Star Nomad

A quick space explore RPG game. Cheap. Worth the price. Not much but I guess it passes muster.

Its basically a rip off of Space Rangers, and despite being released 10 years later than that game - it has worse graphics, fewer planets to visit, fewer quests, fewer weapons, basically its worse in every way.

Just play Space Rangers, they are selling it on GOG for like $5

Tags: Tactical - Sci Fi Sandbox
Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library

TLDR: Grindy. Poor UI. Dodgy controls. Lack of options. Amateur freelancer trading and quests.

Review: Very tablety feeling. Not a lot of depth in the mechanics. You have your trade hubs and quest hubs floating in empty space with simulated space traffic going on automated scripts. You are more or less free to go from hotspot to hotspot taking on elimination quests and escort mission quests to grind rewards to upgrade and do it all over again. Setting seems to be some kind of corporatist sci fi future where people freelance for the man. Not terribly gripping. The little portraits talking to you in the corner were a nice touch but they bothered you a lot for no reason and all these people act like you know them but, you dont, and I am not sure why I should care. Control is mostly just left clicking on stuff and pausing with spacebar. I tried shooting at stuff but no button was responding. Maybe I had to buy a gun first but I was pretty underwhelmed by what i was experiencing and could not find the strenght of will to fight with this game to figure out how to reach any somewhat pleasant gameplay. Needless to say dodging fire by clicking on space is strange and clumsy. The game has a pretty extensive star map connecting sectors together through worhomles. The sectors often dont contain solar systems in them. The game could had been salvagable by being very atmostpheric or having someting hooking you plot wise right away but this game is not that either. Anyways all in all if you are out of options I guess this might be servicable, perhaps, if you can deal with the controls and have a lot of patience and time on your hands. But for anyone who has a fleshed out Steam Library the time investment is probably not going to reward you with a valuable enough experience to justify going through the hassle.

I've come back to this expecting improvements since last time.

All I got was stress, stress, stress and more stress.

The initial grind trading the same cargo from Station A to Station B was just....... A,B,A,B,A,B,A,B, Z,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
It took about 50 such runs before you could even get a better ship with better equipment and begin the "story mode missions". Those were further aggravated by the pirates occasionally popping up even in these so called "safe, but deathly boring" systems. Meet even one small pirate and it's DERP! OIK! WHAAAAA? DED! OH NO START AGAIN!
That brings me to another AWFUL developer decision. Forced "Iron Man" mode. By that I mean you cannot save and go back to an old save if the worst happens. It "saves" constantly. So when the inevitable fuck up comes along losing you the lot....... you're stuck with it. This was NOT needed, or wanted, in a game such as this. The tedium is beyond belief. It's not worth it. Honestly look elsewhere. There are dozens of game similar to this and 100x better.

Hello.....
https://steamcommunity.com/app/338830/discussions/0/535152276584432817/
Seems like the dev has already noted how diksuk it's hardcore mode is, way back in 2015, but only implemented changes in Star Nomad 2. Ah well, at least he listens more than most devs do.
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I know this was only a cheap game made by a single person developer.....

But so is "Endless Sky"...... technically simplistic but works well, bug free, and is also TOTALLY FREE.
So is "Vega Strike"...... rough around the edges, but tons of mods, great community, loads of ships/weapons/upgrades, a realistic game universe that DOES feel like real space (unlike Star Nomad's tiny sectors)..... oh and it's TOTALLY FREE.
So is "Transcendence"..... TONS of ships/weapons/mods, almost infinite variety to be had, great gameplay, and is also TOTALLY FREE (though there is a purely optional pay-for premium version)

And all of the above, despite being free, offer a lot more content than Star Nomad!

Still, it manages to be more promising than the Jesus awful "Drifter" - at just one fifth of it's £10 price.

And I do still recommend it (now that my problem with not being able to buy a new ship has been sorted :D), don't get me wrong I don't hate the game. Just that the gameplay feels a little simplistic (with can be a + or a - depending on your view), mind you a lot of other games of this genre also feel simplistic. The game galaxy is small, the systems themselves are tiny, tiny, tiny little "sectors" like in the original "X-Tension". There's not that many ships, weapons, upgrades etc..... but the artwork is very well drawn, the developer is very talented at drawing - especially drawing cute girls!!!!! :D <--------- That's sold the game to you hasn't it?

