Giveaway of the Day - Star Warrior 2: Defenders

There was no Demo available for me to review. So the following review was written hurridly after the game was posted. It’s only a short review, but covers most of the salient points. you may find I’ve added extra information about the game in my moderator comments, for example I mention about incoming threat indicators and being able to pick up a powerup via these indicators.

As with most games from the Game giveaway project I had to change the installation path otherwise it would have installed into the last game giveaways location. It says in the readme that it installs to C:\Games\SW2.

The initial download is 52.3Mb, but once installed the game expands to 128Mb. The majority of this is textures with a smaller but still significant proportion going to the music folder.

The Game

A very colourful and well constructed updated version of Star Warriors which we were given last year. ( http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/star-warrior/ ) There are some definite improvements to the overall game, with a improved introduction to each level and a more standard main menu. There are lots of similarities between the two games, but they are not the same game as we’ve previously experienced from this developer, for example Alien Terminator.

You are a gunner set up in a stationary orbit above the planet you are defending. An alien race called the Gi’Kan are attacking in force with robot drones and ships that drag meteorites down to the planet below. The aim of the game is to stop the cities on the planet below from being destroyed by these meteors and to protect yourself from the alien incursion.. You have to protect your position from incoming threats such as mines and enemy space ships. Each level comprises multiple waves of attacks, with successive levels getting harder and harder. It’s basically a three dimensional space invaders/asteroids/missile attack game, with excellent graphics, though some will probably think they are a little dated already.

The options menu allows you to adjust the sound effects and in game music volume as well as adjust the mouse sensitivity. You can also invert the mouse (which I found useful). There’s also a toggle for simple controls; however the controls are pretty basic anyway.

Controls:

Rotation of gun emplacement (360 degrees 3D)……………x & y mouse movement
Fire Lasers……………………………………………………LMB
Fire Rockets………………………………………………….RMB
Repulsing Field……………………………………………….MMB

There are 40 levels divided up into five episodes:

Episode 1……..Academy
Episode 2……..In the line of fire
Episode 3……..Space Invaders
Episode 4……..Alone in Space
Episode 5….…On the Front Line

There are four difficulty levels to choose from Novice, Experienced, Professional and Veteran. The easier levels run slower than the harder ones and it seemed like there were more enemies on the harder levels. As you progress through the levels the difficulty is ramped up steadily till by the time you are approaching the last level in an episode you are being attacked from all sides.

Each level starts with an introduction that includes the title of the level, a short description of the mission, your task and what weapons are available. During game play you can pick up bonuses. These will show up around the periphery of the aiming reticule. You can hold several power ups at once, but they don’t last very long. These include repair droids, as well as weapon enhancements.

Images:

You can see a slideshow of around 40 images via the following link:

http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Star%20Warrior%202/?albumview=slideshow

or alternatively by clicking on the grid button to the bottom left of the screen just above the thumbnail images from the slideshow you can see all the images on one page. There’s a slider that will increase the size of the images a little. You can see larger versions by either continuing with the slideshow or clicking on individual images.

Conclusion

Initially I though it was too similar to the previous Star Warrior version, but soon realized that a lot of work had gone into improving this new version. Overall I was quite impressed with the game. There are lots of this type of shooter available from some game distributors such as Reflexive arcade, and you’ll find similar ones for free from Gametop (see link below), but that aside I found the game entertaining and challenging enough to want to continue to play. Overall I’d give the game a 6.5 out of 10. I particularly liked the dual mode of attack. That is both your gun emplacement and the planet below were being attacked, so you needed to keep an eye out for meteors getting past you, otherwise you’d find the cities below destroyed.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Other Information:

Music

There are several MP3 files to be found in the games music folder, which is located in the Nitro folder. You should be able to exchange these for music you like. I’d make back ups of the music you are replacing just in case something goes wrong. I’m not sure whether you need to rename the mp3 for them to work.

Alternatives:

Check out the following thread in the forums where you’ll find loads of space orientated games for free:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2724?replies=17

Also there’s several commercial quality games available from Gametop:

http://www.gametop.com

and freegamepick:

http://www.freegamepick.com/en/

Though do watch for browser hijacking and toolbars because both sites have become a little more aggressive recently. Make sure you monitor the installation wizards steps to ensure any tick boxes have been unchecked, otherwise the games are excellent.

Seems like it’d be a fun game, but the controls are VERY hard to use. The mouse seems to be the only way to do it and it’s very “floppy” (best word I could think of). Sloppy, slippery, ungainly and clumsy also come to mind. The default mouse sensitivity is at the lowest setting, but a couple notches higher didn’t change things except making it harder to center on targets. It has some kind of inertia built into the movement that makes it really awkward.

The targeting graphics are also so “busy” that it’s hard to see what direction to turn for aiming. Even at the novice setting the game just moved too fast for me to get used to it. Thanks anyway — maybe with a good joystick I’d do better. There is a similar game available from Gametop tats got a much more sedate speed; you may find that one easier to play. (see my link above in comment #1)

……………………….Moderator Comment…………………..

There is a mouse sensitivity slider and an invert toggle, which can be found via the options menu. I found adjusting the mouse sensitivity and inverting the mouse improved the game significantly. There are arrow prompts to tell you where incoming meteors and enemy droids and ships are coming from. also the arrows change color if a power up is available.