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Well I became a review-writer for a video-game company so I decided to write a review about TW. It's gonna be published in the December edition of the magazine. Furthermore, I got in contact with 2 English-devoted magazines who are also willing to post this review in their magazines. So I was thinking if everyone could just read it (although the original is in Slovene) and make their comments about it. Would really appreciate it. Need to send the English review till the end of November. Cheers guys.
Here's the translated review of Subspace Continuum Trench Wars Game:
Subspace Continuum: Trench Wars
With the technology advancing so quickly computers and graphics are also improving at the same time. But with all the CoD and Crysis clones on the market, there are still game that ignore the graphics and prefer to devote themselves to the gameplay. One of those games is Subspace Continuum, which is a 2D MMO shooter with space ships.
The game launched back in the distant year 1995, when the idea was introduced by programmers Jeff Paterson and Rod Humble. The first maps contained only 4 ships, with no teams and leagues. At that time players were sending their ideas to both programmers, who then processed the given data and made it come true.
A big turnaround followed in October 1997. Subspace became payable on a monthly basis, the number of players began to decline, but some of them were still silently hoping for a miracle. Which didn't come. A year later the company VIE (Virgin Interactive Entertainment) disconnected their servers and left the players hopeless.
But as it occured so many times in the past, there emerged a hero in this game as well and helped it immensely. His name was PriiTK and he introduced the BanG command, which could instantly remove all in-game cheaters and other nuisances, which plagued the game. From January 1999 Subspace Continuum as well as Trench Wars has become one of the best MMO games of its time – and is one of the best even today.
SO EZ
Trench Wars is only one of the many zones, which the game contains. It is currently the best zone out there, with over 700 subarenas, each with its own theme. And that's exactly the kind of charm that such a game needs.
Newbs start to learn the curves in a special designed place (just for them), called »pub«. The map looks like a base, where the aim of the game is to capture-the-flag and hold it for 3 minutes to win the round. The duelling system is included in pub, where each player can challenge another with the help of a bot, and also add the ship (there are 8 ships in the latest edition of the game) and the amount of pubbucks (space bucks), with which he shows other players, for how much money he wants to duel them. This money can be later used for different purposes: for buying different prizes (stealth, cloak, x-radar, full charge, portal, burst, EMP) or other specialties like warping a playing, giving epidemic to various frequencies, buying a roof bot, which kills enemies and others. These RPG-like additions give a game more depth and make the rounds hard to predict.
There are also other arenas available, which are totally automized with the help of bots. ?go base, ?go wbduel, ?go elim in ?go tourny are just a few of them, and each has its special purpose –capture-the-flag, where the captain chooses his own team and players; elimination of the enemies with duels, where each player has a certain amount of lives; tourny in a voted ship. All those arenas are enriched by a special league system (the so called Trench Wars Duelling Division), where players gather in groups or teams, with which they duel other teams in the corresponding arenas: TWDD – warbird duel, TWJD – javelin duel, TWSD – spider duel and TWBD – basing duel. The TWD League has also its own website, where teams are ranked according to their success and points and this system is later used by mods for the elite TWL league (Trench Wars League), where 10 of the best squads compete in all of the above mentioned duels.
There is an infinite number of maps. If someone likes one thing and another person likes something else, then both of them get what they want in TW. This way we can play hockey on ice and after that zombies in GTA-styled arenas or even HALO. The main arenas include ball events, zombies, warzone, deathmatch arenas, racing and special events, which are reserved for holidays. If someone wants to play a map, which does not include its own bot, they simply make a help call (call the mod - ?help Host hockey plz.), which moderators process and host the wanted event.
WHO U
Controls can vary from user to user, because they can be set in a specially designed tab. A special plus are also the names, which are attached to each command – if you want to assign a key for shooting (bullets), you can do this by clicking on the bullet name, pressing enter and the assigning a key or any other symbol of your choice. Another positive feature is also the compatibility with a wide variety of gamepads, which present a challenge itself and takes a huge amount of time to get accustomed to them.
