Quick Look: Space Pirates and Zombies

got this game back in its alpha stage, pretty awesome =)

Unfortunately a poorly played and researched quick look can lead to making this look like a bad game. If you’ve only played it for an hour or two (as mention by Brad) I do not think it’s at all fair to bring it to a QL.

Either do them with a tad more effort or don’t do them at all.

@JustKamToo: Agreed, this has made me realize I have to pay much more attention to the context of QLs, because when the crew is in a hurry it leads to a showing that only does the game a huge disservice.

I love QLs, but Brad you should have played SPAZ more and presented the game without all the confusion or not done a QL at all.

@rusted3572: only if your a bit to stuck up yes ;)

Love this game. On a side note, this is a QUICK LOOK. He looked/played the game for a brief time and is showing it off. If they wanted this to be a comprehensive look at the game, it wouldn't be called quick look.

I don't think brad is really pretending that this is anything but a first impressions sort of video, and that he doesn't really know much about this game. nothing wrong with that imo.

@gaggle: i agree, going into some quick looks, ones for games they know something about and think is cool, blind is really annoying. if you are slightly interested in the game they should play it to a point where they know why they like it and what they should show us. considering how old this game is i find it incredibly annoying when they fail to grasp core concepts of games or just do a poor job showing them off.

The way this QL went pretty much mirrors my first 4 hours with SPAZ - complete confusion and fumbling and lots of brute force throwing resources at the problem for that first Break the Blockade mission. Mind you I was playing it when it was beta also, so it may be easier now.

My biggest problem with it at the time was also the combat - it's a bit weird and fiddly and a little too fast for the way the UI and combat field is laid out, and takes time for you to get accustomed to it.

In short, it seemed pretty representative of my experience with it and reminded me to go back and play it some more.

The game does a pretty good job introducing new things to the player, although I understand that it's a lot to take in at once. I played the demo, and it wasn't nearly as frustrating as the QL would suggest. Upgrading your ships as much as possible is key.

Oh another rather disappointing thing about this game I should mention:

Don't expect there to be much strategy as well as controlling your other ships. There may be a lot of AI options but in the end, a) the other ships still weren't able to do what I really wanted to and b) the other ships are so significantly weaker than your main ship, that you will choose to control practically all the time, that it doesn't even really matter.

What counts are the right ship upgrades and how well you can control stuff. Which provides a lot of fun by itself. But just don't think you're going to have fun controlling a cool fleet or so later on, because really you won't.

Should have bought this when it was 2 bucks. Fuuuuck!

I didn't enjoy the game too much, there's the mentioned repetition but there's also the rez grind if you get utterly destroyed on a mission and have to rebuild all your expensive ships plus fill up your reserves. The zombies that enter the game fairly late are no fun to deal with (especially since the ally AI isn't very good at avoiding getting boarded) and the core combat in general feels very limited, mostly like a slugfest where you hope your guns kill faster than the other guy's.

For a similar game there's Starfarer (http://fractalsoftworks.com/) which is still in development but the core combat feels much better and the combination of direct control and the tactical map is much more useful in it.

I think some people are misrepresenting Quick Looks. They have always been going into the game blind, and the initial first impressions. By this action, they are often poorly informed, contain factual inaccuracies and often do not show off a game to the best of its ability. But to say that Quick Looks should be something different is missing the point of what Quick Looks are for: To show unedited gameplay as it is.

Same thing happened in Lego Batman 2. That was a very poor Quick Look due to player error, but it was still unedited and genuine.

@gbrading: The problem is they're very inconsistent about whether they're going in completely blind, or if they've played a couple hours or if they've already finished the game once over and are about to publish a review of it.

Some Quick Looks are for games they've played for 10 hours before loading up a save in, some are going in blind. In some of the Quick Looks they actually make some sort of effort to pay attention to what's going on, and in some they just talk trash about confusing game mechanics that they willfully skipped over a tutorial designed to explain. In half of the Quick Looks they try to make themselves sound like they're educating the viewer on the game, and in the other half they sound like they're just trying to figure out how to move forward in the game. Every QL is about a dozen dice being rolled, the result of which might be totally entertaining or disappointing. Gotta take the bad with the good and just be happy we have the feature sometimes.

@gbrading: You sure? I don't remember seeing many Quick Looks where none of the guys have any experience with the game at all. It's usually been just like this one: one guy has been dicking around in the game a little bit, getting a feel for it, and the others then make comments and ask things to be explained. They may be showing areas or missions that are new to everyone, so we get those genuine, fresh reactions, but I think the expectation has always been that the person playing the game should already have formed a basic understanding of the gameplay.

I've sunk at least 40 hours into this game. Great to hear they are making a sequel so I can waste hours trying to find that one damn component!

@SolongWrex said:

but I think the expectation has always been that the person playing the game should already have formed a basic understanding of the gameplay.

Welcome to Giant Bomb! You must be new. ;D Anyway you are mostly correct, but @SonicBoyster nailed it. QLs have no real consistent formula, and the dice roll of experience is part of the fun, really. But in terms of actual preparation, I cannot even count the number of times over the years a QL has been recorded without full awareness of a game's release date, price, platforms, etc. To be realistic, that's exactly what the wiki is for, but it's not as though these questions come -- in the recording room -- as a surprise. There was a time I actually wanted to design a little fill-in-the-blank QL fact sheet if it would help them any, but I figured it would come across the wrong way. ;)

Anyway, SPAZ is great, you can forget half the stuff in the tutorial and still do fine. The key thing to remember (if you've never played Starscape or Privateer) is that it's basically open world. You can go at your own pace, grind whatever missions you want between story progress, and don't be too bummed when you hit a wall and need to retreat.

As for a similar game on the 360, that would be Fusion: Genesis. Pretty good too.

I actually feel like the Total Recall remake looks better than it ever had the right to be. But, besides the obvious anti-science fiction shift away from Mars (screw you, science-hating middle america!), I just don't get why there's such a large focus on the female characters this time. Except for, y'know, the fact that Wiseman's wife is Kate Beckinsale, so the only way she gets roles is to land them in whatever her director husband is working on. It's annoying, actually. I kind of hate her. "kind of" = "definitely", in that case.

If they think this is confusing they should take a look at Starfarer

@Brackynews: Uuuh...thanks? I don't have one of them fancy medals, but I've been here since 2009, so I've seen a few Quick Looks in my time. Again, in my experience the "hey-I-found-this-disc-let's-pop-it-in-and-see-what-happens" type of Quick Look (to exaggerate of course) has been exceedingly rare. It's not like that has suddenly become the expected formula. But I was wrong in suggesting that there's any kind of formula at all, because I've now read SonicBoyster's post and realize they hit the nail on the head. There are lots of variables and circumstances that affect the outcome, so best to just accept this one as what it is and move on.

I was going to say "accept this one as a loss", but then I realized it's FREE CONTENT.

Wow, lotta points for brad in my book for knowing the name of the PDK story that Total Recall and the remakre are based on. To be fair its a poor title but also if you haven't read the original short story and most of PKD's other shit get the fuck out and read it.

I approve of that movie trailer.

When I drink, I always end up getting bored and looking through my list of Steam games for something different to play. This game has been sitting in it for a while, but the only time I ever feel the urge to try it out is when I'm too inebriated to concentrate enough to learn its systems. I'll probably try again soon because of this quicklook.