The voice acting in this game was so terrible, it became unplayable for me. I don't mind cheesy voice acting at all. Dynasty Warriors 3 (PS2) is a great example of how poor voice acting can be appealing in a game due to its comedy.

In this game however, it becomes so unbearable and at times impossible to understand. Avoid this game. Even you avid sci fi gamers.

I'd give it 5/5 if I didn't have the same issue on two completely different systems within 4 years.

I love the game but I keep getting the same issue, when onboard my ship the game crawls, until I make it to the teleporter then all is fine. It getting worse and worse the farther I make it into the game.

Wierd bug but I did notice that someone else had it too on another forum. So there's at least two of us :D The game kicks ass. I hate the stupid English translation after the laughter wears off.

ONE OF THE BEST SPACE SIMS EVER

This game tries to do everything and realizes it can't do everything, so they limited their ambition to realistic goals and focused on doing those things VERY well. And they pulled it off.

You can land on planets, board ships, and run and gun, while also blowing other ships out of the stars.

GREAT graphics. I don't know why people pan the graphics, this is an older game and the graphics are still really good for its age.

The voice acting is atrocious but its so bad that it's good. My son loves to play this game and loves when you blow up the robots and they go "AHHHhhhh." and it sounds like WALL-E dying.

The biggest challenge with the game is knowing what to do next concerning the missions, and the interface takes awhile to figure out. Once you figure it out, it's easy. The mission log is too difficult to understand because what you need to do is almost never clear and takes some thinking and too much guessing. The main game missions are fun though and challenging. The game is totally non-linear and you can go off and do whatever you want though.

This game is a very shiny hidden gem that deserves a lot of credit and kudos for its accomplishments, and implemented so well. Never had any technical issues with this game, everything is very fluid and smooth.

This game took a long time to adjust to.

For one, it's a nightmare for programmable dual stick controllers as there is no way to control mouse sensitivity in your analogue stick through your mapping software to properly adjust to dog fights.

I resorted to just programming a few buttons into my controller, using the in-game stick mapping software and just reaching for the mouse during instances where I had to switch from ship or character control to map and menu control.

Game play wise, the developers have designed things to be handled in a certain manner and they are impossible to manage otherwise. Once such instance is the boarding of ships. Apparently to avoid allowing the player to take down every ship by boarding it and never utilizing the dog fight aspect, enemy ship patterns are too fast and difficult to board without first taking down one or two of them to break up and slow down their pattern.

It's instances like this that result in a trial and error gaming with obsessive saving that give this, otherwise, simple First Person Shooter / Dog Fighter an unnecessary high learning curve.

Also some time will be spent roaming from planet to planet in attempts to find out where you are meant to go next to continue the story as even though all conversations are recorded for review at any time, the information recorded is often times vague or not clarified.

In one instance I was attempting to locate a pirate ship which stopped off on a planet 6 for repairs. I needed to loot the ship for an enhancement that would allow me to leave the opening solar system.

As this was mentioned in my journal, it was written to sound like they were on planet 6 in a different solar system already. Normally common sense would suggest the designers wouldn't place a key item in an area that you can't reach without that key item so the planet in question was in the opening solar system with you. Investigating planet 6 revealed nothing until my third return where the pirate ship was found not parked with other ships, as expected, but way out behind the control center.

Parkan II often times feels like a game of charades in the dark.

One other warning. Your protagonist appears to be poorly voice acted by a sixteen-year-old boy. The female co-actor, whom is some sort of guiding ghost in your head, happens to be a lot more trained and professorial. Fortunately she is the one you will hear the most.

On that note, however, get ready for the same three cheesy lines over and over again from the endless onslaught of robot enemies throughout Parkan's Galaxy.

All complaints aside, once you can adjust to the mentality of the developers and learn what shenanigans to expect from the game it becomes much more enjoyable, engaging and relaxing to play than other grand space adventures which are often times bogged down in too many convoluted control schemes and quarter hour ship battles that don't go anywhere.

I've given this a four out of five. Better scripted and acted voices and more hand-holding guidance during the first few hours of the game would have pushed this one over the top.

Parkan 2 is a First person shooter/space sim. Gameplay is seperated into flying in space and walking around on planets and moons.

