Some friends and myself picked this game up for a small lan party we were going to do over New Year's. We were all a bit ambivalent about IF this game would be fun. Disparaging comments were made about the graphics. We even argued about the merits of buying from Steam or directly from the game creator.

So some time in the morning of Jan 1, we booted up the game and muddled our way through getting a server up. We didn't bother with the manual (a few of us did while we tried to figure out how to get our main screen turn on) since things appeared fairly straighforward. We settled down to our command stations, and since I didn't scramble for a specific station I was pegged as the captain. We set the game on the lowest difficulty settings and said "It's only 6 bucks. Not too much of a loss."

We finished that map in 15 minutes. We were clamouring for more, so we made the sector a bit busier, and the enemies tougher. What followed was over an hour of organized yelling, hasty planning and tense staring at our screens as we fought to save the space stations, guide errant freighters away from black holes and deal with angry space life. We all had our moments: Weapons lofted a pair of nukes and blotted out an entire fighter strike. Engineering somehow kept us intact and powered even though we barely managed to keep him ahead of our flailing. Comms got a trio of enemy ships to surrender in quick succession. Our helmsman suckered an invincible alien life form through a minefield to its death. Sensors ID'd targets and made damn certian we knew everything around us and made each beam shot count.

So our opinion after 80 minutes of fast and furious play? We all agreed on one thing. AGAIN.

Who got which seat, on the other hand...

Note: Please disregard the play time. I'm running the game without Steam, so it does not reflect my actual play time.

First of all, I would like to correct a common misunderstanding. You do not require 6 people to play. Each ship has 6 roles that can be filled with "up to 6 people". Having one person take care of one thing makes it really comfortable and this is the way, this game is meant to be played. But it is perfectly possible for 3 people to have the responsibility of 2 stations, and fly the ship with its full potential (in a single instance of game client). I have 4 friends that got comfortable with the game, and now we're running comparatively easier set games with 2 separate ships (3 and 2 people per ship). Sometimes I like playing the game solo, even though it's hard to do so and possible only under lower difficulty settings. I'd say having 5-6 people per ship is ideal, but with 3+ people the game is absolutely playable.

Second false information all over the place. You do not need a separate pc with its own copy of the game to be the server. Go in the Steam/Steamapps/Common/Artemis and run artemis.exe. First window should be set to server mode. Now run it again, and make the second window the client. I personally connect my huge TV to my laptop and become the server, use the TV for the server screen (which is also the outside view of the ship), and use my laptop screen for the client screen (which is the screen of whatever role I'm filling). Entering 'localhost' will connect to the server running on the same machine.

I realize that this is more like a troubleshoot, instead of being a review. But in the process of deciding to buy the game, I immediately recognized how awesome this game is. The questions I had were the ones I just described. You don't need this review to know that this game is awesome, it's already all over the place. What you need to know is that the most frightening part of the game (6 people minimum thing), is actually incorrect. Also; it is possible for up to 8 ships to play Co-Op or PvP modes. Talk about awesome.

Bitte Beachtet: Das Spiel ist eine Gute Simulation, nur leider Benötigt man 4-6 Personen zum Spielen.

Es ist ein Super Game, am Meisten Spass macht es mit Freunden.

Es gibt auch Verschiedene Berreiche um die man sich Kümmern muss, deshalb Benötigt man auch 5-6 Personen zum Spielen da man ein Schiff nur schwer alleine Steuern kann.

Ich sag nur: Vorher 1-2 Folgen "Sinnlos im Weltraum" kucken und dann bei ein paar Bier das Spiel im LAN zocken.
Macht brutal Gaudi. Einfach zu erlernen. Bewußt einfach gehalten (fast zu einfach für meinen Geschmack).
Aber wenn man bedenkt, daß man auf ner Party den Leuten spontan auf kurze Zeit was beibringen will und man ja auch ein paar Bier intus hat geht das so völlig in Ordnung.

