Flatspace II

You can think of Flatspace II as a sort of shmuppy Elite by way of NetHack. Like NetHack, the universe is randomly generated each time you start a new game; like shmups, starship combat is fast and intense; like Elite, you're a starship captain exploring a huge universe--and there are a whole slew of different roles you can take (trader, mercenary, bounty hunter, assassin, police officer, or scavenger).

Flatspace II is a space trading, exploration, and combat game. Initially, you begin with a small starship with limited capacities, and have to work your way up by earning money and purchasing better equipment for your ship, and later on new and larger ships. Money can be earned in a wide variety of ways: trading the many commodities available in the Flatspace universe, performing missions (which are many of the Fedex variety), performing assassinations, tracking down criminals, mining asteroids, and so on.

Flatspace II has no real 'win' condition, but you can set yourself any number of goals--becoming rich, getting in good with one of the game's guilds, destroying the scarrids (alien enemies), becoming the most feared pirate in space, and so on. There's no real story, but depending on what goals you choose to pursue and how you play, the experience of the game can vary a lot--and when you start a new game, a universe is randomly generated, so there's a high degree of repeat playability.

Combat is somewhat "shmuppy", that is, reminiscent of space shoot-em-up games going all the way back to Spacewar. However, while intense combat can occur in Flatspace II, it's not the sole emphasis of the game, so you'll see a smaller variety of weapons, ship types, and enemies than in some other games. Because of the sheer variety of different activities the game supports, it has the potential to keep you engaged for quite a long time.

If Flatspace II has a flaw, it's in its lack of a tutorial mode; the controls do take a while to figure out, and some experimentation is required before you learn the ins and outs of dealing with space stations, finding and performing missions, and so on. As a result, a read-through of the manual is highly advised (it's not too long) before you start. And at times, you may find it advisable to take some notes--e.g., the game doesn't track the purchase price for goods you bought, and while you can assume that, say, taking food from a farm to a trading station is a good idea, it's not a bad idea to track on your purchase prices, so you know you're making a profit. Similarly, if you fed a low-cost provider of a good that's in high demand someplace else, you'll want to remember what sector its in.

More info from the Flatspace site:

The Scarrid

There are two races in Flatspace II, human and scarrid. A state of cold war exists between the races, and although they share technology they cannot communicate and skirmishes between races are common. Both governments pay a bounty for killing and capturing members of the opposite race.

Like a true civilisation in space, the space stations in Flatspace II include factories, farms, houses, hospitals, schools and cities as well as pirate and alien bases. Any ship in the game can be flown by the player, and high ranking traders can purchase entire bases to get free repairs and medical treatment, and upgrades at cost price.

Goals

In Flatspace II there are many player goals, and the player can choose which to go for. One ultimate goal is to destroy all of the alien bases (or human bases if you decide to play as a scarrid). For this you will need advanced weapons and equipment, so obtaining that is your primary objective. Obtaining special objects or ships by boosting your various guild ranks is another goal, and there are official secrets to discover, and places to find that make exploration a goal. Money and equipment is still an important goal and lots of doors to exploitation have been closed.

Reviews

Game Tunnel
"I reviewed the original Flatspace, and I thought it was great. Flatspace 2 improves on the original open-ended, space-based game by enhancing the interface and providing a number of new features, such as an alien race and the introduction of guilds... I would strongly recommend this game to people who like involving simulations."

SciFi.com
"Imagine a less frenetic version of the Xbox 360 arcade game Geometry Wars with tiny angular 3-D ships of all sorts and sizes zipping along (or pausing to scan and engage you in a not-so-friendly fashion) against layered, colorful backgrounds and you have a solid sense for the game's fun, functional visuals and kinetic "zippy" feel."