Space flight is simple, even when compared Wing Commander/Freespace, and lacks any real sense of the weight of you space ship or of speed. Controls are via mouse and keyboard or joystick. Both are fine and allow the adequate control. Enemy AI for ships is okay and will retreat if given the chance. Weapons, once you get a few upgrades, make the dogfighting easy. You can board enemy ships in the middle of combat, and a few missions in the plot require you to, which is nice but doesn't really pay off, you can't take over the enemies ship for instance.

Ground combat is akin to Quake. There isn't any crouch, prone or lean. You get two weapon slots, an arm mounted gun and a shoulder mounted missile launcer, but with in those you get a varity of differnt weapon ie cannons, lasers, plasma guns, homing missile, dumbfire missiles, etc. Most of the ground fights are in bases, though sometimes you'll have to kill enemies outside the base before you get to it. Most enemies will just swarm you with no real tactics shown.

The game is said to have a trading system though I didn't notice it. Most of you money, fuel in this case, will be earned by destroying ships and looting the items that they drop and taking over bases. Base management is simple and not very stategic. The game will give you missions to aquire certain items necessary to upgrade you base, which is the extent to which you can influence the base.

The plot is okay though the fact that this is sequal does mean that some elemets aren't explained which can be anoying. It mostly told throught logs and reports with each one sending you onto another one. It works well and at now time to you get stuck wondering where you should go. It does drag towards the end though.

Graphically it is dated, it lacks many of the features that new games have but the graphics are functional and don't distract from the game.

Sound is good, with music being a background elemement that enchanes the game play without becoming to noticable. Voice work is okay, though it is limited this isn't a big problem due to the setup of the game. There are no translation problems with the game.

Overall it is a enjoyable and fun game.

+ Space combat is challenging.

+ The ability to board ships in space.

+ Ground and space combat.

- Very repetitive.

- Droid sounds.

- Ground locations are very limited in size.

/ Pretty graphics, but quite dated.

I like the game,the Graphics were nice,the sound was good.The game play was a little challengeing for me but doable. One thing that got me dissapointed was there is NO 500+ systems at all,tops i would say about 20 or 30 no where near 500+ systems. Overall id give this game a 9/10,the reason i give it a 9 and not a 10 is the fact there was not 500+ systems :(

Excellent game! Overall this game would get a 4.5/5 from me, because I was VERY disappointed with the ending. The gameplay was a bit easy, which made the game storyline seem a bit short. The word "COLONIZE" is not used properly I might add, you cannot colonize planets, you can only conquer them by force. The graphics were amazing, and the storyline was interesting and easy to follow. The game would seem like a Blend of Battlecruiser: Gold and Freelancer. If you like sci-fi games, particularly action and FPS games, I would recommend this game to you.

I wish this game was availible in sotres or a way to order a boxed version of this game. I downloaded this game and have been playing over the weekend. I must say this game has everything you have wanted any other space sim game to be. The attention to detail within this game is awsome. Very huge game playing world. I must say I have played all the space sims from buggy darkstar one,buggy x3. Freelacer was very good. Rouge universe could have been better. The only problem with this game is most of the enemies you fight are robots,voice over is pretty bad. The game play is top notch. Looking for a new space sim buy this one you won't go wrong.

This game is Ok, but on some things I don't know what the hell the game makers where thinking when they made this.

The good part is this game is a decent space sim/FPS, but neither are good.

The game has a clunky interface that could've been made better, but it wasn't. The voice-over is really bad and is hard to understand a bunch of times, I had to go over and thorugh the tutorial twice.

The shipfights are a joke, all you have to do is get close, press x for about 3-5 seconds, and you can dock the enemy ship. All you have to do then is kill about 5 crewmembers, all of which are weaker than you and fairly easy to kill on the most part, and leave.

This is where I wonder WTF the game developers where thinking. What is the point of boarding a ship if you can't take it. Thats right, you can't take ships. The last crewmember sets up a 2 minute self destruct sequence. There is absolutely no reason to board an enemy ship other than it is much easier and more guaranteed of a victory, but it takes longer than shooting. Even much larger ships are easy to kill with the docking method, and this isn't balanced at all.

You can land on other planets, but they are limited to size, as in you got 1-3 full sized buildings and the outdoor between them. Here it is the same as FPS mode for space fights. You can own a base after you take it, but the only way to take it is to get its access code from pirates, wanderers, or a mission from an enemy of the base you want to take. You can then build some facilities on the base, but the system is awkward. You have to get a misson from your base to fetch parts, you just can't get a nice menu that lets you specify what you want built. This is another WTF moment I get from the obscure ideas of the game developers. They just do stuff weird and awkward.

