Ahh, Traveller. Who doesn't have fond memories of getting together with your high school mates after watching the latest sci-fi blockbuster, all set to live your own tales of space age adventure, only to have your own personal Luke Skywalker or Captain Kirk die halfway through character creation? Despite the lethality of the original pen and paper role playing game, it provided me with many an enjoyable evening with the gang.
Megatraveller, for those of you who don't know, is a computer game based on the updated version of the original Traveller, called Megatraveller (obviously enough).
While I never actually played the tabletop Megatraveller (the little black books were always good enough for me), the computer version of Megatraveller also brings back many fond memories.
The first step in playing the game is choosing your characters. Thankfully, unlike the original game, your characters won't get brutally killed halfway through making them. In fact, there are several pre-generated characters to choose from if you wish. For me, half the fun is making my own personalized team of sci-fi heroes.
The interface is certainly something that shows its age. While there are some mouse-based controls, the majority of the game is played with the keyboard. Even menus and basic buttons like the inventory and such are accessed with the keyboard. Even the mouse-based controls aren't that
useful, as they can be operated by certain keys anyway. I guess the game came out before mouses were invented or something.
The universe is randomly generated, just like in the original game. It's great fun to explore the different worlds, and see the various climates as well as the societies that the game has generated. My favorite memory of the game is finding a lush tropical world, where the laws were about on par with the wild west. I think I killed 30 villagers before a local sheriff and his posse took me down.
Speaking of combat, the main meat of the game is probably fighting. There are tons of awesome weapons, from the simplest table leg club to advanced quantum particle cannons. (My favorite is definitely the Degravatron Draganov, a sniper rifle that shoots a miniature black hole at the target!) The combat is akin to other tactical strategy RPGs, in that you need to control each of your characters. Like any other game, your characters have stats that can be raised and make them better at combat.
As for drawbacks, the game definitely shows its age with the sound and the graphics. Still, for anyone like me who loved the original tabletop game, it's definitely worth playing!
