Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos

Last updated
Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos
Independence War 2 - EU box.jpg
Developer(s) Particle Systems
Publisher(s) Infogrames
Director(s) Michael Powell
Richard Aidley
Producer(s) Kim Blake
Roger Godfrey
Designer(s) Nigel Kershaw
Programmer(s) Will Vale
Artist(s) Matt Clark
Andrew Turner
Composer(s) Christopher Mann
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release
  • EU: June 29, 2001
  • NA: August 28, 2001 [1]
  • AU: November 7, 2001 [2]
Genre(s) Space combat simulator
Mode(s) Single-player

Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos (sometimes called Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos), released as Edge of Chaos: Independence War 2 in Europe, is a sequel to the space combat simulator video game Independence War (also known as I-War in Europe). Developed by Particle Systems - the developers of the first game - and published by Infogrames, the game was released in 2001. It was nominated for an interactive BAFTA award for its soundtrack which was composed by Christopher Mann.

Contents

Plot

Edge of Chaos is set in the 24th century, 100 years after the first game, in an isolated part of space called the Badlands Cluster. The star cluster is far removed from Earth, the Core Systems, and their central governing body, the New Alliance; also, the Alliance government was in a state of near-collapse due to corruption and massive overspending. As a result, huge corporations step in to take control, and they rule quite tyrannically.

The game begins with a CGI video showing the murder of 12-year-old Cal Johnston's father by industrial heir Caleb Maas. The player then assumes the role of young Cal as he is instructed in space ship piloting by the digitized personality of Commonwealth Navy captain Jefferson Clay, a character familiar from the original I-War . After getting used to basics of space flight, Clay guides Cal to the base of his space pirating grandmother. After some more practice missions, Cal encounters the infamous Caleb Maas. Trying to avenge his father, Cal ends up in prison instead. The story then fast-forwards 15 years showing a now-adult Cal Johnston with some of his fellow inmates escaping the prison space station, where the core gameplay begins.

Upon returning to his grandmother's base, Cal begins to set up his own piracy organization. Other groups in Hoffer's Wake begin to notice his work, and as he advances in fame and fortune he learns more about the current situation affecting the Badlands. For a long time, a group called the Marauders have been attacking at random—essentially terrorizing the people of the Cluster. Despite numerous attempts to run them down, the Badlands government and gangs have had no luck in stopping the attacks: the Marauders don't seem weakened even by major losses, and they don't seem to have any single base of operations.

The player is soon given access to other systems in the Cluster, with the assignment to find help fighting the Marauders in Hoffer's Wake. Most are only too happy to lend ships, supplies, and personnel once their own Marauder problems are taken care of, and the Marauders are successfully driven from Hoffer's Wake before long. However even that loss didn't slow them down, and further investigation on Cal's part reveals that they have been maintaining their primary base in the Dante system, long abandoned and thought uninhabitable after the unstable binary star flooded the system with radiation and cut it off from outside travel. The Rebel Fleet, now very large and well-organized, mounts a successful assault—only to be nearly destroyed anyway when the Marauders receive help from the Maas Corporation, who started the Marauders to "keep you peasants in line."

The Rebels can't hope to directly match Maas's forces, so they fall back and try to think of alternative strategies. They conclude that the most effective action would be to find help outside of the Badlands, so they attack and secure the Santa Romera Jump Accelerator, a highly advanced piece of technology that allows travel over significantly longer distances than even Lagrange points. Cal arrives in the Fomalhaut system in the Gagarin Cluster to find much the same situation as in the Badlands: oppressive corporate rule, roving Marauders, and a desperate need for assistance.

