Missing pieces

Remember all those good old shoot 'em ups?
They might still be fun, but old ones start to look old, even if they're still fun to play. So there's need for something to that you can show to your neighbours.

AstroMenace is able to prove that it's possible to make old fashioned shoot 'em up and use all the latest technology to make it look good. And it's not all good looks, gameplay is quite right too.

Game doesn't go straight in the action. There's shop like in Tyrian. There's number of different ships with differen't kind of armor and weapon slot combinations. Too bad finding right kind of ship can be bit tedious, so maybe even some kind of search would be nice.

It's also possible to improve various parts of the of the ship, for example generator, shields or targetting system. Without good generator, it's not possible to use some of the more powerful weapons with their fullest potential. Targetting system makes possible to target more than one enemy at once. Choosing right kind of shield at the beginning can be hard. Ship comes preinstalled with self repair system and it's possible to save from repair costs. But later on it's almost impossible to survive without proper shield, damage just comes much faster than it can be repaired.

In addition if arcade mode seems to be too easy, different kinds of engines come into play. I have played only arcade mode so far, so I don't know much about the differences.

Most important part is of course weaponry. Choosing right combination takes some planning as it's not possible to have all weapon slots filled with highest level weapons. Different ships have different combinations of weapon slots. Later on level 5 slot is must have, as it's so fun to clear whole screen with BabyDoll. But before that choice is between automatically targetted missiles and different kinds or beams and projectiles. Some of the beams can be quite effective, even despite of their short range, so laser and masers are worth trying out.

Actual gameplay has all that can be expected from game like this. Main difference is that it's possible to use mouse. Mouse wasn't popular in shoot 'em ups in the 80s, but works quite well. There's usually way out, no matter how small. And with mouse it's possible to even take advantage of that.

Enemies come in great numbers and at the beginning more durable ones are bit rare, until last few missions where smaller enemies can't really do much harm, but big ships come faster than it's possible to destroy them.

There's also plot, though it's all in mission titles. But who needs plot in games like these anyway?

AstroMenace is available for Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. As far as I know, Windows version is not free as far as I know, though I might be wrong. At least games source code is available under GPL 3. But even if it's free, it's always possible to donate some money to the project. There's not too many games that really show that Linux is not inferior system to play games on, if people are willing to make games for it.

Globulation 2 is quite innovative open source RTS (real time strategy) game. Innovative means that units don't need babysitting and you can't actually control any particular unit. But let's see how the gameplay actually works.

Like typical RTS, gameplay includes building buildings and units, but the implementation is bit different this time.

You can assign one or more units to a building. If the building is under construction, more builders will gather up resources to finish the building. As you can't directly command any particular unit, nearest free one will come to do the work. If the building is in working order, workers will gather up resources depending on the building type. For example, inn requires wheat, defense tower stones.

You can also repair buildings. But remember that buildings will be out of order while repairs are going on, so it's better leave that defense tower alone while it's under attack and bring some warriors to defend it.

You can also upgrade buildings, for example you can upgrade barracks to train even more stronger warriors. There's also building to make units faster and one for teaching them to swim.

Hive builds units constantly, as long as there's enough food. So there's no need to constantly get more units in the build queue, who needs queue anyway? Ratios in which certain types units are built can be controlled with a slider. So if you need few more explorers, you can increase the slider and higher percentage of new units will be explorers. And if you don't need workers anymore, you can stop producing them. Quite neat, reminds me of the original Master of Orion.

There are also different kind of areas. One is defence area (blue, warriors gather there, otherwise they roam freely in the base), forbidden area (red, quite handy) and clearing area (yellow, resources are cleared from that area).

But sometimes there is need for more direct action. That's why there are flags which attract units. Most important is attack flag. You can attract only warriors that are certain level or over and assign up to 20 warriors to the flag. It's actually quite neat to sweep whole enemy base with a war flag...

There are also exploring and clearing flag. Clearing flag is more effective than clearing area. Sometimes it's hard to get area cleared if workers are busy, unless you use clearing flag.

Single player game is pretty short, seven mission campaign and number of multiplayer maps to to train with. But at least there's some kind of plot going on in the campaign. Most of the missions are not difficult, but two last ones are more challenging. Last one was actually so challenging that it kept me occupied few days.

Graphics are nice, as you can see in the screenshots. OpenGL is also supported, so game is fast enough with older computers if there's 3D acceleration available. Most important use for the OpenGL accerelation is the cloud shadows, otherwise it's not in heavy use. Intromusic is nice, but music during the game gets repetitive quick.

Game doesn't stop with single player game, as there's also multiplayer available. I have not tried it, but it should be fun.

So final judgement is that Globulation 2 is the best open source RTS that I have seen so far. There's not much single player fun, but at least it's fun while it lasts. Plot is not that special, but it makes campaign feel like one. The game is actually quite fast paced, unless you're out of horse power. If the bar in top right is red and reaches the right corner, it would be good time to switch that OpenGL acceleration on if available.

Globulation 2 is available for the usual platforms, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. And as the game is open source, you can also join the development, wiki includes some examples of the possible tasks. One of them should be easy enough, join a multiplayer game