Evochron Alliance

Last updated
Evochron Alliance
Evochron Alliance Coverart.png
Developer(s) StarWraith 3D Games
Publisher(s) StarWraith 3D Games
Series Evochron
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release
  • WW: May 12, 2007
Genre(s) Space simulation
Mode(s) Singleplayer, Multiplayer

Evochron Alliance is a shareware First Person 3D Space Combat & Mercenary Simulation Windows game by American indie developer StarWraith 3D Games and sequel to RiftSpace, retroactively renamed as Evochron Riftspace. It features zero gravity inertia based 'Newtonian' style flight model with complete 3-way rotation and 3-way direction control.

Contents

Series

TitleDate releasedPlatform(s)
RiftSpace February 1, 2004 Windows
Evochron March 9, 2005 Windows
Evochron Alliance May 12, 2007 Windows
Evochron Renegades September 28, 2007 Windows
Evochron Legends February 5, 2009 Windows
Evochron Mercenary September 17, 2010 Windows
Evochron Legacy January 18, 2016 Windows

The Evochron series is StarWraith 3D Games' space simulator series. It is set in the eponymous Evochron Quadrant, home to the human race. Throughout the centuries of history explored by the games, humanity is split into two factions, the Alliance of Sol and the Federation, who are in conflict with each other.

Gameplay

Evochron was the sequel to 2004's RiftSpace and was largely designed around the feedback received from the original game. Freeform gameplay was expanded substantially by allowing the player to transport and trade commodities and mine material from asteroids. Gameplay was also entirely real time, so there were no cut scenes or menus that suspended the game's universe. Seamless planetary descents were introduced with Evochron, allowing players to travel from space to stations on a planet's surface and back again without cut scenes, immediate scene changes, or loading screens. Long-distance travel was managed with built-in jump drives rather than jump gates, giving the player control over when and where they travelled from system to system. Ship-to-ship trading and multiplayer were also introduced. The game was discontinued and upgraded to Evochron Alliance.

Evochron Alliance was an updated remaster of Evochron. It featured several major improvements requested by players, including a new shipyard that lets the player customize their ship for offense, defense, exploration, and/or speed. New modification options allow players to customize many aspects of the game's design from the cockpit to the ships themselves. A new dedicated interactive training mode helped introduce players to the game. The Newtonian physics were adjusted to a more manageable system by player request. New objects were also introduced such as hidden storage containers with free items, planetary moons, particle nebula clouds, and wormholes. Many new systems were also introduced, including three Vonari systems.

While Arvoch Conflict was in development, Starwraith 3D Games also worked on applying the cockpit graphics system to Evochron Alliance. Evochron Alliance 2.0 implemented the new 3D cockpit and HUD system while also introducing all-new ship models. 2.0 also added support for TrackIR and panning first person view control. Directional shielding was added along with several improvements to customizing options, gameplay, and control options.

It has multiplayer capabilities with up to 24 players.

Its successor, Evochron Renegades, was released in September, 2007.

Reception

Evochron Alliance received mixed reviews upon release. Herbert Aichinger of Eurogamer praised the game's depth, citing its scope, the degree of control and customisation of ships and approaches to gameplay, and the game's editing features, whilst finding the game's tutorial and lack of guidance to be inadequate. [1] Harald Fränkel of PC Action critiqued the game's difficulty and lack of "clear navigation or user-friendliness", but recognised the game's depth, ship-building features and multiplayer play. [3] Benjamin Bezold of PC Games observed an "interesting game" behind the "slightly dusty look and boring menu design". [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>Star Trek: Bridge Commander</i> 2002 video game

Star Trek: Bridge Commander is a space combat simulation video game for Windows, developed by Totally Games and published by Activision in 2002, based in the Star Trek universe.

<i>Multi Theft Auto</i> Grand Theft Auto multiplayer modification

Multi Theft Auto (MTA) is a multiplayer modification for the Microsoft Windows version of Rockstar North games Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that adds online multiplayer functionality. For Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the mod also serves as a derivative engine to Rockstar's interpretation of RenderWare.

A cooperative video game, often abbreviated as co-op, is a video game that allows players to work together as teammates, usually against one or more non-player character opponents (PvE). Co-op games can be played locally using one or multiple input controllers or over a network via local area networks, wide area networks, or the Internet.

<i>FreeSpace 2</i> Space Combat Simulator

FreeSpace 2 is a 1999 space combat simulation computer game developed by Volition as the sequel to Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War. It was completed ahead of schedule in less than a year, and released to very positive reviews, but the game became a commercial failure, and was described by certain critics as one of 1999's most unfairly overlooked titles.

<i>Elite Dangerous</i> 2014 space trading and exploration simulator

Elite Dangerous is an online space flight simulation game developed and published by Frontier Developments. The player commands a spaceship and explores a realistic 1:1 scale, open-world representation of the Milky Way galaxy, with the gameplay being open-ended. The game is the first in the series to attempt massively multiplayer gameplay, with players' actions affecting the narrative story of the game's persistent universe, while also retaining a single-player mode. Elite Dangerous is the fourth game in the Elite video game series. It is the sequel to Frontier: First Encounters, released in 1995.

<i>Homeworld</i> 1999 real-time strategy computer game

Homeworld is a real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Studios on September 28, 1999, for Windows. Set in space, the science fiction game follows the Kushan exiles of the planet Kharak after their home planet is destroyed by the Taiidan Empire in retaliation for developing hyperspace jump technology. The survivors journey with their spacecraft-constructing mothership to reclaim their ancient homeworld of Hiigara from the Taiidan, encountering a variety of pirates, mercenaries, traders, and rebels along the way. In each of the game's levels, the player gathers resources, builds a fleet, and uses it to destroy enemy ships and accomplish mission objectives. The player's fleet carries over between levels and can travel in a fully three-dimensional space within each level rather than being limited to a two-dimensional plane.

