Space Trader: Merchant Marine
Score: 62% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Meridian4 Developer: Hermit Works Media: Download/1 Players: 1 - 8 online Genre: Simulation/ Themed
Graphics & Sound: In a universe with titles like E.V.E., the bar for space-based trade and commerce games is set very high. Now, my personal opinion of such games is that they make very interesting spreadsheets with pretty graphics. I hate to name drop right off the bat, but I wanted to lay a comparative foundation. What I do like is the commerce mechanism. At the end of the day, that is why we would play a game like Space Trader: Merchant Marine. So, strip down the visual fluff, and get to what is really important. There are a few very unique aspects of this game that have my attention. I just don't know if they were enough to make this an all around good game. So there is the undeniable hurdle of visual representation that we have to get over. The fact is that videogames are dependant on what they look like and how they represent the information for us. The graphics look like they were done on the original Unreal engine. I have not confirmed if that is true, but to explain that the look is dated is a bit of a understatement. It is still all about the game, but it is like dating an ugly person. It's what is on the inside that matters. They are still ugly, though. Not a whole lot is to be said for the music. It is all transic and techno pieces. The best way to honestly describe it is as the type of music you might have heard coming from that one specific channel on your cable box, that was all fuzzy, and you would change it quickly if your parents walked in. If you didn't get that channel, then I really cannot give you anymore to work with.
Gameplay: The story of Space Trader: Merchant Marine follows a universe very much like Douglas Adams's universe where the solar system is ruled by The Ministry of Accounts, a bureaucracy that tracks, records, and taxes every aspect of daily life. You will become a new breed of privateer striking out to make a name for yourself. As a ship captain, you will attempt to amass a fortune through buying and selling commodities, or taking on any job for hire that comes your way. You will begin as a rookie and work your way to master. Now, here is where things actually do get interesting. There is the obvious by low/ sell high open market aspect that is nothing uncommon in a market game. Here we see regular trades, but we also see back alley deals, bribery, and even contracts on your competitors' lives. Move through a challenging 5-level single-player campaign. There are not very many actual commodities to trade in with only 40 different commodities. But, with all of the aspects of the cut throat competition to get your goods to market, you do not dwell on this for long. Visit seven planetary locations, their moons and stops along the way. There are plenty of jobs of opportunity, and one type that seemed to be the most prevalent are the "police" missions where you bring criminals to justice.
Difficulty: Space Trader: Merchant Marine has plenty of tutorials to get you off on the right foot. There are a few more aspects to the game than the trade. The environment is 3D; it seems they felt obligated to throw in a First Person Shooter element into the game. This is not difficult per se, but the environments and movement make it a little challenging. The point of the game is to start with nothing and make a name for yourself as a trader. The game is very straightforward when it comes to this aspect. Even when playing a game where you have to beg for a ship just to get started, you can always find some avenue to get what you need, making it a little easy on any level.
Game Mechanics: With Space Trader: Merchant Marine, if you cut out the small bits of FPS, you have a trading game. The two places where trading and commerce games work well is on the open seas and space. You need to get from here to there with a ship that can carry cargo. You need to buy said cargo at a low price and then sell it at a high price. Space Trader will allow opportunities for business ethics to be bent a bit, with bribes and payoffs to get the best deal in the long run. As I mentioned many times above, you are simply looking through lists of information to make your decision. So really, the actual trade mechanism works great. In the 3D environment, you will use the standard W, A, S, and D movement. You can change this in the Settings Menu if you really feel the need to. When it comes to travel, simply click on the Travel Tab and then choose the planet, or moon, you wish to travel to, and you're off. I cannot let go of the feeling that the game just cannot catch up to the standards that have been set for this type of game. As an FPS, there are obviously far better examples. As a social interaction game, albeit with NPC characters, we again have many more examples of well done faction type games. Then lastly, there are far too many examples to name of trade and commerce games that also do their job efficiently. I think my tone may be mistaken for elitist and that only big budget games can do this well, but by no means is that the case. I want to see independent game development go head to head with big budget. But if you are going to do one aspect of a genre, then do it well, and leave out the bits that drag down the rest of the game.
-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd
Minimum System Requirements: Windows Vista/XP, 1.0 GHz Processor, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c or higher, DirectX compatible 128 MB graphics card, DirectX compatible sound card, 200MB of available hard drive space   Test System: Dell XPS DXP061, XP Pro, Intel Core Quad, 2GB Ram, Gforce 8800GTX
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