Star Control II

at the beginning of the game. Star Control II is an action-adventure science fiction game, set in an open universe. It features ship-to-ship combat based on the original Star Control, but removes the first game's strategy gameplay to focus on story and dialog, as seen in other adventure games. The player's goal is to free Earth from the evil Ur-Quan, by recruiting aliens to help. The main gameplay elements are exploring the galaxy, gathering resources, building a fleet, defeating enemy ships, and conversing with aliens. One-on-one spaceship battles take place in real-time, based on the core gameplay of the original Star Control. Each ship has unique weapons, maneuvers, and secondary abilities, In the story mode, the player is limited to the ships they can gain from sympathetic alien races, whereas Super Melee includes every ship in both Star Control games. Players must manage their risk as they explore, as planets with more dangerous hazards usually feature more valuable resources, which are vital to upgrade the player's fleet. More rarely, a planet will feature an interactive alien race, who the player can engage with as a potential friend or foe. The interactive dialog options help advance the story, with branching conversations similar to other adventure games. These conversations also reveal secrets and information about the galaxy. The game vastly expands on the characters and backstory from the first game, with each species having their own characteristic conversational quirks, music, and even display fonts. == Plot ==

Whereas the first Star Control stores most of its lore in the instruction manual, Star Control II continues the story with a rich in-game experience, playing through events after the Alliance is defeated by the Hierarchy. The player begins the game as the commander of the Precursor starship, who returns to Earth to find it enslaved by the Ur-Quan. The Captain gains the support of the skeleton crew of Earth's caretaker starbase and ventures out to contact the other races to find out what's happened since the end of the war and try to recruit allies in to a New Alliance of Free Stars against the Ur-Quan. The Captain quickly discovers that the rest of the humans' allies in the war against the Ur-Quan have either been eradicated, put under slave shields, or put into service as Ur-Quan battle thralls. As the player progresses, it is revealed that the Ur-Quan are fighting an internecine war with the Kohr-Ah, a subspecies of Ur-Quan who believe in eradicating all life in the galaxy, as opposed to enslaving it. The winner of this war will gain access to the Sa-Matra, a Precursor battle platform of unparalleled power. The player must take advantage of the Ur-Quans' distraction to contact and recruit alien races into a new alliance, gather resources and build a fleet, and find a way to destroy the Sa-Matra, before the Ur-Quan finish their war and become unstoppable. The Captain resolves issues several of the races are facing, or exploits their weaknesses, to get them on their side. Notably the Captain finds the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm on Procyon undergoing their own plan to merge in to a composite species powerful enough to defeat the Ur-Quan, and captures a psychic alien Dnyarri, which the Captain discovers is a member of the race that brutally enslaved the galaxy millennia ago, causing the Ur-Quan's hegemonic and genocidal rampage around the galaxy. The Captain uses a Precursor Sun Device to accelerate the merging of the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm to create the Chmmr, who amplify a Precursor terraforming bomb, allowing the Captain to sacrifice his ship to destroy the Sa-Matra and defeat the Ur-Quan. After escaping the ship through a pod, the explosion incapacitates the commander for some time, until he later awakens at the medbay in the Earth Starbase. There, he learns that the loss of the Sa-Matra was a crippling blow to the Ur-Quan and witnesses the deactivation of the slave shield over Earth, revealing its true colors to space. ==Development==

Concept 2015. Star Control II began as a more ambitious project than the original Star Control, with Reiche and Ford hoping to go beyond ship combat to develop a "science fiction adventure role-playing game". Once Reiche and Ford conceived Star Control 2, they would draw large inspiration from Starflight. This led them to create numerous stars and planets, through a combination of procedural generation and handcrafted assets. They ultimately decided to bypass some details of the simulation, due to its lack of distinct planets to explore. The map also added circles of influence for the aliens, not just to describe their location, but to provide narrative hints about their changing power, relationships, and stories. This was the last time that Reiche would design a game using pen and paper, including dozens of flow charts for the major plot points, player choices, and dialog trees. Paul Reiche III describes this creative process, "I know it probably sounds weird, but when I design a game like this, I make drawings of the characters and stare at them. I hold little conversations with them. 'What do you guys do?' And they tell me." Early in the process, they used the first game's character and ship images to create simple visual stories about the two main sides of the conflict. Fred Ford surprised the team with his prolific coding, and it was the rest of the team who needed to catch-up with art, writing, music, and other assets. They were also able to hire fantasy artist George Barr through mutual friends, who had inspired the game's "pulp science-fiction" feel, and happened to be living nearby. who Reiche describes as contributing the widest range of content, including music, text, art, illustrations for the game manual, and (later) voice-acting. The creators later clarified that Accolade did not interfere with development and was satisfied to publish the game in any form, and that this was important to their creative freedom and artistic success. and they were ultimately able to finish the project with the help of numerous family, friends, and other collaborators. The contest attracted people from around the world, due to the popularity of the MOD format in the largely European demoscene. Months after its release, the team would create hours of voice dialog for the 3DO version of the game, taking advantage of space afforded by CD-ROM technology, while bucking the trend of CD-based games with full motion video. Game Developer Magazine featured the game in its list of open source space games, praising its scale and charm, as well as its new features. In the end, the 3DO version would feature 11 hours of voice audio, including performances from Reiche, as well as friends Greg Johnson and Erol Otus. ==Reception==