<i>Sins of a Solar Empire</i> 2008 video game

Sins of a Solar Empire is a 2008 science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock Entertainment for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that incorporates some elements from 4X games; its makers describe it as "RT4X". Players are given control of a spacefaring empire in the distant future, and are tasked with conquering star systems using military, economic and diplomatic means.

<i>Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen</i> 2000 video game

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen is a 2000 third-person shooter video game developed by The Collective and published by Simon & Schuster. The game is loosely based on a trilogy of novels by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens called Millennium: The Fall of Terok Nor, The War of the Prophets and Inferno. The setting is the Deep Space Nine space station featured in the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

StarWraith is a series of space combat simulators by StarWraith 3D Games.

<i>Evochron Renegades</i> 2007 video game

Evochron Renegades is a freeform videogame that forms the 2007 installment in the indie StarWraith 3D Games series of space simulation games. It is the sequel to Evochron: Alliance 2.0. Evochron Renegades features a vast and seamless universe that lets the player fly anywhere, without loading screens or choppy environment flipping. The game is especially notable for being the successful product of a one-man development studio.

Star Wraith: Shadows of Orion is the third game in the Star Wraith series developed by StarWraith 3D Games LLC. It is the successor of Star Wraith II. Star Wraith IV: Reviction is the successor to Star Wraith III.

A space flight simulation is a genre of flight simulator video games that lets players experience space flight to varying degrees of realism. Common mechanics include space exploration, space trade and space combat.

Evochron Legends is an online science fiction game developed and published by Starwraith 3D Games for Microsoft Windows. It was released on February 5, 2009.

<i>Far Gate</i> 2000 video game

Far Gate is a video game released for Microsoft Windows. It was developed by Super X Studios and published by Microïds. The gameplay consists of 3D space-based real-time strategy, and allows players to play as any of three distinct factions employing different units and structures. It was one of the first video games to offer fully 3D space-based real time strategy.

<i>Dragon Age: Inquisition</i> 2014 video game

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a 2014 action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. The third major game in the Dragon Age franchise, Inquisition is the sequel to Dragon Age II (2011). The story follows a player character known as the Inquisitor on a journey to settle the civil unrest in the continent of Thedas and close a mysterious tear in the sky called the "Breach", which is unleashing dangerous demons upon the world. Dragon Age: Inquisition's gameplay is similar to its predecessors, although it consists of several semi-open worlds for players to explore. Players control the Inquisitor or their companions mainly from a third-person perspective, although a traditional role-playing game top-down camera angle is also available.

<i>Miner Wars 2081</i> 2012 video game

Miner Wars 2081 is a six degrees of freedom action-survival space-shooter simulation game produced by Keen Software House. The gameplay offers a choice of single player, co-op, and deathmatch multi-player. The game is set in the year 2081, 11 years after the destruction of all planetary objects in the Solar System. The story introduces the player to many types of missions: rescue, exploration, revenge, base defense, theft, transportation, stealth, search and destroy, pure harvesting or racing. A multiplayer spin-off game, Miner Wars Arena, was also released in 2012.

<i>Strike Suit Zero</i> 2013 video game

Strike Suit Zero is a space flight combat game developed by Born Ready. Strike Suit Zero seeks to revive the space combat genre by introducing "strike mode" as a new element to the dogfight-based gameplay of classic space combat games. Strike Suit Zero takes its inspiration from numerous different franchises, most notably Elite and related franchises: Homeworld, Freelancer, Colony Wars, Star Wars, Gundam, Macross and FreeSpace. The game is built on a proprietary engine. It was released for Microsoft Windows on January 23, 2013, and for OS X and Linux on August 9, 2013.

<i>Warframe</i> 2013 free-to-play RPG shooter

Warframe is a free-to-play action role-playing third-person shooter multiplayer online game developed and published by Digital Extremes. First released for Windows personal computers in March 2013, it was later ported to PlayStation 4 in November 2013, Xbox One in September 2014, Nintendo Switch in November 2018, PlayStation 5 in November 2020, Xbox Series X/S in April 2021 and iOS in February 2024. Support for cross-platform play was released in 2022. Cross-platform save began in December 2023, it was rolled out in waves to different groups of players and became fully available to all players in January 2024. A port for Android is in development.

Eve: Valkyrie was a multiplayer dogfighting shooter game set in the Eve Online universe that was designed to use virtual reality headset technology. Originally launched for Microsoft Windows for use with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, CCP Games had announced they plan to enable cross-platform play between the three major VR systems: the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive, and the PlayStation VR. Released in March 2016, the game had two game mode options: Chronicles could be played in single player, while Combat allowed eight by eight combat PvP missions. Reviews generally criticized the limited plot and limitations of single player mode, although the described "arcade experience" was praised for having intuitive controls and "exhilarating" dogfighting features, with PC Powerplay dubbing it "arguably the best VR experience currently available for the [Oculus Rift] platform."

<i>Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare</i> 2016 video game

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is a 2016 first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the thirteenth installment in the Call of Duty series and was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on November 4, 2016.

References

  1. 1 2 Aichinger, Herbert (5 October 2006). "Evochron: Alliance". Eurogamer. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  2. 1 2 Bezold, Benjamin (25 October 2006). "Evochron: Alliance". PC Games. Archived from the original on 11 April 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  3. 1 2 Fränkel, Harald (December 2006). "Evochron: Alliance". PC Action.