SubSpace

The Good
From the minute I loaded version 1.09 from the demo disk that shipped with Red Alert , I knew I had found something special.

The simplicity of this game is beautiful. Easy to learn, difficult to master. Imagine, if you will, Asteroids with hundreds of players, rowdy power-ups, safe zones, and mad trash talking via built in chat. Add a spectator mode for lurking and multiple game types for those who want more structure than just "Chaos". Does multiplayer gaming get any better?

Sure it does. Open beta test it for around 2 years, build a huge underground following, tweak every last bug right out of the code ... then release and include a server with the game and your multiplayer classic lives forever. I can't say enough good things about this game. I turned all my friends on to it and now most of them are hopelessly addicted! :)

The Bad
VIE could have done a better job promoting and marketing this game, and turned it into the phenomenon it deserved to be. (In many ways it is one anyway, so ...) Unfortunately, for many reasons, this didn't come to pass. Fear not, however, the designers are currently working on Infantry , another massively multiplayer soon-to-be classic!

The Bottom Line
Go right now to "Related Sites" and download a copy. It's free, it's fun, and it is totally fantastic.

The Good
There's a definite sense of community amongst those who play this game, or used to. Although I haven't been very active in SS for a year or so, I can still pop into CHAOS Zone and see folks who've been around since back in the beta days. I can hang out with my old squadmates, or run like mad from old enemies still hell-bent on my destruction.

The gameplay's easy to get into and not so easy to master, though a week or two of practice in the introductory "Alpha" zone should get one well on one's way to developing good fighting skills.

It is very easy to communicate with other pilots, far more so than in other games of this genre.

The Bad
As with any other multiplayer Internet game run by independent server operators, you'll occasionally run across Zones in which the ops cheat, or let their friends cheat. Fortunately there are many more Zones in which this doesn't happen.

I don't recommend this game for small children. Lots of nasty stuff gets said in most of the Zones I've seen.

The Bottom Line
Virgin ran this game as a free, open beta for a couple of years before releasing the game (with, sadly, very little fanfare). Although VIE is pretty much gone, SubSpace remains, now available for free (and legally so) from http://subspace.ds98.com. It's as active as it ever was, too, with many "pro" leagues, regular tournaments, and a variety of user-run provide gameplay styles to suit pretty much any taste.

So, what IS SubSpace? It's a multiplayer, internet-only space shooter in which ALL your opponents are other humans. You and up to ninety or so other ships fly around in an enclosed arena and blow the stuffin' out of each other. Depending on the zone one is inhabiting, one may or may not have teammates to prolong one's survival. Some zones are simple kill-or-die, some have Capture-the-Flag-style game play, and some even allow hockey/soccer-like play. Some zones are "super" zones (in which rapid-fire weapons given in bountiful amounts, and energy to match), while others are more sedate.

You'll find all sorts in here, going from honorable dogfight-loving pilots to crass lameballs (like myself wink) who prefer to delve into the cheesier side of the game. Some folks are nice, and others, well... aren't. Happily, one can easily block messages from unpleasant players (and block the obscenity that frequently rambles across the public messaging channel).

Speaking of messaging... this game has the best interplayer comm system ever devised. Want to send a message to every? Type it and hit ENTER. No special keys required. Team, channel, and private messages are not much harder to send.

I say the best thing about SubSpace is that there's a niche in it for anyone... if you want to stick with dogfighting and leave the flag-game to the strategians, you can... or vice versa. Hang around long enough, and you'll make friends, enemies, and a reputation for yourself.

All in all, this game's certainly worth the couple of weeks' play it takes to get the hang of the various ships and weapons. Exercise a little patience and you may be in for one of the most engrossing gaming experiences around, shooter-wise.

The Good
In 1996, VIE (Virgin Interactive Entertainment), began releasing public betas of its newest project, basically a Massively Multiplayer Online Shmup (Shoot 'em up) called SubSpace. Virgin listened to user feedback, and continued to open test new versions, for two years, releasing retail copies and bundling versions with other software. Finally, in 1998 VIE abandoned the project, much to the chagrin of the online community it had developed. VIE folded shortly thereafter, but the online community not only sustained itself, but grew, while savvy fans further tinkered with VIE's final build, eventually releasing their own SS client, Continuum. Because no company owns SubSpace now, it has fallen into the hands of it's players, and has become one of the most successful stories of the MMOG era.

