Low Price Infinite Space

I give IS a 4 star rating because its strengths have hooked me enough to overlook its weaknesses to the point where I am having fun with the game. Make no mistake, there is plenty to both like and dislike about this game. I typically do not like JRPG games but this one is ok with me. I think the space theme connects better with me than the typical JRPG fantasy theme.

What I Like: The game is about stat building. You upgrade your ships. You buy new ships. You buy more ships. You get better technology. You get more crew. You level up your crew. All of these occur through random encounters and scripted missions. This means that if you are willing to grind (patrol the space lanes and fight random pirates) you can get ahead of the game difficulty curve. I love being able to get to the point where I can totally outclass my enemies just by milking the game design. Also, I've come to enjoy the tactical space battles. The game system seems to reward good tactical thinking to point where an enemy can be out maneuvered (or at least it feels like it). The graphics are good and the ship designs are visually interesting. The ship building process is an interesting mini puzzle game in an of itself.

What I Like/Dislike: You can free roam - to a point, only in areas which you've unlocked. The firing sequences in the tactical space battles contain breathtaking strings of techno-babble. At first I laughed, now I just skip them. When your ships are destroyed, they miraculously reconstitute at the next port as long as at least one ship survives.

What I Dislike: The melee system is terrible. As near as I can tell, it is simply a guessing game against the AI. I hate it passionately. Some of the design choices are frustrating. For example, in tactical space battles, your default target is the first enemy ship on the list - always the one that is at the back of the formation and most difficult to hit. Why not set the nearest enemy ship as your default target? To make matters worse, it always resets to that first ship after you kill an enemy ship. Side quests are few and are strictly "fed ex" quests. Documentation/tutorials are useless. You learn nearly everything by trial and error.

This game does have serious flaws. Buy Infinite Space if you like the space theme, enjoy level grinding and can tolerate a bit of frustration as you learn the game.Get more detail about Infinite Space.