIT: Incredibly sorry to hear that VD2 didnt reach kickstarter goal, but I certainly intend on purchasing through steam! Keep it up!
I bought this game as soon as it was released in Early-Access.
Since then the developer constantly updated the game while listening to feedback and staying in close contact to the community. All games in EA should be developed like this game did.
Now that it is finished this game is one of my favorite games.
+ low price
+ lots of awesome ships from drones to cruisers and carriers
+ everything can be player controlled
+ partly newtonian physics (if you want to slow down point your engines in the other direction or use forward trusters)
+ lots of control modes for ships (just take one turret and let the crew do everything else, control everything, fly and let the crew shoot...)
+ great rts part
+ easy to use editor and instant action missions
+ encouraging unlock system for everything to use in the editor
- takes some time to learn the controls (not a problem if you don´t expect to master the controls after 30 minutes)
- very challenging in the later story missions....
+ .... which are awesome if you don´t give up immediately
If you like space games you should absolutely buy this game... if there is going to be a sequel, it´s already on my personal wishlist.
An absolutely fantastic entry into the very short list of games who are RTSs but can be played in third person. (And are fast and fun that way.)
Seriously, what else is on that list? Battlezone? Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising?
We get a new game like this about every 5 years, so it's reassuring to see the care and attention and just plain love that was invested into the development of this one.
I can confidently recommend this game for RTS fans and also for space combat fans. You really can play it either way, and the freedom to hop back and forth means that it never, ever gets dull.
Edit: 1/10/2015
Since I started playing the game again after awhile, I thought I'd update my review on this game. (It truely deserves an updated review) First of all, the dev has CLEARLY put in a TON of effort into the game. Although, I find it hard to fault a game that has such a devoted creator, this game gets the best of both worlds with addictive gameplay and constant updates. The game not only runs smoother than in the past, but actually has a battle editor now, with tons of new units and more to come. Even the clunkiness I mentioned in my original review got attention. The only thing I feel is missing now is multiplayer, as I would LOVE to play this game with friends.
So heres a bit about the game:
You are essentially a commander that can give orders like any space RTS style game, only you can take manual control of anything from the largest capital ships, to the capital ships indivdual turrets, to the smallest fighters (Either built or launched from a carrier). The whole feel of the game is very unique, and it has newtonian style physics. The models are all pretty detailed, and the gameplay is what brought me back to check out how this game has been updated. I love games like Sins of a Solar Empire, Homeworld, and Elite Dangerous, and if you like any of those games, you will love this one too. Just be sure to go through the tutorial when you buy this game, as there is A LOT to learn.
Conclusion:
Its addictive, its refreshing, and I'm glad I payed $15 for this game. Buy it without hesitation if you see it on sale. If you like space games, you won't regret it.
The devotion the dev has show towards improving his game, as well as the actual improvements made to the game makes me want to update my score out of 10. You don't get many indy devs who will show that they care about their game (if you keep up with gaming current events, you know what I'm talking about). That is why, for $15, I am updating my score to a 10/10 (up from an 8/10). You will probably get more hours out of this game than some AAA titles for a quarter of the cost.
Original Review:
This game IS NOT 100% finished, but it is still a fun game to play. Keep in mind that pretty much all of this game has been done by 1 person (if I heard correctly), so my review is rather forgiving. The story is fairly challenging, the UI, however, is rather complicated. There are some things in the game in terms of camera movement and overall functionality that make playing it somewhat of a hastle.
EG: double clicking a unit both centers the camera on it and selects all similar units, which makes you move your camera back to where you want to give them the order to go. Another example of this is trying to give an attack order on a unit that is very far away. You basically can't right click said unit because the detection area is so small (or non existant in some cases), so you have to manually move your camera over so your view is closer.
Clunkiness aside, if (or when) this game gets multiplayer, I will definitly be buying another copy to play with a friend. I like the graphics and the overall feel of the game.
If you want a completely done and polished Homeworld 2 only with the ability to directly take control of every craft, this isn't the game for you. Though it definitly feels inspired by Homeworld, it lacks quite a few finishing touches. Like I said, despite the thousands of hours put into making the game, there is like literally 1 person doing all the work.
Reading all of the patch notes the developer seems really devoted to making this game a success, so I will definitely be following this game as it progresses.
All in all, I am having fun playing the game, and if you like space battles as much as I do, you probably will too. It just needs a few finishing touches, but a lot of the game is there.
8/10, Always glad to put a little extra money in the pocket of an indy dev.
A simple review
Contents as for now:
-a lot of ships (in the order of dozens) with 3 graphic styles (3 factions) -correction: 4 factions, 4 styles, about 3 dozens ships-
-campaign mode story-driven with text acting (still can't say how many sub missions) - 6 sub missions until now.
-1 small skirmish battle (ships only, no structures) -correction: other 4 missions came out after campaign progression - with structures too.