At it's heart, SubSpace owes a LOT to Asteroids. You fly around in a 2D rendered ship, blasting other ships instead of the benign rocks. There are eight different kinds of ships, but their attributes and special powers vary greatly between each of the user-run zones. Running SubSpace is simple...you pick a zone with a good ping, and connect. The game was/is very far ahead of it's time, and today's team-based shooters such as Counter-Strike and Tribes, while maybe not directly inspired by this game, definitely owe it something.

Each ship has a certain amount of constantly regenerating energy, which is depleted by both being hit and firing. Lose all your energy, and you explode and have to respawn. A ship's standard weapon is usually its guns, and it can pick up (depending again on the zone) several kinds of unique weapons, such as bombs that have devastating area effects, repels which deflect incoming shots, and stealth from both radar and visibility (but cause energy to regenerate slowly or even go down).

Zones are diverse and include capture the flag zones (Death Star Battle), base assault zones (Trench Wars), and good ol' fashioned deathmatch (Chaos). Zones usually have a few moderator ships (known as Ops) that can put players in spectator mode for unruly behavior or cheating. However, the release of Continuum holds the promise of almost eliminating cheaters from the game.

Also, since all the action keys are Tab, Control, PgUp, and the like, chatting in game is a breeze. Simply type your message and press enter. Using simple prefixes, you can send messages one-on-one, to everyone on your team, to everyone on the other team, or everyone on your squad. You can even send audio files under 32K.

The Bad
Some of SS's problems are inherent in most online games. For instance, expect around 33% of the people you meet to be jerks. You know, the kind that spam and swear excessively, and spend more time jawing than playing the damn game. Also, newbies should expect a rough time until they learn some skillz. Sadly, the tutorial level included in all the versions of SS has been done away with in the new Continuum client, so I suggest newbies download an old version of SS and run through the tutorial first. Lag can be a problem too, and slow connections are routinely yanked out of the game into spectator mode or booted off the server entirely. Fortunately, since this game is relatively primitive, it can be run stably on a 28.8.

However, for a 2D game, SS can be quite a bandwidth hog sometimes. You have to turn off ICQ, Gnutella, and any firewalls unless you want choppy, unplayable nonsense. And sometimes not even a 56K can handle SS with all the graphical trimmings (there is a host of optional details in the menu). Broadband users are at a slight advantage because they can set the game to run at a higher resolution and thus see farther than those at 640 X 480.

And since VIE only had one set of architecture for the game's zones, they all have a similar look to them. You can download skins, but it's not recommended.

The Bottom Line
Because of the wide differences in play styles in the various Zones, it's almost impossible to describe SubSpace as anything more detailed than revolutionary, action-packed, and above all, FUN!

www.subspace.net

Leviathan 4 ever!!

The Good
Subspace lets you do things your way. Do you like running into the middle of the fray guns blazing? Choose the Warbird or the Leviathan. How about lying in wait quietly, then uncloaking and blasting your unsuspecting victim? Then the Spider is your ship. There are 8 different ships with their own specialties, so you have some strategic choices to make.

This game is massively multiplayer. There can be up to 250 players on in one server. Some of them might not even be playing. If you just feel like watching the action, you can go into spectator mode. This many people can make for a lot of chaos. Or if you want something more structured, you can play capture the flag, soccer, or several other kinds of planned games. Me, I just like to blast indiscriminately.

The Bad
Since Virgin Interactive gave up on Subspace (after putting it through a TWO YEAR beta test!), the game is still going strong. This is because they included server software with the CD. But this can lead to quite a bit of cheating. There are some sysops that cheat, and will let their friends cheat. This can make things really annoying for the rest of us. Luckily, there are more non-cheating servers, than ones that do.

The Bottom Line
Subspace is fun. Just plain fun. You get a wide variety of games to play, several choices on ships that alter how you play, and many servers to choose to play on. And they give you the best opponent: Many other people.

The Good
In this game you get to meet people from all over the world...then kill them. I enjoy the soccer, capture the flag and deathmatch types of gameplay the most. It's very addictive and there's always new game types being added. I participate in several of the competitive leagues that are available and they're my favorite part of the game.

The Bad
The game can be frustrating at times because it's filled with many skilled players..and occasionally they get the best of me.

The Bottom Line
This is a massively multiplayer 2d spaceship game. There are 8 different ship types. There are many different types of gameplay such as capture the flag, deathmatch, hockey, soccer. There are competitive leagues, a very good chat system and many special events and arenas. The game is also always evolving and being improved upon. I must warn you: this game can be very addictive so watch out!