Geek.com Mini-Review: Astraware's Shattered Worlds Space Combat

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Dec/bpd20031209022990.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2...31209022990.htm</a><br /><br /></div>"Astraware just released its newest title, Shattered Worlds: Space Combat yesterday, and I have had the Pocket PC version for about 5 days. The game is available for both Palm and Pocket PC devices, but games like this don't generally play well on my CLIÉ UX50 because of the button layout. Shattered Worlds: Space Combat is a 3D space fight game, and is the first in a planned trilogy of games from Skwork Studio. Check out the Shattered Worlds site for estimated dates for the remaining game sequels...."<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/shatteredworld3.gif" /> <br /><br />Looks like an OK game, but nothing spectacular like <a href="http://www.pdamill.com/prod_an.shtml">Anthelion</a>. I wonder what sorts of compromises have to be made in making a cross-platform game?

[David Prahl]

As you may know, I did a review of PDAMill's Anthelion 1.0 about a month ago.
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,20141
Curious to see what Astraware has done, I downloaded the demo and have been playing for a few minutes. A few observations:

GAME SPEED Most games take a few seconds to load, but I probably spent two minutes (after a soft reset and 17 MB of free RAM) listening to the same 3 second MIDI loop waiting for the game to load. Very slow!

SOUND QUALITY Although the sound effects are acceptable, the sound track is not professional sounding.

GRAPHICS Not even close to Anthelion or Interstellar Flames. Ships lack detail and realistic movement, but weapons fire looks better.

MOVEMENT/CONTROL I couldn't get into the Options Menu (??), but it looks like this is strictly stylus operated. From what I saw, the game "pauses" unless you're pressing the stylus to the screen! I tested this a few times, and most of the time everything would freeze unless I was steering the ship.

CONCLUSION: At least from what I saw, Astraware should stick to 2D games. They make some wonderfully addictive programs, but "Shattered Worlds Space Combat" is not one of them.

This is not an official or thorough review, I'm just posting my "5 minutes later" reactions.

[sponge]

I agree fully. The only reason their weapon effects look better is because they're sprites. Like I said on another site, after playing Anthelion, it's hard to get excited about this.

[palmsolo]

I agree with both of the above posters and that is why I gave it just an OK in my review. Anthelion is a much better 3D space shooter game. I love some of the other Astraware games, but I was disappointed with this series. I am a bit surprised by others who are so excited about this game.

[serggeo]

Greetings,

> GAME SPEED Most games take a few seconds to load, but I
> probably spent two minutes (after a soft reset and 17 MB of free RAM)
> listening to the same 3 second MIDI loop waiting for the game to load.
> Very slow!

:) It is actually a 10 seconds pause, but if you tap the screen it will
let you through without any wait.

> MOVEMENT/CONTROL I couldn't get into the Options Menu (??),
> but it looks like this is strictly stylus operated. From what I saw, the
> game "pauses" unless you're pressing the stylus to the screen! I tested
> this a few times, and most of the time everything would freeze unless I
> was steering the ship.

Menus work using up/down keys as well as stylus. Not quite sure what the freezing thing is though.

Thanks for taking the time to play though!

Best,
Sergei