Star Control II received a positive reception around its release, as well as several awards. Soon after, Star Control II began to appear on many "all time best" lists for players and industry figures, In their 1994 survey of strategic space games set in the future, they gave the game four-plus stars out of five, stating that "it offers hours of 'simple, hot and deep' play". Dragon gave the game a full five-star review, telling their readers that "if you are a science-fiction gamer who enjoys a superb game environment, a high dollar-to-play ratio, and numerous challenges, SC2 is a definite must-have for your software library". Questbusters called it the "best science-fiction role-playing game since Starflight", and "best RPG of the year". Giving the game four out of five stars, Game Players described the game's epic scale, where "there's so much to do -- so many planets to explore and mysteries to solve and battles to fight -- that the game may dominate your spare time". PC Games noted the game's "rich history", describing the game as "part arcade, part role-play, Star Control II is all science fiction, with an emphasis on fiction." COMPUTE! suggested that the game "gives you exactly what you want in a space adventure", also giving the strongest praise for the music and sound as "among the best done for any game on the market." The game was also rated 96/100 by Finnish magazine Pelit, who immediately hailed it as one of the best games of the year. Reviewing the 3DO version, GamePro remarked that the user-friendly interface makes the complicated gameplay easy to handle. They also praised the impressive graphics and the voice acting's use of unique vocal inflections for each alien race, and concluded that the game is "an addicting epic sci-fi adventure that will have patient space explorers and zero-gravity tacticians glued to their screens for a million hours. All others should stay away." The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly likewise praised the accessible interface and impressive graphics, but complained that the alien voices are sometimes difficult to understand. They cited the CD-quality audio and the Melee mode as other strong points, and one of them commented that it "blows [the PC version] out of the water." They gave it an 8.25 out of 10. Next Generation reviewed the 3DO version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "if you've the patience to spend hours digging for minerals, the game is addictive, but not state of the art." Jim Trunzo reviewed Star Control II in White Wolf #36 (1993), rating it a 4 out of 5 and stated that "Mystery, puzzles, combat, exploration, and more make Star Control II a science fiction software delight." The year of its release, the Game Developers Conference honored Star Control II as an exceptional game among their "Class of '93", calling it a "perfect blend of action and adventure", as well as "sound that is exceptional enough to make gamers think they've upgraded their sound boards". The game also received Pelit magazine's first "Game of the Year" award, "Greatest game" lists Star Control II quickly began to appear on "all-time favorite" lists, a practice that continued for many years. In 1994, PC Gamer US named Star Control II as the 21st best computer game ever. The editors called it "an epic" and "thoroughly enjoyable to play and look at." That same year, PC Gamer UK named it the 33rd best computer game of all time. The editors wrote, "If ever a game deserved an award for being underrated, it's Star Control II." The next year, players voted the game into PC Gamers Readers Top 40. Computer Gaming World created their own list in 1996, ranking Star Control II as the 29th best PC game of all time, calling it "a stunning mix of adventure, action, and humor." In 1999, Next Generation also ranked it among their top 50 games of all time. This acclaim continued well into the next millennium. In 2000, GameSpy inducted Star Control II into their Hall of Fame, and ranked it the 26th best game of all time just one year later. The Sydney Morning Herald noted Star Control II on its 2002 list, ranking the game as the 26th best game of all time. In 2003, GameSpot included Star Control II on their list of greatest games of all time. In the same year, IGN named Star Control II as their 53rd greatest game of all time, and ranked it again at 17th greatest in 2005. In 2006, Computer Gaming World inducted Star Control II into their Hall of Fame, explaining that "what made Star Control II stand out, though, was the incredible amount of backstory and interaction with all the alien species". PC Gamer listed Star Control II the 52nd greatest PC game in their 2011 rankings, and Hardcore Gaming 101 listed it among their 2015 rankings of 200 best video games of all time. Compared to classic games from the same period, Star Control II is also ranked on several "best of" lists. Hardcore Gaming selected the game for their 2007 list of favorite classics, with "a combination of sandbox space travel and arcade-style combat, a plotline equal to any space opera you can name, hundreds of pages' worth of interactive dialog and dozens of memorable, unique races, it's easy to see why most reviews of Star Control II quickly turn into love letters." When Kotaku compiled their 2013 list of "Classic PC Games You Must Play", Star Control II reached the very top of the list. Retro Gamer remembers Star Control II as one of the top 10 games made for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, and later listed it among their top 100 retro games at the 68th position. Den of Geek also ranked it at #37 among their list of classic DOS games. Its status as a classic game would lead IGN to list the series among the top 10 franchises that needed to be resurrected. Comparing it to the original Star Control, Cinema Blend celebrates Star Control II in their short list of sequels that progressed well beyond their predecessors. "Greatest design" lists Star Control II is also recognized for its excellence in several creative areas, including writing, design, and music. In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked Star Control II among their top 15 most rewarding game endings, proclaiming that the game "entertains right down to the end, with the some[sic] of the funniest credits since Monty Python's Holy Grail". with their readers ranking it the sixth greatest ending. Moreover, GameSpot twice acclaimed the Ur-Quan among their top ten game villains, mentioning them at the top of one 1999 list as "one of the very best villains. Even now, we are hard-pressed to find a race of adversaries as complex and three-dimensional as the Ur-Quan." The A.V. Club also included the Ur-Quan in their 2021 list of best aliens in pop culture, describing them as "tremendous sci-fi villains, importing heady old-school concepts into Star Control's relentlessly fun space-based action". The world design of Star Control II is also celebrated, with Paste magazine giving it top ranking on their list of "games that capture the infinite potential of space". GameSpot ranked the Star Control II universe among their top ten game worlds, whereas GameRant listed Star Control II as the third largest open world map, also noting it as "perhaps the most underrated game of all time". The game's music is remembered as the 37th greatest game soundtrack by the music magazine FACT, describing it as "a lost 80s treasure trove of unreleased techno, synth pop and Italo". The music of Star Control II was similarly listed as the second greatest game soundtrack according to GameSpots editors, which was echoed once again by their readers. == Legacy ==

