...that a game as simple as this - no real moving parts, no animations, no 3d effects, etc - can be so addictive as to make me lose track of time?

I went to play this game last night around 7 PM, figuring I'd spend an hour just playing around in it, and before I knew it, I looked at the clock and almost 4 hours had gone by!! Yet other companies create these 10GB monstrosities of a game with all the latest bells and whistles, and I get bored after a half hour...

Is it just me? :)

It's not just you, plenty of GOGers seem to like it. It is me who don't get it.

I don't pretend to understand the finer points to the game, but with those handful of hours I have put into it I could not stop thinking this plays like one of those "free to play" mobile phone/tablet games but without the paywalls and timers meant to sucker you into ever escalating microtransactions. So I click things and stuff happens under the hood. Oh wow, I've been clicking away for hours and time certainly did fly, but did I actually do ANYTHING? Did I feel any attachment to what I was doing? My character is richer and older, for sure. Supposedly I played a small part in a larger on-going conflict, though I only know this because the game told me so, not because I actually did anything in the form of gameplay. I fly increasingly larger ships that shoot harder and die slower. Still, I'm only clicking on things to make the game play itself under the hood with minimal presentation.

I love the premise of the game. I've been waiting for years to play a free-roaming turn based game of space ships, smuggling and empire building. I picked the game up for almost nothing during the insomnia sale so I have no buyers remorse. Still, I've not found a single point where I agree with the direction the game has taken the premise. I have some weird sensibilities when it comes to writing, so the few typos I found as well as this to me pretentious use of forced Americanisms with quotes relating to early American history put me off, but I endured. That is, I endured up until I happened upon an event in which a "Jihadist" was described to be shooting people, the writer speculating that perhaps he was trying to bring about the end of the world.

I closed the game knowing that I have absolutely no curiousity for it any longer and no common ground with the designer in terms of creating worlds and the use of the written word. This game just isn't for me. At all.

Thanks for the mini-review there. I was debating whether to get this or not, since I love both FTL and Space Rangers, but for some reason I hesitated. One day I might try it out, but what I've seen of the combat and management/trading doesn't really hold my interest for some reason. Which is a massive shame since although I didn't really care about the empire aspect of it, I was interested in the idea of controlling massive starships that featured ship boarding coupled with a world featuring a massive conflict, and the potential for planetary adventure-ish segments.

Unfortunately the planet segments seem very simplistic, as is the ship boarding.

FTL does the "controlling ships" part, including ship boarding, though it's not on a massive scale (though it's still one of my favourite games).

Space Rangers HD has a massive open world filled with starships that go about their business and do their thing, a massive war against a vast enemy, and you can choose what to do and when to do it - trade, piracy, combat operations, and Government missions (including awesome adventure segments on planets). Also fully customisable ships, but the ships are all one-man deals.

Now what someone needs to do is COMBINE Space Rangers HD and FTL... :)

Yes my ultimate type of game like this would be to have the ability to play through the entire game in a one-man craft or as a captain of a ship and crew. You can sort of do that in Smugglers, but just keeping the one man craft means staying in just one system.

I found the corvette class, so far, to be the best in terms of gameplay, tactics, and survivability in Smugglers. The one thing I've found annoying in Smugglers is that you have to meet certain criteria before being able to do the more intersting things in the game - boarding ships, buying pirate bases, etc. That vastly limits the "open" feel to a game that touts itself to being very open.

Otherwise I do enjoy the game...

If you want a game with a one-man craft, trading, fighting, pirating, etc. - I still haven't found a game better than Space Rangers HD. SRHD doesn't have the "marriage" stuff, and you can't create your own empire - although you CAN become a Pirate Baron and as baron take over the whole galaxy, which is close. SRHD also doesn't have ship-boarding (since ALL the ships in the game are one-man crafts), but strangely it doesn't need it. Having said that I still want a combo of SRHD and FTL...

I have FTL on my wish list, so I really need to buy it sometime, I think :) I've never heard of Space Rangers HD...is that a newer or older game? How does it compare to a game like Privateer (if you've played that one)? I enjoy Privateer (a lot of it is nostalgia, though) but it is very limited in the types of ships and the space combat is a bit tricky compared to newer games.

Well SR2 is one of my favourite games of all time - unfortunately the latest incarnation (released last year I think) is only available on Steam because the publisher is a dick... :(

At any rate, it's comprised of so many different game styles and things to do, I could harp on about it for pages. In summary, imagine privateer, but with 2D turn-based gameplay for most of the game (though you can skip multiple turns automatically until something happens - it's pretty free flowing). Then imagine you have 6 skills which you can upgrade (like an RPG). You can buy and sell goods on any planet or space station and these also all have equipment shops.

All planets and stations also all have a google-like search window which allows you to find out about goods and available equipment anywhere in the galaxy, and then save this to your info bar! Personally I find this one of the best features in any game ever, as now you don't have to tediously roam everywhere checking every shop to find that awesome upgrade.

In addition to planets you also have different space stations where you can earn military ranks, sponsor the construction of friendly fleets (which are then named after you!), take loans, deposit cash, join the pirate faction, etc.

Oh if you hate trade, you can just rob people of their cash and cargo, and then change your identity to escape the law. And of course you can fight pirates and/or dominators (the main "robot enemy" in the game), or take on Government missions from planetary Governments, which can be simply delivery, system protection, ship protection, assassination, or the best ones: adventures! The latter are basically mouse-driven text-adventures, and they often aren't "adventures" in that sense - they could be competing in a robot battle tournament, finding a pirate base and blowing it up, being a coach for an olympic team, or managing a rally championship team (and more!).

On top of all of that, you have "black holes" - actually more like worm holes which allow instant travel, but feature a freaky arcade battle system which rewards you with awesome goodies. And if you so choose, there are planetary battles - real-time strategy games.

The best part is that you can choose to do as much or as little as you want. For example, I typically play through an entire game without touching the RTS portions AT ALL since I hate them, but many others love them and hate adventures - so you only need to play the bits you like. You can also dabble in trade, combat or piracy whenever you want - your character type changes as you do certain things, which opens up new possibilities.

Whoops I said I wasn't going to write pages on this... Oh well... I should have just pointed you to this: http://spacerangershd.com/shots/

Unfortunately the older non-Steam versions - Space Rangers 2 and Space Rangers 2:Reboot - despite not being as good or nice to modern machines, are also no longer available anywhere. I believe SR2 may have once even been on GOG, but the pricks (the publishers, not GOG!) pulled it...

Not only that, but it's also been proven that DRM doesn't actually stop piracy AT ALL. There isn't a single game out there with DRM that hasn't been cracked - not a single one. The people who want to pay for it will anyway, while those who don't will do that anyway. On top of that, DRM can screw over those that pay for it, while those that don't never have to worry about it!

It's likely a combination of DRM-free and a fair price across the world (no regional pricing crap - glad GOG decided to backtrack on that!) that makes GOG (and stores like it) such an attractive option, IMO.

Actually a funny thing with Space Rangers HD is that the devs added this "extra" copy protection, that if the copy was not legitimate it would gradually increase the speed of asteroids and planets, making the game hilariously unplayable. While funny, this actually ALSO affected a number of legitimate users! I think they may have disabled that bit now - not that I've ever had the issue myself though.