The First 100% QuickBasic Game Review Magazine |
Updated November 20, 2004
|
Game Reviews
42 RPGs
55 Arcade
34 Puzzle
18 Platform
10 Strategy
Sections
QB News
Site Archives
Game Guides
Our Projects
Entertainment
Awards
QB Links
Interact
QB Chatroom
Mailing List
Submissions
Link to Us
Job Openings
StarQuest v1: Return
of the Legend
(Jace Masula)
vvvvvvvvvvv
"The Journey to Galactic Greatness Takes Flight!"
What a predicament! Stranded in the center
of the starmap with nothing but an MCS1 and limited supplies, your quest
to fame and glory in the galaxy has definitely been sidetracked. Luckily,
the MCS1 aircraft comes with mining capabilities. It's time to get back
to the top the good old-fashioned way: by working for it.
To earn your survival points, you'll need
to avoid space pirates, research new technologies, buy ship upgrades, and
feed your crew! Will you become a legend, or will you be blown up or stranded
in space? Your destiny is in your hands!
Game
Review
Graphics
(n.)
The
use of animation and visual effects to stimulate the senses |
vvv
(Good) |
Jace Masula does
a great job of drawing some original, well-detailed graphics for StarQuest,
and delivering those graphics (for the most part) in a polished and organized
manner. The sprite designs and displays for the game's menus and in-game
action are vibrant and metallic, complimenting the game experience very
nicely.
There is, however,
some work that still needs to be done in terms of cleaning up the graphics
in StarQuest. The asteroid-collecting portion of the game is very glitchy,
with asteroid sprites and enemy spaceships overlapping themselves improperly
and sprite residue occasionally being left behind on the screen during
such mining missions. The navigation menu, which uses lines to map out
the direction the ship travels, also glitches up when the buffer for the
ship's route becomes too large. |
Sound/Music (n.)
The
smooth blend of atmospheric sounds and original harmonies |
N/A |
Though space games
usually come with arcade style sound effects, the galaxy is actually quite
silent in real life. StarQuest, which has no sound or music, hurts from
the same lack of audio. |
Gameplay (n.)
The
precision of control and involvement of character within its universe |
vvvv
(Very
Good) |
The game's strength.
The goal of StarQuest isn't to overcome some intergalactic threat, but
to survive as long as possible. With asteroid belts, space pirates, food,
ammunition, and fuel to worry about, this is no easy task and the game
can very intimidating without a little bit of instruction or experimentation.
Thankfully, Jace
Masula does a good job of mixing all of these space-shooting and strategy
game elements by breaking down the game into a step-by-step process. The
most important among these steps is navigating or using hyperspace to take
the ship into asteroid sectors. Asteroid debris collected from these sectors
can be synthesized and traded for gold.
From there, the strategy
kicks in; gold can be spent in planetary markets to purchase valuable fuel,
ammunition, and food supplies. Gold can also be invested in research projects
that enhance the ship's armor, engine, capacity, and weapons capabilities,
or used to purchase ship upgrades from moonbases.
The gameplay, then,
breaks down into a cycle of blasting asteroids, resupplying the ship and
it's crew, and buying weapons upgrades. This gets repetitive when damages
are collected on the ship, since repairing the ship, although expensive,
is not economically crippling enough to give Starquest it's intended "survival"
feel. |
Story (n.)
The
creativity and presentation of the game's critical plot |
v
(Poor) |
There's little presence
of it in the game. However, without the story and theme of StarQuest, the
original gameplay would not nearly be as effective or as compelling. |
Replay Value (n.)
The
timelessness of the gamer's delight, such that the experience can be repeated
again and again |
v
(Poor) |
Because the heart
of StarQuest involves shooting at asteroids and collecting their dust particles
several times, one playthrough and trying to get the best ship and weapon
systems available once is usually enough to get a fill of the game. |
Challenge (v.)
To
strike the mental nerve in such a way as to stimulate human thought and
reflexes |
v
(Poor) |
StarQuest is more
a test of patience than anything else. Any challenging stream of space
pirates and asteroids can be easily avoided by exiting hyperspace, and
running out of resources is never a threat as long as you make stops to
the nearest Planet Market and Moonbase occasionally to sell asteroid dust
and stock up on supplies. |
Fun Factor (n.)
The
overall entertainment value as maintained throughout the adventure |
v
(Poor) |
While the first
few minutes of playing StarQuest feel like a new and enjoyable game experience,
stabilizing and managing resources can be achieved very quickly. After
that, there isn't a point to playing the game any further-- there are no
planets to slave, no space pirates to conquer, and no real need to research
new technologies or buy enhancements. Even the "survival points" feature
of StarQuest is somewhat flawed, offering little incentive to travel anywhere
or do anything. This is a shame, because with all the great ideas and original
features in this game, the entertainment value could have been so much
more.
StarQuest v1:
Return of the Legend Reviewed by Vance Velez |
Players |
1
player |
Genre:
Strategy Game |
Rating |
|
To solve: 8 hours Final Rating:
11/35 |
Download
To
download StarQuest v1: Return of the Legend (175KB), click here.
wThis
game is mouse-compatible. Make sure it is hooked up when playing this game.
wTo
play StarQuest v1: Return of the Legend, unzip the file and run "STARQUEST_V1.1.EXE". |
Back to Strategy
Games Page |
Game
Summary
Coding
Group
Jace
Masula
Genre
Strategy
Homepage
URL
http://www.qbasiclabs.
com
E-mail
N/A
Players
1-player
Final
Rating
11
out of 35 points
The
Highs: Intricate strategy game mixes allocating
resources with arcade-style space shooting.
The
Lows: Lack of game balance makes survival
in the game way too easy to be the focus of the game.
V Planet! Archive
This is an archive of V Planet, circa November 2004, when the site was last active. This is read-only, and preserved here as part of the QB Zines Archive at Pete's QB Site.
Site Highlights
2004 QB Gaming Gold Awards Almost Set To Begin!
Get ready for this year's Gaming Golds! After a long hiatus, this year promises to be one of the biggest galas in the history of the QB world. Who will take home the gold this year?
Site Watch
Pete's QBasic Site
The original king of QB reviews is back with
a vengeance! Check out the new and improved version of his website and don't forget to upload your latest QB projects
to Pete's new download section!
Affiliates
Antz
Entertainment
GBGames
QBasic
HyperRealistic
Games
InnerMark
NeoBasic
Jocke
the Beast
Pete's
QBasic Site
Pickers
Games Website
Piptol
Productions
Programmer's
Heaven
QB
Colony
QB
Chronicles
QB:
Cult Magazine
QB45
QBasic/QuickBasic
News
QBasic
Contest
Central
RPG-Dev.Net
Statto
Software
Links
|