Star Control

The Good
The Star Control series has quite possibly one of the best concepts and storylines used in a sci-fi game to date. The races, the interaction, the combat system, all very clever and unique. It's a game that leaves you craving it for years if you haven't played it in that time. And in Star Control 2 & 3, it just gets better.

The Bad
However, the reality is, Star Control 1 is actually pretty sad. I might even go so far as to say that if you played this over a decade ago and haven't seen it since, leave the past in the past and keep the pleasant memories. In reality, as great as the concept still is, the playability of this game leaves a lot to be desired. There is no set storyline or single player "campaign", just a set of individual - and fairly dull - combat scenarios. The rotating starmap is an instant headache, unless your idea of stargazing involves staring at your monitor for half an hour trying to work out which stars have a close enough orbit for a jump.

And last but not least, Star Control's biggest letdown is the Ur-Quan Dreadnought. While most games tend to balance their combat pieces strengths and weaknesses - ie. stronger units are often slow and bulky, units with a strong ranged attack are weak at close combat, etc. - the Dreadnought is undoubtedly strong to the point of an unfair advantage. In any and all scenarios that involve ship building, the player that controls the Hierarchy starbase and can build a Dreadnought, WILL win the scenario, be it a human opponent or the computer AI. The ship can wipe out any five other ships even in the hands of an incompetent player or the lowest difficulty AI.

The Bottom Line
If you have a craving to aggressively attack some Alliance aliens, or horrifically hurt some Hierarchy hostiles, play StarCon 2 or 3. They come with a detailed storyline campaign, a distinctly improved navigation and combat system, and a much higher overall playability while still retaining that unique Star Control feel. As for StarCon 1 though? Play it only if you want to see where it all began - otherwise, leave the past in the past.