Spacing Out: I Owe Independence War 2 an Apology

Earlier this week, Jim and I did a podcast focusing on Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos. Now, as I said in the podcast, I’ve been giving this game crap for many years because it’s just so mean to the player. It has a difficulty wall which, I feel, ramps up way too early, it makes what should be very basic information hard to find, and rather than focus on usability, some things in the game focus solely on the pretty/whiz bangness of it all (i.e. the starmap, for example). I tried playing the game several times over the years and always hit these barriers, or more accurately, I felt like they hit me right in the face. However, because Jim and I were going to talk about the game at length, I decided to persevere more so than I had in the past, and in doing so I discovered something astounding.

Independence War 2 is an amazing F#$%ing game.

Now, it’s not a game without its problems. Jim wasn’t exaggerating when he called this game a “roguelike” because it has a lot in common with that brutal brand of gaming. First, you’ll die, and you’ll die a lot, at least until you gain the skills (or use the mods) not to die as often. For example, in my early sessions in the game, I was dying a lot because:

1. I was getting in too close to my targets, treating the game like a more traditional dogfighting sim.
2. Missiles would always be the death of me.

However, once I learned to dance a little better and move around more using the WASD keys to control forward and lateral thrusters, I became harder to hit. I also found success in installing a manual countermeasures mod, since the game appears TERRIBLE and launching them on its own. Once I learned a bit more finesse at the controls, I had a much better time of things.

Besides the difficulty, the other major problem this game has is its puzzle-like aspects. Several missions I’ve played have required the player to go things in a very specific way, but don’t really explain this to you clearly. For example, in a mission wherein the player is to steal some turret fighters from a guarded installation, you arrive docked to a transport in order to blend in as cargo. The game then tells you there’s a remote cargo tug that moves cargo back and forth…and that’s it. I tried the mission three times on my own before submitting to using a walkthrough (hey, it wasn’t for review, I can use walkthroughs), and only then did I realize that not only was I supposed to remotely control the drone tug myself, I was to do it in a specific manner. I’d likely have taken much, much longer to figure that out on my own.

The game apparently has a problem with easily giving the player information. It feels as if portions of the game were made purposely obtuse to increase the challenge or the “immersion”, such as the pretty yet horribly obtuse star map, or the dance one has to do to figure out which cargo to take to a drop off point (i.e. its in the trade screen, not the email you get asking for the cargo, for example). Once the user gets their head around this, it begins to make sense, but intuitive is not a word one could use to describe portions of this game.

However, when it finally clicks? None of that matters.

The starmap tomfoolery can be sidestepped by an amazing mod called “Location Finder” which gives the player a lovely alphabetical list, for example. Jafs’ inability to take more than six cargo pods — which can take FOREVER — can be sidestepped using a mod called Custom Jafs, which gives him a larger ship. Once you find the combination of mods — which you will totally need — and gain more skill in the cockpit, the game finally clicks, and becomes something of an amazing sandbox.

Now sure, the game has linear missions told through several acts, but like other games of this type, you can follow or ignore them at your leisure. Traffic at stations and La-Grange Points is dynamically generated, meaning you’ll never see the same stream of ships twice. I spent much of the early game at the Alexander La-Grange point, for example, because I got an email suggesting it. I was able to get a good deal of cargo (and die a lot) there, but eventually, with improvements to my ship (such as the amazing turret fighters), I decided to go after tougher targets. I now spend a lot of time at the Blackeye La-Grange point because a lot of unknown independent ships go through there that are immediately tagged as enemies, so I don’t feel so bad when I raid them. ;)

And let me tell you, raiding transports (and combat in general) in this game is as joyous as it is frustrating. Once you begin to get the hang of it, you’ll find yourself dancing around your enemies, taking shots with guns and missiles while evading their shots as best you can at the same time. Combat is an amazing dance of inertia, speed and fire, and the explosions of enemy ships are just fantastic in this game, making the combat that much more satisfying.

Sigh, I really can’t gush enough about Independence War 2 now, and I hope that’s a sufficient way of karmically apologizing for all the smack I’ve talked about it over the years. Lately it’s the only game I’ve wanted to play, and I can recommend it to just about anyone if and only IF they have a lot of patience and come to the game like a roguelike in which they expect to die a LOT. Once the initial hour or so has been passed, the game truly becomes something special.

Thanks for reading my rave, folks, and have an awesome day!