Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Takes - Star Control Origins

Episode Date: June 24, 2023

From gaming hosts Josh, Paul, and Ryan we're bringing you even more gaming content each week.  Gaming Quick Takes are a short series of game recommendations, funny moments, off-topic chat and more. A small dose of gaming to brighten your Saturdays! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, welcome to this Quick Take episode. We're so excited to have you here with us. In the past, these Quick Take episodes actually were only available to those who financially supported the show through Apple subscriptions and Patreon. But due to popular demand, we have decided to shake up the perks for our supporters and we'll be releasing these Quick Takes on Saturdays to everyone, giving you all some extra free content that was previously unavailable to the public. And these Quick Takes are a little more laid back, and they're hosted by just one of us. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this Quick Take episode.

Shazam! Boom! hey everybody it's josh and i'm back with another gaming quick takes episode today i'm gonna give you a game recommendation for a game that i'm willing to bet that most of you have not heard about but the original was one of my favorite games as a kid it was unique in a lot of ways. It was remade back in 2018, and I think the remake did a very good job of capturing what made the original such a fun game, and I think it's well worth your time to at least look into and check out and see if you think it might be for you. That's a game called Star Control. The new one is called Star Control Origins. That is the remake. It is on Steam. You can pick it up for about $30. I'm sure you can get it cheaper than that somewhere

else because it's been out for a little while now. But the original Star Control had an awful lot going for it. One of the best things was that it had probably somewhere in the range of about 20 different alien species that each had their own very unique ship. And you would do space combat in a 2D plane. So you would fly around and just try to kill the other ships. It was the epitome of class-based combat, so to speak, because each alien species would have such a unique ship and unique ability. Some ships were these mega large dreadnoughts where if they hit you one time, you would be toast, but they were real slow and they were real susceptible

to more maneuverable ships and things like that. So imagine my surprise when I heard that they were remaking one of my favorite games as a kid. I definitely started looking into it. And Star Control Origins, I think, did a great job of capturing the feel of the original while making it much more modern and appealing to people that are not as old as me. So in Star Control Origins, you are the captain of a spaceship. That's simplifying it a lot.

I'm going to read you the quick little synopsis because I think it does a good job of telling you what this game is about. So set in the year 2088, humanity has discovered it's not alone in the universe. Worse yet, it is catastrophically unprepared to deal with what's out there. In response, Star Control is formed and the player is selected to command the crew of the UES Vindicator. Star Control Origins takes place in a huge living universe just waiting to be explored. Players will find their time split between exploring distant solar systems, landing on exotic planets, navigating hyperspace, and interacting with alien species. The one thing that they don't include there is there is a pretty good bit of space combat as well. So why I love this game is for a lot of different reasons, but that synopsis basically touches on all of them. You do a little bit of

everything in this game. Part of it is exploration. You're flying around the solar system. You have a star map and you go to just these various stars. It takes fuel to get there. So you have to be able to plan to get there and back. Maybe you need to refuel along the way. But the fear of running out of fuel in hyperspace is real. And I like that that adds that aspect to the game. Exploring planets is done on a...

If you've ever played Outer Wilds, it's kind of like that. You are on... Or Super Mario Odyssey is another one where you kind of run around these smaller sphere-shaped planets. And you can explore the entire surface. Maybe you find gear. Maybe you find minerals or credits. Or maybe you find an outpost that's in need of your help. And that turns into a big

side quest or something like that. There might be hostile aliens on the planet that you have to shoot with your little rover, but there's just any number of things that can happen on these planets, and there are a lot of planets to explore. So if you've ever played the first Mass Effect when you send your lander down, it's very akin to that. But I think that adds a lot to the game because you never know what you're going to find. And if you're willing to take the time to explore, you're going to find an awful lot of things that, you know, not all of them are good. Some of them are bad. But hey, you put yourself in that situation. Now you got to get out of it. The other part about this game I love is the alien species. You are going to come across a plethora of different aliens. Some

of them are evil and want to just kill you. Other ones are friendly and want to join you right away. And then a lot of them are in between to where you have to gain their trust or you have to earn their friendship. And a lot of this game kind of falls into that area where you need to form this alliance of alien species to protect the galaxy. And you do an awful lot of work to get some of those alien species on your side. Now, if you do that, you are definitely rewarded because what happens then is they donate their technology to you and their spaceships. And so as you get into combat, which you will do a lot in this game, you now have this alien species ships that you can

use. And maybe, you know, maybe they're fast. And so they're really good against some of the slower ships, or maybe they're big and strong with a ton of firepower. But you know, like I said earlier, they're susceptible to really quick ships and things like that. So the combat in this game, I find is really incredible. You can play it with a mouse and keyboard or a controller, but it's very tactical. It's arcadey in nature. And I really found it to be just a breath of fresh air. It's different than a lot of other combats out there. And I love the aspect of rock, paper, scissors that does come into play with that. You are going to come across alien species that will wreck you if you play against them in a certain ship, but maybe you have some ships from a different alien species

that are very good against them. Your capital ship is always very strong, and you do spend a lot of the game improving it as well to where it becomes a juggernaut in and of itself. So you could, in theory, just play as the capital ship. But if you lose your capital ship, your game's over, you're done as well. So again, risk reward there. I could talk about this game all day because there's just so many different facets of it. But the space exploration, the space combat, with its arcade-y feel, this is not like X-Wing versus TIE Fighter or Star Wars Squadrons or something like that. It's all top-down, two-dimensional. But that doesn't mean that it's not fun or it's overly

simplified because it's not. Most ships have two abilities or different skills that they can use. And again, there's a lot of different aspects between the alien species there. The interactions are really, really cool because as you meet new aliens, you will interact with them. Sometimes it's very difficult in the beginning. Maybe you don't know how to interact with them. Maybe they only respond to aggression. And so you have to actually be super aggressive to earn their respect. And it's almost like one of these choose-your-own-adventure games or interactive simulators where you have to select the right responses and things like that. And it's all around just an amazing game. I highly recommend that you check out some

gameplay footage. Now, this is not the most beautiful game in the world. The graphics are completely serviceable. But if you are looking for a game that is unlike a lot of other games out there and checks a lot of boxes, then I highly recommend you check out Star Control Origins. It is on Steam. Look up some gameplay footage. Check out some reviews on it. I found it to be a very enjoyable game. Even if you didn't have the original to go on like I did with Memory, I think there's an awful lot about this game to like.

And like I said, because it's so different than everything else out there, I think it's going to really resonate with a lot of people. So check it out. If you do, let me know your thoughts on it. If you play the original Star Control, come hit me up on Discord. I love reminiscing about these old games. I love finding people that played them. But that's it for this Quick Takes episode. I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for supporting the show, and I will see you on the next one. All right. Bye-bye everybody.