After working for a while, Cal receives a seemingly innocuous mission in which he is sent to spy on a number of corporate cruisers in the Gagarin Cluster. The story takes a sharp turn when, against Caleb Maas's wishes, corporate scientists activate an alien artifact that Cal himself stole for them, thinking to use it as some sort of weapon. The device goes out of control and begins to emit glowing red alien ships that eat (and thus destroy) any advanced power sources (such as ships) in their path; within days, the entire Gagarin Cluster is overrun. Cal and the fleet hold the aliens back from the Fomalhaut Jump Accelerator as refugees escape, then dash through at the last second and destroy the Accelerator, effectively isolating the Badlands indefinitely from the rest of human civilization. Cal remarks that they are safe from the aliens, but he's not sure about human civilization elsewhere.

The gameplay is a mix of free movement in space and missions. In free play, Cal can act independently, move throughout the Hoffer's Wake system and eventually the entire Badlands Cluster, and steal cargo. Game missions allow the player to gain new weapons and ships, and contribute to the rebellions against the corporations that control the Badlands.

Gameplay

The view from inside the playership showing the virtual HUD Edge-of-Chaos-gameplay.jpg
The view from inside the playership showing the virtual HUD

Development

The technological improvements over the first game included support for Direct3D compatible hardware accelerated 3D graphics, network multiplay and a new user interface. Edge of Chaos gave a nod to Elite style gameplay by adding free roaming piracy to the Independence War games' universe. The familiar Newtonian mechanics obeying flight model with a flight computer assistance was retained, although combat was somewhat simplified and made more accessible to the player.

Edge of Chaos was initially developed for Windows-based PCs, PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast, but the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast versions were cancelled. The dual platform development affected some design decisions. Most of the ship's function interface was made navigable through a joystick hat control, but on the negative side, partly due to being designed for a game console without a hard disk, game progress could only be saved between missions, in the home base.

A browser-based game, Edge of Chaos Online, was created as part of the marketing campaign in late 2001.

On July 6, 2010, GOG.com re-released the game digitally. [3]

Reception

The game received favorable reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. [4] John Lee of NextGen said of the game, "Only a too-accurate space flight model mars this otherwise compelling space Western." [13]

The game was a nominee for Computer Gaming World 's 2001 "Best Simulation Game" award, which ultimately went to IL-2 Sturmovik . [16] It was also a runner-up for the "Best Game No One Played" award at GameSpot 's Best and Worst of 2001 Awards, which went to Clive Barker's Undying . [17]

The game was a critical, but not financial, success, contributing to the eventual acquisition of developers Particle Systems by Argonaut Games, which changed the team name to Argonaut Sheffield.

Related Research Articles

<i>The Simpsons: Road Rage</i> Vehicular combat video game

The Simpsons: Road Rage is a 2001 racing video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons, and is part of a series of games based on the show. It was released for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. A Game Boy Advance version was released in 2003.

<i>Grand Theft Auto III</i> 2001 video game

Grand Theft Auto III is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 1999's Grand Theft Auto 2, and the fifth instalment overall. Set within the fictional Liberty City, the story follows Claude, a silent protagonist who, after being betrayed and left for dead by his girlfriend during a robbery, embarks on a quest for revenge that leads him to become entangled in a world of crime, drugs, gang warfare, and corruption. The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. Its open world design lets players freely roam Liberty City, consisting of three main areas.

<i>Einhänder</i> 1997 video game

Einhänder is a scrolling shooter developed by Square for the PlayStation console. It was released in Japan on November 20, 1997 and in North America on May 5, 1998. It was also re-released for the Japanese PlayStation Network on June 25, 2008. The name Einhänder is German and denotes a type of sword that is wielded with one hand, here used to refer to the single manipulator arm possessed by the player's spacecraft.

<i>Starlancer</i> 2000 video game

Starlancer is a space-based science fiction flight simulator computer game, created by Erin and Chris Roberts, and developed by Warthog Games under the auspices of Digital Anvil.

<i>Madden NFL 2002</i> 2001 video game

Madden NFL 2002 is an American football video game. It features former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper on the cover. Pat Summerall and John Madden are the commentators. The Madden NFL 2002 commercial first aired during Super Bowl XXXVI, three days after Madden NFL 2002 started selling in Japan. Notably, it does not feature the Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady, who is included on later editions of the game as a roster update. It is also the first game to be developed by Budcat Creations.

