Games Like Shattered Galaxy
Like Mankind, Shattered Galaxy is living in the shadows, a shadow of its former glory, itself. More recently, a Chinese company has developed a new game that brings the game’s legacy into the modern era and expands upon it. There is an English client available, although your latency may be high. Shattered Galaxy, the world's first published massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game, combines the excitement of real-time strategy with the character development of.
| Shattered Galaxy | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Kru Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Tri Synergy[1] |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release | August 30, 2001[2] |
| Genre(s) | MMORTS |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Shattered Galaxy is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game (MMORTS) that was released in 2001 by KRU Interactive., now known as Nexon Inc, after an extensive open beta period. In the US, it was published by Tri Synergy. It combines the attributes of a massive multiplayer online role-playing game and a real-time strategy game. Having won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2001 Independent Games Festival and hosted through the Game Developers Conference, the game has been commercially unsuccessful due in large part to its dated graphics engine. The game was published under the name Tactical Commanders in South Korea, published by Nexon until December 31, 2005. This game has also been serviced in Japan, Taiwan, and Germany.
- 3Other activities
Plot[edit]
Shattered Galaxy is set in a post-apocalyptic future. A teleportation device was found buried on Earth's surface, though scientists were not able to master its secrets. Various non-living substances were successfully sent through and retrieved, but when a common rat was inserted into the portal, it activated the artifact in an unexpected way: the device immediately teleported itself, as well as all matter in a 2000 kilometer wide radius around it, to the planet Morgana Prime. The player is one of the survivors of this incident. The planet itself was devoid of sentient life, but robotic war machines were found on its surface, and humans have since learned to control them telepathically (allowing the humans themselves to stay out of harm's way). Humans have since expanded to another planet (server) in the Morgana system, Relic, where wars likewise rage.
Gameplay[edit]
Other activities[edit]
Reincarnation[edit]
For players who have ascended to Level 50 or higher in at least one division, Shattered Galaxy offers a Reincarnation Event once every three months, in which the player is returned to Level 1 to begin the climb anew, an incentive only available in Morgana Prime. The player receives extra statistic points in proportion to total division level they have gained above 50, and two more total unit slots in their inventory. Players may Reincarnate as many times as they want (as of 8 January 2010, at least one player has done so 32 times, the highest so far), but must be a paying member of the game to do so. Reincarnation allows the character to have stronger units due to the extra attribute points, but the more attribute points one has, the higher power rating he has so the balance is still kept in check. Reincarnation is part of the RPG style of the game which allows individual characters get more attribute points and so have stronger units by experience.
Caving[edit]
Caving is a term in Shattered Galaxy for going into alien caves in order to fight and gain experience points. There are caves in every map. Caves 1 and 2 are in every capital whereas there are caves 1, 2 and 3 in other maps. Most caving is done on Relic fraction capitals cave 1, where the aliens consist of weak slursts and larvas. As the caves on Morgana Prime are famous for their tough difficulty level, caving is usually considered a waste of time. Also caving gives very little experience compared to fighting. Therefore, people recommend fighting a battle against other users rather than caving. Caves further from the capital have stronger aliens. A cave battle is similar to a normal battle but with only 1 POC, aliens instead of enemy factions, 2 minute poc time instead of one and 20 minutes battle time. Experience received in caves is based on how long a player waits before POCcing (slang for capturing a Point of Contention). Lastly caving causes a loss of Honor for paying heroes.
Mercing[edit]
Mercing is serving as a mercenary within the game. People can choose to become mercenaries for the 10% experience bonus and fight for the faction that has less online players. It is also a means of faction balancing. If 1 faction is too strong some will merc and fight back balancing the factions. One cannot merc if one is currently in a regiment. Mercing serves as a more efficient way of leveling especially for those 'Lone Wolves'.
Games Like Shattered Galaxy 4
Resources[edit]
Money the standard currency for all 3 factions, this is the resource that most Basic Heroes and Elite Heroes will use the most. From buying new units, repairing damaged or destroyed units, to equipping new equipment, all this needs money. In the past, it was entirely possible to actually run out of money if the player loses too many battles. Now Nexo has revamped the system, so it is almost impossible to run out of money as long as you keep battling and so is irrelevant to consider when playing the game.
Uranium is currently the only other resource being utilized. This is the resource which only Elite(payer) Heroes can use for various reasons, including the purchase of Gold Weapons, reseting stats, changing factions/planets and obtaining the right to purchase 2 extra unit types from the factory. Typically, Gold Weapons have better statistics than their normal counterparts, so serious paying players equip gold weapons for enhanced performance. Basic Heroes cannot use Uranium to outfit their weapons but can stock uranium, albeit slower than payers, so they can spend it later when they pay to become an Elite Hero.
Uranium is given out after the Faction completes its War Meter, which typically completes approximately every 5–7 days. The amount of uranium received is 3*X where X is your Power Rating. This is the only source non-payers can obtain uranium. Elite Heroes will also get a daily uranium tribute if they have at least one winning battle every 24 hours. The amount of daily uranium one gets per day is X/3 where X is the Heroes Power Rating. Uranium can also be obtained from various events which only payers can participate.
Sulfur, Ore, and Silicon were the other resources in the game, removed from gameplay long ago, with no current use or means of obtaining them. These resources, as well as uranium, were as plentiful as money in the past and were used in combination to buy equipment for the player's units.
Service[edit]
As of September 29, 2008, the game can be played using a basic account at no charge with a few minor handicaps or upgraded to an elite account at a cost of US$9.95 per month to play with all limitations removed.
Nexon has closed Tactical Commanders' service in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. As of October 31, 2008, the German service was closed due to lack of players.[3]
There have been no new updates since 2006 except for the February 9, 2011 patch which fixed the CTD (Crash To Desktop) bug.[citation needed] No further major gameplay updates from Nexon Interactive are expected. Minor support for the game continues with sporadic 'Double XP' weekend events, quarterly 'Reincarnation' events, a yearly summer and winter tournament, gift event, and glory battle event.
In July 2017, key players, namely Wicked, began organizing weekly battles where many players would try to log on and play together. As the popularity of these events grew, more and more players contacted Nexon in the hopes they would renew support for Shattered Galaxy. In early August, Nexon responded by temporarily giving Elite hero status to all players free of charge. In addition, Nexon disabled the feature where NPC Aliens would invade and take over territories that had not been occupied by players for a length of time.
The free upgrade to Elite status reinstated many long-lost features, normally reserved for paying players. The disabling of Aliens made it much easier for opposing factions to battle each other, without the worry of formidable Aliens cutting off attack routes. These updates have since created a surge of renewed interest, with players logging on more frequently, and large battles forming more often.
Reception[edit]
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The game received 'generally favorable reviews' according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[4]
Shattered Galaxy was a runner-up for The Electric Playground's 'Best Independent PC Game' prize, but lost to Serious Sam: The First Encounter.[12]
References[edit]
- ^Walker, Trey (May 25, 2001). 'Tri Synergy to publish Shattered Galaxy'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive.
- ^ abAdams, Dan (September 14, 2001). 'Shattered Galaxy'. IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
- ^http://tc.gamigo.de/news/#1070
- ^ ab'Shattered Galaxy for PC Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
- ^McDonald, Thomas L. (September 2001). 'Shattered Galaxy'(PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 206. Ziff Davis. p. 97. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- ^'Shattered Galaxy'. Game Informer. No. 103. GameStop. November 2001. p. 128.
- ^Ferris, Duke (September 2001). 'Shattered Galaxy Review'. Game Revolution. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- ^Chick, Tom (September 7, 2001). 'Shattered Galaxy Review'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
- ^Hiles, Bill (August 22, 2001). 'Shattered Galaxy'. GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on February 6, 2005. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- ^Giacobbi, Kevin 'BIFF' (September 26, 2001). 'Shattered Galaxy - PC - Review'. GameZone. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- ^Poole, Stephen (December 25, 2001). 'Shattered Galaxy'. PC Gamer. Vol. 8 no. 13. Future US. p. 82. Archived from the original on March 15, 2006. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- ^EP staff (2002). 'Blister Awards 2001'. The Electric Playground. Greedy Productions. Archived from the original on October 13, 2003.
External links[edit]
- Shattered Galaxy at MobyGames
Overview
Galaxy Life Online
Scientists tinkering with alien artifacts manage to transport a handful of inanimate objects, after that success they decide to try it on a rat. Bad idea. Not only does the rat go for a little trip, so does a big chunk of the planet and its population.
