"ONE of the ALL TIME GREATS"

This game is truly engaging. I spent many (many) months playing and it never gets boring. The basic premise is pretty simple: you have a basic cargo ship with very minimal armament., and you would like to make a little money. There are thousands of places to go to trade goods. You have to play a little smart because there are other traders out there. There are also pirates and aliens, and police.

As you make money you can upgrade your ship. There are many things to buy to make your ship better including different lasers from basic to military grade. You can put a mining laser on your ship to blow up asteroids. You can add fuel scoops which allow you to save money buy refueling at the nearest star instead of buy at a space station. With the fuel scoops you can also pick up debris from the asteroids that you blow up to sell as well as debris from pirate ships you blow up.

You can forgo the trade route once you have some upgrades and become a bounty hunter. Each time you kill a pirate you get a bounty paid to you, and your rating goes up. Your rating will start out as "HARMLESS" and will go thru many levels to "ELITE". When your rating is low pirates are far more likely to jump you, as it improves you have to hunt them because they start to shy away and when you get really good they flat out run.

Another option is to take up the life of a pirate. This is not an easy life in the game the police are after you and bounty hunters are after you.

Another upgrade to buy is the Jump Drive. This is cool because it allows you to explore a different universe. There are 8 universes in all. So there is plenty to do.

The coolest thing about this game is that it is completely open ended. All decisions are yours and there is no end unless you get killed. Then you can start from scratch or at your last saved location. If you ever get a chance to play grab it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/06