<i>Star Trek: Invasion</i> 2000 video game

Star Trek: Invasion is a video game, released in 2000 for the Sony PlayStation console. The game was developed by Warthog Games and published by Activision. The game also has some distinction being developed by the same team responsible for the Colony Wars series.

<i>Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2</i> 2001 video game

Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 is a 2001 BMX video game developed by Z-Axis and published by Acclaim Entertainment under their Acclaim Max Sports label. It is the sequel to Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX. It was released for the PlayStation 2 in August 2001, and in the following months it was ported to the GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Xbox video game systems. Both the GameCube and Xbox ports featured two extra levels that were not present in the PS2 version.

<i>Urban Chaos</i> 1999 video game

Urban Chaos is the debut video game of English developer Mucky Foot Productions with its initial release in 1999 on Microsoft Windows. It was subsequently released on the PlayStation and Dreamcast. The game was published by Eidos Interactive.

<i>Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empires at War</i> 2000 video game

Star Trek Starfleet Command II: Empires at War is the sequel to Star Trek: Starfleet Command and the second in the series of real-time space combat games, developed by Taldren, Inc. and published by Interplay. A stand-alone expansion pack was released in June 2001 titled Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates.

<i>MechWarrior 4: Vengeance</i> 2000 video game

MechWarrior 4: Vengeance is a vehicle simulation game, developed by FASA Interactive and published by Microsoft. It was released on November 22, 2000. It is the fourth game in MechWarrior series. It takes place in BattleTech universe where the pinnacle of all war machines are huge, heavily armed robots called BattleMechs. The player pilots one of these "'Mechs" and uses variety of available weapons to battle enemy 'Mechs, tanks and other vehicles. An expansion pack, MechWarrior 4: Black Knight, was released in 2001, and a subsequent stand-alone expansion, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, was released on November 7, 2002. Two smaller expansions, Inner Sphere Mech Pak and Clan Mech Pak, were also released in 2002.

<i>Extreme-G 3</i> 2001 video game

XGIII: Extreme G Racing, also known as Extreme-G 3, is a racing video game developed by Acclaim Studios Cheltenham and published by Acclaim Entertainment for PlayStation 2 and GameCube. The game is a sequel to Extreme-G 2, and was followed by XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association.

<i>Iridion 3D</i> 2001 video game

Iridion 3D is a quasi-3D rail shooter video game developed by Shin'en Multimedia. A launch title for the Game Boy Advance portable game console, it was released in North America on June 11, 2001 and in Europe on September 21. The player controls a single starship defending Earth from the alien Iridion. The game spans seven levels from Earth to the aliens' home planet, each following a linear path that culminate with a boss.

<i>Looney Tunes: Space Race</i> 2000 video game

Looney Tunes: Space Race is a 2000 kart-racing video game published by Infogrames for the Dreamcast and developed through Infogrames' own Melbourne House studio. A version of Nintendo 64 was developed, but it was never released. It was ported to PlayStation 2 in 2002 with a new tournament mode and different soundtrack.

<i>Dark Summit</i> 2001 snowboarding video game

Dark Summit is a 2001 snowboarding video game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by THQ. It was released for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox,

<i>ESPN MLS ExtraTime 2002</i> 2001 video game

ESPN MLS ExtraTime is a sports video game released in 2001-2002 by Konami. It is available for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. Clint Mathis is on the cover. The original ExtraTime was released for PS2 seven months after ESPN MLS GameNight on the PlayStation, with the GameCube and Xbox versions released in 2002 afterward as ESPN MLS ExtraTime 2002. MLS ExtraTime was the last in the series as the MLS sold its video game license to EA Sports' FIFA series.