Artemis is a diamond in the rough. It's very much unlike any other space sim I've ever played. The game has you play a starship bridge officer, responsible for controlling one of the ship's systems. Pretty cool and all, but there's a twist. In most space sims, a player is responsible for running the whole ship. He controls the weapons, he directs the ship to its destination, and so on. Artemis is different in that each of the ship's systems are run by other players. The bridge crew is entirely composed of humans, not AI.

There are five stations to man in Artemis: Helm, Engineering, Weapons, Science and Comms. Helm controls the ship's movement. Engineering deals with repairs and modifying the power levels of each system in the ship. Weapons handles, well, weapons and shields. Science has control over the sensors, scanning targets for information on its systems and crew. Comms handles communication with other vessels, both friend and foe.

This 5-man setup provides a lot of depth to the game, but it is not difficult to learn by any means. The actual mechanics behind the workings of each system are surprisingly simple to learn. The genius of Artemis is how the mechanics of all these systems work together to form a complete, compelling experience for everyone involved. All crew members need to have good synergy if they want to complete the mission. As long as you keep up a friendly attitude, pay attention to your fellow crewmates and do your part to keep the ship running, you will have a high chance of success.

Originally, the game could only be purchased through the developer's website. It could only be played through LAN, and it cost 40 bucks, because that version came with extra copies to be played on other computers for a full LAN party. LAN play is fun as hell, but that alone doesn't make for much mass appeal. Fortunately, the developers have realized this and have added online play. The Steam version of the game costs a mere 8 bucks, because it's only one copy. A dirt cheap price for what could be an endless amount of fun with friends? That's a steal.

If you're going to play online, you'll need to get a program called Teamspeak to communicate with other players. There is a teamspeak server that is decently populated for most of the day. IPs for servers can be found there. Its address is artemis.teamspeak3.com and its password is Artemis1. The community is very friendly, supportive, and a whole lot of fun to play with.

Give Artemis a shot. This game deserves a lot more attention. It really is unlike any other space sim on the market. It's about as close to being in Star Trek as you can get. I'll see you in Starfleet.

This is not a pretty game, there's no way around that. The sound isn't amazing either and there are technical glitches (see: Data Console). But it's fun. Really, really, fun. And you know what? That's all that matters.

Ein Spiel für nicht nur auf sondern vor allem vor dem Bildschirm

Sehr cool!
Erstes Zock mit 2 Freunden über Internet...der Hammer. War spaßig.
Grafik, naja... aber der Spielspaß macht alles wett!

Artemis is a fantastic game, best played with friends, in the same room. I know that many people play it on a VPN, but there's nothing quite like all playing together. Drinking encouraged, almost required, for maximum enjoyment.

The game is low-to-medium hardware intensity; whatever machine is running the Main Viewer should have a decent video card, and be comfortable with multiple outputs if a laptop. One of our players successfully plays with nothing more than an iPad. Support since 2.0 has improved dramatically.

The biggest issue is players not knowing the nuances of their individual roles, and what buttons are where (since they've moved since 1.6).

"It's Star Trek, Jim, but not as we know it".

Don't go in expecting the full Star Trek experience because you will be disappointed (unless you get a game master). However, if all you're looking for is joining a Starfleet ship, this game exceeds expectations and then some.

What you see is what you get: you and a group of friends fly a spaceship, each member getting their own interface.

While some interfaces may seem daunting due to the amount of information displayed (particularly engineering), each one of them is well designed and surprisingly intuitive; you'll get used to the controls rather quickly.

The gameplay is rather standard as far as Star Trek flight sim games go (mostly combat), but it does deliver this sense of belonging to a rich universe (even if the map is the size of a single solar system)

Speaking of solar systems, the world objects (or rather the lack of) are the only drawback of the game. Maybe I shouldn't expect much from game that takes up a quarter of a gig, but a couple of planets and moons wouldn't go amiss.

Overall, it's a great party game for those who love sci-fi. Just don't be caught on dreams of grandeur.