SR2 is definitely worth 4 dollars.  It's crazy, like Russian crazy, so you have a whole bunch of minigames within the larger Turn-Based RPG that are rewarding in their own right.  A couple of the optional puzzles took help from friends and several days to break.  It also has a nice little arcade shooter element and a Robot RTS element, which endgame can be challenging.  All in all it's pretty sweet.

The part you'll be playing the most is the space flight/combat, which is a pretty unique and cool combo of turn based and real time movement.  The game is technically turn based, and you move a certain distance -- based on your engine -- just like any other turn based game.  But when you move more than 1 "turn" away, the game strings the turns together, and you get this sweet real time effect.  Anyway, in this mode, you end up doing a lot of things you'd do in any other sandbox style game: you can explore uninhabited planets, traffic goods (legal and illegal), fight pirates, or even become a pirate yourself.  Missions (in space) range from standard fetch quests to bounty hunting.  Same missions take you planetside where you engage in RTS combat or a mini text adventure (complete with (sometimes difficult) puzzles as mentioned above).  Oh yeah, and like mentioned above, there's the arcade shooter that you get after entering hyperspace a certain way.  All in all, I'd say $4 is a GREAT buy for this game.

SR2 is an awesome game, I played it for a fair long while and at $4 it's an absolute steal!

The translation is a bit quirky at times but I actually found that to be part of the charm. I ran it in full screen mode at whatever the highest res is and it looked great to me... Like everything after the first hour or two the graphics are irrelevant and it all comes down to gameplay, which SR2 has in spades.

cheers,

Kul

It's a great game, you should definately buy it. I've spend over 80 hours playing that game

Never that bad but yes, same kinda idea.

The text adventures are all very playable even with quirky translation, so yeah not bad at all. VERY enjoyable game, anyone who's bored this weekend and *doesn't* pick it up for the low low price is completely and utterly mad

I got my ass kicked the first time I tried that mission. Since then I developed a workable strategy, the key is to make the enemy lose as many bots as possible to bleed him dry. Bots are expensive and every bot lost hurts a lot. It doesn't help that most of the weapons are crap. Laser is too slow, same with cannon and chaingun. Plasma is good but expensive. Burners are just a bad idea, the area of effect damage lingers and can cause massive friendly fire.

What works best in my experience is lots of rockets and mortars with a few stunners mixed in.

It doesn't matter if he owns half the map if you are capturing his CC and all he can oppose you with are basic chassis bots with a single chaingun.

Well worth $5. My boxed copy was Starforced, so it's good to get a clean version. Thx Stardock.

Hi!

I too prefer missiles. The usual composition is 3 fighter robots + 1 repairer, but for each choke point I thend to have 2 repairers to also repair each other. Only in this game I started using stunners, because I had minerals, but not free "slots" for bots.

Stunners really work wonders, esp. in narrow passages. The bot that's hit stops, and so do all bots behind him. Nice unmoving targets for my missiles and mortar shells.

Anyway, I skipped that ground combat mission. Just saved the game if I'll at some time start feeling masochistic and return to it.

BR,  Iztok

That mission is actually one of the hardest ones - and sadly the first non-tutorial RTS mission you get.

I recommend going for pure rocket bots with range enhancement - advance the entire group outside the location you want to attack and then manual control your bots to take out turrets without taking any damage. If you get enemies, move sideways while hitting them, and stay in range of your AI bots.

Strategy wise, I won by going for green, full steam. Bleed green dry right outside his HQ, then run in and capture it when he's weak and distracted due to a red attack. From green's base it's an easy charge to red.

Two questions I hope you guys can answer.

1. How do I track down the unique ships? I know there are at least 3 in my present game but I don't remember where they are. Searching the news or ship database doesn't help.

2. How the heck do I solve the code-box text adventure? I came so close to matching the sample pattern but ran out of moves. The instructions are not very clear, are we supposed to create two loops of mirrored numbers?

I also picked this game up not too long ago, and I love it! It's so crazy and open-ended and fun, except for that horrible Mauna Roa Beaches level. I'm having the same problem as everyone else;  I can't take the middle no matter what I do, and Red eventually takes out Green and rampages over the whole map. It's very frustrating, because I think I'd like the RTS missions if it wasn't for this one map.

I finally beat Mauna Roa!

I just sent everybody to the mountain, established a foothold in the battery factory, and then got really lucky. Red kept hammering the mountain, and eventually managed to clear out all the turrets around Green's robot factory before being repelled. Green didn't rebuild the turrets, but kept pumping out robots and sending them northwards to attack red. I had two bots at the battery factory at the time, so I just rushed in and ninja-capped the factory.

After that, it was just a matter of taking all the mountain resources and slowly wearing down Red. By the time I was done, I had every factory on the map, was maxed out on all resources, and had 30 robots at times thanks to the helicopters. And yes, it took forever.

Victory screenshot!

I probably could have finished it sooner, but I had never gotten the mountain before and was being super cautious.

Here are a few tips I learned in that battle:

You're best off sticking to two types of bots: Attackers and Healers.

Attackers should have 3 rocket launchers, 1 stunner, a mortar, the range module, and antigrav legs. Rockets do lots of damage and, with the range module, outrange most turrets so you can easily weaken them before charging in. The stunner is just awesome, as it completely disables both bots and turrets, preventing them from shooting you and making them get hit more.

Healers should have 4 repair beams, firewall module, and antigrav legs. No mortar, because they can't repair while firing it. Just leave that slot empty. Build one for every 3-4 attackers, and try to have at least one with every group.

You can use manual control to snipe the turrets around a base you want to attack, but you shouldn't destroy them completely because the enemy will just build a new one before you can cap. Weaken them instead, so they only have a little health left. Then send in your army. The first few volleys will take out the weakened turrets, letting your bots stun and kill the ones you couldn't reach. If you stand on the pad right away, you can turn the base neutral before any new turrets finish building.

Perhaps most importantly, the AI reacts slowly to your actions, and sometimes not at all. They can be hoarding a giant blob o' bots on the southern beach, and will happily let you capture every base between it and their factory. It also seems to prioritize large but distant battles over a pair of attackers sneaking into the factory. If both enemies are alive, make your move when they get distracted.

If you can get control of the mountain, try to capture and hold all of the micromodule bases. Modules are needed for just about everything, so they won't be able to build much if they run out. Make sure to defend them, though. I saw the AI make a desperate attack when they started to run low.