Review: spaz 2 is worth buying

[Lord Knightmarez]

I wanted the orginal but mark 2! I liked the top down 2D view.
I liked the 2d charactor avatars.
I don't mind the lack of voice acting.
I hate the new modular ship stuff,
I hate that I can't configure my strike craft's weapons.
I miss using a single cloaked fighter to complete the mission even on insane difficulty mode.
I miss choosing to focus my research completly on shields as a over arching strategy.
I miss focusing all my research on cannons, so that i could later go for pure cannon drone strategy.
I miss mining! i would listen to pod-casts and configure my ships to mine in SPAZ very efficently, I even got the turret upgrade to make a full sized mining beam, i would use a mouse repeater program to click the fire button, and would relax as my REZ built up.
The new 3d graphics are ....meh? 2D games age well because they still look good decades later.
3d games from the ps1 era still look aweful. Spaz has very low res ships. OK, so why not have more ships then? why not have proper 3d fighting?
instead i have 2d fighting with ps1 graphics, but my camera is at an angle. meh?

Navigaing the system was fun, i flew around and got all the 'lore ' books to power level, this was a good move. trading was frustating, i couldn't get the design i wanted, because when i went to the station by the time i got there, the trade i wanted was gone.

having parts of my ship fall off is frustrating, not fun.
The ships feel like crappy blocks of lego

colouring my ship is good!

over all, i feel spaz 2 went in mostly the wrong direction, with a few nice touches.
I won't complete it, i'll probably go back to playing spaz one on MAXIMUM difficulty. with minimum star systems and max mercs.

[Bozobub]

- You can play the entire game from a top-down viewpoint, although that loses a lot of the "meaty" feel of SPAZ 2's combat, imo; try hitting "C" to swap views. It's easier to field-fit parts, mine, and use debris in combat using the 2D view, as well, although I only rarely do either.

- I'd also support an "old-school" set of avatars.

- A lot of us are sneakily fond of the synth voices. "Kill! Kill! Kill!" indeed xD. The devs have said they will allow retention of the synth voices, once the human voiceovers are done.

- You are literally the only person of this opinion I have seen, I'm afraid; ship-Legos is a big part of the game's appeal for most.

- That's changing in the next update, which is all about strike craft love, including customizable loadouts, from what we've heard so far.

- This game just isn't SPAZ 1, although it retains much of the spirit and flavor. SPAZ 1 was not (ideally) about your mothership in combat most of the time, you know ^^' .

- Re: research as a "thing", see above. This isn't SPAZ 1.

- Mining was deadly boring for most people in SPAZ 1, and only exacerbated the very heavy grind of an Insane run. It was a common complaint.

- It's not like the graphics are amazingly hi-rez, nor are the neon colors particularly "realistic". That said, most seem to like the art style fine. Once again, simply play using the 2D view, if the 3D view bothers you.

- Finding the item(s) you want is difficult by design. Just be grateful; if the AI ships had the same access YOU do, they'd be far more deadly.

- When you level, make sure you take some armor bonuses. Also, be far more mindful of preventing shield failure. If you do both, parts simply won't fall off your ship (except for some ramming situations =) ). And the capability to blast parts off the AI ships is just plain fun!

- Yeah, coloring your ships is good.

While I did (and still do) love SPAZ, I like SPAZ 2 just as much, I'd say, and it's still not complete! SPAZ never had multiplayer, either, yet SPAZ 2 will, as one example. I think you're judging the game a bit harshly.

[Carnwulf]

I think the problem is, that the changes from spaz 1 and 2 are too radical for some people.I think that is putting of some players. To have some elements reocurring would be helpful for some players.

I dont miss the first part too much, but i must admit that the small galaxy size of part 2 compared to one is bothering me a little bit.Part one had some feeling of exploring. Part 2 with its petri dish size however feels like a petri dish. That would be my peronal critique of the second game.

i like the change but i think the devs could have easily done a spaz 1.5 and then developed towards spaz 2. that might have been easier to accept for some people.

[Lord Knightmarez]

I'm going to upload a ultimate difficulty playthough of spaz 1
you know, i kinda like the cyborg voices in spaz 2, there is enough variation to make it very listenable

[Lord Knightmarez]

all mining needed was an auto-fire button, and maybe a feature where the longer you mined the more 'rez multiplier' you got from the mining station for helping them mine. In effect, the longer you mined the faster you got rez.
Combine the two and you would of had - > easier mining
and
- > less time spent mining
but
-> player is still rewarded for building an efficent build (i would always use the 'c' slot for mining)

It was relaxing. Complainers complain, happy people not so much.

[Bozobub]

Then you probably should have spoken up long ago, on the SPAZ home forum. The vast majority of people hated mining, who bothered to make their preferences known; you've simply been outvoted.

Originally posted by Cmrd Knightmarez:

I'm going to upload a ultimate difficulty playthough of spaz 1

Grinding is boring when you're doing it yourself. You think people wanna watch other people do so..?

[Lord Knightmarez]

my techniques were super fast, and i'm a good conversationalist :3

[Lord Knightmarez]

I will do a more detailed feedback later. Now that i think about it, SPAZ2 is worth buying. It's just not what i wanted. If i had never played spaz 1, i would like spaz 2.
Maybe i will complete it after all.
I hope spaz 3 is 2D.
Minmax studios, never forget : Don't listen to only complainers. I miss mining! XD

[Lord Knightmarez]

Just completed it, it was ALOT easier to complete than spaz 1. Much much shorter, but still great.
I went with cannon on right hand side, anti-shield missiles left hand side, missle strike craft that held distance, and a solid complment of rear facing AA Mini guns, in the form of 3 engines.
I also went with as much shield regen as possible and did not rely on armour or hull to tank *at all*.
it was great, and the final bosses were a challenge!
I'm glad i bought the game.

[Carnwulf]

Good to hear! :)

How about supporting the devs with a thumps up review? Nowadays its harder for indie devs to get the attention and recognition they deserve... I feel minmax needs the support of their fans.

[Lord Knightmarez]

even on hardest difficulty i'm finding it a breeze to take over the star system.
I've been looking at alot of the designs the other captians are using. they are truely ♥♥♥♥♥. even high level charactors are using junk parts.

I would very , VERY much like to see them turn into the designs used by OTHER players.
Humans will design ships that have dynamic and difficult to counter set ups, pure shotgun anyone? XD

i'm not saying it has to be live or anything, but i sure would be happy if my design was uploaded and an AI version of my ship ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up someones day.

[Lord Knightmarez]

So this is my deathmachine of glory
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=791898178
and i'm ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up their bases
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=791898197
and i take on their top level boss.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=791898215
and she's got junk parts?!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=791898243
Yeah, this is way to easy, and it's on max difficulty level.
Sure i've beaten the final boss and i'm clearing the way for humanity.
but still.
The whole game i felt like i faced far FAR too many instances of captains using junkyard parts.

I would like ALL the captians to be ships the players built. Just give each ship a rating according to how many times the player get's it blown up, and how big it is.

Small and dies alot? low level
Small and does die much? higher level
Big and dies alot, high level
Big and almost never dies : faction leader ships.

it sounds like a pain in the arse to program but it only needs to be updated what...once after each patch?
maybe get someone who knows a bit of clever networking.
100 designs from crap to amazing is all it would take.

[Lord Knightmarez]

here is my trade networking, going to go past 100k scrap without difficulty soon
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=791903035

[Bozobub]

We've already been talking with the devs about exactly this; we'll see how that works out.

[Lord Knightmarez]

If i could get reports of my ship designs killing other people, that would be great.

[[Slayer]]

If they did let our ship designs be in then I hope they give us the ability to decide a bit how our ship would fight.

My ships are all super drone carriers. I stand back and snipe with one long range cannon and have mini guns on the sides to kill missles and drones. I never go into the fray, only my drones do. I feel that my ship design would get completely rekted if it just few into another ship and attempted to shoot.