Space Rogue - Mindscape/Origin RRP œ29.99
              (Single-character RPG/trading game)

It was just another routine trading trip until your ship, The
Princess Blue, picked up a distress beacon from a vessel drifting
nearby. Someone had to go out and investigate and it was obvious
who was going to go; so you pulled on your spacesuit and glided
across from your ship to the lifeless craft, not knowing what
you'd find there.

It was rather frightening - you knew there was always a risk of
meeting pirates in deep space so could that be the explanation?
Or could it be a Manchi attack? No, that was rather unlikely in
this part of the Far Arm. Perhaps there was just something wrong
with the ship....

On your arrival, you were surprised to find that the floating
ship, The Jolly Roger, was completely undamaged but lifeless. But
before you could contact your ship and tell them, a cry over your
voice mike made you jump, and looking out, you saw some Manchi
Hiveships attack and destroy The Princess Blue, killing all your
friends and colleagues. Ignoring the derelict craft, the enemy
ships vanished as quickly as they'd appeared, leaving you all
alone, not really sure what to do but determined to survive.

This is the exciting start of Space Rogue, setting the scene quite
neatly for you to begin a one-man exploration and investigation of
the surrounding region of space. Luckily, there's a starbase,
Hiathra, not too far away and once you've got to grips with the
ship's controls you can travel there to start the game in ernest.
Laying the course into the ship's computer is a simple matter and
selecting HELM will show your craft travelling across the main
screen to arrive at the base.

It was then that I realised I might not find it very easy to get
on with this game, because the first thing you have to do is dock
with the base, much as in Elite, manoeuvering the ship in all
directions, rotating it and getting the angle just right so as not
to damage your ship. When I tried Elite, I found docking
impossible, and if you can't dock, you might as well give up!
Fortunately, the sequence in Space Rogue is much easier and I
surprised myself by doing it first time without even damaging The
Jolly Roger's paintwork!

Inside Hiathra, the screen display alters into a traditional
RPG-style overhead view of the area as you move your character
round the base, meeting characters such as the clumsy HAL9K robot,
a teenage girl, a man dressed in rags and Orellian, the official
Imperium representative. You can talk to all of these in a limited
fashion by selecting your reply from a series of possible answers
and gain, in some cases, useful information. In fact it is through
an oral exam set by Orellian that you will gain a pilot's license
which will enable you to buy certain items from supplies.

Purchasing some pods and cargo to go in them, it's time to head off
into the unknown again; this time to a nearby outpost. Assuming
you don't get attacked, the trip should be uneventful and docking
was, thank goodness, a breeze again, despite the fact the outpost
had a different appearance from the starbase.  As with all games
where trading is involved it helps to buy low and sell high but
it'll take time and experience to know the market unless you can
find someone with information which they are willing to give
you .... for, again, as in many of these games, you'll meet
characters who will do YOU a favour if you'll do one for them.

After pottering about between the starbase and the outpost for
quite a while, I felt it was time to travel further afield. In
Space Rogue, long-distance travel is by means of gates, strange
structures in space which will whisk you from one end of the
system to another.

That's the theory anyway! In my case, it was the point where I
gave up. Not only do you have to dock with the gate, you then have
to traverse a long, twisting wormhole in space (shown as a series
of concentric rings which bear more than a passing resemblance
to a big dipper), without deviating from your course at all and
keeping above a certain speed. I'd have been ok if I could have
inched along through the thing but with so many variables and
opportunities to go wrong, I'm afraid I didn't stand a chance of
success.

So, I never even got to find out the real aim of Space Rogue,
which I gather has something to do with political intrigue and
assassination plots. It's such a shame. If only Origin had made
that one section more playable for people like me with awful
reflexes (which is, after all, one of the reasons I play
adventures rather than arcade games - the other, more important
reason being that I far prefer 'em!) they would have made a
convert. As it was, I enjoyed what I saw of the very early stages
of the game and was then left feeling very disappointed that I
couldn't get any further.

If you like this type of game and you're good at piloting a craft
accurately and you see Space Rogue cheaper than the RRP, I'd say,
give it a go. At the full price it's far too dear, but knock off a
tenner or more and it's much better value, assuming the rest of
the game is as good as the beginning.

                                       Sue