I was just wondering what Mark and Tom (or anyone else) thought of Startopia. I finally picked up a copy this week and found myself up till 4am last night just trying to finish one... more... mission.

Great graphics, easy to use interface (especially given the sheer amount of things you can do) and a nice dollop of Dungeon Keeperesque humour.

I am just sad that it's one of those games that are great, yet pushed back to the dark recesses of the local EB's bottom shelf. This is really surprising given the quality of the title and the fact that it's only been out for a couple months.

Anyone have any experiences with Startopia, or any other games that were great but lost in the shuffle? I'd be interested to hear.

Brock "Spigot" Wager

Startopia's a neat little management/"fish tank" style game. My only real problems with it were the weak combat and the fact that the campaign felt like an extended tutorial, with only the last mission really bringing everything together. I enjoyed playing it a lot, and really did want to play more. Hope they release an addon or something.

-Matthew

I haven't played it. Eidos hasn't been sending me games for awhile, and since I didn't have a review lined up, I didn't request one.

Now, why can't I buy games like everyone else? I do now and then -- Black and White was one. It's hard to justify when I have a stack of unplayed games near my PC, though. (The other thing is that the whole game review business is in freefall right now, so I try to watch my pennies.)

I also haven't seen Startopia since I previewed it last year. I liked what I saw and was curious to see the final product.

I'm sorry to hear the missions don't break out of that tutorial mode, in which each new mission bleeds a new element of gameplay in and once you get to the end and feel like you've unlocked the whole game...it's over! Is there any sort of skirmish or sandbox mode?

-Tom

There's a sandbox mode.

-Matthew

"I'm sorry to hear the missions don't break out of that tutorial mode, in which each new mission bleeds a new element of gameplay in and once you get to the end and feel like you've unlocked the whole game...it's over!"

That was my complaint about Dungeon Keeper. What was there was really done well, but there wasn't a lot of gameplay in the end. It didn't take long to learn the optimal build patterns and other little tricks, and the game didn't really offer much variety.

"There's a sandbox mode."

There's also a skirmish mode in which you can set various win conditions and compete against as many as 4(3?) other station managers. The campaign could be stronger, but I'm still enjoying the skirmish mode.