The Ur-Quan Masters

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In 1990, a small game company by the name of Toys for Bob developed Star Control; a very well refined space combat game inspired by MIT's Spacewar and Archon (1982). Star Control takes place in the far flung future where humans have forged an alliance with several alien species to battle a master slaver race known as the Ur-Quan for dominion over the Milky Way. The game met with moderate to major acclaim among critics at the time for its emphasis on tactics and level customization later being ported to the Genesis, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. Star Control's sequel, which brings me to the purpose of this article, is an extreme expansion on the overall theme and lore of the game becoming what I personally consider now to be the deepest space exploration title of not only its time but quite possibly any game in its genre.

Oh and did I mention that Star Control 2 is also completely free to play? Ignore the price tag on the GoG link, we'll get to that later.

For months I put Star Control 2 on somewhat of a backlog thinking that it would turn out to be an average space combat title marred by age - virtually ignoring its devote cult following. Could you blame me? This is a 1992 action RPG that never shared mentions with Final Fantasy or Wizardry with most games having password protected progress and fetch quests which were considered revolutionary for their time. No, I was completely wrong about Star Control 2. Star Control 2 is a timeless title and what makes it timeless is its game content and devotion to quality.

Now try to keep this frame of mind: Star Control 2 came out one year after A Link to the Past. Okay did you strap back into your velcro sneakers? Good!

Within the last week I've been building a starship fit for two hundred crewmen, recruiting allies through diplomacy (or force), eluding a race of overzealous tarantulas, repopulating a species of kamikaze Star Foxes(?), unleashing an extremely destructive alien predator on another's homeworld, orchestrating a galactic-wide genocide between my foes, dealing with intergalactic slave traders, listening to the history of a brutal starfaring race of rhinomen, gettin' freaky with blue space sirens, sympathizing with the game's antagonists (and yes there's more than a few plot twists), brewing revolution between an alien species of scottish accented pterodactyls, and doing all of this replicated in our Milky Way galaxy designed world by world solar system by solar system. Of the 15+ alien races there are in the game every single one of them is voice acted professionally! This combined with ship management such as planning trips around various solar systems, fuel maintenance, engine upgrades, and keeping my crew left alive created a whole separate dynamic rarely seen in games even ahead of its time. Wow! Is this really 1992 gaming? One would think I was playing a triple A RPG from this generation in video gaming, but what I've just explained is the tip of the iceberg that is Star Control 2. You think I'm exaggerating? Check out the game for yourself or better yet play it and experience for yourself!

Just to further prove how ahead of time Star Control 2 is, here's an article making several comparisons of this game to the widely popular Mass Effect series.

Now considering you're not a purist and if you're wondering how you can play this game for free the answer is simple. Source ports! Back in 2002, Toys for Bob released the source code to the 3DO version of Star Control 2 to their programming fanbase. Having only the 3DO source code created some problems with recreating the original game but it also came with the perks of it being the 3DO version. The aptly titled Ur-Quan Masters comes in an HD download, optional remixes, and higher quality resolution and sprites. The melee mode is still intact with even netplay if you can get it working. I'd also like to mention that you'll be coming back to melee mode quite a bit before you think about mastering this game's space battles, it can be quite rough out there.

If you have nothing to do or want to play a quality game or maybe you wanted something better than Mass Effect 3 by all means try out Star Control 2. Between the massive area to explore, the funny and interesting characters you meet, and the multitude of quests there shouldn't be any reason to pass up on this space epic. I personally regret putting this title off for so long, but you don't have to! Go forth and conquer the stars!