Starpoint Gemini 2 Review (Kolbas)
Unfortunately, I can't recommend this game in 2021. Honestly, the game is bland, boring and doesn't respect your time. Even if the game is offered for free - don't waste your time. The main issue is that the gameplay itself is boring: most of the time is spent waiting as you are flying somewhere (to or from the mission or exploring). The flight itself doesn't require any input from you, so there is literary nothing for you to do. On top of that the music and graphics are "meh", so there are no beautiful or mysterious space objects to admire, nothing to make the wait more tolerable. There are plenty of other issues too:
- all the text (menus, dialogs, etc.) are extremely small, as the graphics were never adjusted for HD resolution (1080p). Tried reducing the resolution, installing mods - it helped a little, but the fonts are still way to small and barely readable (it was probably designed to be played at 1280 x 720 or even lower res).
- the plot missions and dialogs are cringe-worthy
- ships of different classes feel exactly the same
- stations feel dead: just menu options (though this is unfortunately common in many games of this genre today). Would it really be so hard to draw a picture of a place you are visiting and maybe have some active areas on it?
I played for 7hr in hopes that it will get better, but it doesn't. I have captured and sold many ships, got new weapons and upgrades, got next class of ship with the best specs - but nothing has changed at all. I normally don't mind playing old/retro games: I replayed star control ur quan masters (and it's still a BLAST!); but this game is not worth playing in 2021. Here are the titles I would recommend instead (this is besides the well known AAA titles): everspace, X3, FTL, Starcom: Nexus, even Rebel Galaxy (both of them), even Battlestation: Harbinger.
TLDR: I don't recommend buying it even on discount (or even playing for free). Don't waste your time - play something better