Gemini Wars, the space strategy game by Camel 101 and Iceberg Interactive, was officially released today for the PC and Mac. GW is now available in some retail stores and digital download portals (more on that below) with a launching price of 29.99€ /$39.99 / £24.99.
Couple of weeks ago we had access to a preview copy of Gemini Wars. Have a look at our Gemini Wars preview to get a taste on what to expect. In a nutshell Gemini Wars offers a 16-mission story-driven single-player campaign with about 30 hours of gameplay. The game plays similar to games like Sins of a Solar Empire and Homeworld.
There is no sandbox mode, and there are no multiplayer or skirmish mode options available either, at least not at time of release. Multiplayer and skirmish mode features are, however, expected to come soon after release through a free DLC.
Where to buy
A boxed version of the game should now be available in retail stores in some European countries (I don’t have information which, but probably in the UK and Germany). This package includes a Gemini Wars comic book. If you’re not in Europe have a look at Iceberg Interactive’s shop (publisher) – they seem to ship worldwide.
“A boxed version of the game is available now in retail stores in various European English speaking territories. The boxed version includes a Gemini Wars comic book, giving players an exclusive look into the Gemini Wars universe (…) A German localized version will become available in July 2012″ ~Iceberg Interactive
\Edit (8 Jun 2012): There are also the amazon.co.uk and amazon.de options (German version available only in Jun 22, 2012). By the way, the retail package contains both the PC and Mac versions. This was confirmed to me by the devs by email.
If you prefer digital (or have no other choice) you can get GW from the following sources:
- Camel 101 (developer): PC (with comic, w/o comic), Mac (with comic, w/o comic)
- GamersGate (PC, Mac)
- Impulse/Gamestop (PC)
And, this is all about Gemini Wars’ release. You have a preview and an interview with Camel 101 for further information. Expect a review soon. And, now, here is Gemini Wars’ launch trailer.
Gemini Wars Launch Trailer
Subscribe RSS
26 Comments
Related Articles:
- Gemini Wars: Skirmish & Multiplayer And Now on Steam
- Gemini Wars Has Gone Gold and is Ready for Pre-order!
- Gemini Wars – Status Update and New Gameplay Video
- Gemini Wars: Gameplay Trailer
- Endless Space is Now Officially Available!
Loading ...
I checked Amazon. In the UK the retail package sells for 17.99GBP and is availabe now, in Germany a German retail versions will be sold for 27.99Euro and will be available on June 22.
So, which one should i take? I don’t expect much from the German translations.
Right, there’s Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de retail also. I forgot about that. By the way, although amazon.de doesn’t mention it, the retail package contains both the PC and Mac versions. This was confirmed by the devs.
Sorry, can’t help you on if it’s worth to wait for the German version :/
Any idea if they will get on steam?
If it doesn’t come from the dev’s initiative perhaps not. There were previous games from the same publisher (Iceberg Interactive), that were made available on Steam. Examples: Star Ruler and Armada 2526. But, my latest hunch tells me that those appeared there perhaps by Blind Mind Studios and Ntronium Games own initiative. I could be wrong though.
I have it. Its good especially the missions (all there is currently) but some problems. One is when changing the music in the audio menu and then starting a mission the audio setting reverts back to default. And the camera is weird. Basically if you want to move back and forth between your ships and stations you need to use the strat map and if in battle the battle camera.
I also felt a bit that camera/controls weirdness during my first look. Let’s see now on my second, and more in-depth, look.
First impressions: Overall entertaining, but feels like a low-tier title
* Camera is awkward. No real reason to change camera angle, pan/zoom lacks refinement.
* Ship movement looks like an RTS from the 90s. They are moving or not… no accel/decel, pathing is poor, and they stutter when near eachother.
* Graphics are okay… but way too dark. I feel like I don’t get to have a good look at my units. Engine glows way too bright. Engine trails are as basic as they get.
* Ship designs are cool.. but again, not much chance to appreciate them.
* UI is simple enough. No trouble figuring out what I need to do.
* Missions are pretty exciting. I’m very disappointed that campaign is the only mode available (DLC is vapor until it actually happens — we’ll see).
* Combat is pretty boring: 1) Move ships to badguys, 2) Slog away at bad guys, 3) Boom.
Being able to lock camera on a ship and full-3D-pan/zoom around it (like in Homeworld or Sins) would make a HUGE difference in this game. Maybe I just haven’t found this option yet?
I haven’t found the ability to do a 360 pan around a ship either, yet. I’m in agreement with others who find the camera controls awkward. I’m also finding it difficult to pull off stuff like splitting ships into two or more elements and attack a group of enemy ships from multiple directions. Like someone else observed, pathing is awkward.