Wish there was a star system cause this game could be fun to some people just not to me. travel time to complete missions or trade effectively is not worth it when you realize every time you die (Which is alot if you happen on a pirate patrol of more than two) you lose all your cargo ammo for launchers AND your ship if you have it upgraded! Time killer with mild amusment buy at your own risk

A game whose tedium makes tooth extraction without pain killers look like the best time you'll ever have. You start with a ship that is as tough as wet tissue paper, and every ship after the fact is just a slightly higher grade of wet paper that costs more in time and effort than they really should.

Combat lacks any degree of finesse or preciseness; you click on a vague area of space and your ship just putters along without giving you any means of making sudden course corrections to avoid fire. Combat is something to be avoided... if you can manage it. Be sure to always pack an EMP, because there's no other way to outrun your enemies. Of course, if you don't have one, expect to have your ship destroyed, lose whatever secondary weapons you do have, all of your missiles and get stuck back in the starter ship, losing whatever modules it can't equip.

My only regret is that it took me too long to finally get around to playing this, because I cannot get a refund. Don't make the same mistake I did; avoid at all costs and find a better, much more fun space sim that doesn't go out of its way to punish you for daring to try and play it as anything more than a trading/mining sim where combat is something you should never try, because all your ships and options suck.

There ought to be something wrong with a game if you don't feel bad resorting to infinite money cheats after just a couple of hours.

Why? Because this game can, by and large, be characterized as Farmville in space. You need money to buy expensive ships and weapons to do story missions, but the only way to get it reliably is by mining asteroids and trading, which have about the same degree of complexity and player's involvement as Cookie Clicker. Now, do it again, again, and again for several hours. You can also grind the same 5 mercenary missions over, and over, and over again, or just fly around and shoot other ships, but that will be just as much of an underwhelming and repetitive chore. Also, if your ship does get taken down (usually by a group of pirates suddenly appearing out of nowhere and catching you unawares, sleepy or AFK after several minutes of flying through empty Space with nothing happening), you'll lose some of your precious equipment.

Star Nomad is not atrocious, and could be an OK distraction if you're listening to music, or thinking about something, but that's about it it.

It is also true that the game harkens back to other space sims like Elite and Star Control, but it has so little variety, and the combat system is so simplistic that it fails to keep one's attention for any significant period of time. (the realisation that you've got nothing else to do in the game happened in Elite as well, mind you, but it came much, much later than here). Bland writing, lame, sometimes sexual, jokes and no memorable characters does not help the case, either.

Sexy (if not sexist) art tho.

I bought this since I'm a fan of the old elite game. The game description made it sound good but it is pretty bad. I should have read the reviews before buying. At 0.99 cents one can't expect too much. The graphics look cheap. The controls are basic and unintuitive. It would be worth paying a bit more for Elite dangerous.

This takes some getting used to, but for the price - well worth the look.

Promising roots within it, and for it being done by one guy its just impressive to say the least.
A good game for the cost and well worth it.

Excellent game for the price! It's a fun simple space adventure with a relatively entertaining story behind it.
My only issue was with how slow flying across the galaxy became towards the end. It was rather tedious that none of the higher level ships were very fast and the quests tended to send you back and forth across the whole system.

For me, Star Nomad is an underrated little gem! It takes all the things that make the 2D action/shooter genre great, and condenses them into a simple yet crazy fun experience. You can make your fortune as a miner, trader or even a pirate (Be warned, betraying everyone doesn't end well :P), but cracking on with the story was the most fun for me. Took me around 30 hours to beat it, which considering the price, is a bargain...

Dont let the simple nature of this game fool you, it becomes very challenging as you progress. Early game is all about earning credits and upgrading your ship. Late game is much more about tactical piloting and loadout (and spamming the X key). Some battles might seem too difficult, but keep at it. Theres nothing more satisfying than battling through a dozen battleships with a lone frigate.

Though this game might not be for everyone, if you're into retro style 2D space shooters with simple mechanics, and are willing to rise up to the challenge of restoring peace to the universe (or not), then pick it up and give it a go. I did and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now to uncover the myth of the nude key combo...

The Good
-For a space trader it is fairly easy top throw a half hour at here and there.
-upgrading is easy once you get the hang of it.
-lots of little details are pretty cool. Like people talking about the Iowa vs. The Yamato kind of clevar.