<i>Transworld Surf</i> 2001 video game

Transworld Surf is a sports video game developed by Angel Studios and published by Infogrames The game was released for GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox between November 2001 and March 2003. The Xbox version of the game was the third game released under Infogrames' newly-revamped Atari label.

<i>NASCAR Heat 2002</i> 2001 video game

NASCAR Heat 2002, sometimes mislabeled as NASCAR Heat, is a NASCAR video game produced by Infogrames for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance consoles. It is the successor to the 2000 game NASCAR Heat, and the predecessor to NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona. NASCAR Heat 2002 can have up to 24 (PS2) or 43 racers on one of 19 official NASCAR tracks, and the game was released in June 2001 for PlayStation 2. A port for the Xbox was released in November 2001. Developed by Crawfish Interactive, a distinct version for Game Boy Advance was released in May 2002.

<i>Colony Wars: Red Sun</i> 2000 video game

Colony Wars: Red Sun is a space combat simulator video game for the PlayStation developed by Psygnosis and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Midway Games in 2000. It is a sequel to Colony Wars in 1997 and Colony Wars: Vengeance in 1998. Instead of being a starfighter pilot for the League of Free Worlds or the Colonial Navy, the player now assumes the role of a civilian miner-turned-mercenary.

<i>Gungriffon Blaze</i> 2000 mech simulation video game

GunGriffon Blaze is a video game developed by Game Arts and published by Capcom and Working Designs in 2000, and by Swing! Deutschland in Europe in 2002 for PlayStation 2. The game was a launch title on the PlayStation 2 in North America.

<i>MotoGP: Ultimate Racing Technology</i> 2002 video game

MotoGP: Ultimate Racing Technology, known in the United States as simply MotoGP, is a Grand Prix motorcycle racing video game for Game Boy Advance, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, mobile phones, and N-Gage. It is based on the 2001 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season.

References

  1. ↑ IGN staff (August 28, 2001). "Independence War 2 in Stores". IGN . Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on December 17, 2001. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  2. ↑ "I War 2 - Edge of Chaos". Atari Australia . Archived from the original on July 22, 2002. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Independence War 2: Edge Of Chaos (2001) Windows release dates". MobyGames . Blue Flame Labs. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos for PC Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  5. ↑ Sones, Benjamin E. (December 12, 2001). "Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos [sic]". Computer Games Magazine . theGlobe.com. Archived from the original on June 1, 2002. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  6. ↑ Berg, Gordon (January 2002). "Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos" (PDF). Computer Gaming World . No. 210. Ziff Davis. pp. 106–7. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos". Game Informer . No. 103. FuncoLand. November 2001. p. 128.
  8. ↑ Air Hendrix (August 22, 2001). "Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos Review for PC on GamePro.com". GamePro . IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on November 9, 2004. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  9. ↑ Janicki, P. Stefan "Desslock" (August 24, 2001). "Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos [sic] Review". GameSpot . CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on October 4, 2001. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  10. ↑ McConnaughy, Tim (September 19, 2001). "Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos". GameSpy . IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on July 26, 2004. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  11. ↑ Gerbino, Robert (September 7, 2001). "Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos [sic] Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  12. ↑ Butts, Steve (August 27, 2001). "Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos [sic]". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  13. 1 2 Lee, John (November 2001). "Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos [sic]". NextGen . No. 83. Imagine Media. p. 113. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  14. ↑ Whitta, Gary (January 2002). "Independence War 2 [Edge of Chaos]". PC Gamer . Vol. 9, no. 1. Imagine Media. Archived from the original on March 15, 2006. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  15. ↑ Steinberg, Scott (September 11, 2001). "Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos". Playboy . Playboy Enterprises. Archived from the original on May 26, 2002. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  16. ↑ CGW staff (April 2002). "Games of the Year (Best Simulation Game)" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 213. Ziff Davis. pp. 82–83. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  17. ↑ GameSpot staff (2002). "GameSpot's Best and Worst PC Games of 2001 (Best Game No One Played)". GameSpot. CNET. Archived from the original on June 2, 2002. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.