Star Wolves 2

Sequel to Star Wolves: a Slav Jank Space Adventure, Star Wolves 2: A sticky mess is not a good game.

It is quite clear that the scope was grand, the mechanics set up building the larger world of the Star Wolves saga. Failure to deliver on that scope though makes this world dead and filled with boring, repetitive sidequests.

The game throws away whatever balance its prequel had in favor of throwing your way either numbers or damage sponges that puke damage your way. Once you get good at dealing with that nonsense (read: you realize that stacking heavy lasers on things will clear the field fast and win you fights, and building anything else is basically an exercise in frustration) - the game is very easy to beat. The end that you reach is abrupt and unsatisfying.

Somehow, the voice cast in the English version manages to be even worse than SW1, the plot is in tatters and the script can't even be called a bad joke - even when bad, jokes are, by intent, funny.

The saving grace of Star Wolves 2 is the same unique mechanics that made its predecessor stand out as a unique experience. Still, I'd recommend SW2 only if you beat SW1 and want more.

Followed by SW3: Just... why.

This piece of crap bugged and I couldn't continue the damn story. I can't recommend this trash. Also, the damn voice acting is even worse then the first iteration of this series. As for the rest, what can I say about a game that stopped me from playing it!? No, I can't recommend this.

This is the worst reviewed game in the series. I got it because I wanted a complete set of the series. Need more time to review it.

Yes, Yes, Yes, I love this game because its just the kind of game that suits me to the ground. I love the music, the way it looks is awesome, but the whole game could do with a good polishing up, some of the skills don't seem to work, it crashes out, and the whole pathfinding for the main ship is in need of a rework( like when u tell the ship to go to the warp gate from the store the ship will just fly in to the store ). but all-in-all i love this game its fun to play.

The second game in this series that I enjoy so much is in a weird spot for me. Although definitely the most underwhelming entry in the series it did have some of my favourite features. I have completed 2 playthroughs at the time of this review

Pros:
- The combat system is exactly the same as before and still feels satisfying
- Your mothership gets pilots. With no sacrifices.
- 10+ hours for single playthrough
- More replay value then the first game, but still limited
- Graphics aged really well all things considered
- Goes for dirt cheap on sale
- Has some of my favourite ships in the series
- The unique to this game race is actually pretty cool
- Has the funniest mission in the entire series

Cons:
- Bugs. More quite a few are game breaking and will require a reload. Not as rare as the other games.
- The voice acting somehow got worse
- Very easy compared to the other 2 games
- The random missions are really boring and tedious
- Mercs are useless
- Linear upgrade path for equipment
- In engine cutscenes
- Space still feels empty

Overall:
Pick it up on sale for the same reason as the other 2, but if you only getting 1 of them then rather get SW3

Complete crap, don't buy it if you liked the first game, because you'll get very disappointed. The music is decent, voice acting terrible (in the first game, the voice actors didn't speak English too well, but it was a lot better, and had more actors). The game's incredibly easy, it lets you get insane amounts of money from the equipment dropped by the enemies (which are also easy). It's insanely linear - fly to this sector, pretend that you don't expect a trap, kill everyone, fly to a different sector, repeat. Buy the first one (it was good), but forget that such a disgrace as is Star Wolves 2 exists.

This "Star Wolves 2" had potential to be a good game like SW1, but in reality is FAR inferior to "Star Wolves 1"! Despite it seemingly being almost indentical, seemingly using the same code, it is a lot buggier and less stable than "SW1"!

- It crashes to desktop occassionally. "SW1" NEVER did that once.
- Frame rates slow down in places enough to be noticably jerky! Even on a gaming PC (a budget one I admit), yet this game should not even tax the weakest non-gaming laptop! "SW1" always maintained well over 100, 200 even FPS! "SW2" drops to below 15 FPS!
- It also appears to go slower and slower and slower the further you progress!
- Ship pathfinding, especially around other large ships and stations is AWFUL. It was ropey on "SW1", but what the fuck have the programmers done in "SW2"? This meant to be somekind of improvement? Your fighters get completely stuck, often even crashing in stations, even the Star Wolf itself, ten times more than in "SW1"! "Star Wolf" also gets stuck on Trade Stations constantly!
- The new "open world, sandbox" style doesn't work, I believe it does in SW3 but it DON'T in SW2, all you get is hours of gameplay consisting of just travelling from one system to another to another.
- The "random jobs" you can get from stations give you from 2,000 to 20,000 credits. But some simple, non-challenging (though long and boooooooring) delivery missions give you over 500,000!!!!! Exploiting these a few times means you are so rich, you may as well have used Cheat Engine to "fiddle your accounts"! That definately must be a mistake!
- Many cut-scenes are broken, the camera just endlessly spins around and around the Star Wolf, with no text, dialog, nothing. Of course you can manually skip out of these, but I'm sure you miss a lot of the game's plot texts as a result!
- Voice acting has been improved a little, at least! Despite what you may read elsewhere around here!!!!! Honest it is better than SW1!
- English translations seem better as well, though SW1 was also good for a Russian made game..... Russian <-> English is a difficult conversion it seems!

