In the pantheon of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) there is a lot of the same stuff out there. The same general mission structure and play styles all trying to get  a piece of what World of Warcraft has going on. They aren’t all RPGs necessarily but most of them try to do more or less the same thing. Enter: Jumpgate Evolution, a space combat game that features just that-intense action based space combat. I had the opportunity to sit down and play a bit of the game and found it to be truly unique in the MMOG space. And it is absolutely gorgeous.

The game offers up three different factions to be a part of, each with their own philosophy and tech, who are trying to rebuild after having been scattered across the galaxy and tend to step on one another’s feet. The three playable factions are the Solarian Commonwealth, who are more or less made up of corrupt corporations and organized crime sydicates, the Quantar Paths who are a collection of religious extremists looking to unify humanity through space exploration and the Octavian Empire who are an aggressive military state in which the military controls everything and has its eye on recapturing former glory.

The story is set against a rich backdrop and unfolds through mission communication throughout the game. The writing looked to be solid according to the in game dialogue and flavor text and plays things with a bit of darkness without being overwrought or ridiculous.

The game play is pretty much all flight based and you control your ship directly with your mouse, or whatever peripheral pad or flight stick you favor, and is not a collection of button spamming commands where you can hit a move a bunch of times and then go to the bathroom while the fight plays out. Likewise, while there is leveling and upgrades to your ship, the action is not dependent on dice rolls but rather skill at combat. The control is tight offering barrel rolls and evasive maneuvering to make you feel like you are in the fight.

I was kind of taken aback by the controls at first as I am so used to controlling movement with the keyboard but after a bit of acclamation I found that I was able to take out enemies and zip around with ease. Of course that didn’t include the enormous asteroids I managed to run into for no other reason besides me sucking, but my lack of skill aside the dog fighting was a lot of fun. I haven’t said that about a space based shooter like this since Wing Commander and that was a long time ago.

Of course, this isn’t just a single player experience. The world is completely persistent so there are no instances to go in and out of and missions are available whenever you play whether you are alone or with friends. PVE and PVP is merged so you can be running a mission with and against AI or have human allies and opponents mixed in together. Because it is on a 3D space as opposed to a horizontal plane they have resources freed up to do a lot more in terms of how many ships can be in combat at once so there is a potential for staggering and dynamic space battles that are more than just characters standing in front of each other throwing out moves but are directly controlled dog fights.

During my play time, which was slightly truncated as we started a bit late, I got to go through a variety of mission types from dog fighting to assaulting larger ships to collecting resources and it all went off without a hitch, aside from my clumsy navigation, but more importantly it was a lot of fun. The AI was dialed down a bit for the demo but I never felt overwhelmed by the fighting and targeting was as easy as lining up the reticule with the mouse, which is a built in skill for anyone who plays PC first-person shooters.

So gameplay aside, the game looks fantastic. Everything is crisp, clear and vibrant and effects like lasers and explosions really pop. I was particularly impressed with the blurring on the stars when you bank hard. It is a little thing, sure, but it looked very nice and I liked the detail. In fact, everything has a very solid look to it with a lot of detail that would be sacrificed in a game like WoW.

Obviously, Jumpgate Evolution isn’t going to take the place of whatever MMORPG you are playing but if you are looking for something different with a lot of action and missions to jump into whenever and that has accessible system requirements, this is the game for you. The release date has not been announced but they are making a lot of progress and it is looking good so far.