[Review] Starpoint Gemini 3

[Lunix I]

Starpoint Gemini is a real-time, simulation, role-playing game focused on the control and strengths of individual vessels and their command crews. The game is set in a science-fiction universe where various thriving technological directions exist side by side. Players will freely traverse the rich and filled vastness of the Gemini star system, fight skirmishes with rogue ships, trade commodities, mine ore from asteroids, research anomalies, buy new vessels, enlarge their fleet, upgrade their ships with state-of-the-art technology, increase their experience and rank to learn more powerful maneuvers and ultimately use all that in large scale engagements against other fleets and battlestations.

is a space sim coupled with role-playing and strategy elements. Send your mighty war fleets into combat or lead them yourself. The choice is yours. Be the Warlord! Control your ship directly to show off your battle prowess.

Get ready for an open-world space action single-player RPG and enter the cockpit of captain Jonathan Bold. Engage in action-packed space battles, visit amazing worlds and interact with interesting characters as you travel the vast universe of Starpoint Gemini 3.

The player navigates a large and powerful spaceship. Every vessel in the game can be controlled and upgraded with over 300 ship systems ranging from Shield emitters and Grappling beams to Plasma cannons and Shockwave generators, to better suit the player. In addition, the player can create their "captain avatar" in the beginning of the game with some starting maneuvers (skills) which they then later upgrade during the game. He can also add new maneuvers by spending maneuver points he gained with experience levels.

Aim and fire manually or command your gunners to do the job for you while you execute unique skills. Choose your companions to follow you into battle and if you need an extra hand, have your fleets join you in glorious combat. Battles in Warlords can vary from duels and small skirmishes to clashes of massive fleets in planetary orbits. Begin your adventure on a small, agile gunship and work your way up to a massive carrier class capable of deploying numerous fighter wings. Upgrade your chosen vessel of destruction with a plethora of weapons and enhancements. And to finish it all off, throw a coat of paint on it to get that perfect vessel you always wanted. Assemble your mighty war fleets and pitch them against the other war-mongering factions of Gemini, but be mindful of the situation you're sending them into.

Starpoint Gemini features a combination of tactical combat and extensive role-playing features that support a wide variety of overall strategy. The player is able to undertake any of the game’s possible career paths, such as trade, repair, piracy, research, salvaging, mining, or a mixture. While most games of the space adventure ilk offer the same possibilities, Starpoint Gemini offers up to thirty-eight skills and eighteen perks earned through experience (and officers the player can hire for additional skills), along with twenty-one special abilities spread across fifty ships. The game has a large amount of variety, allowing the player to forge any path of your liking. Missions are also varied, providing your primary source of income in the game since the trade interface leaves room for improvement.

A fleet of lumbering battleships will not fare well inside an asteroid field, but numerous well-trained gunships could do the trick. Train your officers and promote them to fleet leaders to further boost your fleets. Spread your influence and increase your resources by expanding your territory, but don't stretch your defenses too thin or your enemies might take advantage. Territory can be fortified and improved by building various resource and defense structures. Expand the Riftway network to make your fleets travel across your ever-growing empire faster.

A timely arrival can make all the difference. Upgrade your headquarters with additional modules to produce more advanced weapons and enhancements, develop new ships leading up to the station-size Proxima, unlock new structures and activate various bonuses that influence all of your territory. You are the leader of your people and a powerful leader deserves a stronghold.

Starpoint Gemini offers the main storyline of some thirty missions, but also leaves a free choice to every individual player, whether they will actually follow the main plot or roam around at their own leisure. The entire Gemini star system is a living universe where commerce, mining, talking and fighting happens all around you. It is up to the player to survey the Gemini world, and choose their career. Since, in a way, your main character in a game is a large starship, the game offers many ways to customize it and adjust to your way of doing things. The captain can be a specialist in some technical field or warfare area, and he gains levels and perks in time.

The ships themselves have unique abilities, and can also be customized with large numbers of weapons, shields, power cores and science equipment. In addition, a player can also employ several crew members, each with his own bonuses and abilities, depending on their position and who is currently available. Once that is done, one can travel around Gemini sectors in search of wealth,(trading, mining), glory,(fighting,taking up freelance missions), or investigate anomalies. One can use everything from small gunships to large battlecruisers. The player has many tactics: frontal assault, cloaking approach, subtargeting enemy ship's subsystems, boarding the enemy vessel, and many more.