Star Control II - Space my final resting place, the stars my destination

If you look at this, and don't want to play, I don't know what I can do for you.

Every so often, a game gets made that becomes so popular, so big and fun and generally worth the time, that it can outlast almost anything, even the original fanbase, and sometimes even the company that made it.  Star Control II is fast on the way to doing this.  A sci-fi epic on...well...epic scale, it tells the story of a human exploration team coming back after a LONG layover on an alien world, sailing back with a massive alien ship...only to find humanity trapped on earth by a glowing red slave shield.

In case you were wondering, this is bad.

If you're lucky, they'll just kill you, and not your entire species just on principal.

The Ur-Quan, an alien force leading what appears to be a fleet of slave-armies, has set about on a mission to slaughter or enslave any and all alien races in the known galaxy.  You appear on the stage a little after the last act.  The great Alliance of Free Stars, who rose to fight the Ur-Quan...well...failed.  Most of them have been either crushed or enslaved by this point, but you have a chance to rally forces, build up your ship, and hopefully stave off extinction.

Star Control II is a huge game, made by Toys For Bob, which besides having one of the neatest production company names ever, now does the game Skylanders, which is much better then it seems.  Anyway, there's a lot of love in this game, and it's inspired much more over the years.  You fly through space, battling alien races, scanning and harvesting worlds for resources, and trying to cross language, cultural, and sometimes, sanity barriers to recruit alien races.

The universal translator?  Not so universal.

One of the huge shining points in this game is the alien races.  They are varied, weird, neat to talk to, and are never just a "pallet swap" of another race.  Each ship is individual, requiring different tactics to use and fight effectively.  Plus, some of the dialog options are a scream, over half of the Spathi dialog options had me rolling...

If you like Mass Effect at all, you should really play this.  When the first little bits of Mass Effect were leaked, a lot of people assumed it was a new Star Control game, and admittedly, there are a LOT of similarities.  I'm not saying one is distinctly better then the other, Mass Effect benefits from, ya'know, TONS of advances in game design...but Star Control II tells a fantastic story, and one that is weathering the test of time in spades.

Plus, I mean...blue space babes.  Come on man.

Star Control II is a old game, and may have issues playing nice with them newfangled computin' machines.  However, there is a version called The Ur-Quan Masters that will work on basically anything that can support a keyboard. Plus, it includes updated sound, great voice acting (oh my god the voice acting...), and even a few mods here and there to keep things fresh.  Oh, and be aware: without a guide or cheating your butt off, you'll probably miss a bunch of stuff the first time.  Don't stress, it happens.

Get a copy (it's free), get loaded and go make some bizarre, possibly homicidal friends!

Well...I mean, I wasn't planning on it, but I'd hate to disappoint...