Will run on low-spec PC
Although traveling through space does look the part and we’re promised plenty of unique-looking environments, it did take some time to trek back to the base at the end of each quest. Most of the hands-on time I spent with Jumpgate Evolution involved traveling to and from Bleakstone station, picking up quests and then heading out on reconnaissance, combat and scouting missions before returning to pick up the next one. In the final version, I’d quite like to see an auto-pilot function so I can go and put the kettle on whilst my ship trundles back to base. The time heading back to base could be used to explore the universe and in the final version I’m sure they’ll be multiple places to visit and obviously they’ll be human players navigating the skies to interact with, but at the moment traveling back and forth is simply boring.At the end of each mission I was rewarded with a piece of equipment allowing me to upgrade my ship. This is added into the inventory where you can simply click and drag the new item into one of the free slots on your ships. These items ranged from engine parts, which improved the overall power of the ship, to new guns that gave me more firepower. In the final version, they’ll be a wide variety of items and NetDevil hope that the trading these items and resources will become a big feature of the game, where players will use the auction house to drive the economy.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageSurprisingly, despite the solid and impressive visual impact of space and the promise of large scale battle, Jumpgate Evolution is being designed to run on low-spec machines that run 512MB ram and sport no pixel shader card. With many games trying to push the boundaries of PCs, it could be a very good move indeed by NetDevil and one that may well appeal to the casual market.
The lowest minimum specs will be:
• OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• CPU: Intel Pentium® III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz
• RAM: 512 MB+
• Network: 56k modem or better Internet connection
• Video: 32 MB 3D graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting
• DirectX® 9.0c (included) and latest video drivers
Jumpgate Evolution is shaping up well enough, but I get the impression it won't 'rock our world' when it arrives later in the year. However, it certainly looks impressive and the action, if anything, is a good blast. I'm still very keen to see how the RPG side of things pans out and to see if they can marry this successfully with the action side of the gameplay. If they can, then who knows? It could be a winning formula. One thing’s for sure, the developer’s decision to focus on accessibility will either be its success or its downfall.
