Evochron Mercenary vs. Arvoch Alliance

[Gusington]

I've finally narrowed my space sim choices down to Evochron Mercenary and Arvoch Alliance. Which one would you choose over the other? They both seem pretty similar to me. Also, maybe there's a third option you'd recommend? Thanks all.

[spelk]

Evochron series are for free form sandbox play, exploration, mining, combat, trading etc.

Arvoch series are purely mission based combat games.

Ultimately they use very similar engines, physics etc - so if you like one, you're probably going to like the other, and complete the set.

[Gusington]

^Thanks spelk. Have you played Arvoch? I tend to like mission based a bit more for some structure.

[mikeck]

Gus, have you tried the "X" series of games? In particular "X3:terran conflict".  I mean, you don't get more open sandbox than that game and the graphics are far superiorr to Evechron. Can't fly into the atmosphere but to me, they are unbelievably immersive and complex without any gimmicks.

[Shelldrake]

Mercenary allows you to take your ship/pilot into online play as well as sandbox single player - not sure about Arvoch Alliance.

[republic]

I think Mercenary has more legs to it, considering the expansion I'd read about in the forums.  I own Mercenary, and if I hadn't already spent my allotted gaming allowance, I'd have picked up Arvoch as well.

I prefer Evochron to X because the X series idea of space as a series of connected rooms, has always bothered me.  I've played X since the original Beyond the Frontier and I'd hoped with each iteration they would do away with that.  Thankfully they are scrapping the connected room idea with X:Rebirth, from what I understand.

[Gusington]

I do have X3: Terran Conflict sitting around here somewhere. Open world games are cool to a point with me but I do actually like mission based too. I have always loved FreeSpace 2 and that's what I'm looking for now. I want to feel that I'm part of a bigger intergalactic struggle.

Believe it or not another favorite of mine was Colony Wars. That series is totally underrated.

[republic]

I somehow missed Colony Wars, I'll have to find an old copy somewhere.

Have you tried Freespace 2 Open (I think thats the name) they have an easy mod installer that updates the game with new textures and higher resolutions along with some content additions and mods as well.

Be nice if the Space 4x rebirth spills over to the space simulator genre.

[Gusington]

^Yes I did try it a few years ago and some of the newer mods are pretty amazing. There's a lot of stuff still in the works too.