Jumpgate: Evolution

Format PC

Developer Netdevil

Publisher Unknown

Genre MMO

5 Comments

Birmingham's Omega Sektor, an epic web cafe cum gaming emporium, is home to many things - dim lights, rooms of humming PCs, squeaky leather black chairs upon which people often remark "That was the chair, not me," and, more recently, Codemasters' big ol' gaming bash.

There, I prepared to throw myself headfirst into Jumpgate: Evolution, NetDevil's new MMO. The comparisons leap out at you - Stargate, Babylon 5 and even Star Wars all came to mind as I prepared to grapple with whatever crooked implementation of mouse-and-keyboard space flight they'd undoubtedly concocted.

To my great surprise, on letting my stubby fingers manoeuvre my spritely little fighter-jet into the infinite blackness of space, I was afforded the greatest of control. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that controlling Jumpgate: Evolution felt not just good, it felt right.

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NetDevil have made a phenomenally easy-to-pick-up and visually stunning space sim within the MMO model, and within a minute I felt like Malcolm Reynolds and Han Solo's love child.

Evolutionary
Controlling your ship is much like your average FPS, with the weighty, smooth movement and combat of FreeSpace 2 interspersed with the missions (read: quests) of an MMO that will have you hurtling all over creation.

There'll be your average "kill 10 Conflux War Sprites" quests as well as more interesting, Death Star trench-style adventures, buzzing into the heart of a gigantic intergalactic ship like an angry mosquito, and taking it down from the inside and reaping the rewards.

While (unlike EVE) you can't fly the big ships, you certainly find yourself fighting both next to and against them, usually as an agent in a bigger conflict.

Combat itself is similar to most space-sims - you lock onto a target,
fly around them aiming for the best hit and fire until they're space garbage, before picking up their loot and moving on.

The game's real-time nature makes it more interesting than some of the rest of the genre's combat, but it's a lot more forgiving of tiny errors within the first few hours of the game, with generous shields and remarkably unaggressive enemies easing you into the controls and the combat engine.

The modus operandi of the Jumpgate universe is accessibility and fun. NetDevil have with great pride spent months developing the keyboard control-system, as well as building in support for joystick junkies everywhere.

I played with both a mouse/keyboard combo and a scary-looking thrust controller and a full-scale joystick that pivoted in my hand as I turned, and didn't notice a large shift in usability. In fact, personally, the keyboard and mouse felt more natural - if only because it made me long for Freespace days gone by.

Jump Around
On top of the space simulation elements are the classical MMO tenets of experience, loot, and advancement. Your avatar is your ship, which you can outfit with the finest weaponry, shields and tactical equipment, or even buy brand-new ships to move your equipment across to.

Advancement is controlled both by your familiar experience bar (with a reward of experience with every kill) missions, and the as-yet-unspecified Licensing system. From what we've been told, it's there to control both twinking (buying high-level gear for lower-level players) and gold-sellers by using a Gran Turismo-style limit on what ships you can use until you've completed a certain amount of quests.

While the repetition of the MMO model threatens to bore the heart out of any genre, it works somewhat invisibly within Jumpgate: Evolution. Your missions involve the killing of X number of Y, but the immediacy of the combat covers it up, transforming even a mundane kill-shit foray into an elaborate space opera.

Later missions even involve you taking on gigantic battle cruisers, sniping out turrets and then taking out a shield core, which is a damn sight more dramatic than tapping your 1 through 4 keys.

Jump n' Grind
While the words "space" and "MMO" make you think "EVE" and "grind", Jumpgate: Evolution appears to be the yin to CCP's yang. NetDevil are emphasising that the game will be about slick, fast-paced combat rather than routine repetition of hotkeys. From what we've played, Jumpgate: Evolution feels like its expanding the genre in
a direction nobody seems to have noticed was there.

Purely as a game, without the online elements included, Jumpgate would be something to get excited about, but the MMORPG parts make it a red hot pepper in our exhausts. We advise wholeheartedly that you sign up for the beta at NetDevil's website, or plug your ears and wait until later in the year for the game's release.

Ed Zitron