Star Control II

[ZargonX]

#5971

I was quite surprised to not see this as a suggestion yet after searching through, so apologies if this was already mentioned elsewhere!

Star Control II is a constant not only on my list of “Best DOS Games”, but on my personal “Best Games Ever”. A completely different beast than its predecessor, it has an amazing combination of exploration, adventure, and good old fashion spaceship blasting. It also manages to be a rare breed of game that can simultaneously be incredibly funny and deeply serious.

I play through it again every few years myself just for fun, though it’d be a joy to see others giving it a whirl. And in terms of discussion topics, it’s got a whopper of a history for the franchise following it, culminating in the recent announcement of the newest entry in the series by the original creators. Certainly plenty to talk about!

[TigerQuoll]

#5976

Star Control II has always intrigued me, and looks really awesome, but I’ve never played more than about 30 minutes of it.
It was heavily inspired by Starflight, which the club did a few years ago (and which I also haven’t played!)
I think it could make for a good DGC episode – there’s a lot of rich discussion you could have about the differences and similarities between the two games.

I could have sworn that it was made freeware a number of years ago, but now I see it for sale on gog and steam (for just a few bucks to be fair).
I must be getting mixed up with the open-source spin off, “The Ur-Quan Masters”. Which, like, is apparently exactly the same and why would you buy Star Control II when you can just play the open source version?

[ZargonX]

#5987

So, Ur-Quan Masters is a remake of the original with a few quality of life improvements that was spurred along by the original creators (Paul and Fred) after the license for the Star Control name (but not the content) went elsewhere.

As to why you’d buy the original at this point, well, I guess if you really want the authentic experience, bugs and all. But otherwise UQM will give you everything in a little nicer package.

[Evil Taco]

#6257

Star Control II is definitely a must for the club at some point!