I have been getting some pleasure out of this title, so far, but as I get further, it seems to be getting slower and more laboured. I'm thinking it may become unplayable before I finish it.....? Let's just say the game is getting old, real quick!

EDIT:-

WHAT IS THIS 8ULLSHIT? I HAVE finished it - and the ending is a "humanity destroyed you lose" ending!!!!! WHAT UTTER 8OLLOCKS IS THIS?

I thoroughly enjoyed SW 1 and 3, but cannot say the same for SW 2. It feels rushed, full of bugs or unbalanced features (e.g. generic missions with rewards in ten thousands of credits and poof - one of them, completely uninteresting, with reward of 0.5M). Main missions are much worse balanced than in SW1. It is possible to free roam, but there is absolutely no reason apart of fulfillment of boring generic get and fetch or kill all enemies missions),.. All the good features were already in SW 1, so go play that - or SW3 - instead.

Nothing wrong to buy as a part of bundle :)

I wanted to like this one, but I don't.

I really liked Star Wolves and all the components are there:
- dreadful dialogue and voice acting
- RPG space combat sim
- Same gameplay as the first

but the bugs are just too many and too painful. Give it a miss - maybe 3 will be better again.

A quick word about this game, there are bugs, it did not get completely finished. The voice acting is terrible. The story isnt brilliant. Know what you are getting into before you buy. You will need multiple save files, and to save at each stage of a mission in a new file.

However, the gameplay is good and fun. I have played Sw 1 and 3. Therefore i know roughly what is going on. If you are presistent, and enjoy this type of game it is worth your time, knowing the above.

I enjoyed the first SW but unfortunately I cannot recommend this one; although the combat and skill trees and overall presentation are familiar and still fairly good, other aspects have become dramatically worse in the sequel. The story is sparse, the systems require a lot of unnecessary travel through relatively empty/dead zones, and the progression to earn better ships/equipment is not as smooth or fun as in the first. You're better off either just playing SW1 or else checking out something like Homeworld instead.

Wall, hmmm, what's to say

This game is a mistake. while SW 1 and 3 are decent, this one is not (and the Creators relized that I guess, because SW3 story starts where SW1 finished )
You can sure travel around the galaxy, but it does not help as it is mostly empty. And the main quest is probably worst of it. No much story to speak of, and when it was fially finished the main indication of the fact was that you were thrown bac to the starting screen.

Overall, skip this one and go straight to SW3

Terrible game. The original Star Wolves was brilliant; Star Wolves 3 I can *highly* recommend.

This game... I mean... *Damn*...

It's a sandbox version of Star Wolves, but a poor version of Star Wolves with worse graphics, crashes routinely and has a bleaker environment than an *actual box of sand*. Most of the sectors are dead apart from the odd pirate and a few rocks, and you move so painfully slow you will watch hours of your life disappear that you will NEVER GET BACK. Then it'll crash.

This game is like the unfinished version of the first SW. It copies most things from the old game and invents a single new idea of one "free to explore"-map. This idea combined with the technical problems breaks the game, therefore my advice is:

STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME!
(Btw, dunno why i spent 12 hours on this, maybe i searched for "something" good in this game, but well, couldve played it through in 8 hours or less...)

+ RPG Part -> Copy from SW1
Skill/Perk system is not very complex but functional, various paths can be used for skilling the characters. The different paths lead to a slightly different gameplay approach. Could be more complex, but works nice and is motivating.

- Fighters and Equipment
On of the highlights in the first game, is now one of the problems. The "natural" progress is gone, you will start with Tier2, grind around some time and -tada- then you will be Tier 4. Natural progress? NOPE.

- Combat
You would expect this to be the same as in SW1, but you have more KI problems, less designed missions and nearly no enemies. Boring.

