I’ve been mucking around with the copy of Space Rangers 2 Complete that I bought at the beginning of the year when it went on sale on the Impulse platform for a measly US$3.99. This was a game that I’d briefly tried when it first came out, and though I really wanted to like it and loved the very idea of it, I was put off by its opacity and how unforgiving it can be. The chorus of acclaim for the game on QT3 convinced me that persevering with it would be worth my while, and since I’ve never written a After Action Report (AAR) on any game before, I thought it would be fun to keep a sort of diary as I make my way through the Space Rangers 2 world.

You start off by creating your character, a freelance Ranger tasked with defending the galaxy against the incursion of the robotic aliens known as the Dominators. The game takes place in a galaxy that’s dynamically generated every time you start a new game and you’re free to either take the fight to the Dominators as you’re supposed to, or do your own thing. It’s as open a sandbox as anyone can imagine. For me, since this is my first playthrough, I’ve decided to play my usual goody two-shoes with the intention of building up my character and ship until I’m strong enough to take the fight to the Dominators.

My ranger is named Spidey Deccan, and since I’m not above wringing whatever advantage I can, I’ve decided to be a Freyan Merchant since I’ve read that this would net me the best starting ship. In my case, it’s a biggish trading vessel with slightly banged up parts, but that’s easy enough to repair. I’ve chosen to take the upgraded engines and the missile launcher as my bonus starting gear and my two skills are Trading, which gives me better discounts when selling stuff, and Technical, which reduces the wear and tear my ship experiences as I travel through space. I plan to make my first fortune running safe and easy trading runs, buying cheap commodities from one planet and selling them at higher prices at nearby planets. Whenever possible, I plan to do courier missions which involve delivering packages to a certain destination within a set time limit. With my initial setup, I’m going to suck at combat, so my strategy is to run away from hostile ships or failing that, to bribe them to leave me alone.

The game starts on 1st January 3300 with a tutorial that feels a lot more involved than what I remember playing when I first played it two years ago. You’re basically taught how to fly from one destination to another, to trade, to jump from one star system to another, to refuel, and to fight. The tutorial ends with a battle against a drone that’s actually kind of tough. It’s hard to imagine anyone being able to win it if they hadn’t taken the Missile Launcher as starting equipment. By the time I was done, it was April 3300 and I’ve managed to earn a few thousand credits through trading commodities along the way. Not bad.

You’re also supposed to get a buddy at the end of the tutorial, who acts as a sort of companion in more traditional RPGs who can help you fight, but in my case, my companion hated my guts the moment he joined. The game reported our relationship as “Bad”. He left my employment barely a month after he offered to join up with me, complaining that I was always doing things he disagreed with. I’m not sure what I did to piss him off, but since he was a mercenary, I suspect that what offended him were my cowardly ways as a snivelling merchant rather than a great warrior. Anyway, good riddance to him since I find keeping track of companions to be more trouble than it’s worth in this game.

The next year and a half were spent fairly uneventfully doing courier missions and trading. I honestly managed to keep out of combat entirely during this time, though I did get a few odd diseases. One caused my fighting skills to drop but raised my Charisma. Interestingly, it also caused me to receive cash donations from time to time from unknown parties. I was tempted to hold off getting cured, but being mindful of nastier consequences down the road, eventually popped into a medical station to get rid of it. During this time, I managed to gain enough XP to boost my Charisma, which increases the reward that I get from completing missions, and my Mobility, which boosts my ship’s defense ability in combat. I also started to accumulate a small collection of colourful but useless awards from completing all those missions.

I’ve also been keeping an eye out for the famous text adventures I’ve heard so much about. As their name implies, they’re text-based mini-games that are usually puzzles or simple strategy games. (Forgot to mention earlier that there are also RTS mini-games but I opted not to do them at all because they’re so time consuming.) Partway through the third year though I did get a mission that sent me to a planet to obtain some medicine. When I arrived, it turned out that I needed to hunt for a beast to obtain the ingredients for the medicine myself, and what followed was a text-based strategy game. The odd thing was that after that I managed to get a string of text-based adventures, including one that had me piloting a mech in combat and one that had me entering a checkers competition.

Towards the end of the year, I’d traded up to a fairly large and speedy ship (the hull had a very impressive +100 speed bonus). I’d also significantly upgraded my weapons and defensive systems and earned enough XP to increase my Accuracy skill, which helps me land hits on enemies. It’s biggest disadvantage was that it only had three weapons mounts, enough to make enemies think twice about messing with me, but not quite enough to be a killing machine on the battlefield. So I plucked up my courage and decided to join in with a military operation trying to dislodge the Dominators from one of the systems that they had taken over.

As it turned out, the battle was very nearly over by the time I managed to get there. The Dominator ships left had barely any hit points left and I also managed to land a kill on one, assisted by the other Coalition ships already present. I did grab a nice selection of Dominator artifacts that I promptly turned in to the nearest science base. I get cash in return for them, but more importantly it speeds up the Coalition’s anti-Dominator research, which is an important step towards defeating them once and for all. Not the most epic of achievements perhaps, but not a bad way to end the year either. I resolved to actively seek out more combat encounters in the 4th year.