About This Game Eterium is a space flight sim in the spirit of 90's games like Wing Commander and X-Wing. Developed by a two-man team, Eterium aims to bring the classic style of space combat games into the modern era. You play as a pilot serving aboard United Earth Alliance carrier Canopus during a war against an vicious alien race known as the Revi. Experience story-driven gameplay, advanced artificial intelligence, procedural missions and intense 3D space combat as you battle your way through over 50 missions of action-packed gameplay.Gameplay Features:Fully customizable joystickXbox 360 Controller and Mouse SupportOutstanding stereo 3D support (nVidia 3d Vision only)Advanced Artificial IntelligenceDynamic DifficultyAdvanced ship damage systemFully 3D rendered cockpitsAsteroid and mine fields 7aa9394dea Title: EteriumGenre: Action, IndieDeveloper:Rogue Earth LLCPublisher:Rogue Earth LLCRelease Date: 15 Apr, 2014 Eterium Download] [License] http:\/\/youtu.be\/a1BNYlHPoawIf you know where to look you can find a fair amount of recently released (in the last 5 years) space combat games about, but not many of them are actually any good. I'm pleased to say Eterium is not one of those and is a fun game which holds your interest long enough to get through the campaign, which would probably take up at least 8 hours of your time if you go through all the pilot dialogue's in between missions.I was disappointed that I could not name my pilot, given that all dialogue is text based, they attempt to flesh out our character with a back story and is far from a silent protagonist. I was also surprised to see that you could not gain rank, after being demoted early on in the game I expected a way to actually recover and improve upon my rank during the campaign. I also found it hard to make my way up the kill board, may be my piloting skills were just not up to scratch and found myself consistently sitting at the bottom of the rankings.Eterium supports Joystick, Xbox 360 Pad, and keyboard and mouse controls. I played with the 360 pad and found that all controls needed to play where accessible solely through the pad's buttons. The default layout worked well with the exception of the afterburner key, which to pop some enemies required you to after burn and fire at the same time and felt cumbersome - I'd recommend you reassign you afterburner key, which thankfully you can do. Controlling your ship with the pad is easy and some space vets will be pleased to know you can roll your ship.If you have played Wing Commander 1, then it's a similar experience to how the game plays out. Before and in between missions you can go around the ship (between the bar and flight deck) where you can talk to some of the other pilots and crew which play out the story. You are given a fairly generic briefing each time you fly out, in a similar style to the Wing Commander: Prophecy briefing screen and are able to choose the load out for your ship before heading out.There is Newtonian style physics at play. Fly forward at full speed, change direction and it will take several seconds for your ship to fly on the new intended course. This makes flying asteroid and mine fields a little challenging at times, which break up the: Fly to Nav. point, kill anything that moves, move to next; though they are not particularly exciting to fly though. You must be careful with mine fields as if you get hit the explosion force will change your trajectory and could push you in to another mine. Thankfully, they are easier to navigate than those found in Wing Commander!Combat can be annoying early on when you are in the weaker starter ships and requires some practice to get the hand of lining up your guns to take out the enemy. Enemies are always faster than you, especially the light fighters (S'tra) which zip by before you can score enough hits to pop them. Thankfully they can be countered, wait till they attack then break off, on the break turn to face them and hit the afterburners, then blast them with your guns, as they generally fly straight for several seconds before re-engaging. If you don't after burn they leave your guns range very quickly, leaving the only other choice of head-to-head conflict. Missile's are more of the primary weapon hear, a bit like in aviation combat of today, which can either 1 hit kill lighter craft or soften up harder targets to be finished off with your main guns.Take hull damage and your ships systems will start to fail, ranging from guns to engines. Your display screens will also shatter making it difficult or impossible to read them. Your ship has a repair system, which will slowly repair systems to a point. It does not appear to repair all damage, based on the overall damage amount, i.e. if you shield generator is damage by 26% if will only be repaired down to 20%. Take too much damage and key systems will barely function as they cannot be repaired enough to keep them functional.The graphics are pretty basic, you could argue Starlancer\/Freelancer have better graphics than this game and ship designs are hardly inspiring. Explosions appear generic and unexciting, mostly lots of smoke and no fireworks, and large ships disappear in a small explosion which disappoints when seen. Character art is done well, though only the one stance\/pose is provided for each character making them come across emotionless when paired up with their dialogue. It's anime but more western style than Japanese and feels a bit odd when they fit in backgrounds which have been pre-rendered in 3D. Sound effects are plenty from your engines burning to the overzealous eject warning alarm. There is a