Long after its release, Star Control II continues to garner acclaim across the game industry. Responding to film critics who criticized video games as a superficial medium, The Escapist magazine highlighted Star Control II as "the scripting was second to none. Don't be fooled by the fantastical setting - the story maturely dealt with wide ranging issues, from genocide to religious extremism, and still remained terrifying, touching, and damn funny in places." The magazine would revisit this in a 2014 retrospective, calling it a "must play for space loving gamers", offering "a massive experience filled with exploration, action and some of the funniest aliens you'll run into any video game". Rock Paper Shotgun featured the game in 2016, celebrating "some of the most memorable aliens ever put in a game, and still some of the best written." In a 2018 retrospective of the entire series, Hardcore Gaming 101 notes that "there are aspects of Star Control II that are rough around the edges..., [b]ut once you surmount those obstacles, it reveals itself as one of the smartest, funniest, most adventure-filled science fiction games ever made". Kotaku referred to it as "one of the early '90s most revolutionary sci-fi games", and game historian Rusel DeMaria describes it as one of the best games ever written. and The Completist notes it as "one of the greatest games ever made". Indeed, Star Control II is admired and influential amongst notable developers in the game industry. Tim Cain credits Star Control II with inspiring his open-ended design in both Fallout and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, calling it his personal favorite RPG of all time and one of the best computer games ever developed. Founder of BioWare Ray Muzyka also cites Star Control as an inspiration, stating that "the uncharted worlds in Mass Effect comes from imagining what a freely explorable universe would be like inside a very realistic next-gen game." Indeed, journalists have noted heavy similarities in the story, characters, and overall experience of Mass Effect, even calling Star Control II a spiritual predecessor. Henrik Fahraeus of Paradox Interactive credits Star Control II as a major influence on strategy game Stellaris, after expressing disappointment that the Mass Effect series lacked the exploration and openness of Star Control II. Game writer and narrative designer Zoë Quinn called Star Control II a childhood obsession, describing how she "filled several notebooks with notes and maps as I constantly explored Fake Space, trying to see everything and uncover all the secrets in the game." Vice President of Insomniac Games Brian Hastings ranked Star Control II as one of his top games, and one of "the most original and perfectly executed games ever". Alexx Kay of Irrational Games hailed Star Control II as the best game "by a mile", noting that it was "one of the first story-based games where your actions had clear consequences". Star Control II is sometimes credited as a spiritual successor to Starflight, inheriting its legacy as a genre-defining space exploration game. The Ur-Quan Masters The Ur-Quan Masters is a modified open-source release of Star Control 2, based on a freely available version of the original 3DO code. Sequel and continuity In 2017, Reiche and Ford announced plans to create a direct sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters, which would effectively bypass the story from Star Control 3, created by the now defunct Legend Entertainment. This announcement comes after years of fan requests for a sequel. Due to disagreements between the trademark owner of Star Control and the ownership of the intellectual property within the games previously sold under the trademark, the game development was halted. A settlement has been reached, and work resumed in the fall of 2020. After leaving Toys for Bob, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III co-founded Pistol Shrimp Games alongside Ken Ford and Dan Gerstein, under which they are currently developing Free Stars: Children of Infinity. On April 4, 2024, the official trailer for this project was released on the GameSpot channel on YouTube. The campaign to fund the game launched on Kickstarter on April 16, 2024, and has ended on May 18, 2024, collecting more than $650 000. ==References==