SubSpace

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
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!

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.