If you don’t know, the Artemis II spacecraft completed its mission of performing a successful flyby of the moon. Being a big nerd at heart, I had been following this closely and it’s pretty nice to see we’re back to exploring space again. But this did get me to think about a lot of how I don’t have the guts to do what the Artemis II astronauts did. I can’t imagine going out to space with the threat of death all around me if the slightest thing goes wrong. I would rather play pretend space voyager with my video games in the safety of my on home, thank you.

This in turn got me thinking about all of the spacefaring games I’ve played throughout my life. I’ve played more than my fair share of them. So, if asked what would be the best sci-fi game set in space would be, I have a lot to pick from. For a lot of gamers, that might be the Mass Effect franchise and I would understand why they would say that. You get to play a heroic captain who becomes the sole hope against a force that threatens the entire galaxy. You get to make choices which actually changes the story in pivotal moments. You encounter and meet different aliens and have interesting conversations with them. You also get to explore different planets on an off-road vehicle of sorts for more adventures. So, yeah. I get why a lot of fans would say Mass Effect is a great sci-fi game.

But what if I told you I got to play Mass Effect way before BioWare released the first game in 2007? What if I told you I played a sci-fi game where I played a game that did everything Mass Effect more than a decade before? You might call me a liar but I did just that. That’s because I played Star Control II back then! And it’s still probably one of the best, if not the best sci-fi games, ever made.

Star Control II was released in 1992 and developed by Toys for Bob. You may know Toys for Bob as the same team behind the Skylanders games. Star Control II technically starts in the middle of the events of the first Star Control game during the middle of an intergalactic war between the Alliance of Free Stars, a ragtag group of alien species (including Earth), and the Hierarchy of Battle Thralls, a group of slave races under the control of the Ur-Quan. Don’t worry. You don’t have to have played the first game to understand as the first game only had a barebones story.

Anyway, your mother and father are marooned on a desolate planet and you are born here. The planet is also has a myriad of highly advanced technology left by a mysterious and apparently extinct race known as the Precursors. Being born here has imbued you with the uncanny knowledge to control the Precursor tech. Eventually, you become old enough and command the technology to build you a ship to escape the planet. However, when you do return to Earth, you find out the Ur-Quan forces have actually won and Earth has become a slave planet. You then set off on a quest to defeat the Ur-Quan forces and free the planet Earth.

Okay, the setup of the game seems very basic. But this is just the setup. The story itself is much, much, much more complex! It turns out there isn’t a single Ur-Quan race. There’s the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za, the ones the Alliance of Free Stars faced, and the Ur-Quan Kor-Ah, a genocidal offshoot of the Ur-Quan race. Both of them are going through a civil war to see who takes control of a Precursor warship, which helped the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za win the first war. While the Kzer-Za are more “benevolent” as they only want to enslave other races so they won’t enslave them, the Kzer-Za, if they win the civil war, will use the Precursor warship to destroy all sentient life in the galaxy so no one will enslave them! And it looks like the Kzer-Za are winning! So, it becomes a race against time for you to find alliances and fight both Ur-Quan races so either of them don’t get to use the ship!

Probably the best thing about Star Control II is how much care was given to its lore. There are around 25 alien races you can run into while playing Star Control II. And each of these races have very detailed histories you can glean from them if you talk to them! Okay, some of them, like the Orz, can come off as vague because your universal translator cannot exactly understand some of the words they’re saying. But they all have very interesting stories on how their societies came to be. Take one of the earliest races you encounter, the Zoq-Fot-Pik. They are actually a trio of species who evolved on their planet and learned to work together as they were always hunted by another species called the Zebransky. The three species then continued their alliance and symbiotic relationship so well that, when you do make first contact with them, they’ve already have forgotten which species is a Zoq, a For or a Pik.

Honestly, that’s only the tip of the iceberg as there are so many other alien histories, like the warfaring Thraddash, the spiritual Pkunk and the cowardly Spathi, that are more interesting. Probably the most interesting is the history of the main villains, the Ur-Quans, as you piece together how they became two separate species and why they want to either subjugate all races or destroy them… if you’re brave enough to talk to them, that is.

Another thing I really loved about Star Control II is the combat. Although I talked about how similar and how Mass Effect probably borrowed a lot from Star Control II, I cannot say that about the combat system. All you get in Star Control II are space battles between ships. Each race has command of a different kind of space ship, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Each ship also has a special secondary ability, like the slow but powerful Mycon Podship, which can regenerate crew/health, and the speedy Arilou Skiff, which can teleport randomly and isn’t affected by gravity and momentum.

Early on, combat can be frustrating as, when you start, the ships you control are pretty weak as the only ones who want to join your new Alliance of Free Stars are weaker, more peaceful races. That is, except for the Spathi Eluder you get very early on! The Spathi Eluder is a quick enough and fairly maneuverable ship but it has a very weak and inaccurate main weapon. However, its secondary weapon, the BUTT missile, is fantastic! You can essentially run away and peck at your opponent’s ship’s health by flying away and peppering it with BUTT missiles! As the cowardly Spathi built their ship for speed, this makes it easy to run away from an enemy ship while still damaging it! Sure, the BUTT missile only does around two points of damage and it does take a while for ships with a lot of health, like the Ur-Quan Kor-Ah Marauder, to finally explode. But it’s probably the safest way to take out each and every enemy in the game!