- Story
There is nothing you can call story. Just some "main missions" without any sense. They look like the random missions. Not much difference. You cant compare this to SW1, it had WAY better missions and story.

- Presentation and Controls
Still like the old but way more problematic...

- Bugs
Way more problems then SW1 - For me personaly it only crashed one time but had alot of KI bugs - Funny as the space is nearly empty compared to SW1...

---Free galaxy
A system you can freely explore sounds good? Well, if all sub-systems are nearly empty its just plain bad. Usually 1 trading station (buy/sell gear/fighters) and 0-2 other stations per subsystem (they are only used for the random missions). If you are lucky also 1 trader or a wing of fighters. But usually all subsystems are empty...
Still you have to fly around for this stupid random missions. There are only 3 types: Patrol, Destroy and Deliver. The involved subsystems are always random. For example, after you take the mission in a trading station:
-> Fly to subsystem XY to start the mission(= you have to cross X maps usually without enemies)
-> Mission is started, fly to subsystem YZ and kill/patrol/deliver (= again X maps, sometimes with a single random attack)
-> If its kill/patrol, you now get your random encounter (you dont even need your figthers, mothership is way to strong)
-> Go back to subsystem XY for reward (OMG).
The good? thing, some of this missions (without enemies, just long, boring travel on empty maps) give 500k, so you go on highest tier pretty fast...

This game is in need of some serious patches as there are game breaking. Missions are broken, you do what your supposed to and dont get rewarded. Cargo missions seems to be alright. Docking with bases can result in your ship getting stuck and blowing up or just stuck. It will crash randomly.
Voice acting, poor.
This game was released too soon and quality control lacking.
Star Wolves is fun. Star Wolves 2 is not.
If you want to play something similar to Star Wolves try Haegemonia: Legions of Iron.

A quite good Sequel despite his harsh start (fighting Aliens in the second Main mission! WTF?) and a quite empty and lifeless Universe. Oh, and voiceacting is awful. But if you are patient and frust resistant enough, the Game rewards you with great and challenging, sometimes brutal Battles ( at least in the Main missions).

It's much worse than the first one in every aspect.
Pacing and difficulty curve are all over the place (you start off fighting aliens with 2 fighters and when you get more pilots and weapons you fight Yaris and Hatchets); the mission-aftermath-mission progression that always made me want to see what's next untill I finally noticed it's 3am is replaced with an "open world" of linked, empty, boring systems, and several missions ask you just to go through 5 or so systems, do nothing and fight nothing; the plot is barely there; all the characters come off as dumb jerks; and they even managed to fuck up the translation compared to the first game.

I bought this game after enjoying Star Wolves 1 but was really disappointed. I only got a few missions in due to this game being a buggy mess. My pc is a mid-tier running windows 7, played many games (old and new) via steam and this is the first one that I found unplayable.

Star wolves 1 played alot smoother. This game also offers very little improvement over the first one (even recycling alot of character portraits etc). It offers an open world via portals, replacing the end mission rewards page with alot of unnecessary travelling to and from each mission/trader. The dialogue is also very offputting, comically so. Every line is delivered without emotion or emphasis; jovial banter or life and death threats are delivered the same way. Other than this, it plays just like the first.

I could not recommend this game, it is a gamble as to whether it will work, if you'll get game ending bugs or just minor ones. (The bug which affected me prevented mission objectives from triggering and somehow this affected every save file since the start of the game). If you enjoyed the first game it might be worth a gamble, but this game offers no improvement over the first.

When I first started playing this game I couldnt get past the voice acting. Then as the depth of the game developed I slowly slowly learned to actually like it. I have to say that this is one of the most graphically stunning games I have gotten off of steam. It would be extremly nice if there were more games that catered to low system specs. I personally have been drooling over eve online for ages. But it is just out of reach for my system. From what I know of that game this game has allot to offer. The skill system in particular was very very interesting. Each character had certain abilitys the could trigger in combat. However these abilitys have a timer attached and can only be used so many times per mission. Anyway I have rambled on long enough, ohh and the ending wasn't as bad as some reviewers would have you believe. Granted it wasn't a 20 minute long cut scene or anything, but it did provide a measure of closure.

The story is quite weak, and rather forgetable. Where this game shines is in the gameplay.

Did I mention the voice acting is terrible? The voice acting is TERRIBLE.
An example of the awful voice acting:
http://youtu.be/wL_YXUtjvx4

Despite the games short comings (weak story, terrible voice acting) I would give this a definite try if you're into space shooters, and the price is low enough.