The space ships give the gameplay the diversity, as each differs in speed, the bullet level and size. Warbirds and terriers are the fastest, but the latter ones don't have a powerful weapon, yet other ships can attach to them with a special key (F7), so they don't have to fly all the way from the spawning point to the flagroom, which turns out to be quite handy. Spiders are annoying bugs, which constantly bombared enemy ships with level 1 bulelts and take their energy, so they can't shoot back at them. Javelins are strong ships, which possess bombs, with which they can also kill ships of the same frequency, and that is called TKing. Levis (leviathans) are very speical ships. Their bombs are so destructive that they can blow up a dozen of ships of any frequency from a distance, but they are very slow. If their bounty is high enough, they can even attach to terriers, which then transport them through the arena and enable them to shoot from a wide variety of angles. This also gives them a high k:d (kill:death) ratio. Weasel's name derives from being a »weasel« in every aspect. It's a small ship, which uses stealth and cloak and usually lames everything that crosses its path. Luckily one can see it using the X-radar, which is normally used by terriers. The forelast ship is the shark, which protects other players with reps (repels), but it only has 3 from the start. You can buy more in pub with the help of the space money, as opposed to other arenas where you can't. Lancs (lancasters) are the easiest ships for beginners, as they are fast, agile, have dobule bullets (the so called double-barreled guns), which gives them the cutting edge while battling with enemies.
The graphics is as old as the game itself. 2D background and ships are still appealing and with the help of special tools one can even make new maps, which can later by hosted by mods for the rest of the TW population.
This maps can also include real pictures and image with the special LVZ Manager, and they really look fascinating. The gameplay is more important than the graphics, but a warning to all CoD and Crysis fans – this game is not designed for graphic noobs. Move along.
I C U
Of course the game cannot compete with new MMOs even in the sounds department, but it still gives a feeling of spaciousness and amusement. Humorous segments from presidents' speeches, summarized sound images from the 90's games and screaming hag are a real music to behold. They play a special role at the hosted events, when moderators spice up their green lines, which they perform with the % comamnd and then add a number of the sounds they want to play at the end of it.
Everything would be very hard to remember, so there are also sites, which make many tasks easier. The basic site is designed for event records, statistics and guides for beginners, the forum for chatting among players and other pages for downloading accessories, maps, banners, commands and other TW related stuff.
Patience is a virtue – this is the motto of Subspace. Although the commands are easy and the gameplay non-problematic, it still takes a lot of time before one can get good in any given ship. Some of the players don't play the leagues because of this fact and stick to pub, where the majority of players is situated. On both ends of the line, in pub and squads, one can feel the presence of Mirc, which was once used as a chatting program. You can talk to everyone at the same time in Trench Wars or only with a specific person, whatever suits the individuum. Every chat is separated by a special symbol, namely semicolon, and each profile can contain up to 10 chats! People are mustly friendly and helpful, if you encounter any problems or difficulties with the game, but there are also a bunch of snobs, madmen and bimboes, who tend to get too comfortable with their expressions.
Everything mentiones, from S to I, convinces the player to return to the game daily, sometimes even for many hours at once. A popular arena is also the AFK one, where subjects, who don't know how to exit the game, just chill and don't bother with the in-game usage time, which is being stored in their ship's reservoar, but rather stay there so they can boast themselves to friends and other player about the amount of time they put in playing Trench Wars. There are as many positive as there are negative aspects of the game, but players and the gameplay itself really make the difference.
Everyone, who is a fan of MMOs and space shooters, should give Subspace Continuum at least a try if not even grown old with it. The offer is extremely luxurious: from a wide variety od maps and modes, leagues, hosted events and prizes, the game offers everything the modern games do, but with one difference: it's free to play. Small annoyances with the graphics and occasional quarrels between rival players aren't annoying enough to make the game unplayable and a bad experience. It is fun to finally come across a game though, where something is really going on and you don't have to run around alone all the time like a lunatic in WoW.
Wiibimbo mounts his space horses and ventures on the journey of his imaginary astronomical life. Pew pew!
84 diverse maps, ships and events üfree-to-assign keys üteambased leagues and tournaments üreplayability factor üfree to use üoccasionally pesky individuals ûslight graphical obsolescence ûbugs û
Virgin Interactive Entertainment
PS. I've also included several pictures from the game, containing different maps like Egypt, Boggle, Attack, TheOne and Pub + added a few funny qutoes beneath them from players and events hosted.
