Reviewed: February 21, 2005
Reviewed by: Trey Wheeler

Publisher
Strategy First

Developer
Guild Software

Released: November 4, 2004
Genre: MMORPG
Players: Online
ESRB: Teen

6
5
6
5
6.0

System Requirements

Vendetta Online features:

• A completely “twitch” based flight model and combat system brings the intensity and immersion of FPS-style battle action, set against the backdrop of a massively multiplayer universe.
• An open-ended skill and faction system permit great variability in a character's role in the universe.
• Player-run Guilds allow characters to coordinate on a large scale.
• Detailed universe history and storyline (a printed version included with game purchase). User involvement with ongoing story development.
• A dynamic economy, affected by supply and demand and the political climate of the universe.
• Multiplatform support with simultaneous release on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
• Continual expansion of the game features, after release.
• Group play: team up to take on tougher targets. Escort the trading freighter of a friend, or lie in wait to pirate the convoys of your enemy.
• Select from a wide range of highly configurable ships.
• Carve out your place amid the stars: rise within the military, establish a trading empire, or be the scourge of the galaxy.
• Extensive communications system, including chat and instant messaging capabilities.
• Technologically advanced 3D engine, delivers an immersive experience across a wide variety of systems.
• Additional recurring fees are required to play this game. All major credit cards, PayPal, and other methods of payment are accepted. Fee information and pricing plans will be provided after installation of software. A 30-day subscription is included with your game purchase.

The beginning also gives you a nice tutorial to help you familiarize yourself with the movement and the menu navigation. I also encountered a few helpful players that, at the very least, responded to some of my chat text, and that is nice to see.

Once you get the hang of it, the spaceship is really simple to maneuver. Joystick support is included, but the mouse and keyboard worked rather well for me. You have your basic movement commands using the WASD keys, and then there are a few more advanced battle tactics to master, such as rolling, but it is all fairly simple to overcome.

The combat here is “twitch based,” but the main thing to point out is that, unlike most flight simulation games, the combat doesn’t feel like traditional dogfights where you are just maneuvering to tail enemy ships; you are focused more on evasion, such as side-strafing and rolling, rather than constantly turning your ship around—and this is a good thing because you have to be constantly moving and dodging, and this makes the combat more fun and intense.

There is a handy little flight assistance flight model that you can use to help to always keep your ship moving in the same direction, or you can turn that option off in order to maintain your speed and momentum; this allows you to move and fire in different directions. The combat frequently boiled down to constant side-strafing and moving backwards, and this made the game feel more like a first person shooter rather than a flight sim.

In combat you will mainly rely on your ability to use your plasma cannons, as missiles are a considerately weaker threat; this helps to make battle more about skill, rather than who is able to launch the most missiles at the other player first. It takes a bit of a learning curves to really get the hang of combat, but it is worth the time because the game does a good job of keeping battles intense and dynamic.

Aside from combat, you can do other things such as: explore, mine asteroids, uncover some useful trade routes, and fight bots—computer controlled ships. The real fun would probably have to come from dealing with other players, however. The tutorial does a nice job of telling you how to chat, and telling you where to find other players.

I was surprised to discover a very lively chat room full of experienced and helpful players—well, not particularly helpful to me since I was a newbie, but they seemed to have active guilds and groups formed. Most of the chat was about the bounty system, a cool system that rewards players for seeking out other characters that have dubious reputations. If you are able to succeed in your bounty hunt, you will be able to score some nice cash rewards, as well as having your name placed in the space station news boards.

One hindrance to the building of a good player community that I found is the fact that you cannot build your own structures or trading empires, and you cannot have more than a single vessel at one time. This seems to really hold the game back from developing strong guilds and communities. It would seem that, the players are there, and the combat is inviting, but the game just does not have enough content to help stabilize and expand the community.

I will say that there are lots of asteroid fields and ion fields scattered throughout the galaxy, as well as some crystals here and there, but they are all only decent. The ships, at least the ones I encountered, were all blocky and horrendous, the space stations were even worse. I will admit that they did a solid job of capturing the vast, black, emptiness of space—and they also captured the vast, boring, depressing, loneliness of it too.