Welcome to episode 4 of The Linux Game Box.
Today I'm gonna talk of Beyond the Red Line, a space combat simulation and unofficial spin-off of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica show.
Title: Beyond the Red Line
Genre: Platform
License: Unknown but free
Website: http://www.beyondtheredline.net/
Beyond the red line is a standalone conversion (hooray!) of the award winning FreeSpace 2 game by Volition, Inc. The game released in 2007 it's only a demo featuring three single player missions and multiplayer support. A full game version (commercial?) is announced but no release date is specified. The official website provide scarce information and on October 2008 part of the team left Beyond the Red Line to work on a different project. We can thus fear that the full Beyond the Red Line full game is a vapoware.
INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS → 5
To install the demo first thing you must download the install script. You can do so using this tracker for your torrent client. If you don't have a torrent client you can just download the script directly from on of the mirrors on the official web site.
After having downloaded the file you must set the script to be executable. To do this right click on the file, choose the permission tab and click the executable check box and run the script by double clicking it. At this point you could face a library problem like "error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory". If you have this issue just install the last version of libgtk from Synaptic or Adept. At this point you can double click again on the install script and install the game. Alternatively to solve the dependency and install the the game you could type this on the console:
$: sudo apt-get install libgtk1.2 $: sh BtRLDemoInstaller.runThe installer will create a btrl_demo folder on your /home folder.
Run the btlr_demo script to run the game.
Linux system requirements:
• Operating System: Linux x86 compatible
• CPU: Pentium® 1 GHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz processor
• Memory: 512 MB RAM, 1 GB recommended
• Graphics Card: 64 MB NVIDIA® GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon with closed source drivers, Mesa 6 or better with S3TC extension available for open source drivers
• Input Device: Mouse and keyboard
• Installation: 800 MB free HD space
GAMEPLAY FUN → 8
BTRL is a space combat simulator game so the gameplay is similar to that of glorious games of the past like Wing Commander and the Lucasfilm X-Wing series. Thus the concept is basically you sit into the cockpit of a colonial Viper to do the fighter pilot's job: escort ships and do a lot of dogfight against the cylons. The game implement semi Newtonian physics flight to enable the player to perform all the manouvers seen on the show. Also the weaponry and ship instrumentation are replica of those designed for the SciFi tv show. Similar to its predecessors also BTRD features a full set of commands which requires a certain amount of practice to be learnt and mastered. This can be see as a drawback but in my opinion that's not the case. At the beginning can be hard to mess around with all the keys -somewhat contortionist- but as you learn and use them you get accustomed to them and acquire more control on the ship and this is quite rewarding.
GRAPHICS APPEAL → 9.5
From the visual point of view BTRL is quite satisfactory. The ships are accurately modeled and contain high-resolution textures. The environment is fascinating and immersing. Performing flybys of asteroids while chasing down cylon fighters with a gigantic alien planet in the background is something which provides breathtaking experience. Some effects, like explosions, could have been better and some others, like the shaking of the ship in afterburner, are really nice.
SOUND DELIGHT → 9
The sound is a real plus of this game. Even if BTRL is not an official Battlestar Galactica game the guys of the development team put pieces by Bear McCreary and Richard Gibbs which, useless to say, create a unique atmosphere. Music apart, the game is rich of actor speech either during briefing or during space combat. This especially helps you to bathe into the pilot character; you will hear pilots chatting, swearing "frak!" and screaming for their life, this all melted with the crackling of the laser and the humming of the cylon fighters brushing your ship.
STORY ENCHANTMENT → 7
The story is set during Battlestar Galactica Season 2. You are a pilot recruit draft and pressed into service by the not-so-gentle folks of the Battlestar Pegasus. Who watched the show's already aware that the philosophy of the Pegasus captain concerned a struggle to survive which implied dismantling of the civilian ships it was supposed to protect. Your objective is do your job and becoming a first class pilot of the Pegasus forces and possibly not to get killed also.I must say that the story is not that well told or present in the game. There's a lot of briefing (all spoken by actors) but no introductory sequences, no cinematics, and no after mission chill out activities such as interaction with the mother ship personnel or environment. Although this is only a demo of a future game, I must list this aspect within the cons.
MALUS POINTS → -5
Even is Beyond the Red Line is amazing under many aspects, to have only 3 single player missions to play which is simply disappointing.
Note: the source code of FreeSpace2 was released by Voliton, Inc. under a non commercial license. The source code can be used to produce mods and stand alone games and it's currently developed and maintained by the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project
OVERALL SCORE → 6.7
Here below you can see a video footage showing the game in action.If you want browse more videos you can check the Beyond the Red Line YouTube channel here
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