Frontier: First Encounters

The Good
The immense universe, realistic, hand coded missions, alot of different of ships to pilot, Actually have to work to get somewhere in it., Millions of stars to explore., Can do what you want to (open ended). be a Pirate, Trader, Military, Bounty Hunter Etc., great graphics (for when it was made.) JJFFE (Google it.) Lets it run in windows with direct X support., Jades FFE Page (Google this one also.)

I've spent many evenings exploring the galaxy in this huge universe in my Imperial Explorer (my favorite ship) and I worked at it from the bottom up getting killed many times in my smaller ships, while learning the ropes for controlling and fighting the bad guys, learning the trade lanes and seeing what could be done. I've followed the missions from the beginning and until Jade's came around never finished them. With Jade's aid finally finished the missions (woooo hoo) and am working towards elite status. This is one of those games that has basically never left my hard drive since I installed it. Along with Doom, Civilization II, Total Annihilation, Master of Orion 2, Homeworld.

 If you expect to jump into the ship here and own the universe don't bother, but if you like a challenge and working towards an end in a HUGE game universe worth the effort in gaming fun.

The map and manuals are great and come with quite a bit of good imaginative fiction and are well worth the read.

See you on the Frontier, Stim

The Bad
I found Frontier and First Encounters by accident in a bargain bin and I've been an elite fan from the beginning the no advertising part stunk, not letting your fans know it's out there doesn't help.

 Initial release of the title was very buggy, but I called Gametek and was immediately sent the 1.06 remastered version which is alot more stable, so no complaints. It's still a bit buggy some of the hand coded missions still don't work right or you have to do them a particular way, basically what could've been an awesome release was killed by rushing the developer with the product out the door.

The station personnel videos are cool at first but get on your nerves after awhile .....

The Bottom Line
Open ended space simulation, be a trader, pirate, assassin, military officer. Realistic controls and space physics. Lots of different ships to own and pilot; from the lowly Saker Mark 1 to the Thargoid Warship if you can find it! Can be frustrating at first but if you learn it loads of fun.