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Publisher: Starwraith 3D Games
Developer: Starwraith 3D Games
System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Win 7; 2 GHz CPU; 128 GB video card; 250 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Space RPG
Release date: Available now
It’s amazing the things we humans can do if we put our minds to them. We can cure diseases, build monuments, even go to the moon and back. A no less olympian feat is the single-handed creation of a successful modern video game. While most projects are developed, produced and marketed by legions of employees of large corporations, there are a few that manage to find their way from a lone programmer’s imagination to the public through sheer force of will and talent, thanks to the global reach of the Internet. One such game is Evochron Legends, the fifth in a series of space-based RPGs crafted from the ground up by developer Shawn Bower’s Starwraith 3D Games.
The Evochron star system is in turmoil. A devastating attack by interstellar invaders sends desperate survivors out into the unknown in search of a new place to call home. As one of these refugees, you discover a mysterious beacon that transmits a message detailing a pilot’s search for his missing brother, who was investigating enemy technology that can give ships the ability to travel unimaginable distances in the blink of an eye. The message points you in the direction of another beacon, which offers more clues as to the whereabouts of the man’s brother and the device he’s tracking.
 In Legends, you start out as the captain of a basic scout-class vessel. Scattered throughout the game universe are space stations that serve as the hub of trade and industry. Here you can accept contracts from the local government, buy and sell all sorts of commodities (some of which you acquire yourself by mining asteroids for precious minerals), and use the proceeds of your activities to upgrade your ship. You can also hire crewmembers, whose abilities can help you gain the wealth you need to continue the quest to find all of the 19 beacons seeded throughout the dangerous Evochron system. But you have to keep your new shipmates happy with fair wages, or they’ll leave your employ at any time. And no matter where you go, there’s always someone looking to challenge you to a race. Participating in these events not only can make you some valuable extra cash, but they also can increase your piloting abilities, something that will become more and more important as you venture farther out into the void and encounter hostile enemy forces.
By far, the most impressive part of Legends is the graphics presentation. Your ship’s interior features a detailed instrument panel that can become a HUD if you should decide to change your cockpit view. Planets, stations, other ships, even natural elements such as nebulae, are all beautifully rendered, set against a very deep black sky. There are plenty of contract and trade opportunities in the game’s opening areas to help you gain the cash and experience you need to survive. The contracts start out very simple (destroy 20 asteroids, retrieve lost objects, transport passengers to other bases, etc), then become more dangerous (and more lucrative) as you explore farther away from your starting point. Mineral prices also increase as you go, so acquiring a mining laser should be one of your first objectives. Legends multiplayer is an open-world mode that allows up to 36 players to import their customized ships from the single-player campaign and continue their adventures, facing real-life opponents as well as AI bots. I also appreciated the little details in the game, such as runway-type lights leading to space station docking bays, the constant radio chatter between controllers and other pilots, and the effectively understated music score.
 As impressive as Legends looks, it fails to deliver in the gameplay department. Reading the manual is an absolute necessity; it took me several hours of fumbling around with the navigation controls before I finally managed to master them. You’ll soon tire of the busywork contracts in the opening area and you’ll likely travel far out into space before you’re ready for it, making you easy pickings for the deadeye enemy pilots in the outer regions of the universe. Filling the slots in your cargo hold using the mining laser takes much too long; I had to park next to an asteroid and hold down the laser firing button for 10 minutes or more until my hold was filled. And if you should decide to take a break from contract fulfillment and attempt the campaign mode, be prepared for a long, hard, boring slog. Instead of starting simple and ramping up the difficulty, Starwraith has made your first steps in the story practically impossible without the help of the developer’s excellent online strategy guide. The messages sent by the beacons are not saved to any kind of diary, so if you don’t read them carefully and take good notes, you’ll have to navigate back to them and read their messages again. Then, when you know where to look, the real fun begins, with clues so vague that finding the next beacon is like searching for a needle in creation’s biggest haystack. And a tricky navigation system is made even trickier by the lack of location coordinates on the HUD; you have to open the nav screen to see these figures, making it even more likely that you’ll fly past your targets without realizing it.
