| Escape Velocity:
Override is the follow-up to the cult game Escape Velocity, although old hands may not
notice many differences initially. The game is still a richly complex action/strategy
game, starting on a small commercial vessel of which you are the captain in the midst of a
galaxy in mayhem. Trading goods, running supply missions and ferrying passengers from
system to system are still the bread-and-butter money earners, but as old EV gamers know,
this is just the surface. Sure, trading is a steady way to gain income, but at 5,000
credits a mission, how are you ever going to afford the 1.5 million credit ship you've
been looking at? In EV the
underbelly of the game was all there. Secretive company representatives offered high-paid
courier work, or you could choose life as a privateer. The ideologically inclined could
work their way in with one of the governments fighting for control of various systems, but
it was possible to play the game for hours without getting any interesting missions. EV:
Override fixes that problem. From the first minute the player is offered paths into the
conspiracies and subplots of the galaxy — and anything the player does influences the
events which steadily unfold.
The galaxy is also around five times larger, with
new inhabited worlds, governments and technologies to tinker with. The EV engine has been
updated, with new graphics and sound along with at least 250 new missions. The plug-in
system has also been advanced, but isn't backward-compatible with EV plug-ins. So no more
battling the Empire single-handed, or at least until someone gets bored with the world of
EV: Override.
A worthy successor to EV, EV: Override is destined
to cause many a sleepless night. And the best part is it runs without a hitch on my old
040 PowerBook. |