The Bad
-you tend to have to grind a lot at the beginning. Early on you basically need to find a safe route to either mine or trade until you can get some decent gear.
-no real faction choice to my understanding. I had a chance to join the pirates for a moment there but no real choice.
-the police in this game are insane: I am smuggling drugs and there are 6 ships right behind me destroying ships (potentially murdering people) for money and suddenly I am public enemy number 1? what this hell is in these drugs!?!
-almost no customization: you have almost no choice to upgrade your ship in specialized ways. You can chose to make your missiles hit harder or your beams hit harder and that’s about it.
-there is no choice to stand down your weapons or surrender. I am playing a smuggler not a murderer. I don't want to have a shootout with the cops until I can leave the system. I would rather stand down my own weapons and divert power to shields or speed to get away.
-space stations don't care about pirates or smugglers? Here I am being shot at by pirates I dock at a station and they just let them blow me up? By the same token I am running from the police because they spot me with drugs but the station just lets me dock? I can't fathom a universe where the ships have weapons but the space stations don't who is asleep at the switch?


Things I Would Change
-Give the ships 2 to 5 modification modals and add more than just missile power and beam power to it. It could have the weapon boosts but also extra storage adding an extra 4 slots, a temporary cloak costing power (preferably called a Fader :) ), extra shields, shield mods that increase effectiveness against beams or ballistic respectively, crew pods for extra crew (see below)
-more detailed mining add a scanner to increase the chances of getting certain resources over others.
-more weapon types please. We have an EMP that jams weapons can we have one that stalls engines? Maybe mine layers, how about a machine gun stile gun that fires smaller weaker beads of energy fires faster but hurts less maybe a tractor beam that slows and eventually stops ships to force a boarding rather than destroying ships.
-crew customization. Give each ship a crew capacity 2 to 6 each crew man can do different jobs on the ship such as work the engines, weapons, and shield to make the work better, the ability to navigate and increase maneuverability, or simply board/ repel boarders.
-random mission offers. Passing ships give me all sorts of messages (including quite often the cops telling me how to break the law and expunge my criminal record lol) I think it would be cool if ships randomly offered me a job to protect them or deliver something or even kill someone.
-gear/ships you can't buy. I would love to have experimental gear you have to find and earn rather than buy.
-buy hanger space. I have built up my bad ass ship just the way I like it. Now what? Story missions? Personally I would like to buy a hanger slot and start building up another ship. It would also be more realistic to me than them just handing me a new ship every time I blow one up.
-radar mini map. Down in the corner a tiny map that shows what ships are in the area upgrades and or crewmen could tag patrol ships or pirates or both.

All and all
all and all this game is fun! It could be more fun but it is fun, but at the end of the day I am happy with what I spent on it. I know the developer is working on a sequel so I hope they read this and take these suggestions to heart, but right now the game is fun and worth more than I spent on it.

First the graphics and simple gameplay made me buy it, seeing a casual space roam to play in my short work breaks. Unfortunately this game feels like a direct mobile phone port, with no pc features at all. You don't have keys for missiles, enemies can engage on you while docked, no possibility to set the auto target AI to focus on closest/largest/smallest target, and tons of other bugs/missing features that make the experience not worth the time and money.

You will be always focused by pirates, although you are in a little ship and your friendlies fire/fly close to the pirates. That doesnt matter, the entire pirate feet focuses you and only you. This game is a boring mining grind, then, you can tank your hip up like crazy and just afk destroy entire fleets. No middle ground. ALSO REALLY FUNNY! You cannot escape enemy fleets.... they follow you at the same speed until you're dead... real fun...

I tried to like it but this in no way a PC game. If it is a port from mobile, it's a pretty bad one. If it is a game developed for PC, then it's awful. I DO NOT recommend.

For 3-4 euros just pick SPACE RANGERS HD or SPACE PIRATES AND ZOMBIES or STARPOINT GEMINI 2 (the 2 pls, 1 is bad). These game are hell of fun,(I have them all) complex and revarding. And every sale they are just a couple euros. Just avoid this game.

The Game is in one word; Crap

The combat part of the game is silly; as you a single ship with basic shields and weapons travel towards your story quest you get blown to bits; missions for 8000 credits or so makes you face a minimum of 3 enemy ships. A few missiles and you are blown out of the sky.

So instead I decided to make a fortune before attempting combat; I traded with the start ship for hours without buying shields or weapons, just bought and traded goods and saved up enough for the 2nd ship with all weapon, shield and defensive options of mk 1 and it went quite well for some time that was until my ship got blown up. Instead of continuing with the ship, weapons and shields I currently had spendt hours acquiring I was reverted into the first ship, i still had the upgrades the ship could handle but lost the second missile launcher. I got about 2/3 of the cost of the ship back, and forced to start all over again selling food and fuel rods to various stations.

