I first played Escape Velocity (the original) several years ago. The sequel (Escape Velocity: Override) was essentially the same game only different content (weapons, universe, storyline). The first was more exciting only because it was a new thing, and the second seemed somewhat the same and was not as exciting to play, although still extremely fun.

I was amazed at how many options of things to do there were. Most games are completely linear, where you go from point A to point B making very few decisions in between. In Escape Velocity, this is not the case. The player can choose what missions they want to take, what ship they want to do the missions in, and what weapons and upgrades they want to fight with.

There's always more missions to be done. They are completely infinite. Unfortunately, the bulk of the missions are completely repetitive after doing a few hundred of them. These missions are provided as a source of money so that you can advance in the game and do some of the more challenging storyline missions. The storyline missions are not infinite, however, which limits the replayability. Once I had completed all of the missions, I turned to taking over all of the planets in the galaxy, which was repetitive enough for me to stop playing the game.

The graphics were impressive at the time that they were released. At the time there weren't graphics that games today like Deus Ex have. I was disappointed when the sequel (Override) used essentially the same graphical system and did not provide multiplayer capabilities.

The controls were quite easy to learn, essentially the same as any other space game. Forward to accelerate, left and right to turn. The part that might confuse some people is that backwards is not brake, you have to turn around and accelerate to slow down.

The sound was not of the best quality. Lots of beeping noises like you would expect from any futuristic spaceship. The beeps aren't really so annoying. What's annoying are the constant high-bass warping sounds which are repeated every time you jump from one system to the next. That along with the simply repetitive noise of firing at enemies for long periods of time made me give the sound part of this game a low rating.

Everyone who has ever played Escape Velocity has suggested that Ambrosia make a multiplayer version of this game. Unfortunately due to the way that the game has been engineered it is impossible without heavy modifications to the overall gameplay experience. For a game of this type, I would suggest SubSpace (PC only). Sorry, I don't have a link available for that game.

Ambrosia is working on another sequel, "Escape Velocity: Nova." I am looking forward to it, although I assume that the graphics will get a bit old for my taste, since I have been spoiled with all kinds of high tech 3d graphics.

Recommended: Yes

Version Played: Released
Operating System: Macintosh
CPU: PowerPC G4
CPU Speed (MHz): 301-400
RAM (MB): More than 256
Best Played With/Intended For: Single Player
Graphics Card Family: ATI Rage 128 Pro