Eterium is a space flight sim in the spirit of 90's games like Wing Commander and X-Wing. Developed by a two-man team, Eterium aims to bring the classic style of space combat games into the modern era. You play as a pilot working his way up the ranks aboard the United Earth Alliance carrier Canopus during a war against an evil alien race known as the Revi. Experience story-driven gameplay, advanced artificial intelligence, procedural missions and intense 3D space combat as you battle your way through over 30 missions of action-packed gameplay. Gameplay Features: * Fully customizable joystick, Xbox controller and mouse support * Outstanding stereo 3D support (nVidia 3d Vision only) * Advanced artificial intelligence * Dynamic difficulty * Intelligent procedural mission generation * Advanced ship damage systems * Fully 3D rendered cockpits * Asteroid and mine fields
Eterium s a fun game which holds your interest long enough to get through the campaign, which would probably take up at least 8 hours of your time if you go through all the pilot dialogue's in between missions.
Eterium supports Joystick, Xbox 360 Pad, and keyboard and mouse controls. I played with the 360 pad and found that all controls needed to play where accessible solely through the pad's buttons. Some space vets will be pleased to know you can roll your ship.
There is Newtonian style physics at play. Fly forward at full speed, change direction and it will take several seconds for your ship to fly on the new intended course. This makes flying asteroid and mine fields a little challenging at times. You must be careful with mine fields as if you get hit the explosion force will change your trajectory and bump you in to more mines.
Combat can be annoying early on when you are in the weaker starter ships and requires some practice to get the hand of lining up your guns to take out the enemy. Enemies are always faster than you, especially the light fighters, which zip by before you can score enough hits to pop them. Thankfully they can be countered using your afterburner.
Take hull damage and your ships systems will start to fail, ranging from guns to engines. Your display screens will also shatter making it difficult or impossible to read them. Your ship has a repair system, which will slowly repair systems to a point.
The graphics are pretty basic, ship designs are hardly inspiring. Explosions are generic and unexciting, mostly lots of smoke and no fireworks, and large ships disappear in a small explosion which disappoints when seen.
Sound effects are plenty from your engines burning to the overzealous eject warning alarm. There is a dynamic music track, just like in Wing Commander, which changes based on events during flight.
Overall Eterium is a fun game and the worth picking up. The 8+ hours from the main campaign full justifies its price tag and is
(ENG)I've always loved Wing Commander and the like and this game brings me back at least 20 years.
Well done especially considering that the use of XNA... is a framework, not a complete engine. There is a nice job behind.
If it had been used Unity or another engine would be easier to create, and maybe even better.
Anyway, great job.
(ITA) Ho sempre amato Wing COmmander e simili e questo gioco mi porta indietro di almeno 20 anni.
Ben fatto sopratutto considerando l'uso di XNA che è un framework e non un engine. C'è un bel lavoro dietro.
Se fosse stato usato Unity o altro engine sarebbe stato più facile e forse un pelino migliore (a parità di ore di lavoro) avendo potuto concentrare gli sforzi su diversi aspetti.
Comunque, ottimo lavoro.
ENG: Classic Fight Space Sim, remember me Wing Commander Prophecy (3D Vectorial briefing, autopilot animation, etc) really a good game.
ESP: Un Simulador Espacial de Combate clásico, me recuerda en algunos momentos a Wing Commander Prophecy (El briefing en 3D Vectorial, las animaciones del piloto automático, etc) realmente es un buen juego.