liradarc Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 (edited) So I picked up some random games during the Steam holiday sales. One of them was . What immediately struck me about this game, which was released back in January 2013, was how similar its controls were to GSF. It had the mouse-based movement where you maneuver a reticule to target and your ship eventually turned in the direction of the reticule. Firing your main weapon used the left mouse button, and there was a 'lead' circle to shoot at when targeting an enemy (most noticeable in the video at around 10:30). Firing your missiles required moving an enemy into the middle of your targeting area and holding down the right mouse button until you got a lock on, then releasing to fire. Ships have both a shield and an armor rating that have to be worked through before they 'splode. You even regularly swap between main weapons and missile types when you've equipped multiple variants of each. You can also boost for speed! There are a few differences. Strike Suit Zero has a few weapon types not seen in GSF, like a limited-ammo machine gun main weapon that lets you ignore the lead targeting reticule. And a swarmer type missile that lets you lock on multiple missiles the longer you hold down the right mouse button. You can also transform into a mecha (lol). GSF has cooldown abilities, which Strike Suit Zero does not. Given the time scale of strike suit zero's release, I have to wonder whether any of the GSF developers played that game and were influenced by its control mechanisms. They're very similar. Edited January 8, 2014 by liradarc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemarus Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 All of these games owe far more to X-wing, TIE Fighter, and Wing Commander than each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liradarc Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 All of these games owe far more to X-wing, TIE Fighter, and Wing Commander than each other. X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and Wing Commander had fixed reticules and joystick controls. I've played all of them. I mention this game because the control scheme is uncannily similar to GSF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lymain Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 The first game I remember with mouse controls similar to GSF was Freelancer (March 2003). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianDavion Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 The first game I remember with mouse controls similar to GSF was Freelancer (March 2003). yeah me too. was a fun game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemarus Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and Wing Commander had fixed reticules and joystick controls. I've played all of them. I mention this game because the control scheme is uncannily similar to GSF. As others have said, Freelancer was the first to use mouse to drive a space sim in this fashion... and there's not really another way to do it with a mouse. Starfox also had your ship chasing your reticle, as do this game's original tube-shooter single-player space missions. Even Halo uses a similar control scheme for vehicles, despite having access to a joystick! You don't steer the Warthog--you point the camera/reticle where you want to go and the Warthog turns to go there. It's a very common control scheme, regardless of device, when you are dealing with a third person character/vehicle that can shoot in 3D space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts