1674: Raiding the Stars

I think I’ve found a suitable successor to classic Atari space sim Star Raiders. And that successor is Artemis, the starship bridge simulator. It was the second time I’ve played it tonight, and it confirmed what I had suspected on reflection since the last time I played: that Artemis is a spiritual successor to Star Raiders.

There’s a chance that if you’re reading this, you don’t know what either Star Raiders or Artemis are, so a brief lesson: Star Raiders was the original space sim, featuring a surprisingly detailed simulation of what it might be like to fly around the galaxy defeating enemies and protecting starbases from being overrun. Artemis, meanwhile, is a space sim exploring what it might be like to fly around the galaxy defeating enemies and protecting starbases from being overrun. You can probably see why I’m drawing comparisons here.

There’s a twist, though. While Star Raiders was a single-player affair, Artemis is a multiplayer experience that requires a rather elaborate setup. Specifically, you need a computer to act as the simulation’s server and the ship’s main viewscreen, then several other devices — one per player — act as the bridge’s various consoles. From here, the players have to work together — and communicate — to fly the ship as one and defeat the enemies in the area.

It’s a highly flexible system, too; the default game mode is pure Star Raiders as you do your best to protect the sector’s starbases from attack, but support for hand-crafted missions and even RPG-style affairs with a human “game master” overseeing proceedings and triggering events and attacks as they see fit give the game a considerable amount of longevity.

The only issue is that which I’ve already mentioned: the fact you need multiple computers, phones and/or tablets to play together. This has become less of an issue since the affordable mobile version, but you’ll still need to actually get four or five people together to play the damn thing, unless you’re very good at multitasking!

It’s an effort worth making though; it’s a co-op experience altogether unlike anything else, and if you have the slightest interest in space sims — including Star Raiders — then you won’t be disappointed.