Battlestar Galactica Ships Article

Until the cruel mission design started blasting my buzz. One early turret level is plain ol’ busted, forcing you to defend the Galactica battleship from a torpedo barrage that seemingly can’t be shot down. Survive that (by pure luck), and you move on to a mission that demands 10 minutes of ho-hum formation flight in a stolen enemy ship, only to have you repeat the tedious process over and over when you flub the tricky follow-up objectives.

In fact, many mission goals are just not clear and require a lot of trial and error to figure out. A lack of targeting options (despite otherwise excellent control) turns one escort stage into a total nightmare. Outside of a few nifty levels, the game just feels like it was launched before all systems were go.

MARK: Battlestar looks sharp, although just seeing all the old ships and hearing the trademark laser sounds (“pee-ear, pee-ear”) would’ve been enough to make this old-timer happy. Controls are responsive and surprisingly deep, with maneuvers that let you match a target’s speed, issue orders to wingmen, and execute barrel rolls. Problem is the game is about as friendly as a Cylon; there’s no tutorial to ease you into all those moves or the different mission types, and the difficulty spikes at odd moments, making some levels painfully tedious.

OFFICIAL PS MAG—SCOOTER: Battlestar Galactica is frustrating both in the game- playing and reviewing sense. I like the general story line, I love the production values, and I totally dig the nostalgia of blasting old-school Cylons. Yet the missions are just so brutally hard (especially ones that involve protecting someone) that all fun gets seriously dampened, making it a chore to make it to the later levels. Ultimately, I think it’s a worthy flight, but only if you have a high tolerance.

Good: Better special effects than the old show’s

Bad: Frustrating mission objectives

Where Oh Where Is: That damn robodog?

Ratings:

Crispin:

Mark:

Scooter: