Jumpgate is not an easy game to categorize. You play online with hundreds of other players in a richly featured persistent universe. The basic premise is not a million miles from that of Elite or Privateer but when you first say "Hi" to a ship as it flies past, and you get a real response you start to realize that this game is special.

The story is that the universe is being re-colonized and society is being rebuilt after a terrible natural disaster that left mankind scattered across the galaxy. This effort is being carried out by "The Reconstruction Initiative" which is a quasi-governmental organization struggling to coordinate the efforts of rival factions. So far, contact has been made with five factions of humans, of which three (the Solrain, Quantar and Octavians) have joined the TRI. The remaining factions (Hyperial and Amananth) remain remote but have permitted access to one space station each. Mankind has also stumbled across a race of space-faring creatures known as the Conflux, which are committed to the destruction of every human ship that they see. These creatures vary in their abilities but don't underestimate their firepower!!

Gameplay:

Your first choice when joining the game is to choose the Faction for which you wish to fly. The factions broadly break down as follows - Octavians, proud warriors with an emphasis on firepower, Solrains who are traders with good cargo capacity and shields, and Quantar who are a mystical people, who mine better than the other factions and have the most maneuverable and some of the fastest ships. These differences are not absolute and there are exceptions to the broad rules so you should choose your faction according to your character rather than ship stats.

The first thing that strikes you when you launch is that the game uses a unique physics model. You do not turn like an X-wing - no Spitfires in space here! This is basically full Newtonian physics, but with (some) drag added to keep things manageable. It is convincing without the nightmare complexity of Frontier : Elite 2 and you are able to pull off some amazing maneuvers once you understand how the ships work. In effect, your ship has a top speed, and you will slow down gently if you shut off your engines but turns are wide when made at speed and obstacles need careful avoidance. After some practice the flight model becomes quite intuitive with some more practice you can strafe a target while orbiting it and balancing the turn on the throttle! But before you get carried away, your first challenge will be docking, and one of the favorite pastimes of the veteran Jumpgate players is to watch newbies redecorate the core stations - take it steady! At this point you realize how truly massive some of the stations are. The core stations are immensely impressive, while stations in neutral space really look like the pre-collapse relics that the storyline suggests. You often see ships just flying around them taking a closer look.

The next concept that you must grasp if you want to stay alive is the fact that there is PvP built into the core of the game. You have the option of choosing whether you fly as "Honour Guard" or "TRI Civilian" but this is not a PvP switch. Other players may kill you, no matter what setting you choose. The first player to land hits on another player is regarded as the aggressor (unless both players are "Honour Guard") and a bounty will be placed on his head immediately. A greater bounty is imposed if the aggressor kills the victim and the aggressor will lose faction rating or even experience points if he becomes a serial killer! Any pilot with a bounty can be engaged any other player. This is all irrelevant in neutral space where TRI does not hold sway - although the mission payouts are high for runs into neutral space it is a lawless place where only the fittest survive! The conflux menace is also at its most dangerous in neutral space…. Stay out unless you are well armed and confident in your abilities. This adds a real sense of danger to the game and even veteran pilots get that thrill of adrenaline once they leave the safe areas of TRI space behind.

If this sounds off-putting to the peaceful traders amongst you, it shouldn't be. You can join a squad for mutual defense, hire escorts, pay off pirates, or just hope to avoid them. Of course, since pirates are played in this game by real people you can at least talk to them. You could end up supplying them with their equipment at a profit! The general rule is that if you stay in TRI space you will be safe most of the time.

The ships in the game range from the starter ships, which are slow, maneuverable and easy to fly, up to big cargo "tows" which are the 18 wheelers of the space lanes but still quick when they are un-laden. There are also extremely fast scout ships, three types of fighter, transports and others. Each faction has its own different take on each class of ship resulting in 24 different ships as well as the 10 different Conflux classes. All ships from one faction have that "family look". All of the ships can be reconfigured by the fitting of upgraded equipment. Different Factions tend to specialize in different equipment types although they all cover the basics: Power plants, Shields, Engines, Guns (ammo, plasma, laser and mining) Capacitors, ECM, Missiles, ModX, and Radar. The best advice is to try before you buy in the simulator - some configurations will leave you without enough power to run a radar when your engines are at full throttle.

Once you master your starter ship you will want a better one but the better ships are only available as you increase your rank. There is only one thing for it - get out there and do some missions! When you are docked in a station you get a nice clean interface for all the essentials (missions, trading, ship configuration and the simulator), which also has (removable) tool-tips to help you out. There is no point in describing it all here but it works well and looks good. The market is your key to riches, while missions earn you valuable exp. The simulator is used for play fighting with other pilots and conflux or for checking out the capabilities of other ships. All ships from all factions are available to you in the simulator and equipment is free.

The game is supported by a three year story line which has already started on the European server. This can be part of your Jumpgate experience or you can simply choose to ignore it and get on with your own Role Play. The Jumpgate Universe is generally big enough for everyone although there have been some tense moments recently on the European server. If you want the details, check out the links below.

Graphics/Sound:

The Jumpgate graphics are good. No, they don't make Mechwarrior 4 look embarrassed but who needs lens flare anyway? The ships look good, the stations look awesome and the kick you get from watching a battle between 30 players in one sector is incredible. The graphics are easily good enough to make the game believable and that is all that is required. For reference, I get 40-50 Fps at 1024x768x32bpp on a P3-600 with a Matrox G400/16Mb on Windows 2000. You don't need big iron to play this game.

Sound is similarly workman-like. 3D sound is available (I have not tested it). The music is good (but once you eventually get sick of it, you can stick your own choice of MP3 in the right folder) and the weapons have their own noises, which becomes very useful in combat. If your wingman and your enemy have different weapons equipped, you can tell whether the firing is incoming or outgoing. The effects in this game are nice but again, if you really hate a sound, you can put your own in. This can cause problems with new patches so keep backups of the originals.

Multiplayer/Devices:

Well, since this is a multiplayer only game you would expect this area of the game to be well thought out! Don't worry, because it is. The real technical star of Jumpgate is the network code. NetDevil have made a game that can easily cope with high pings. I used to play on the US server from the UK with a lowest ping of 350ms and encountered no problems. Trouble only really starts at 500ms and above. A 28.8 connection is listed as the minimum requirement, and I believe it. I use a 56k modem connecting at no more than 49k and I have plenty of bandwidth left for TeamSound or Game Voice in the background. If you lag on Jumpgate, you really need to change your ISP. When you see the number of people that play this game at the same time, it is truly amazing. Thirty people in visual range of each other? Oh yes, that and more!

To help with player interaction there is a good chat interface which allows booths, whispers and local / global options. It is not mIRC though, so don't expect too many features. There is an optional profanity filter and an ignore function apart from the game related commands that the chat window provides. Since flying the ship needs two hands, and a lot of concentration, Mighty Games also provide free Game Voice servers with plenty of bandwidth for all EU players. If you don't like Game Voice, you can use TeamSound, Battle Field Commander or Roger Wilco - they all work fine with Jumpgate - but you will have to provide your own server.

One of the keystones of Jumpgate is the squad system. Squads are managed via the game's web site (called the Jumpgate Operating System Shell) by the squad founder. Any pilot in a squad has the squad name displayed after his own name in the radar-targeting window and can talk to squad mates on a secure chat channel. JOSSH also publishes up to date statistics for squads and individual pilots as well as league tables for just about everything from net worth to Conflux kills. The political scene on Jumpgate can be peaceful or fraught but is hardly ever static. There is an important distinction to be made between Factions and Squads. Factions are fixed (unless you reset your character) and there are three playing factions. Squads, on the other hand, are completely player controlled. You can join, leave or ignore them as you (and the Squad leader) wish. Some squads are composed of members of a single faction while others are not worried about faction allegiances. This means that high-level players need to have 360 degree political vision if they are to prosper while low level players are advised to join squads for mutual protection, help and (sometimes) financial support. You can fly solo if you wish, but a lot of the fun in Jumpgate comes from joining like minded people and achieving common goals.

The Wrap-up:

Space ships, stations, aliens, cargo, mining, trading, fighting. None of those elements are exactly unique are they? But when they are combined in a persistent universe and polished to the degree that NetDevil have achieved with this, their first, game the effect in fantastic. Whether you are a trader, miner, explorer, pirate, escort or political master you will find that there is a niche in the Jumpgate universe for you. Role-play and player skill have been combined into an experience that has ensnared hundreds of beta testers and is now available to everyone. If you can download the client and have a look round the Jumpgate universe, you should try it out. Give it about ten hours then see if you can leave!

Links

www.planetjumpgate.net
www.3do.com/jumpgate
www.jossh.com