What Do We Love About… Battlestar Galactica Online?

December 18, 2015 15:01 ( Articles, F2P News ) 0

We’re looking at Battlestar Galactica Online from Bigpoint this time round and asking the question “What Do We Love About...?”.

It, as a free to play space shooter browser MMO the game has a fair bit of company in the genre, but what its rivals lack is a big franchise like BSG behind it. Base around season 2 of the TV show where the forces of the human Colonists and Cylons have reached a pivotal point, players will step up and have to fight for their respective faction in challenging PVE and PVP in a battle for resources, territory and survival. Whilst it has some weak elements here’s some of the things we like the most about the game:

• Battlestar Galactica Plot - The game does everything it can to stay true to the TV series. Whilst many game spinoffs with a known franchise as their driving factor will do whatever they feel they must to twist the shows/books lore into a bastardized version of what it should be just to suit their own vision for the game Bigpoint most definitely didn’t. From the characters you meet, the relationship between the two main factions, the locations you can visit (mainly ships), the types of missions players will be thrust into… everything seems to stay true to the actual BSG storyline. Not only does this enhance the experience of the game when met with the show, but fans of the show don’t feel like the world they love has been picked apart and put together in a Frankenstein patchwork.


• It’s good to be bad - Players can join the Cylon faction. When starting you get to choose whether you play as the human Colonists who are trying to survive in the unknown territory they have found themselves, locked in an endless war with their most hated enemy; the superior advanced AI Cylons. In a lot of MMOs you get multiple factions where there is generally a “good guys” and the “bad guys” are more leaning towards an untraditional philosophy (Sith from Star Wars: The Old Republic), or are a little more aggressive and warlike (the Horde) or just having opposing politics (Guildwars 2 factions). In Battlestar Galactica Online if you choose the Cylons then you are choosing the BAD guys, these guys want to erase humanity just because they are the bad guys. That’s pretty cool.


• Fantastic 3D Graphics - Surprisingly the game looks really great. When people hear “free to play browser MMO” then it’s very easy to expect very little in the graphics department, the reality is that the technology is there and it’s generally lazy developers that are happy to turn out something that looks like it belongs in the 90s. BSGO offers up full 3D graphics, which for a BROWSER space shooter isn’t that common, which absolutely enhances the immersion factor of flying through space, getting into dogfights or full scale battles with enemy players. If the game had been a 2D scroller like other space shooters seem to opt for then we just don’t think the game would have lived up to the Battlestar Galactica name and wouldn’t be able to create the same atmosphere. Throw in some fairly impressive 3D models of notable characters from the show and you’re on for a winner.


• Tactical Combat - The game avoids the typical arcade style shooter scene. A lot of space shooters that have 3D combat hone in more on the arcade style instanced matches with a few players per team, BSGO is more MMORPG with open space to travel around and find your enemies (or they find you) that once again makes space feel like space. With open world PVP (in contested areas) this means players must think a lot more strategic on the fights they pick; flying is generally relatively slow, ship maneuverability is dependent on the ship, players have radars to pick up incoming threats… so positioning yourself correctly, trying to hide from a player actively scouting or their radar, making an approach from behind and unloading a volley of missiles is a pretty exhilarating experience. It feels dangerous to be out in the world, and that’s a feeling a lot of games totally miss out on.


• Mining System - The mining is a nice middle ground for a crafting-absent MMO. Crafting doesn’t really suit the game, whilst there is the possibility of upgrades and buying ammo and consumables, the game has avoided a crafting system. Instead we have mining where players can try and extract resources from asteroid in a variety of ways, typically through blasting them to pieces with their weapons (using up ammo) or using mining cannons which do a more efficient job. However, the thing we love about the system is the Industrial Mines, that when places on an asteroid offer up the biggest yield of resources, unfortunately it can take up to two hours to fully extract the resources from the larger asteroids and the moment a mine is placed it appears on the System Map for every other player to see. This obviously attracts a lot of pirate players looking for an easy buck and an easy kill, however, it’s also a great trap to lure those types of players out and smash them to pieces!

So that’s what we love with Battlestar Galactica Online, but more importantly what are some of your favourite things? What do you think could/should be added to our list that makes the game great? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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