Shattered Galaxy Reddit
Whoops.
Soon the newly relocated earthlings are stealing more alien technology and getting into plenty of trouble as they attempt to take over the new planet and its galaxy.
Shattered Galaxy is the first in what I hope will be a long line of new Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) genres to hit the market. Up until now the only way you could play massively multiplayer online was if you were into RPGs as in Everquest, Ultima Online, or the under-development World of Warcraft. But Shattered Galaxy takes MMOGs to a whole new level with the advent of the Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy game or MMORTS.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
In Shattered Galaxy you play a hero who commands a squad of 48 different combat units. The game is broken down into two types of gameplay: combat mode and hero mode.
In hero mode you can wander around the territories owned by your faction, training your units in fake combat, beating up on aliens, and upgrading, repairing and buying new units. Most of this mode has the feel of Ultima Online with an isometric view and a small character that you move by pointing and clicking at destinations. Luckily, most of the game is typically spent in combat mode.
Combat in Shattered Galaxy plays a lot like Command & Conquer: Red Alert or Starcraft. You control a squad of units in what can become an enormous battle between dozens of allies and enemies, each with their own squads to command. Lose your squad and you have to wait a set time to send reinforcements to the battle. Run out of reinforcements and head back to hero mode to await the outcome.
A battle starts when you or your team enters an enemy controlled sector in hero mode or an enemy invades one of your sectors. You join the battle by clicking on an icon that brings up a map of the sectors with icons representing where battles are and who is fighting whom. The commander of a particular battle, that would be the person who started the fight, has the say on whether you can help. Once a battle starts you have 20 minutes to capture and hold the sector's point of controls. Whoever has the points when the battle ends wins the sector.
Another interesting aspect of the game is that there is no resource gathering. Instead you get resources like an allowance and the amount is dependent on how actively you help attack and defend sectors. You use these resources to purchase and upgrade your units. Units come in four basic flavors: mobile (tanks and anti-aircraft); air (spaceships and planes); infantry (typically mechs); and Organic (these are alien nasties that use acid and other organic forms of attack).
You can also spend money on upgrades such as new engines, weapons or special attacks. As you grow in experience, through battles, you can add points to your hero's four attributes, which will boost your ability to get better units, better upgrades and will make your units better fighters.
This is a MMOG so don't forget that besides shelling out the $29.95 for the game you'll have to be making monthly payments of $9.95 or an annual fee that works out to $5 a month. But don't worry -- all that cabbage goes into developing the game and keeping up scripts, plots and 'events' like alien mutations that affect your units and such.
Multiplayer
Well, this is a MMOG so it has to have some pretty major multi support, which it does. To start, you might eventually get some sleep, but this game doesn't. Your hero exists in a persistent world that's around and doing things 24 hours a day, seven days a week and with support for more than 100,000 simultaneous players you can expect things to happen when you're not around. Like losing a world or two. Moreover, each faction (that's like a team) has to have a supreme commander who can issue edicts, like ordering up a massive attack. Thing is, all the players in a faction actually get to vote on who this is. Once the overlord is elected, that person can be just as easily kicked out. You also have the ability to hang around and chat, but I didn't see a lot of that going on because the game itself is so enthralling.
Graphics
These aren't the best graphics in the world (think Red Alert) but they really can't be, in order to support the size of some of the battles I've seen. It's amazing to watch, heck, to participate in a war that involves 20 players and more than 200 units.
Audio
Again not earth shattering, no pun intended, but still good enough to make the game worthwhile.
System Requirements
Pentium II 266 MHz, 64 MB ram, 4MB video card, 28.8 modem, and Windows 95 or above.
Documentation
Read the directions, I never, I mean never, read instructions but this is one game where you have to. There are simply too many formulas and equations involved in determining character and unit bonuses to be able to wing it.
Bottom Line
It's truly heartening to see an independent gaming company come out with such a strong title. The fact that Nexus did so and in essence created a new genre makes it all the better.
When I first started playing SG I thought the gameplay was a bit amateurish and not nearly deep enough to keep my interest. All I have to say is give the game a bit of time and you'll start to see all of the hidden nuances that make it a wonderfully addictive game, as well as a challenging new way to play strategy. Best yet, you can kick ALL of your friends' collective butts at the same time.