Sunday, November 18, 2012

Battlestar Galactica Online Review

Battlestar Galactica Online Overview

Battlestar Galactica Online is a new browser based MMORPG that inspired by the hit television series. The gameplay focuses on the persistently ongoing skirmish between the Humans and Cylons. Like it's sister game Dark Orbit, Battlestar Galactica Online is a real time combat and lets players to buy different spaceships and upgrade them with dozens of parts. Yet, unlike other Bigpoint games, Battlestar Galactica Online was built using the extremely powerful Unity Engine, which means that the game has stunning 3D graphics that keep up with client based games. Players will be able to exit their ships and explore the Battlestar Galactica Universe.



Battlestar Galactica Online Registration

Registration is simple, you just have to visit the Battlestar Galactica Online website. You have to sign up by creating only your username, password, email and clicking a couple boxes agreeing to the terms & conditions. This usually only takes 30 seconds to start playing. As advertised by the company, there are no downloads or payment information required in order to play, Battlestar Galactica Online is exclusively browser based.

Battlestar Galactica Online Review - Gameplay

Battlestar Galactica Online Review

The first mission sets up the story for Battlestar Galactica online. A huge portion of the Colonial and cylon fleets are pulled into an unstable sector of space, where the races must colonize, mine for minerals and fuel, and pretty much blow each other up. It's a decent way to merge both an MMORPG into the television show's storyline. The rest of the tutorial missions go over basic concepts, such as combat, mining and targeting. The controls to the game are very basic and easy to figure out for the most part, there are some little learning curves, but it won't take you long to figure out.

You can start taking on missions from various characters in the story line, or just start free roaming into space. Battlestar Galactica Online players can establish bases, mine asteroids, and otherwise seek to expand their territory at the hardship of the other.

There are 3 types of ships, light, medium, and heavy. You can customize the ships and you can upgrade the ships with new weapons, hull, computers, and engines.

Space battles are fantastic. Dog-fighting with enemy vessels is exciting and quite fun. There are constant actions that are going on as both sides engage each other for domination over the various systems and gather required resources. The game is easy to keep track of the skirmishes with persistent updates scrolling across the bottom of your screen and sometimes on occasion flashing on your screen.

Battlestar Galactica Online also includes a skill system similarly to Eve Online, in that you improve your skills exclusivly by expending time. Click is skill book, wait some time and bam! Now you're better at shooting weapons, even though you just wandered around and twiddles your thumbs.

On the negative side, there is no real Player versus Environment (PVE). You get some daily missions from your main colony and sometimes the occasional special mission. The missions entail you to scan a number of asteroids, gather a specific amount of resources, fly a patrol mission through enemy space, destroy a number of non-NPC enemy ships, and so on. If you're looking for epic quests, you will be gravely disappointed. The game is to gather resources and use them to buy bigger ships and weapons.

Overall, the space combat is excellent and I couldn't stop playing. Yet, the lack of any epic missions or any real PVE hurts the gameplay quite a bit.

It's not required to pay real money to simply advanced your character, but that is an available option.

Battlestar Galactica Online Review - Graphics

The graphics are simply put, breathtaking, at least the space graphics are. The base graphics are kind of dull, but you'll spend very little time away from your space ship. You will only be on base to get your dailies, buy items, or repair. Outside of the based, the graphics are completely different. The star systems are stunning and quite beautiful to travel through, with asteroid belts strung across the stars. Coming out from behind a planet and having the glaring sun light suddenly appearing on the screen rendered me speechless. 

Battlestar Galactica Online Graphics

Battlestar Galactica Online Review - Conclusion

Overall this game is worth trying out, the game does have it's quirks but it does excel at a lot of things, like graphics and space combat & exploration. Best part of it, it's free to play.

Bigpoint.com