Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Linux, Open Source
Off the clock: Unknown Horizons is a free, open-source RTS for Settlers fans
by Sebastian Anthony Oct 25th 2009 at 2:00PM
The premise from their own website: 'The player starts with a ship somewhere amid an archipelago. The goal of the game is to found some cities on the islands and to earn money.' Such a simple concept. But as we all know -- the simple games are often the best and last the test of time.
And, believe it or not, defying most open-source expectations, Unknown Horizons actually plays rather well. If you don't mind hammering away at a very, very nascent user interface, this is a great game to have running in the background while you browse your favorite after-hours websites.
Now, this game isn't even close to the caliber of Open Transport Tycoon, but it could be. The seeds are there -- the music is surprisingly good and the tutorial kind of works! Though it doesn't nag you to do things -- and there is no way to re-display steps in the tutorial after they disappear, so I hope you have a good memory.
The graphics are charmingly old-school. There are plenty of resolution options, full-screen, windowed (handy if you want to keep it the top corner of your screen while you do some 'real work') -- though I thought the interface was a little slow to react even on my beastly gaming computer.
As I mentioned earlier, the sound is great. There's even some voice acting! The music seems to be more 'mood' than 'active' -- I didn't find any audio triggers, but then again I didn't get into any combat situations.
All in all, there's a lot of work left to be done. The UI is incomplete and unintuitive. After an hour, I still hadn't worked out how to trade goods in the marketplace. There are UI elements that look like buttons or graph bars -- but are in fact sliders. There are missing icons, and generally not enough data available to you.
But... it works. It didn't crash. It's playable and -- most importantly -- it's actually quite fun.
As is the case with the majority of open source games, Unknown Horizons is available for Linux as well as Windows. Give it a go on your favorite distro!
[via WebUpd8]
The graphics are charmingly old-school. There are plenty of resolution options, full-screen, windowed (handy if you want to keep it the top corner of your screen while you do some 'real work') -- though I thought the interface was a little slow to react even on my beastly gaming computer.
As I mentioned earlier, the sound is great. There's even some voice acting! The music seems to be more 'mood' than 'active' -- I didn't find any audio triggers, but then again I didn't get into any combat situations.
All in all, there's a lot of work left to be done. The UI is incomplete and unintuitive. After an hour, I still hadn't worked out how to trade goods in the marketplace. There are UI elements that look like buttons or graph bars -- but are in fact sliders. There are missing icons, and generally not enough data available to you.
But... it works. It didn't crash. It's playable and -- most importantly -- it's actually quite fun.
As is the case with the majority of open source games, Unknown Horizons is available for Linux as well as Windows. Give it a go on your favorite distro!
[via WebUpd8]
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So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
blaszta said 2:43AM on 10-26-2009
"The UI is incomplete and unintuitive"
Ever try Freeciv? The UI is 'unplayable'... This one is look much better!
Reply
Sebastian Anthony said 9:13AM on 10-26-2009
Haha. Yes, I've played Freeciv. Point taken :P
No, the UI in this game is not THAT bad.
totycro said 6:47AM on 10-26-2009
Hi!
Thank you for your review! I'm a member of the UH-team, and i wanted to say, that we aware of the unusability of the trade-widget. Still, it's difficult to create an UI, that is really intuitive for everyone (every user is in some way different).
If you have a suggestion, or just an idea maybe, how to improve it or any other part of the game, please post in the forums or visit our IRC. (http://unknown-horizons.org)
regards,
totycro
Reply
Sebastian Anthony said 9:14AM on 10-26-2009
Ah, it's a known issue! Well, that's good at least :)
If I had time to beta-test it some more I would... but it's a good game. I am sure you will pick up quite a following.
Jordan said 9:31AM on 10-26-2009
As a fan of both the Anno and Settlers series, this looks like fun. I'll be sure to try it out soon!
This is why I read DLS. For finds like these.
Reply
Sebastian Anthony said 9:56AM on 10-26-2009
Hopefully there'll be some more gamesy stuff in the coming days and weeks...!
mgthantzin said 12:09PM on 10-26-2009
I tried this. and I say I like this. Agree with the author of this post. Don't know how to get some things done but it's totally fun. :D
A tutorial would be very much helpful. Now, I'm facing deficit problem (as expected).
Cheers~
Reply
André said 1:34PM on 10-26-2009
There is a tutorial inside. Just click on scenario on the new-game-screen. There you'll find one in German and one in English.
Andre said 1:37PM on 10-26-2009
We will release a manual in a few days. There you'll find detailed information how to trade and so on.
And thx for the review btw.
Reply
Sebastian Anthony said 1:41PM on 10-26-2009
My pleasure... keep up the good work :)
Novatlan Sound said 2:54PM on 10-26-2009
Hi!
I am the composer of most tracks in Unknown Horizons and just wanted to thank you for mentioning my work. That happens rarely and it is incredibly satisfying to know one's work appreciated :)
Have a look at www.demo.novatlan-sound.de if you like my stuff!
Currently there is no "interactive" triggered music in UH - simply because I haven't done any (yet). That will change, you bet on it :)
Thanks for the review!
Tobias
Reply
Sebastian Anthony said 2:57PM on 10-26-2009
Cool! I think music often gets mentioned, but perhaps only in commercial games...!
I'll be checking to see if your reactive-battle-music is as good as your mood stuff :P