Terminus

Pros • Different career paths • Multiple character types to play • Numerous ships • PC, MAC and Linux versions in one package	Cons • Gameplay, movies and music are on different discs – meaning lots of disc swapping • Disappointing graphics
Bottom Line Terminus arrives to face fierce competition in the space combat arena from Starlancer and Tachyon: The Fringe and this latest arrival has a been-there, done-that feel to it. For every innovation that this title offers, there are numerous obvious cut corners and other shortcomings that invoke visuals of b-movies rather than story-driven independent film. Additionally the game has the poor timing to arrive after a series of space operas of varying quality including X-Beyond the Frontier, Allegiance, Starlancer and Tachyon: The Fringe.

In many ways games can be – and often are – compared to the film industry. For every major release by the big and medium size guys, there are attempts by the smaller independents to get out there and show that they can compete. But as with indie films, for every masterpiece there are dozens of efforts that just come off as low budget knockoffs of bigger things!

That pretty much explains how I felt when looking at Vicarious Visions’ Terminus, which is billing itself as an “epic space combat RPG” and was the winner of the Independent Games Festival. For every innovation that this title offers, there are numerous obvious cut corners and other shortcomings that invoke visuals of b-movies rather than story-driven independent films. Additionally the game has the poor timing to arrive after a series of space operas of varying quality including X-Beyond the Frontier, Allegiance, Starlancer and Tachyon: The Fringe. Many elements of Terminus seem familiar with a been-there, done-that sense of gameplay but more importantly, done-better elsewhere.

The setting and backstory are almost predictable – the solar system has been colonized with the forces of Earth and Mars on the brink of war. Long distance travel is shortened greatly by use of vortex gates, which provide instantaneous connections between the different systems. Players pilot a variety of crafts and much of the game’s interface revolves around the standard ship Heads Up Display.

Where the developers were able to spice things up a bit was by allowing players the opportunity to, not only play from either theactions, but also to try additional options, including mercenary and pirate. Furthermore, Terminus includes full story modes for each of these four character paths, as well as quick play for any of them. On the downside, the early missions for all four can be painfully similar, which is highly regrettable as it really defeats the purpose of having four unique paths to follow. Players can also set the difficultly and realism of the game, which is a real plus.

The game manual includes an interesting “history” of events, including the exploration of the solar system and colonization of nearby planetary systems. These types of details will no doubt appeal to hardcore science fiction fans and, while much of the information on ship types does appear in the game, reading the manual is highly recommended.

It is also almost necessary to give the manual a read to better understand the game's unique interface. The HUD interface in Terminus is not nearly as complex, nor detailed, as the competition's titles and in some respects this makes piloting a little bit easier, but playing without a joystick is almost impossible -- although in fairness this is true of most space combat simulations. The keyboard interface is fully remappable, but the default hot key guide is buried at the end of the manual and while players really would have benefited from separate one-page guide, the basic setup is pretty easy to adjust to.

The physics of Terminus are quite respectable, and, while it is scalable in realism to make the game harder or easier to play, the premise is impressive. Instead of traveling at a set speed, as is the case in some space simulators, pilots in this universe fire thrust – thus following the laws of physics: an object in motion stays in motion. Since there is no friction or wind in space, the thrust remains constant until players make hard turns or sharply change direction, thus reducing thrust and possibly even traveling in reverse if trying to pull a 180-degree turn. This makes space combat a bit tricky and tracking of enemy ships all the harder. There is a learning curve but it makes for some extremely challenging and enjoyable dog fights in space.

The game’s finer points do make for a compelling game, but Terminus just looks far too dated. The HUD appears to have been designed by an absolute minimalist and the target toggling system can be utterly confusing at times. Graphically, Terminus appears to be about two to three years behind the curve. This game has one of the least convincing settings of deep space, and rarely is there a really immersive feeling of being in a 3D setting. Instead, the various ships appear to be 3D renderings in front of a flat low-budget backdrop, and not the most convincing one at that.

The game developers also made the truly hideous mistake of relying on low-resolution photographs of people in a variety of uniforms to “represent” the different factions. The result is smiling folks that look like they are out of a badly produced portfolio or college catalog. The brief segments on space stations and military bases have poorly rendered backgrounds that barely resemble the setting, with the low-resolution photos of people then superimposed. The results look terribly similar to a b-movie again and appear almost as placeholders for the final version. It is hard to take serious. The voiceovers when “talking” to various characters are also of inferior quality that bring the overall game down.

Tachyon: The Fringe was able to do so much more, mainly by avoiding having characters directly deal with other characters and this is the route that should have been taken in Terminus. Instead, as a would-be pirate, you’ll end up “interacting” with cardboard cut-outs in army-surplus outfits or long leather jackets – obviously the statement is that fashion trends in the future won’t advance much beyond the proto-goth or militant look of the 1990’s!

Once in space, things do get better and the variety of missions greatly improves over time. There is a lot of variety here, and the multiplayer aspects of the game are also decent but they can hardly compete with Microsoft’s powerhouse Allegiance. The trade and economy model is another interesting feature that Terminus includes, but this was much better developed in Privateer or X-Beyond the Frontier.

Overall, Terminus is a decent game, but when compared to the fleet of other titles, it never manages to come out on top with any of its features. It seems similar to other games but it also seems far too inferior to other games. Only hardcore space opera fans who can’t get enough of deep space missions need apply for what Terminus has to offer!

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