Review by: Jonathan Houghton
Published: March 17, 2001

For some strange reason, when the average gamer ponders the words “Independent Developer,” there is a decidedly negative connotation that tags along. The mass proliferation of video games into the average home started with the extreme popularity of Sony’s PlayStation console. From the inevitable sales explosions that accompanied the migration of gaming into the eyes of the general public, there was a buildup in the number of third-party software developers on a similar scale. At the Adrenaline Vault we take pride in recognizing titles created by dedicated gamers who haven’t had the large marketing budgets or overall funding of the famous development studios. More often than not, the finished product ends up reflecting a lack of monetary input, but every so often you’ll find a title like Far Gate.

The focused plotline of Far Gate encompasses the fate of three different races: Terrans, Nue-Guyen and Entrodii. The first of these are humans, who prefer to construct their ships and bases out of forged metal. The Nue-Guyen, on the other hand, can be lightly compared to the Zerg from Starcraft in that they are organic entities whose entire society is comprised of biological units used in both production and transportation. The Entradii are entities comprised of natural crystal, their ships being faintly reminiscent of the crystalline entity that appeared in several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

During the single player campaigns, you will take on the mantle of Jacob Viscero. Caught by the Proximan Defense Corp for some unstated crimes, Viscero is a man with extensive military training and leadership qualities. Offered the choice of becoming a commander for the PDC, or being turned over to the Terran Imperial Navy for execution, Mr. Viscero wisely accepts the assignment and begins his PDC training. All of this takes place on a colony ship escorted by various other vessels while on the way to Proxima Centauri. The supposed mission of this ship is to establish a human colony on the planet Vesta, a world deemed suitable for human life by the Starfarer Probe, which had been launched fifteen years earlier.

What the Imperial Navy failed to tell the colonists is that the real reason for the Proxima mission was to explore something else that the probe found in the system — a stable wormhole. Not long after exploring the region of space around the wormhole, something nasty comes out to trouble the colonists: a highly evolved organic species called the Nue-Guyen comes through and attacks without provocation. The Imperial Navy, expecting this attack, sends its flagship, the Mjolnir, through along with a large group of support vessels, leaving the colonists to defend themselves in the Proxima system. This is where your real missions as Jacob Viscero begins — defending your colony and the colonial ship Copernicus against the onslaught of the Nue-Guyen.