Welcome, my friends, to Torn Stars: Unstable Space! This is a total conversion mod for Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos that makes it a true Elite clone. By that I mean it removes any and all story elements or scripted events and makes the game a pure sandbox. While that might work well for some folks, folks like me need even a small modicum of direction, which is why I love missions. This game HAS missions, but I only found that out at the end, buried within a news menu. For this mission, I try in vain to make headway in the game. The game starts you out with a very tiny amount of money, barely enough to really do anything, and just says “Go, have at!”. If I wanna mine, I need to hire a prospecting ship, which I can’t afford. If I wanna haul cargo (without starting as a trader with a cargo hauling ship), I need to hire a transport, but when I DO try to hire one, my reputation is such that they won’t LET me hire them. It’s wacky. This game is an impressive technical achievement for what it slips into the I-War 2 engine. A new map, new factions and so much more. Gameplay wise though, I’m not sure it’s right for me. I’ll likely return to it eventually, but for now I’m not so sure. If you have Independence War 2, I suggest you give it a whirl and see what you think. Thanks for watching!
Hey Brian. Thanks for giving Torn Stars a try. I’m impressed….impressed by your patience. Your frustration was palpable. I wasn’t the person requesting this review, but I might as well have been as I was heavily involved in this mod once upon a time. To be honest its been a long time since I went to the Torn stars site. After writing loads of stuff for this (designed most of the map [including Bumpy’s Star], politics, factions, background, lore, stories, news fluff, etc), I thought it had kind of stalled. I am pleased it got as far as it did, and its as playable (albeit frustrating) as it is. Kudos to the folks who kept this baby alive and got it to a working state. Kudos to you for sticking with it so long.
Hey Duncan, thanks for your work on this, it’s a very impressive technical achievement. Sadly it doesn’t feel like much of a GAME though. :/