Here's the translated review of Subspace Continuum Trench Wars Game:
Subspace Continuum: Trench Wars
With the technology advancing so quickly computers and graphics are also improving at the same time. But with all the CoD and Crysis clones on the market, there are still game that ignore the graphics and prefer to devote themselves to the gameplay. One of those games is Subspace Continuum, which is a 2D MMO shooter with space ships.
The game launched back in the distant year 1995, when the idea was introduced by programmers Jeff Paterson and Rod Humble. The first maps contained only 4 ships, with no teams and leagues. At that time players were sending their ideas to both programmers, who then processed the given data and made it come true.
A big turnaround followed in October 1997. Subspace became payable on a monthly basis, the number of players began to decline, but some of them were still silently hoping for a miracle. Which didn't come. A year later the company VIE (Virgin Interactive Entertainment) disconnected their servers and left the players hopeless.
But as it occured so many times in the past, there emerged a hero in this game as well and helped it immensely. His name was PriiTK and he introduced the BanG command, which could instantly remove all in-game cheaters and other nuisances, which plagued the game. From January 1999 Subspace Continuum as well as Trench Wars has become one of the best MMO games of its time – and is one of the best even today.
SO EZ
Trench Wars is only one of the many zones, which the game contains. It is currently the best zone out there, with over 700 subarenas, each with its own theme. And that's exactly the kind of charm that such a game needs.
Newbs start to learn the curves in a special designed place (just for them), called »pub«. The map looks like a base, where the aim of the game is to capture-the-flag and hold it for 3 minutes to win the round. The duelling system is included in pub, where each player can challenge another with the help of a bot, and also add the ship (there are 8 ships in the latest edition of the game) and the amount of pubbucks (space bucks), with which he shows other players, for how much money he wants to duel them. This money can be later used for different purposes: for buying different prizes (stealth, cloak, x-radar, full charge, portal, burst, EMP) or other specialties like warping a playing, giving epidemic to various frequencies, buying a roof bot, which kills enemies and others. These RPG-like additions give a game more depth and make the rounds hard to predict.
There are also other arenas available, which are totally automized with the help of bots. ?go base, ?go wbduel, ?go elim in ?go tourny are just a few of them, and each has its special purpose –capture-the-flag, where the captain chooses his own team and players; elimination of the enemies with duels, where each player has a certain amount of lives; tourny in a voted ship. All those arenas are enriched by a special league system (the so called Trench Wars Duelling Division), where players gather in groups or teams, with which they duel other teams in the corresponding arenas: TWDD – warbird duel, TWJD – javelin duel, TWSD – spider duel and TWBD – basing duel. The TWD League has also its own website, where teams are ranked according to their success and points and this system is later used by mods for the elite TWL league (Trench Wars League), where 10 of the best squads compete in all of the above mentioned duels.
There is an infinite number of maps. If someone likes one thing and another person likes something else, then both of them get what they want in TW. This way we can play hockey on ice and after that zombies in GTA-styled arenas or even HALO. The main arenas include ball events, zombies, warzone, deathmatch arenas, racing and special events, which are reserved for holidays. If someone wants to play a map, which does not include its own bot, they simply make a help call (call the mod - ?help Host hockey plz.), which moderators process and host the wanted event.
WHO U
Controls can vary from user to user, because they can be set in a specially designed tab. A special plus are also the names, which are attached to each command – if you want to assign a key for shooting (bullets), you can do this by clicking on the bullet name, pressing enter and the assigning a key or any other symbol of your choice. Another positive feature is also the compatibility with a wide variety of gamepads, which present a challenge itself and takes a huge amount of time to get accustomed to them.