Overall I wouldn't buy this game if I knew then what I know now. It isn't worth the time, and it is a bland FPS that lets you fly a ship. A better choice for many wanting a Space Sim would be X3.

This game is a mixture of 2 genres

Having played the first Parkan game, which was no less stunning for it's time, i had high expectations for Parkan II, and for once - i wasn't disappointed.

For Privateer/Freelancer players - the space combat will make them feel right at home, keyboard controls, mouse, and flightstick all work smoothly. The universe is much larger than in many comparable games, filled with planets and moons, spacestations and derelicts, pirates, robots and aliens. The way space flight is approached in Parkan II makes space seem somewhat less empty. You can even get up to six space combat drones, which i must say, kick a lot of ass.

The FPS element strongly resembles Quake 3, speed and strafing, as well as overpowering gun/rocketfire will be your best allies, as well as a slew of tanks, unmanned aerial vehicles, drones and warbots all at your command. You can capture entire solar systems, attempt to board ships in space, manage an economy (once you have captured a planet capable of production), run trade between solar systems, or simply take missions and hunt down enemies and carry out many other objectives, like setting self destruct on captured ships and escaping in the nick of time, or wiping out a garrison of heavily entrenched pirates on a desolate planet using mixed unit tactics.

The graphics are exellent, and i havent experienced any bugs or glitches (yet).

Non linear, yet story driven, the game gives just enough freedom while still keeping you on track. At first, i thought the game was easy, but man was i wrong. One on one, combat is in your favour. However, when faced with multiple enemies you will quickly find yourself being flanked, outgunned, and dead, if you are not aggressive and accurate.

The only thing that strikes me as a negative is the poor english grammar in some of the text in the game, but in a way it gives the game it's own european feel. The voice acting is good, and EAX support is included.

All in all, an exellent game for fans of the genre.

I would have to rate it ( 9.5 / 10 )

Mike B. NYC, USA

It's a refreshing alternative to playing ELITE on a Commodore 64 that's for sure!

I just started playing and I must say, the game is in the lead of it's category. Not as complex as X2 or X3, not as simplified as Privateer. It's like the right combination within the space genre.

I particularly love the crips, clean, cool graphics!

The game is realy good... itīs two years old game, but nowadays there is no other game like it. You can land on planets, aboard other ships, take some missions, make interplanetary trips. Good , itīs use a arcade mode to fly and limited FPS action, but itīs works, i have a lot of fun playing. Great surprise beside intial bad feedback from russian in the past.

So I know I've gushed about Parkan II before, but after playing it for about 10 more hours, I think it's my new favorite game of all time...

This is no mean feat. For years my favorite game of all was Starflight, a game that's 21 years old, yet still was unmatched in its feeling of exploration, discovery, and awe. The thing I loved about Starflight -- and now Parkan II -- is freedom. You can go to multiple star systems, land on hundreds of planets, encounter lots of aliens, and so on. Many games have come close to the level of scope and freedom found in Starflight, but IMO they haven't come close until now.

Here's an example of how awesome ONE MISSION this game is (and the game has dozens if not hundreds) -- I was to infiltrate this pirate base and load a virus into its computer. So as I approach the planet, I get approached by two cruisers. I launch drone fighters and take out one of the cruisers, the board the other one. Once connected, the game switches to FPS mode, and I transfer over to the other ship. I then fight off the ship's defenses and steal its cargo before it sets the self-destruct, giving me two minutes to run back to my ship and undock, which I do in the nick of time. Once the orbital defenses are cleared, I head down to the planet and land. I then leave my own ship and get attacked by the bases' warbot defenses. I then unload my own warbots and fight alongside six of my own bots to take down the base's heave defenses, which takes out three of my own bots. Once the bases' outer defenses are down, I enter the spaceport itself to fight off the bases' inner defenses on my own. Once that's done, I steal all their cargo and load up the virus to the base's computer, upon which I'm paid by my contractor. I then leave the base and head back to my ship for repairs.

This takes place in one planet, in one system. There are 500 systems in the game, of which I've only seen 4 in the 20 hours or so I've played. I gotta tell ya, this game is just incredible.

I can't gush enough about this game. I really can't...well, maybe I can, but I think that's enough for now. :)