Simply the best space combat sim available!
User Rating: 10 | Starshatter: The Gathering Storm PC
First let me say (because so many people have asked me); Starshatter: The Gathering Storm is NOT the sequal to the original Starshatter! The original was a great looking, highly ambitious sim that was unfortunately marred by a lot of bad code. Rather than issue tons of patches (or one very large patch) to fix the problems, Destroyer Studios simply decided to rebuild it from the ground up. The result is (in my opinion anyway) the finest space combat sim on the market today. Now, you'll notice I keep using the word "sim". This is not an arcade style "game" by any stretch of the imagination. Those looking for fast and furious thrills ala Space Interceptor, Tachyon or Darkstar One should probably look elsewhere. You'll also need a pretty robust system to run TGS well. It recommends a 2.4 Gz processor and 2 GB of RAM. When I first bought TGS, I was running a 2.8 Gz (since upgraded to a 2.5 Gz dual core) and 2 GB of RAM (since upgraded to 2 GB DDR) and, before the upgrades, the frame rate still dropped to a crawl when a large number of enemies were onscreen and the cut scenes would sometimes run kind of jerky. As stated in the "official review", a good joystick is almost essential to play well, though I must admit that, contrary to the "official review" I found that controlling my ship with the mouse wasn't that bad at all. Granted, it aint Freelancer good but it will suffice in a pinch. TGS is unique in the fact that it models combat both in space and planet side. In this, it's a combination of the sim Independance War and a modern jet combat sim. Probably the greatest feature of TGS is the robust modding system. The online modding community for TGS is HUGE. At Matrix Games site alone you can find mods covering BSG (both eras), Trek, Wars, Babylon 5 and just about everything in between. Overall, a fantastic sim that any Luke Skywalker or William Adama wannabe should have in their collection.
