Previous Next

You're a roughty-toughty merc travelling the four systems, laughing in the face of danger and generally making a nuisance of yourself.

Hard Nova follows the classic formula of the Traveller role-playing game. You bum around the known universe being professionally nasty, initially equipped with a shiny new J-21c Delphenus spaceship and 1,000 credits. After lounging around for a bit trying to recruit a couple more loonies to join you, you're called back to the Starkillers' mercenary base for your first mission. You gain experience and money so you get better at being extremely nasty and can buy better weapons to do it with.

After a while playing Hard Nova you wonder where the other people are. Planets seem to consist of a couple of buildings with half a dozen rooms and a population to match. The missions are the usual bunch, blowing things up and delivering contraband against all odds. It's the sort of game that relies on a good logical game world to explore and a set of wargame rules to back it up.

Unfortunately, Hard Nova hasn't got either of these. The user interface doesn't help much seeing as the mouse response is sluggish and the keyboard controls illogical.

Graphics and sound are pretty awful. Everything looks drab and simplistic, except for the little cameos of the characters you meet, insult and shoot at. Except, of course, for the occasional ones you're really smarmingly nice to because you want something from them.

To get the most from all thise you need to persevere, but Hard Nova's not the sort of game that appeals to everyone. If you're after a long term challenge and fancy yourself as a leather-clad person who silences bars by walking in, bristling with weaponry, you might get off on it. But otherwise Hard Nova is hard work.

1. Smaller game world and less complex than MegaTraveller. Not any more playable though.