As I said, you do make choices in Star Control II that changes parts of the story. For example, you can go the “evil” route and call your New Alliance of Free Star the “Empire of [your name]” if you want… and that’s what it’ll be called throughout the game! You can accidentally anger the Orz if you ask them too many questions about the Androsynth, the artificially created race that used to inhabit that region of space. You can even expose the bigotry of the VUX race if you’re persistent enough.

Like with Mass Effect, you can also do a ton of optional side quests. But, unlike Mass Effect, these side quests really change how some of the events play out. Probably the best example is how you handle the warmongering Thraddash. First, you can destroy a lot of their ships, proving your “superiority” over them, and you become their new leader. Second, you can trick them into attacking the Ur-Quan Kor-Ah to prove how strong they are, which leads to the Thraddash and the Ur-Quan Kor-Ah destroying around half of their fleets. Third, you can trick another race, the Ilwrath to prove their loyalty to their gods by eliminating the Thraddash. Better yet, you can do all three of them! You don’t have to but the mere fact that you can is fantastic!

I will say there are things which make Star Control II somewhat frustrating to play. I’ve already mentioned how the early part can be difficult as all you have are very weak ships. This can make combat very frustrating and even feel unfair, especially against more powerful enemies. Your main ship is also very slow and weak until you can find enough materials to upgrade it. In order to gather these materials, you have to explore planets with your Planet Lander. The problem is you also have to upgrade your Planet Lander when exploring more hostile planets! So, you first have to grind your way by going to “safe” planets, upgrading your ship and Planet Lander and set off again to explore somewhat stronger planets to get more expensive materials. Rinse and repeat. Thankfully, once you do upgrade your ship and the Planet Lander to their maximum levels, you don’t have to do this again! Heck, you can actually turn your main ship into a warship that can destroy every enemy ship, even one as beefy as the Ur-Quan Kor-Ah with one big tracking plasma blast!

Also, exploring the entire galaxy can be daunting. Not only is the galaxy vast, you have to keep track of your fuel supply… both going to your destination and going back! This can be mind numbingly boring early as your ship starts out very slow. And, since you still need to update your fuel supply capacity, you’ll only be flying short distances! If you do run out of fuel, a Melnorme Trader will eventually fly to your location and sell you fuel… for a steep price. But by this time, you’ve wasted a lot of time. And time isn’t on your side in Star Control II!

This leads me to my biggest problem I had with Star Control II: its on a timer. Eventually, the civil war between the Ur-Quan races ends with the Ur-Quan Kor-Ah winning. Once this happens the Ur-Quan Kor-Ah will stary flying out to attack and destroying all the other races! I didn’t actually know there was a time limit the first time I played it. So, when I first saw this happen, I went into a panic as, while I was close to finishing the main questline, there was still one major quest I had to complete to get to the endgame!

All of a sudden, I was desperately flying through the galaxy, fleeing encounters to get to the final quest while seeing the sphere of influences of other races fading! I did manage to complete the main quest and finish the game but, by that time, several races, like the Druuge, the Mycon and the VUX were wiped out. I didn’t grieve that much, though. After all, those three were pretty evil races.

After I did play and finish Star Control II, I eagerly awaited Star Control 3. I liked it fine but it didn’t have the same oomph as its predecessor. I learned later on that Toys for Bob didn’t make Star Control 3 and it was actually given to a different developer. Contrary to what most fans will say, Star Control 3 isn’t a bad game. The problem with it is it’s the sequel to one of the best games ever! So, by comparison, being “not a bad game” isn’t going to cut it. I have a feeling the people behind it had good intentions and were genuine fans of Star Control II. But it was just lacking the special magic that made the previous game so incredible.

Although I have a lot of fun memories with playing Star Control II, it’s kind of hard for me to recommend younger/modern gamers play it. Like I said, the time limit can be scary and might prove too nerve wracking for the uninitiated. And, like with most adventure games of the time, there is very little handholding. So, gamers who have been weaned with a big blaring notification on the screen regarding what’s your next objective might feel aimless with how expansive the explorable area is.

Still, Star Control II is one of the best sci-fi games ever made. It’s one of those classic games no one today really talks about. Which is kind of weird as you can actually play Star Control II for free! Sure, you can get the Star Control I+II bundle for cheap there. But you can get Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters, for the very low price of zero dollars! This is basically the 3DO version of Star Control II, which includes voice acting, if I’m not mistaken. Or, if you don’t want to go that route, you can download the original game from here as well!

If you’re willing to forgo a lot of modern gaming niceties and want to play one of the best games ever, I do suggest you give Star Control II a try. I have so many fond memories of the game and I really want more people to experience the joys I had while playing it.

Have you played Star Control II? Which version did you play? Let me know in the comments section below!