dynamic music track, just like in Wing Commander, which changes based on events during flight. This varies based on enemies present, a friendly taking damage or returning from a successful mission. I also have to say, that in all the time I played the game didn't crash once and there are no game breaking bugs either!Overall Eterium is a fun game and the worth picking up. The 8+ hours from the main campaign full justifies its price tag and is a well put together game. If the idea or reading lot's of dialogue does not appeal to you, skip it and jump straight in to the briefings, or just practice your skills in the simulator. Highly recommended if you enjoy similar games, otherwise try the demo first.. Great game that will surprise you on a lot of the little details. You just have to get yourself past the anime characters. Scratches that old school wing commander itch quite nicely. Could use a little more depth, but I applaud the efforts of the 2-man team.. Eterium is a space combat sim in the vein of the old Wing Commander and Freespace games. The influence of Wing Commander is apparent from the get go with things such as speaking to crew members between missions, carrier landings, mission types etc. For fans of Wing Commander, WC Saga, Diaspora, Freespace, X-Wing\/Tie Fighter or space sims in general there is a lot to enjoy here. Functionally the game works very similar to those older classics in both controls and mission design.Gameplay wise it is a solid sim with enough depth to keep it interesting without being overly complex or simple. You will fly a variety of craft each that feels and handles differently and be able to play around with various weapon loadouts. The dev's have included blackouts and redouts here when you perform heavy manuvers and I like this addition. Also your pilot's head sways when you turn which I think is a lovely touch. Another excellent feature is that when you are escorting vessels the hud no only displays the vessel you are to protect but also highlights enemies that are attacking that target with a difference colour on the radar. This makes escort missions MUCH easier to handle and takes away alot of the frustation. Combine that with the easy Wingman controls allows you to respond to changing battlefield conditions very rapidly and allows you to focus fire on particular threats. Your craft is a lot more "squishy" than in many games. This takes some adjusting to much makes the dogfights much more intense and rewarding.This was the easiest game to setup my T.Hotas X for, the setup screen in the laucher is very helpful and you can see what imputs do what allowing you to quickly setup a control scheme that works for you. Graphically the game is decent with a slight cartoonish feel yet this lends itself to the vibe of the game. Considering this was a part time project by a 3 man developement team I think the graphics are perfectly acceptable and the handling of the craft feels responsive and unique to each vessel you fly. The AI is good, acting intelligently and scale up as does the difficulty. Your own wingmen work well and depending on the skill can be a major asset in battle, unlike some games where they are more of a hinderance than a help. Out of the cockpit your home base and comrades are rendered in 2D, with the characters displaying clear eastern influences. When at base you can navigate to different areas and speak to different crewmen similar to Wing Commander. There is no dialogue in the game, everything is written in text. While this is fine for out of combat socialising, in combat it makes it harder to determine messages during the heat of combat. Storywise the game is ok but it throws alot of characters at you very quickly making things more confusing than they need to be, especially since some of them you appear to have a history with. Given the fact that the characters are practically thrown in your face it makes it harder to get to like them. I believe the game would have been better served providing a smaller, more flesh out cast but that is perhaps down to personal opinion. I also do not like that you are given virtually zero backstory before being thrown into the main story. Combine this with the fact your character seems to have history within the way, where he serves and with certain other characters makes things more confusing than they need to be. An intro story, perhaps in the manual or somewhere giving some insight into the story, who you are fighting and why would be appreciated. The story and dialogue is ok without standing out. Cookie cutter but enough to keep you engaged and in your cockpit. Music is ok, does the job. Overall I find Eterium to be a solid sim especially given it's three man dev crew who made it as a side project. That being said, Eterium holds up well in it's own right. It is not a big budget game but handles well, is fun to fly and is available at a modest budget. I would recommend this to anybody who enjoys space flight sims.Score: 7.5\/10. Forget the boring story and pretend it's Wing Commander. Ignore the terrible 2D drawings of your fellow pilots and don't bother trying to keep track of their 10,000 names. Then load up with FF missiles and go be the Red Baron in space for a few minutes. Gameplay is everything in this one, not the "story". Also, yes there is a lot of flying to empty waypoints, but that's what autopilot is for. It may have been an annoying and boring part of the Wing Commander games, but it was something we all remember and by god it's in there. Use that time to have a sip of your beverage of choice.
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