Startopia (Windows)

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Description

Startopia is a real-time strategy/city management game. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, it is your job to rebuild the once-thriving network of space-stations. You must compete against several other enterprises, using economic and military means to expand your power.

The toroidal space stations are divided into three decks, each split into several sections with bulkheads. The droids construct buildings, deliver cargo, make repairs and can open sealed bulkheads. The first deck houses the basic building to maintain the station like a port for the alien visitors, a recharger for your working droids and an Energy collector that powers the different facilities. Energy also serves as currency. The inner Pleasure deck is home to shops, bars, discos and other entertainment. An outer deck called the Bio deck can be used to grow plants and trees and is used by the visiting aliens as a recreational deck.

Nine different alien races, each with their own abilities and preferences, can visit your station. Aliens can be hired to work for you in your facilities or as security. The game modes offered are missions, sandbox and multiplayer.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "太空城市" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
• "Startopia: Space City" -- French title
• "Spacestation" -- Working title

Part of the Following Group

• Startopia series

User Reviews

Highly addictive, if not as original as some claim.	Ola Sverre Bauge (241)
A rare gem.	El-ad Amir (124)
An excellent game... with ONE fatal flaw!	Dr.Bedlam (56)	unrated

Critic Reviews

games xtreme	Jul 12, 2001	9.5 out of 10	95
Game Informer Magazine	Aug, 2001	9.25 out of 10	92
All Game Guide	2001		90
Game Over Online	Jul 25, 2001	90 out of 100	90
Eurogamer.net (UK)	Jul 05, 2001	9 out of 10	90
PC Games (Germany)	May, 2001	86 out of 100	86
GameSpy	Jul 23, 2001	85 out of 100	85
GameSpot	Jun 19, 2001	8.3 out of 10	83
Gameplanet	Oct 14, 2001		80
Super Play (Sweden)	Aug, 2001	8 out of 10	80

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Trivia

Development

The game originally attracted the interest of publisher Psygnosis, but the team settled with Eidos based on their chemistry with that company.

Mucky Foot was founded by ex-Bullfrog members, so it's not too surprising to find a lot of Startopia's features borrowed from another Bullfrog game, namely Dungeon Keeper 2.

Easter egg

If you zoom up on the Workstations in the Laboratory, you can occasionally see the "Blue Screen of Death". The Turraken scientist will shake with anger and bash his fist against the screen, getting the Workstation back on track.

Movie reference

Slight spoiler: the speech given to the player during the end scene may sound familiar. It is based on the speech Darth Vader gives Luke Skywalker after their battle on Bespin in the Star Wars movie.

Patch

The English voice acting of the in-game AI adviser VAL, which was voiced by William Franklin, was considered so good that shortly after the German release a "patch" was made by fans, which replaced all the German voice acting with the English one. The file is about 300MB, which was quite a large amount back in 2001.

Sales

According to the developers, the title scraped together a disappointing amount of 110,000 units sold.

Related Web Sites

• Official Startopia page (official page)
• Startopia Post (Startopia fan page)