The space ships give the gameplay the diversity, as each differs in speed, the bullet level and size. Warbirds and terriers are the fastest, but the latter ones don't have a powerful weapon, yet other ships can attach to them with a special key (F7), so they don't have to fly all the way from the spawning point to the flagroom, which turns out to be quite handy. Spiders are annoying bugs, which constantly bombared enemy ships with level 1 bulelts and take their energy, so they can't shoot back at them. Javelins are strong ships, which possess bombs, with which they can also kill ships of the same frequency, and that is called TKing. Levis (leviathans) are very speical ships. Their bombs are so destructive that they can blow up a dozen of ships of any frequency from a distance, but they are very slow. If their bounty is high enough, they can even attach to terriers, which then transport them through the arena and enable them to shoot from a wide variety of angles. This also gives them a high k:d (kill:death) ratio. Weasel's name derives from being a »weasel« in every aspect. It's a small ship, which uses stealth and cloak and usually lames everything that crosses its path. Luckily one can see it using the X-radar, which is normally used by terriers. The forelast ship is the shark, which protects other players with reps (repels), but it only has 3 from the start. You can buy more in pub with the help of the space money, as opposed to other arenas where you can't. Lancs (lancasters) are the easiest ships for beginners, as they are fast, agile, have dobule bullets (the so called double-barreled guns), which gives them the cutting edge while battling with enemies.
The graphics is as old as the game itself. 2D background and ships are still appealing and with the help of special tools one can even make new maps, which can later by hosted by mods for the rest of the TW population.
This maps can also include real pictures and image with the special LVZ Manager, and they really look fascinating. The gameplay is more important than the graphics, but a warning to all CoD and Crysis fans – this game is not designed for graphic noobs. Move along.
I C U
Of course the game cannot compete with new MMOs even in the sounds department, but it still gives a feeling of spaciousness and amusement. Humorous segments from presidents' speeches, summarized sound images from the 90's games and screaming hag are a real music to behold. They play a special role at the hosted events, when moderators spice up their green lines, which they perform with the % comamnd and then add a number of the sounds they want to play at the end of it.
Everything would be very hard to remember, so there are also sites, which make many tasks easier. The basic site is designed for event records, statistics and guides for beginners, the forum for chatting among players and other pages for downloading accessories, maps, banners, commands and other TW related stuff.
Patience is a virtue – this is the motto of Subspace. Although the commands are easy and the gameplay non-problematic, it still takes a lot of time before one can get good in any given ship. Some of the players don't play the leagues because of this fact and stick to pub, where the majority of players is situated. On both ends of the line, in pub and squads, one can feel the presence of Mirc, which was once used as a chatting program. You can talk to everyone at the same time in Trench Wars or only with a specific person, whatever suits the individuum. Every chat is separated by a special symbol, namely semicolon, and each profile can contain up to 10 chats! People are mustly friendly and helpful, if you encounter any problems or difficulties with the game, but there are also a bunch of snobs, madmen and bimboes, who tend to get too comfortable with their expressions.
Everything mentiones, from S to I, convinces the player to return to the game daily, sometimes even for many hours at once. A popular arena is also the AFK one, where subjects, who don't know how to exit the game, just chill and don't bother with the in-game usage time, which is being stored in their ship's reservoar, but rather stay there so they can boast themselves to friends and other player about the amount of time they put in playing Trench Wars. There are as many positive as there are negative aspects of the game, but players and the gameplay itself really make the difference.
Everyone, who is a fan of MMOs and space shooters, should give Subspace Continuum at least a try if not even grown old with it. The offer is extremely luxurious: from a wide variety od maps and modes, leagues, hosted events and prizes, the game offers everything the modern games do, but with one difference: it's free to play. Small annoyances with the graphics and occasional quarrels between rival players aren't annoying enough to make the game unplayable and a bad experience. It is fun to finally come across a game though, where something is really going on and you don't have to run around alone all the time like a lunatic in WoW.
Wiibimbo mounts his space horses and ventures on the journey of his imaginary astronomical life. Pew pew!
84 diverse maps, ships and events üfree-to-assign keys üteambased leagues and tournaments üreplayability factor üfree to use üoccasionally pesky individuals ûslight graphical obsolescence ûbugs û
Virgin Interactive Entertainment
PS. I've also included several pictures from the game, containing different maps like Egypt, Boggle, Attack, TheOne and Pub + added a few funny qutoes beneath them from players and events hosted.
LOL @Will
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