If you believe the developers Space Pirates and Zombies, In the distant future, something that is so afraid of the “green,” – in a thoughtless race for technological progress, humanity turned its native planet into a giant landfill. It became strongly impossible to live in the midst of waste, so people remembered their old dream – the conquest of space. Shortly after the first interstellar ships began to plow the expanses of the universe, a universal mineral was opened, called “Rez”, from which everything can be done – from a cosmic battleship to an axelbant on a front -line uniform of

his captain. The closer to the center of the galaxy, the higher the concentration of Rez, the more people who want to fill the holds with a precious mineral.

Gradually, humanity colonized most of the galaxy, but even in the future, the rulers did not come up with a reliable way of managing the state – the Great Empire fell into separate systems, in each of which people divided into two warring camps. Peaceful settlers mines Rez and engage in scientific research, and the remnants of the navy earn their own bread with oil in another way – levying the bribe for the use of star gate. Although these guys really do not like each other, it does not reach further small skirmishes, and in each system there is a parity with a slight advantage of one of the parties.

And then we appear on the stage – the same Space Pirates. Having changed his mind to work for an uncle and wishing wealth, the adventurers’ team decides to go on a long way to the center of the galaxy, where Rez is so much that everyone and everyone will leave – no one will leave offended.

Piasters, Piasters, Piasters!

Despite the fact that Spaz It looks very simple at first glance, it will take a lot of time to study all the intricacies – the developers devoted a whole chapter of the four available to the training regime. The player is controlled by a huge starship, on which you can travel through the galaxy. For movement inside the star system, smaller vessels are used, one of them can be steamed as if you like, the rest will act according to orders. You can set the style of behavior of each allies. It is very convenient and distracts from unnecessary microcontrol – for example, we order one pilot on the fighter to cover the rear, and the second we trust the cargo ship and Velim directly during the fight to collect resources remaining from the destroyed enemies.

The rez mined from fragments is used as the main currency, and with its help you can build and repair ships. Before exploding, the downed ship throws in different directions several rescue capsules with a crew (Goons) – this is another type of resources. You can choose people and make former enemies work for yourself. However, nothing prevents them from using them for a mutually beneficial barter-the military, for example, are always happy to accept a dozen or two thugs in exchange for an unhindered flight through interstellar gates. The last resource – data that, like Rez, can be found among the enemy remains. Thanks to them, the player grows in the level, receiving experience points that are spent on the study of new technologies, and at any time you can reset one of the branches of development and put the released points in the other. This happens without any delights: they added five points to the engines line – they began to fly faster, pumped shields – now the enemy will have to sweat to break through them.

Our fleet is located in the Mothership hangar. Here you can choose its composition for the upcoming battle, change equipment and weapons. To open a new equipment, you need to buy the relevant schemes at the stations of the military or settlers. But the drawings of ships “fall” only from defeated enemies, and from each you can choose the documentation precisely according to this model. Therefore, for development, it is necessary to constantly defeat the opponents stronger than themselves, otherwise it is not to see new buildings, and without it the victory does not shine. A vicious circle. There is a permanent race for technology, because the new ship allows you to win a stronger one, it, in turn, can compete with an even more steep enemy – and this continues until the available models of the corps ends. And there are many of them: there are small and nimble fighters, there are low -cost, but roomy barges, there are huge battleships, comparable in size with the orbital station. Despite a large selection, everyone has its own application, therefore, the fleet must be arm in accordance with the tasks. I hasten to upset lovers of large -scale space battles – no more than four combat units fit into the hangar. But I really want to manage not a couple of cosmolets, even huge, but real armada! It is strange that the developers introduced such a restriction – otherwise there could be a real strategy with the elements of the Arcade, and not vice versa, as now.

Battles resemble a mixture of arcade battles from Space Ranges (Fans of this wonderful series will immediately notice where the ears are “growing” from many aspects Spaz) and mass executions of raising evil spirits from Alien Shooter simultaneously. Flashes of lasers sparkle, something explodes loudly, rockets fly along intricate trajectories-at first all this is impressive. But after a couple of hours it is found that battles are monotonous to terrible. And in fact: they flew to the sector, met the enemy, shot, gathered trophies, waited for the next wave of enemies, shot again, gathered – repeat – until they get tired of either the player or the script of the mission. Despite the apparent variety of tasks, almost all of them boil down to the banal “kill them all”, and visually any battle is a mixed of multi -colored flashes in which it is difficult to make out what is happening and who wins whom whom. Add to this the absence of any mark on a controlled ship, which is why it is very difficult to recognize in the heat of battle. We have to constantly make unnecessary maneuvers in order to at least somehow understand where the “ward” is now. Plus information about the enemy in the corner of the screen is not the best idea. Yes, you can find out the state of the armor and shields of the enemies, but constantly translating your eyes uncomfortable and once. A large selection of weapons (except lasers and missiles are drones, mines, super -powerful bombs and even an boarding team) does not save from boredom, all the same, to win, it will not have to be sophisticated in tactics – it is enough to stupidly jam the opponents in turn. Paradox – in the game called Arkada, its non -arched part turned out to be a cut above. No, the battles are not bad, but they are too similar to each other, and sometimes they last too long. Soon you even find that it is much more interesting to discover new types of cases, study equipment and read plot inserts than to fight.

And where is the zombie? Everything is in order with them – the final part Spaz will be completely and completely devoted to the fight against an alien race, a kind of local tyranids. Settlers and the military will forget the former consumptions and unite against the common enemy under our wise command. The galaxy from the invasion of space parasites will have to be cleansed in a new strategic regime, where it will be possible to manage not only its fleet, but also the development of entire stellar systems. This must be done wisely, otherwise the zombies will again capture with such difficulty repelled systems, and constantly returning them to constantly gets bored. Honestly, this mode looks rather sluggish, I want to go through the fourth chapter only in order to find out how it all ends.

Space Pirates and Zombies, Of course, not perfect, but … It is curious how that huge ship will behave over, for the creation of which it remains to find a couple of drawings, and whether he can alone defeat the enemy planetary station. Spaz There is always something to surprise the player if he is not bored with arcade battles so much that he will decide to spend his time on something else. And if the developers will develop the project, at least slightly increase the size of the fleet and add network battles, then Spaz It is unlikely to be called an arcade again.

Pros: Stylish and atmospheric picture;large selection of ships and equipment;The game is deeper than it seems.
Cons: The monotony of fights;Boring strategic regime.