Space Pirates And Zombies 2
SPAZ 2 comes 6 years after the original, clearly with a higher budget - and many of the same ideas translated into a slightly different aesthetic. I appreciate a small studio experimenting, so I would still say try this if you really want to - but it didn't really click with me. It looks nice, but it feels like a step down from the first game. There's an overworld map where you move your ship around to collect resources, and a 3D sector mode where combat happens. Clicking around the main map is dull. Combat is slow and clunky.
Pros
- Nice 3D graphics
- Most of the campaign is voiced
Cons
- Combat still feels bad. It's slow, guns have delays between firing and firing again. Missiles fire automatically every time you left click to fire other weapons, instead of being on their own key. As far as I can tell, everything just fires at once, which basically means combat is "hold left click until things are dead". It's boring. At least in the first 2D game I felt like I was in control - but here it just feels noisy and confusing.
- The intro to the game has a lot of tutorial overload for what is really quite a simple game
- Moving around in the 3D view and combat is naval style on a horizontal plane - not in full 3D
- I can't see why this game would have a VR version
- There's a module-based ship building mechanic where you stick extra bits onto your ship, but honestly preferred the method from the old 2D game