SubSpace (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.9 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeff Sengstack
• Reviewed on: 01/09/1998
• Updated on: 05/02/2000
• Released on: 11/30/1997
• Originally published on GameSpot: SubSpace (PC) Review

It's not too often we review a newly released game that already has 150,000 regular players and two newsgroups, plus many dedicated fan sites and privately hosted servers. SubSpace achieved this level of popularity through a two-year beta testing process accompanied by minimal fanfare and media attention. Now, with this commercial release, SubSpace may finally garner the attention it deserves.

SubSpace is a massively multiplayer, Internet-only, real-time action/strategy game. It began as a game developer's dream. Virgin Interactive Entertainment executives hired producer Rod Humble who had worked on the boxed version of Kesmai's arcade hit, Air Warrior. They asked him what kind of game he wanted to make. "Internet-only," was his reply and they said, "Sure, go ahead and here's the money." True story.

Humble hired his programming buddy Jeff Petersen and they set out to make something like Air Warrior in space. But first they wanted to solidify their Internet technology. In one month Petersen created an Asteroids-style overhead 2D prototype engine that incorporated Newtonian physics - an object in directed motion tends to stay in that directed motion. That physical predictability helped overcome the Internet's notorious latency problems. Then they quietly put the game, code-named Sniper, on a test site and awaited comments. Their plan: incorporate what they learned into their much larger game.

After about four months of tweaking and experimenting they announced they would close the site. The vitriol from perplexed and addicted beta testers floored Humble and Petersen. So instead of sticking to their original plan they began refining what they had.

After two years of adding "cool things" on a nearly daily basis, Humble and crew have created an easy-to-play, difficult-to-master marvel. On a simplistic level, it's a nonstop, blast-every-enemy-in-sight shooter. But the gameplay subtleties mean it may take several months before a "newbie" can begin to control his destiny.

You select one of seven spacecraft, each with strategic strengths and weaknesses, and use the arrow keys to control it, including the down arrow for reverse thrust. You enter a game by selecting a server based on its proximity and gameplay approach, from beginner and so-called Chaos shoot-em-up sites, to capture the flag(s) and hockey-like sites.

You start each game with minimal capabilities and have to stay out of harm's way until you've collected sufficient items, weapons, and power-ups (killing a new arrival with a low "bounty" is considered bad form and will lower your overall rating). Your weaponry includes guns, bombs, and mines each with several options and three strength levels. Plus you can use multiple defensive tools, like radar cloaking, invisibility, shields, decoys, walls, and warping portals.

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