Escape Velocity: Nova

"Similar to the Star Wars Sequels, this doesn't live up to the hype"

Escape Velocity is a game played in lore in the Macintosh communities. Thousands of die-hard Windows-lovers admit to liking this game as the only worthwhile activity on the Macintosh platform. Thousands of fan pages, plug-ins, story lines, graphics, and so much more have sprouted for the series, and the hype was so great for NOVA, it simply couldn't live up to the hype.

Graphics Finally, Escape Velocity enters the 16-bit era! (This is better than it sounds, earlier EV games looked fine, but this is a welcome addition). Fancy particle effects, animated ship parts, and missile trails and other niceties make this definetly the best looking Escape Velocity yet. All the ships look great, and the weapons, especially the missiles, leaving you gaping in awe. This does cause quite the tax on your system, lesser machines need not apply. If you've got anything less than a 400 MHZ G3, you'd be hard-pressed to run it fast. My biggest problem in the game has to be the slow speed it runs at. I have one of the new iMacs, so I was quite suprised at the sluggishness. Everything runs fluidly, and I'm getting 43 frames a second (F-12 to check), and after repeated askings-around, it indeed runs at a slower clip than older games. It's a like-it-or-not thing. Personally, I think it'd be better if it was faster, especially considering how slow some of the beasts you fly around in are, but you can always just tap the caps-locks and speed things up. One obnoxious thing is the hyperdrive. Whenever you do a ''jump'' from planet to planet, it flashes a really bright light, which gets quite old, quite quick. 9 out of 10.

Sounds: As usual, EV starts off great, with a booming opening track. There's actually some voice acting in this one, although it's limited. The explosions and warp effects are ''stellar'', and all the ships have their own distinctive sounds. 10 out of 10.

Control Since you can set your own controls, this is really a cursory mention. Controlling your ships works great, there's plenty to remember, but put in time and you'll be controlling 30+ escort ships attacking individual targets in no time. 10 out of 10

Gameplay Here's the problem I have with the game, which is the relative inflexibility of the game. The old EV games let you chose your destiny, picking and choses messages, switching sides, and doing as you wished. Very early on, you get booked on a specific mission goal that you cannot leave from, and often, you go before you're ready. There's six main plot lines, and although all are quite good (Polaris is my favorite), once you finish one..... you're done, unless you like doing cargo missions. There's no goal after you win, whearas in the old one there were small side quests, and strange unusual things to find.

The six main plot lines tend to be good, but there are many spelling and gramatical errors. If you're a woman, you're going to be suprised about how many times you go after your own gender, as well as all the times you end up with your shirt off in front of some random alien race. (There's no gender choice, which is somewhat ridiculous considering how reliant this is on text, as well as how many woman fans this game has).

One thing that I find depressing about the game is the lack of change throughout the galaxy. In the old game (Override), I remember taking my shuttlecraft all through the galaxy, each hyperjump bringing me something new and exciting. There seemed to be dozens of races, hundreds of ships, and thousands of missions. The new game seems to be divided into about six races, with some small-town neighbors. There are no fun planets with radical ships, just the normal base of about 30 (which sounds like a lot, but at each level in the game, you're really only getting a choice of one or two of them that can serve you). The problem is that it just all seems so much the same.... it's like the old boring best friend you used to have. You like him, he never changes, but he never really intrests or excites you.

Enemy AI seems to be slightly retarded as well. They have a tendency to simply unload everything they have on you, sanity be darned. The smallest ships can outpace and destroy much larger, costlier vessels. Dominating planets lost it's finesse, and it's now simply a slug-out between you and hundreds of planetary ships.

Overall, the gameplay would be great in a new game, but in a game with a history like Escape Velocity already has, it dissapoints on many levels. 6 out of 10.

Other Stuff Thankfully, there's plug-ins. Missions, ships, weapons, everything under the sun can be changed in this game. Heck, if someone was to strip out the game itself, and install an ambitious project, it'd be worth a whole new review. There's some great projects planned, but for now, people haven't mastered the plug-ins the way they used to.

Final Word: If I was you, and I'd never experienced Escape Velocity, I'd go and get a copy of Escape Velocity: Override. It's a really great game, still looks fine, and has a great story. Then, go back and snag the original Escape Velocity, and work your way to Nova after that, hopefully by then they'll work out some of the AI issues and other bugs that plague in now. Nova has the potential to be great, thanks to plug-ins. This review isn't timeless, it can be updated by others as time goes on, thanks to the innovative plug-in style, which saved the game from a worse score. Nova was like Episode 1, too much hype that didn't deliver. Hopefully, Ambrosia can deliver a smash like Episode II someday. Overall Score: 7 out of 10.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/02, Updated 05/27/02