Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters (2024)
Genres:Adventure
Themes:Action, Science fiction
Story:Experience the award-winning space saga. Travel to hyperspace, discover alien worlds, and meet an eclectic cast of characters. Find out what happened after the Ur-Quan invasion. And if the war still rages, fight for Earth and the Alliance of Free Stars!
Vote to bring this game to GOG and help preserve it.29
I remember when I first came across this game, on 2004's CD release of free games n' software bundled with a certain computer magazine. Looking at the accompanying screenshots reminded me of a game I'd played in the early '90s with a cousin of mine (which I later found out was the previous game in the series).
If memory serves, the version in question was missing a few things (I think the intro cinematic was one of them), but that didn't stop me from enjoying the campaign. I also managed to get some friends from school to play, even having some matches against each other in the PvP mode.
Considering the game's been open source for over 20 years, and the official build landed on Steam a bit under a year ago, it'd be nice to have it on GOG as well - if only so the upcoming sequel isn't left as the only game in the "Free Stars" series on the store.
I grew up with this game. It expanded my vocabulary, helped me learn how to read beyond my grade level, and set a high bar for games for me. It took years before I'd find an adventure that came even close to SC2 in depth for me.
This game brought me onto the internet in the 90s as a child, indirectly teaching me how to type and how to interact in online forums and chatrooms. It indirectly taught me how to find information, and just to navigate the web in general. Few games have been quite so impactful on my life.
I spent hundreds or thousands of hours on this game as a kid. The music, the quirky and funny aliens, the exploration, the open world feeling before it was a thing, and the amazing story all captivated my imagination. Switching between strategy and exploration to fast paced one on one combat, this game is still as fun and challenging as it was then. Since this is one of the best games ever made, leading to the existence of a community that has updated this game to modern systems and have delivered years of stories and content, it is just fitting that this game finds itself in the best games platform, the DRM free GoG.
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