-full (probably) tutorial section (several tutorials covering basics)
-mission editor (can place asteroids of different sizes, debries, space dust, mine fields, ships you encountered in the campaign, some structures)
The game has two modes: direct control over a single ship (they are all controllable) and tactical command where you can build and research structures and units.
Direct control: each ship has a set of health points (I don't see any reference to armor or shields), and different weapons (either turreted or fixed forward), most ships have a special secondary attack, each weapon does a set amount of damage (I don't see different damage types) and has a certain behaviour/range.
Movement controls are based on mouse+keyboard or joystick, they are quite hard to get (you can remap control keys), but the flight simulation is convincing (feels like space). Some basic commands are there (switch target, target nearest etc.).
There are 4 possible views on any ship (1st person, 3rd person -or chase-, 3rd person with free camera -like eve online-, but the last one is not suitable for direct control, turret control, single one or all). Correction: there's a fifth view, command, that lets you steer your ship with the mouse, select targets and shoot, very dynamic, very similar to eve online.
When a ship has turrets, they track the targeted enemy on their own while you can fly around.
Tactical command: you can view the map with a far camera, the units are re-rendered as green/yellow/blue small ships with some bloom effect, you can give basi orders, like patrol an area, move to a point, attack etc. You can select multiple units and also give formation orders. You can select your main base and adjust three bars with three resources -research/energy/ore mining. Resources are generated/used every given time. You can build structures (like shipyards, weapon platforms etc. around the base, selecting placement on all three axis.
Personal thoughts:
Tactical view UI is too basic, you have little control over what's happening and the menus with ships and objects in space are lists of units you need to browse with your eyes. There is no clear counter of resources spent/used/available/produced, so you have little knowledge of what you need. Camera controls need a lot of improvements in this mode, for now it's quite hard to move, find, select, command units.
There is no research panel nor research tree. You research a shipyard->build one->research corvette->build corvette, switching to main base to each research, all done in a list menu. You have little information on unit types, their characteristics etc.
Campaign is quite difficult, you can save games and there's an autosave but it's quite difficult to win against an enemy that is most always superior in numbers, usually you'll need to repeat missions in order to do what's right to do and do it faster in order to win.
There is a ship cap devided for ship class, but all is moddable.
Overall I like the direct control mode, it switches to another unit when yours die, with a button you can cycle all your ships, you can control any ship. I like the graphic style, the units are well designed and interesting. What I don't like is the sound, too few sounds, too little music, there's a lot to add in this. I like the graphic style although there's little of interest in space, asteroids and some dust clouds, needs a lot. The background space is convincing but quite sterile. The lack of objects leads to disorientation when using a single ship.
An interesting idea that needs new features, polishing of UI especially in tactical control mode, more sounds and a complete soundtrack. The editor is nice, but should be more open since it would let us learn game basics such as base building/progression and test ships with direct control.
Buy it if you want to support the product and give inputs, wait if you are looking for a finished game. Like all early access we don't know when this will be finished, how many patches-builds will come in the future and at what pace.
The game developer is a nice guy who is willing to confront with the crowd, speaks english and is dedicated since kickstarted his project, a true indie.
Update after some more time in game:
I'm experiencing a lot of crashes, random ones, I can't replicate them in any way and there's little I can do to report bugs etc. As regarding the campaign I've reached a stalemate, my progress is frustrated by crashes and extreme difficulty, my side and the enemy's are so well placed we both toss each other small fleets of 8/10 ships (there's a cap of some sort I can't figure out more information) and the attacker loses always. Finally, the interface in tactical mode is quite difficult to navigate, especially when it comes to move commands in the xyz axis, there's no clear way to distinguish the position at the end of the move.
You can upgrade your flag ship with several improvements, from auto-repairs to engine to turrets (additional). The way you do it is quite nice, get the ship closer to a transfer structure, order to move some resources into the ship (this action is shown in game by crates popping out of the structure and flying towards the ship) and then order the upgrades you want (there's a timer).
Update2: after quite some more time.
Looks like crashing bugs were related to something in the 3rd mission of the campaign, maybe attacking some enemy platforms. I still get a crash from time to time.
I have to point out that there are 4 factions I've seen now. The progression in game not only unlocks ships and factions in the mission editor but also adds single missions (scenarios) to be played.
Update3:I managed to unlock all ships via some out of game files, which I opened in wordpad. The game truly is moddable, you can modify practically all ship data, damage, HP, speed, acceleration, even the phisics (reaction controls), ROF/speed of projectiles or missiles, and I looked at their textures too, all of this was very accessible (considering I have no idea how to mod a game), and there is a practical folder for mods, that folder will prioritize loading any mod file named after game files, so you only have to drop your modifications there without touching the vanilla game files.
Игры похожие на Void Destroyer
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Iteration 11 |
| Платформы | Windows |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 25.12.2024 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 65% положительных (226) |