October 2nd, 2012 | By Dominic Tarason
Tagged in: demo | Gimbal | Greenlight | multiplayer | PC Game | shooter | space combat | windows
Somehow, despite it being around for quite some time, we’ve never written about Gimbal. That just won’t do. It’s a multiplayer arcade space combat game in the style of Starfarer/Star Control, but with a big twist reminiscent of old freeware game Fraxy: Your ship is entirely your own design. You piece together chunks of hull, engines, turrets, extending modules, mechanical arms, robo-tentacles or whatever else you think your ultimate space combat vehicle needs. It’s an exciting concept, and it should mean that players have a good chance of discovering their own style as they slowly develop their own customized cruiser.
Sadly, the game doesn’t seem to have been gathering much positive press – or any press at all. I suppose the main reason that the game isn’t flying off shelves (so to speak – it’s available digitally) is that nobody wants to dive into a multiplayer-centric game that they haven’t tried at first. And so, this brings us to the demo. 93mb of spaceships, lasers, explosions and dogfighting. The game is currently available for Windows PCs only, costs $15 normally, and is available direct from the developer using either Paypal or Google Wallet.
There’s also a Greenlight page up for the game. Given the obviously high production values, I hope it gets enough votes to push it into the big leagues. A multiplayer game like this relies on a solid, active player-base to keep things going. It’s the tragic catch-22 that has led so many studios down the road to free-to-play, whether you approve of it or not. So give the demo a try, and throw them a vote. It might just help.
Dominic Tarason (303 posts)
A geek for all seasons. A veteran of early DOS-era gaming, with encyclopaedic knowledge of things geeky on all platforms. The more obscure and bizarre, the better. If you've got indie news you want to break in a big way, send it this way!