Overall, it seems like it has potential but needs some cleaning up and probably some depth added to it. I’m early in the missions, so maybe my impressions will change as I get further into them.
You rotate using the middle mouse button or the right mouse button to add ot single out ships its left control + left mouse button. also use a trainer for this game the latter missions are insane you have to spam ships just to survive since they made it so the enemy ships are built in like 10secs apart
You guys are funny, if you even played the tutorial you would know how to rotate a camera. Its like in almost all rts games today by pressing the “middle mouse”
The issue isn’t rotating the camera per se, it’s that you can’t lock it to a target and then orbit the target. The camera is always a free camera. I did play the tutorial, which is one of the ways I know just how bad and incomplete the camera controls are in this game. They can’t even manage what Homeworld managed years ago.
Hey I encountered the same thing, just wanted to let you know this is a bug that only happens in the tutorial. “F” locks the camera in the unit in the campaign. This is a bug reported that they are working on.
And how de hell i can rotate de camera in Mac version without the “middle mouse”…i don’t have any clue and the game doesn’t help, i can’t play even the tutorial…
That’s an issue not to hard to fix in a future patch. Has anybody notified the developers of this problem?
Just tried it. I was interested to see how well the seemless camera zoom would work. My initial impression is that it plays like Starcraft in outer space, but without all of the intricacies that make games of that kind interesting. The relative lack of variety in units, relative lack of abilities, etc. I also had some frustrations with the user interface. The inability to hotkey structures makes managing production particularly tedious.
Having played it a bunch since Friday, I’d say the real intricacies happen when you have multiple systems and you have to plan hyperspace jumps and make tactical decisions. I personally like that it’s more about positioning and paths of attacks as opposed to 20 units that are all just a big rock paper scissors game.
I too like how it straddles tactics and strategy.
I *really* dislike how ships seem to forget the orders you’ve given them sometimes. I tell them to attack a specific target… and they do for a bit, then decide to attack something else. I want them to move past a single enemy to focus on the big bad first… but they keep stopping to engage the little guy. FRUSTRATING!
I started playing gemini wars. My first impression was Haegemonia: Legions of Iron is back.
Can anyone tell em how to camera lock a ship. They included locking camera in beta test, there are some screenshots available for camera lock. See website http://www.moddb.com/news/gemini-wars-march-news. It is possible that many complaining camera lock got the alpha version instead.
I also cannot seem to use “defend command” related to ship.
I have found a way to lock camera. Press F key. But the camera is zoom locked. This means that you cannot zoom further of farther than a certain distance. You can only rotate it along horizontal direction.
I questioned Iceberg about worldwide shipping and retail stores. They replied:
(worldwide?): “yes we do ship the box worldwide, meaning if someone buys the game in our webshop we will ship it anywhere in the world”
(retail stores, where?): “European English speaking territories mostly mean: UK, Scandinavia and the Benelux. As said in the press release, we will be publishing a localized German version in July”
No subtitles on the mission briefings. Disappointing for a hearing-handicapped person like me. Other parts of the game are captioned, so the omission is curious.
Was surprised hitting 1, 2, or 3 to bring up a previously grouped set of ships wouldn’t focus you on that group. I’d concur that it’s missing the polish that Homeworld had, and that was over ten years ago.
Other than that I’m a few missions in so I’m a bit curious how the story will develop at least.
That’s a dealbreaker for me. I’m deaf as well, so having no subtitles equals no buy for me.
Mission objectives are repeated in the actual missions, so far, but it is a REALLY curious omission.
Hmm… I really should’ve read further into the comments before I hit buy. In addition to all the comments about the clumsy camera and the extremely primitive game play, the resolutions are disappointingly restrictive (I can’t be the only one with a monitor larger than 1900×1200), the audio is tinny and very poor and their volume controls are only partially effective. This isn’t worth the price of admission I’m afraid.
Okay, i will join the disappointed crowd, even before i started my first game. The game will be dependend on some online verification service, so some day you might not play it anymore because the servers are gone. Sorry to say this, i hope the game gets cracked (but not illegally copied..).
Does anybody know how to obtain the patch?
I am sorry to hear about all the negatives, I am really interested in this title. I have just been holding off because the Mechwarrior Online pre-order is coming Tuesday.
Evil Azrael your remark is certainly one that troubles many gamers, however to date I have never heard of a game with online activation failing because the company failed. There are examples of game companies that do go bust and had this form of nasty DRM, but did their customers right with a patch to remove it.
So it is never a major concern of mine when a game has just online activation, Starforce or other similar type of installed DRM are the ones I will try to avoid.