I have all the respect in the world for Starwraith founder Bower, who has been tilting against the corporate gaming windmill since 1989, creating a staggering 14 games, mostly on his own. But if even half of the effort that was spent making Evochron Legends look great had been used to make it more fun, Bower would’ve had a real indie hit on his hands. This is a true example of style over substance, an amazingly handsome-looking game that can be just as amazingly boring and frustrating to play. It’s good to know that the pioneering spirit still lives in the gaming industry. But, especially these days, sometimes it really does take a village.
Our Score: 
Our Recommendation: 
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Tried the demo. Locked up, with a sound loop. There are remedies on the dev’s website, but after the second lockup and chkdsk taking over(!) upon reboot, with a five minute FS repair job, it was un-installed within moments. Shame. EL looked okay, and small development teams are always worth supporting. Not this time, though.
Its a darn shame that few companies seem interested in the open-ended space sim game any more. There’s still quite a solid audience for this sort of game. I personally know several people, myself included, who would dearly love to have a solo “EVE Online” type experience, with deep gameplay, trading, and tactical, NON-TWITCH style combat.
RTFM !
The simple strategies in the manual make the AI far less then “deadeye”.
Mining beam can be locked on, no holding down the button.
You have the option of putting current location on your HUD, too bad you didn’t bother to ask find out.
The complaints tell more about the lazy nature of the reviewer then the game.
A very poorly done review in my opinion.
Black Wolf:
You’re correct about the strategies in the manual helping with AI combat. But no matter how many strategy guides you read or YouTube videos you watch, if you go out into a combat area and you fight enemies that are too powerful for you, you’re dead, which is the point I was making. Also, it doesn’t matter if I hold down the mining beam firing button, lock it down with a key command or use my Kreskin powers and pin it down by force of will, orbiting an asteroid for 10 minutes to fill my cargo hold is bloody boring and a total waste of my time. And no matter what kind of game you play, there’s something wrong with the final product (or the manual) if I have to ask somebody how to do something.
However, I’m touched by your concern about my gaming habits. I’ll try to do better next time.
Heh kinda off topic but this game is awesome… if you think sitting for 10 minutes filling your cargo is boring, you have not played EVE online. in eve you will sit there mining for at least an hour to get anything worth selling or making… but only if EVE had atmospheric flight….
I’ve considered trying out Eve Online on a number of occasions, but I keep hearing that the people playing it are, for want of a better word, obsessed. If I’m going to pay a monthly subscription to play a game, I’m gonna want something a bit more relaxed. It’s been a long time since I played Evochron. I hope it’s doing well; it’s an impressive piece of work for one person to produce, and I wish him the best.
The possibilities for a space sim are magnificent. The creator of Evochron Legends has done an amazing job. For those familiar with EVE you will appreciate the same kind of play and depth. You do not however have to wait an hour for jump drives to get you from one plant to another, EL does it instantly. Mining is also much faster. I personally could not stand spending so much time waiting for a simple task to be done.
For those not familiar with EVE, be warned, this game does have a steep learning curve simply because there are so many options. You have the ability to switch between newtonian movement (you keep moving in the direction of thrust)and non-newtonian movement (movement in the direction you face) with the push of a button, plus movement in all directions(up down left right forward back). The fact that you need to manage fuel will inspire you to become a better (smart) pilot. Fuel, cash, commodities, rented hangers, licences for stations, equipment and customizing your ship has you managing a budget. To increase your budget you can do cleaning jobs, racing, bounty hunting, pirating, mining etc.
As for graphics, they may be a little less than gorgeous but still very good. Making a landing on a planet with no cutscenes and ending up in a thunderstorm is an experience I have only had with this one game. Fighter explosions are nicely done but capitol ship destruction is a bit chunky.
As for the physics engine, even though you are playing a game, there is a reason you cannot go through a planets atmosphere at 4000kph facing directly down and not burn up; FRICTION. You can however do a high speed planetfall if your nose is turned up, just like landing an airplane. You would think I’d learn this on the way down.. nope, on my way back into space I burned up by going too fast OUT of the atmosphere.
All in all, there are hundreds of hidden systems and things to find in this open ended sandbox game that just adds to its replayability. And isnt that what we all want anyway? Why pay $50 for a game that is over and boring in 40 hours? This one is only $25 and is good for months if not years, just like space empires (which I have played for 8 years and its still fun).
If you are a fan of flight sims, space sims or just like blowing things up using your own skills, this is a game I highly recommend.
This just in: Reviewer is a casual.
Anonymous, I think you are missing a noun there somewhere.
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