In short the game is not fun when the combat part is so cruel towards the player; you cannot leave the white sectors with the first ship because a single missile from a Pirate Frigate will blow your shield to hell, and when you face 2 of those and 2 fighters you have no hope as they in total unload not 1 but 8 such missiles.

I did not bother attempting to play further into the game; it is simply to unforgiving to deaths and without a save/load function aside from continue your game it isnt a way to prevent the silly deaths. I might just be to impaitent to get to the story and missing out on a great Space sandbox game but I doubt it. The story cannot compansate for any of the messy combat in the game so If you decide to try this game make sure you are a sucker for punishment, otherwise it will be boring.

Just another bad touch-screen game that someone thought would be worthwhile to port to PC. Avoid this game, and wait for a deal on the far superior Space Pirates and Zombies. This is basically Space Rangers with one button.

That'll teach me to buy a game with woman plastered all over it, like some kind of browser-based monstrosity. I really think it's some kind of law of gaming: If a product is draped with women (as sex objects, not people) all over, it will be bad. The less clothing the women have, the worse it will be. If the clothing makes no sense (eg boob chainmail) you would get more enjoyment out of your money by burning it.

I've been calling it the boobmail law, but whatever. It's my fault for buying this hot mess.

Repeatitive, game

Very poor game balance

Trade = huge profit = boring and slow... move slowly on a poor map from point A to B sell stuff, buy stuff at B to C sell stuff, repeat to A...



Piracy = minimal profit, it is either slaughter your enemeis or be approached by an enemy force who quickly wears your shield down and boom... then you've got a hard time to recover compared, have fun restarting with basically nothing, and hostile things


Missions = very very minimal profit... Head to location, fight a huge squad of enemies... It is either you win yay you get 20k reward for a big time investment, or opps your ship is instantly obliterated... have fun restarting with basically nothing... oh yeah you probably have to spend 6k to restock your missles too...


Between restocking weapons and the slow grindy travel time the only way to actually play is to trade, trade, and trade.

early pirates are mosquitoes you can simply ignore, later swarm pirates are swarmy

Overall 4/10

Grapics 6/10 - as expected
Gameplay controls 2/10 - very poor minimal controls
Mission types 1/10 - unoriginal rehashes of every common type... with a poor rewards system
Combat - 3/10 - its either win or lose depending on your loadout... skill has VERY little to do with it, and gets super repeatitive super fast

If you're looking for a VERY simple space sandbox, then this is for you. If you were looking for somewhat of a successor to a game like Escape Velocity (like I was, god I love that series), then keep looking.

Pros:
-The story isn't bad, and the text messages provide good perspective
-There's a sort of cutesy anime charm to the game
-Music is alright (but may wear on you)
-Price is right

Cons:
-Point and click to go... Cannot use the keyboard to accel/turn/stop/etc.
-Skill does not appear to be much of a factor in battles
-All of the ships look basic and uninteresting - simple geometry
-Everything just seems too simplistic; got boring very quickly

I'll probably never play this game again, but I can definitely see where others will enjoy it. I hope you do!

Star Nomad is simple, elegant, and most of all fantastic! If you are from my neck of gaming you can really appreciate this little gem. Remember games like Trade Wars? Well, they do a fantastic job of recreating some of it's former glory! It could use a serious boost! I would love to see it as a real multiplayer style game. Call it Eve Online Light, you get my meaning if you've played it. Trading, piracy, mercenaries, mining - it's all fantastic. And the real beauty? It is all done casually! It doesn't have a massive punishment system which makes it all the better! You can enjoy the game and if you get blown to bits you will not get too frustrated. Well done lads, well done!

Cut and Paste from itunes, complete with spelling mistakes, grinding and pointless fetch quests.

Otherwise could've been a decent game if the dev team supported the game beyond the itune release though it seems common now that you can throw a quiet and dirt game for abit of cash and move on.

As someone already said in the forum section: WOW!

If you like sandboxy space games you should give this little gem a try, why?

Simple reason is that it looks nice, it plays nice, it sounds nice and it costs... nice. :)

The Dev (yes it's just one person) is extremely active, responsive and with an amazing attitude, and that's something not always easy to find.

It clearly is a "love letter" to old space sims as the description states, just do not expect a flight sim, this is not Elite or Privateer, this is Star Nomad, a fun arcade space sandbox.