Battlestar Galactica: A key phase in modern society that can instantly elicit any degree of recognition and emotion, ranging from “I thought the old series was better” to, “wow did you see when the Galactica dropped into the atmosphere and then jumped out after releasing all of its fighters ohmygod”. Regardless of your stance, there’s no denying that the long-standing series has had a strong impact on the science-fiction industry, which inevitably means that the gaming industry will start seeing some interactive spin-offs.
In fact, we already have; a Battlestar Galactica combat game was already released some time ago (2003) for the Xbox and PS2 platforms and turned out to be a relatively decent (if imperfect) title. Now, long-time developer Auran has hooked up with Sierra to put out a budget-level shooter game based on the series. Electing to forgo any kind of individualized subtitle and simply name it Battlestar Galactica (a move that will undoubtedly confuse search engine results relating to the game to no end), the developers have put out what they intend as an action-packed, accessible, and all-around fun shooter set in the universe of lost humans and the crazed robotic ex-servants chasing them.
Right off the bat it’s easy to see that at least one of the above three elements has been successfully pulled off; the game is definitely accessible. Played from a simple two-dimensional top-down view set upon a three-dimensional backdrop, the game challenges you across ten missions to complete assorted objectives and rack up as many kills as possible. The controls are simple; one set of inputs are used for controlling acceleration and turning left or right, while the other handles ‘defensive’ maneuvers, such as rolling left or right (“Do a barrel roll!”) or quickly flipping 180-degrees. The only other buttons to worry about are the bindings for shooting your essentially unlimited machineguns and missiles, as well as triggering a defensive item (be it a shield or cloaking device, depending on the ship), and that’s it. Suffice it to say, it takes very little time to become proficient at the game, though the developers have kept things true-to-form by maintaining the laws of inertia to allow for fancy strafing maneuvers. The controls are very intuitive on both the PC and Xbox 360 versions, with the PC version providing benefits of both reconfigurable controls, and the relative seamless ability to just hook up an Xbox controller and use that instead, if preferred.
Unfortunately, while the game’s simplicity is initially seen as a highlight, it soon starts to feel like the developers kept things a little too simple. The ten missions encompass the bulk of the combat-related encounters seen in the series (everything from the opening Cylon surprise attacks, up to the sneak-assault on the Resurrection ship, and even encompassing the exodus battle above New Caprica) and have objectives to match, but each mission is relatively scant on interesting scripting and dialogue. Arguably the coolest provided detail is seeing friendly ships or enemy Basestar vessels warping in suddenly in the background and lobbing missiles at each other, but these are kept purely as non-interactive engagements that seem purely decorative.
In a nutshell, the campaign can be blasted through in roughly 45 minutes of effort, and doesn’t offer any enticing reasons to go back and play through it again. This could be a major issue for a game with such a short and simple campaign, and could easily have been offset by expanding just a bit on the gameplay; making larger, more epic battles for example (rather than just tiny arenas packed with barely a dozen fighters at any given time), providing more elaborate scripted sequences and additional dialogue, and also incorporating some form of wingmen control, management, or customization. Instead, the game just provides a disjointed series of battles that ultimately feel all-too-easy (aside from some of the dreaded escort missions) and just don’t have any lasting punch.
The campaign problems at the least could be salvaged by the game’s multiplayer component, and thankfully this isn’t too bad. You can play as either the Humans or Cylons using one of four distinct vessels types, across the standard deathmatch or team deathmatch modes. The local novelty however lies in a third mode – “Domination” – where two teams try to keep control of a set of cannons on the map, which will then shoot the other team’s capital ship parked somewhere below (either a Basestar, or a Battlestar). Multiplayer combat is fast, furious, and quite satisfying for those who have long trained with inertial physics (bless you, Independence War), but ultimately gets repetitive after some time.
Even offset by the low price and the arcade-style context, Battlestar Galactica just doesn’t have the punch to stand out in today’s market. Even the graphics engine is marred by low-resolution textures, small engagement zones, and dated special effects, and what bothers me about this game is how it could easily be a lot better were it simply blessed with more expanded gameplay.
